H.R. 4994: Safe Air on Airplanes Act

This bill directs the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to update regulations to phase out and prohibit bleed air systems in certain types of aircraft. In general, a bleed air system uses compressed air that is taken from an aircraft engine that is upstream of the combustion chamber and provides pressurized air for the aircraft’s environmental control system (e.g., ventilation).

Under the bill, the FAA must

• prohibit new turbine and turboprop aircraft designs from using bleed air systems,
• require (beginning seven years after the bill’s enactment) that any bleed air system in a newly manufactured aircraft is fitted with a filter (i.e., a device that removes gaseous and particulate components of oil fumes), and
• provide for a phaseout (over a 30-year period) of the use of bleed air systems in existing turbine and turboprop aircraft designs.

Written by the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress.