Mon, Jan 14, 2008
First Flight Will Come 10 Months Earlier Than Planned
Virgin Atlantic has given itself the
green light to go green, a lot earlier than planned. On Monday, the
British airline announced it plans to operate the world's first
commercial jet flight powered by biofuel next month.
Reuters reports the Boeing 747 will fly a relatively short
(230-mile) hop from London Heathrow to Amsterdam, and won't have
passengers onboard. If all goes to plan, the flight will come 10
months earlier than Virgin -- or project partners Boeing and GE
Aviation -- had planned.
"This fuel has never been in the air before on a commercial
plane, although it's been tested in engines on the ground in
altitude conditions," said a Virgin spokesman. "It's a sustainable
fuel, so you don't have to knock down forests to get it."
The airliner will operate on a mix of biofuel and jet-A, similar
to efforts conducted by the US Air Force. As ANN reported,
last August the USAF cleared its fleet of B-52H
Stratofortresses to run on a mix of JP-8 and fuel synthesized
through the Fischer-Tropsch process, a method that can convert
virtually any carbon-based material into synthetic fuel.
There's some question over whether the Virgin flight will
operate on a biofuel mix derived from soybeans, or from algae. Both have been
studied extensively by Boeing; algae is reportedly over 150 percent
more efficient than soybeans. In addition to reducing dependence on
oil, biofuels are also said to offer advantages such as reduced
carbon emissions.
"The flight will give our engineers and those at Boeing and GE
vital learnings for the passenger flights of the future," said
Virgin CEO Sir Richard Branson.
It will also give Virgin bragging rights.
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