Engineers & CAD Designers: Fuel of the Future (Don’t Let It Stink!)

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If you’re something of a bad*ss, maybe you’ve woken up (to a predictably rough day at work), thrown back the covers and growled, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” But has anyone ever professed a fondness for the distinctive cat-pee smell of ammonia? We think not. However, someone had better come up with something — pretty darn quick — because unless they do, the future of aviation is doomed to smell like, well, urine (unless some genius aerospace engineer or CAD designer figures out a workaround).

Please engineer it so that our skies don’t smell like the men's room at an overcrowded pub on a Friday night.

A Tale of Two Gases

Depending on how many trips around the sun you’ve celebrated, you may recall when “unleaded” signs started showing up at gas pumps.

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Automotive leaded gas was banned at the pumps in the mid-90s, but the aviation industry is still playing catch-up.

There is no known safe level of lead in the blood . . . — Prof. Amy R. Pritchett, Department of Aerospace Engineering, Pennsylvania State University

Thunder From Down Under

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Ammonia is still a popular cleaning solution because it’s inexpensive and plentiful. But it’s destined for greater things.

Of all the potential avgas replacement fuels, ammonia requires the simplest engine conversions.

Ammonia: Odiferous Lifeblood of the Future?

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Technologically, we’ve come a long way since the early days of ammonia synthesis.

Helping You Help the World

If you’re the guy designing our future, we’d prefer it if you weren’t frustrated or uninspired.