US military jets to test biofuels on Earth Day

[Jefferson23]

* Very cool.



Patuxent River - A US Navy fighter plane, the Green Hornet, using a mixture of regular aviation fuel and biofuel will fly on Earth Day, Apr.22, at the US Naval Air Station at Patuxent River, Maryland.

The US Navy News says the aircraft is an F/A-18 Super Hornet and it will test fly the 50/50 mixture of aviation and biofuel, which will be made from camelina oil. Camelina is derived from a flowering plant, which is not used for food.
Secretary of the US Navy, Ray Mabus, said:

The flight will demonstrate that our systems can work on biofuel. After it is successful, and we are absolutely confident that it will be; we will move to expand biofuel testing to our marine gas turbine engines and to the engines of our tactical vehicles.
Jane’s Defence Weekly says the camelina oil is part of a class of fuels, which are not derived from human or animal feedstock and is called ”hydrotreated renewable jet,” of HRJ fuel.

Jane’s says the United States Air Force (USAF) also plans to test HRJ fuel and will use A-10 Thunderbolt ground attack plane, on Apr. 22, and later will test the F-15 Eagle and F-22 Raptor fighters as well as the C-17 Globemaster heavy transport plane.
The USAF plans to use only biofuel in its test flight.

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/290895