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Engine lubricating oils have responded to the increasingly severe requirements introduced by engine design improvements for more than thirty years. It is expected that design trends in the future will be continuations of the past and current ones for the most part. This means that lubricants for future piston engines must have improved dispersancy, thermal and oxidative stability, as well as improve boundary lubrication capability. The latter is especially important and will require serious effort on the part of the engine designer and metallurgist, in company with the lubricant designer. Mineral oils will be improved and, with improved additive combinations, will continue to serve engine needs far into the future. Synthetic materials will not challenge them seriously for at least the next decade, principally for economic reasons. However, synthetics will be required, as they are now, for industrialized aircraft gas turbines.