what fuel do planes use?

Answer 1

Light GA aircraft use either Avgas grade 80, 100 or 100LL.

Turboprops and jets burn JET-A.

You might wanna know Grade 80 is dyed red 100 Green and 100LL Blue.

Jet A is colourless.

You might ask why Avgas? It dosent vaporized as much as your normal car fuel. This can be extreemly important in high altitudes.

One more think to note JET A is NOT Avgas. It's similar to kerosene. JET-B is for extremly cold climates because it has a lower freezing temp.

Answer 2

There have been a lot of different fuels, diesel, jet and av-gas. Diesel will be making a comeback because they have been building small but powerful engines that will run on it. Jet fuel is diesel, but a little more refined and has additives that make it more stable taking into consideration temperatures, altitude and so on. Aviation fuel or Av-gas, was sold until the 70’s in grades,80/87, 90/98, and 100/130, the colors were pink, blue and green . Because the big engines in the airliners, yes they at one time had piston engines, were being phased out, and the general aviation aircraft did not use the higher grades, eventually the grade of 100octaine LL was introduced and is what is available for the most part at all airports now. The LL stands for low lead and you can still get the lower grade of 80/87 but is more of a hassle than it is worth and the engine manufacturers have built the engines to operate on the 100LL. Hope that answers your question.

Answer 3

The majority of US light planes use aviation gasoline called 100 octane low lead (which actually contains a fair amount of lead -- about 8 grams per gallon). A few planes can operate on 80-octane aviation fuel; such planes can generally also run on automobile fuel. Turbine powered planes, and the few Diesel powered planes, can use Jet-A, which is basically kerosene.

Answer 4

julie w Please tell me where you fly so I can make sure to stay away. You may want to read the other posts where they give the colors of fuel. We had a fuel truck put the wrong fuel in a plane here. That pilot didn't know what color his fuel was supposed to be either.

Luckily he is still alive his plane not so much.

Answer 5

There are many types of aircraft fuel. They are all color coded with a dye so you don't mix them up and put the wrong one in because it could screw up the engine. Pilots check fuel during the preflight to make sure.
1. Small piston airplanes like the Cessna 172 Skyhawk use 100LL fuel. It is colored blue. Commonly reffered to as "Avgas". There are three types of avgas that civilians use. 100, 100LL (low lead) and 80.

2. There is also Jet fuel which is called Jet A and is clear.

Answer 6

Assuming you are asking about passenger jet plane.

They use AVTUR or Aviation Turbo Fuel, trade name ATF A1.
Lighter than kerosene, with smoke point 17mm.
Water content : trace.
Color Min : 30 SSU.

SSU stands for Standard Seybolt Universal, it's a method of checking the "color" of the fuel.

The greater the number, the "clearer" the fuel is.

Hope this helps.

Answer 7

it all depends on the planes engine structure. aircraft with turbo prob engines (propellers) will use an AVGAS fuel which burns easily but aircraft with turbo jet engines (most passenger and millitary aircraft) will use an AVTUR based fuel. this usually has an ellement of FS II mixed with the fuel which stands for fuel system inhibitor and stops the fuel freezing inside the tanks thus blocking the pipework. the most common form of avtur is also known as F-34 but the same fuel with no FS II is known as F-35.

Answer 8

To add to the fuels guy answer, we also burned JP4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. Some were used on the SR-71, another on the U-2, just depends on the aircraft. The PT-6 engine buy Pratt and Whitney(i am sure there are others)can burn both jet and avgas. However, according to P&W, you must take 10hrs off the TBO time for every hour avgas is burned.

Answer 9

If they have piston engines, AvGas or 100LL a high octane gasoline that has lead in it.

If they have jet engines a modified form of kerosene called Jet A or JP 4 in the Us military. Jet fuel is extra pure kerosene with anti-gel additives so it would thicken at very low temps.

A few, very few, piston engines are made to run on diesel. These can can run on diesel or Jet A.

Answer 10

Don't forget that some Turboprops (Super King Air 200) and Jet (Lear 24D) need an anti icing aditive known as Prist.

Jet a/c take Jet-A (Kerosene) and sometimes with prist.
The whole JP1 - JP4 is being phased out do to manufacturing costs and Jet-A is much more efficient.