VIRGIN MAKES VIRGIN BIOFUEL FLIGHT

LONDON TO AMSTERDAM ON COCONUT OIL

This is from Thomas Wagner at The Associated Press:

Virgin Atlantic carried out the world's first flight of a commercial aircraft powered with biofuel on Sunday in an effort to show it can produce less carbon dioxide than normal jet fuels.

Some analysts praised the jumbo jet test flight from London to Amsterdam as a potentially useful experiment. But others criticized it as a publicity stunt and noted scientists are questioning the environmental benefits of biofuels.

"This breakthrough will help Virgin Atlantic to fly its planes using clean fuel sooner than expected," Sir Richard Branson, the airline's president, said before the Boeing 747 flew from London's Heathrow Airport to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.

He said the flight would provide "crucial knowledge that we can use to dramatically reduce our carbon footprint," he said.

Sunday's flight was partially fueled with a biofuel mixture of coconut and babassu oil in one of its four main fuel tanks. The jet carried pilots and several technicians, but no passengers.

Virgin Atlantic spokesman Paul Charles predicted this biofuel would produce much less CO2 than regular jet fuel, but said it will take weeks to analyze the data from Sunday's flight.

Read the full article here.

I’m not a big fan of biofuels and I have tried to avoid posting about it, but this story is too hard to ignore. Despite all the potential negative drawbacks of biofuels (and there are plenty – check out this ENN article for a taste), I am breaking my boycott on biofuel posts because this story demonstrates that it may be possible to fly commercial aircraft with low greenhouse gas emissions. At the very least, the data gathered from the flight will help inform the debate over biofuels. Shoutout to Sir Richard Branson for shelling out the Euros for this experiment.

Sources, resources, discourses:

1. The Associated Press – article and photo
2. ENN - article