A joint project of Airbus, Rolls-Royce and Shell made an important step forward yesterday, when the Airbus 380 serial number 002 flew from Filton (UK) to Toulouse (FR), with one of its four engines fueled with a mixtures of liquified natural gas and traditional kerosene.

This is the first step towards use of biofuels. This new fuel makes no difference in terms of CO2, but reduces other gaseous emissions, and particularly produces no sulphur.

This test-flight included a climb to the maximal service altitude of the A380, and several engine stop and restarts, flying operating clost to the various limits of the engine. No particular problem has been reported.

I’m not an environmentalist, and a lot has been published (see links below) about the exact impact and benefits of this technology. What I want to highlight here is how seriously the air-transport industry considers the sustainable development and ecological issues. As a reminder, air-transport generates about 2% of the polluting emissions. Feel free to correct in comments if you have other data.

Links:
Airbus media release

www.greencarcongress.com

biopact.com

This post is the fifth in a series about how modern planes are designed and operated with maximal care to the enviroment. The first one was about Jet-A1 engines, and the second about composite materials and Computer Aided Design. The thrid was about electrically powered planes, and the fourth about green approach routes design.