Date published: 2008/02/24
The BBC says:
The first flight by a commercial airline to be powered partly by biofuel has taken place.
A Virgin Atlantic jumbo jet has flown between London's Heathrow and Amsterdam using fuel derived from a mixture of Brazilian babassu nuts and coconuts.
Environmentalists have branded the flight a publicity stunt and claim biofuel cultivation is not sustainable.
Earlier this month, Airbus tested another alternative fuel - a synthetic mix of gas-to-liquid.
Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson said the flight marked a "vital breakthrough" for the entire airline industry.
"This pioneering flight will enable those of us who are serious about reducing our carbon emissions to go on developing the fuels of the future," he said.
But he said fully commercial biofuel flights were likely to use feedstocks such as algae rather than the mix used on the passenger-less flight.
Virgin's Boeing 747 had one of its four engines connected to an independent biofuel tank that it said could provide 20% of the engine's power.
...
One problem with flying planes using biofuel is that it is more likely to freeze at high altitude.The technology is still being manufactured by companies GE and Boeing, but Virgin believes airlines could routinely be flying on plant power within 10 years.
It's good that the aviation industry is looking into this technology. Hopefully they will manage to find some fuel that does less harm than the current jet fuel, although pretty much all recent studies on biofuel shows this will not likely be the solution. On the other hand, the useless so-called environmentalists have nothing to contribute here. They just hate aviation (except of course when they fly around, which they do much more than the average citizen). Even if planes managed to miraculously fly on solar power, you can guarantee these people would still complain. One Richard Branson is worth a thousand so-called environmentalists.
_________________________________________________________
All material not included from other sources is copyright cambridge2000.com.
For further information or questions email: info [at] cambridge2000 [dot] com
(replace "[at]" with "@" and "[dot]" with ".").