Virgin Atlantic Taking Biofuel Research a Step Further Today

We've been covering developments with Green Flight International's work to power aircraft engines with biofuels. As mentioned on the BBC's website, Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic took biofuel testing to a whole new level today when a Boeing 747 was flown from London to Amsterdam with one engine running on biofuel.

Virgin and Green Flight aren't the only ones working on alternative fuels for aviation. Earlier this month, Airbus flew one of their A380's with one engine powered by a process called Gas to Liquids (GTL.) The US Air Force has also been exploring alternative fuel solutions and has successfully flown a B-52 with all eight engines running on a synthetic fuel blend.

Critics are complaining that biofuel production itself impacts the environment too much and that none of these efforts will lead to advances capable of significantly reducing pollution. Some even go so far as to say that the only acceptable solution is to reduce air travel worldwide. Though that would help deal with pollution, I expect that global travel and business have too much momentum to be cut back in that way. With large companies putting out the money to use the A380 and 747 as test aircraft and even smaller companies like Diamond, Maule and Cessna offering turbo diesel-powered aircraft we are looking at a revolution in the way we power our aircraft.

Don't get me wrong, although I am a big fan of diesel GA aircraft and I support biofuel research, I don't think either is a permanent solution. I think we will eventually see some very different solutions, but these seem like great interim fixes. (Let's see how light Honda can get batteries, hydrogen fuel cells and 150-200 hp electric motors.) Whatever the eventual solution ends up being, we need people like Richard Branson, Douglas Rodante and Burt Rutan who can back intelligent innovation with funding and the ability to abandon tradition if we hope to find it. Good work Mr. Branson, keep it up.