Originally published in 1997
McGregor Municipal Airport is the first general aviation airport in the nation to be awarded the designation of “Clean Airport” by the U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE). USDOE’s “Clean Airport” program goal is to encourage aviation use of clean burning alternative fuels such as ethanol to help keep the air we breathe as clean as possible. Since McGregor Municipal Airport was the site at which ethanol as an aviation fuel was first used, it is most appropriate that the honor of this designation goes to them.
The Texas Alternative Fuels Council recently awarded a $1 million grant to Baylor University’s Renewable Aviation Fuels Development Center to develop renewable turbine engine fuels. The grant will expand Baylor’s research on ethanol-based fuels. With this grant, the school will test various blends of renewable fuels with Jet-A fuel. Part of the grant purchased a twin-turboprop aircraft outfitted with state-of-the-art instrumentation to monitor pollution-causing emissions during the test. ”This grant will allow our current research, which has been directed at furthering the use of ethanol as an aviation fuel, to expand significantly,” says Dr. Max Shauck, Chair of the Aviation Sciences Department. The USDOE has appointed Dr. Shauck as the national coordinator of the Renewable Aviation Fuels Development Center at Baylor University.