USAF Planning To Acquire Over 300,000 Gallons Of Biofuels.
Aviation Week (1/31, Anselmo) said that during the recent Aviation Week-sponsored Eco-Aviation and Fuel Management conference in Miami, officials with the US Air Force (USAF) said they are "planning to acquire more than 300,000 gallons of biofuels under an effort to certify two types of the plant-derived fuels for use in a 50-50 mix with jet kerosene by 2013." The USAF "wants half of its domestic aviation fuel to contain a 50 percent blend of alternative fuel -- either bio or synthetic -- by 2016. 'We're looking to replace a quarter of our total fuel need,'" said Jeff Braun, "director of the service's Alternative Fuels Certification Office at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, who spoke" at last week's conference.
NASA Testing Synthetic Fuel Exhaust.
Flight International[/U] (2/4, Coppinger) reports, "In a bid to understand synthetic fuels' emissions, NASA has fitted its McDonnell Douglas DC-8 airborne laboratory's engines with sampling probes for plume chemistry detection using a quantum-cascade-laser methane isotope sensor." The plane will test "100% synthetic fuels and 50/50 blends of synthetics and regular jet fuel" to see if the synthetics have "fewer particles and other harmful emissions." NASA is conducting the study with "11 groups...which include three US government agencies, five companies and three universities."