Originally Posted by
ewrbasedpilot
The flight was successful and proved that we probably don't need to rely on our buddies in the middle east for our oil needs. Now if we can just produce enough of the jatropha plants and algae to keep us flying....... Pretty soon their won't be enough algae refining plants and we'll be hedging jatropha plant futures.....
The good news about jatropha is it's easy to grow...if "JPEC" cuts production, other folks will just grow more. It will be nice to have a sustainable fuel.
But the flight didn't prove everything...there could still be long term wear-and-tear issues on fuel systems and engines, and extreme cold weather ops will need to be demonstrated also. Hopefully it will prove to be safe in all environments.
The downside about bio-fuels...they generally have less energy density than petro-fuel. This means less range on a full tank.