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Virgin Atlantic to fly a plane powered by biofuel

Thursday 17 Jan 2008 7:37pm

In a test flight likely for the end of February 2008, Virgin Atlantic will fly a 747 powered by biofuel from London to Amsterdam. The test flight will use a mix of 20% biofuel and 80% conventional fuel for the short flight. Virgin Atlantic had planned a test flight in late 2008, but this has been brought forward almost 10 months. The biofuel project is a joint operation between Virgin Atlantic, Boeing and engine producer General Electric. Richard Branson from Virgin said "The flight will give our engineers and those at Boeing and GE vital learnings for the passenger flights of the future". The move to use biofuel is pushed from oil prices reaching $100 per barrel, and pressure to reduce emissions which are contributing to global warming. Fuel efficiency of planes has improved over 70% in the last 30 years with existing airlines using 4 litres of fuel a passenger per 100 kilometers flown. This amount equates to slightly more than the average car. Air New Zealand are also expected to do a test flight with biofuel later this year. A Virgin spokesman said that its likely to take about 2 years before any biofuel is commercially adopted by airlines The airline reported that no passengers would be on board the test flight next month.

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