Blue Angels to fly on biofuels
A Navy logo on a Blue Angels F/A-18 Hornet indicates the service's commitment to biofuels.
September 3rd, 2011
08:00 AM ET

Blue Angels to fly on biofuels

When the six F/A-18 Hornets in the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels flight demonstration team thrill the crowds at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River Air Expo in Maryland this weekend, they'll be soaring on biofuel.

Each of the six Hornets will be powered by a 50/50-blend of jet fuel and camelina-based biofuel, according to a Navy press release.

Camelina is a high-oil flowering plant grown in rotation on land used for wheat and on land too marginal for food production, according to Sustainable Oils, the company providing it to the military. Sustainable Oils says camelina can also reduce carbon emissions by 80% over jet fuel.

The camelina mix has been successfully tested in several military aircraft, including the Air Force's A-10 Thunderbolt, F-15 Eagle, F-22 Raptor and C-17 Globemaster, as well as the Navy F/A-18. Two Air Force F-16s from the Thunderbirds demonstration team flew with the mix during a performance in May, the service and Sustainable Fuels said.

"This will be the first time an entire unit has flown on a biofuel mix," Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said in the Navy release. "Changing the kinds of fuels we use and the way we use them is critical to assuring the Navy and Marine Corps remain the most formidable expeditionary fighting force the world has ever known."

By 2016, the Navy plans to deploy the Great Green Fleet, an aircraft carrier strike group powered entirely by non-fossil fuels, Mabus has said.

 Post by:
Filed under: Agriculture • Aviation • Environment • Military • U.S. Navy
soundoff (200 Responses)
  1. RUFFNUTT ( elf slayer & deutrium farmer )

    @fordman.. and they took out the stuff that suppose to lubricate the cylyinders & valves also
    .
    .

    September 3, 2011 at 3:49 pm | Report abuse |
    • Old Salt

      Jet engines don't have cylinders.

      September 3, 2011 at 5:30 pm | Report abuse |
  2. gung hoe

    Ahh fo Have a good to have good eyes my son is selling concessions at the michigan game in the stands and i seen him

    September 3, 2011 at 3:52 pm | Report abuse |
    • Callmeishmael

      "I seen him?"" Good lord, what a dumb, illiterate redneck.

      September 3, 2011 at 4:23 pm | Report abuse |
    • leeintulsa

      @callmeishmael: 'what a dumb, illiterate redneck.'

      what an azzhole..

      September 3, 2011 at 4:40 pm | Report abuse |
  3. son

    Gung hoe,daddy. Can you lend me the car and spot me 50 bucks?

    September 3, 2011 at 3:56 pm | Report abuse |
  4. Hotlanta

    It's still a waste of taxpayer money.. errrr waste of money we borrow from China.

    September 3, 2011 at 3:57 pm | Report abuse |
  5. Buzzkill

    Drakorex1 are you there I need to ask you something??

    September 3, 2011 at 4:02 pm | Report abuse |
  6. RUFFNUTT ( elf slayer & deutrium farmer & friend of frozen vengence)

    By 2016, the Navy plans to deploy the Great Green Fleet-> i always thought after the repeal of dont ask dont tell..they would launch the pink fleet...

    September 3, 2011 at 4:06 pm | Report abuse |
    • Callmeishmael

      dumba**.

      September 3, 2011 at 4:24 pm | Report abuse |
    • leeintulsa

      @callmeishmael: you can have that one lol

      September 3, 2011 at 4:54 pm | Report abuse |
    • Old Salt

      I can't wait to hear you sing after you get your butt kicked by someone out of that pink fleet of yours.

      September 3, 2011 at 5:31 pm | Report abuse |
  7. Drakorex1

    @Buzzkill yea yo what is it man? whats up?

    September 3, 2011 at 4:11 pm | Report abuse |
  8. Buzzkill

    what the heck is an ishmeal?

    September 3, 2011 at 4:33 pm | Report abuse |
    • Old Salt

      He's the narrator in Herman Melville's MOBY DICK. You have to actually read a book to learn that stuff.

      September 3, 2011 at 5:32 pm | Report abuse |
  9. Buzzkill

    what the heck is an ishmael?

    September 3, 2011 at 4:37 pm | Report abuse |
  10. Drakorex1

    Its a subtroll named Donna!

    September 3, 2011 at 4:42 pm | Report abuse |
  11. leeintulsa

    Ooh donna. Ohh donna.

    September 3, 2011 at 4:46 pm | Report abuse |
  12. Buzzkill

    really what a tard! keep on truckin man!

    September 3, 2011 at 4:49 pm | Report abuse |
  13. JJ

    idiotic liberalism....I bet the fuel cost more energy to make it than it actually produces. Welcome to Obama fairyland

    September 3, 2011 at 4:57 pm | Report abuse |
    • leeintulsa

      @jj: you would support oil as what we should do? Use more of it? Totally depend on it from afar?

      Are you daft? Do you not agree we should do whatever we can, despite the cost, to get ourselves out of the arab games? Alternative energy is what we should be looking in to. What else is there?

      And how is that liberal of me? Needing oil has something to do with right or left? You got it all wrong.. Do it again..

      September 3, 2011 at 5:17 pm | Report abuse |
    • Chris R

      The navy,as we all know, is a secret bastion of liberal tree hugging hippies. Yessireebob! Commie pinkos over there. Every one of them. If they were *real* americans they'd insist on giving money to Canadian oil companies. Or Saudi oil companies. Or Venezualan oil companies. That's the American way after all!

      September 3, 2011 at 7:20 pm | Report abuse |
  14. Drakorex

    righton sakemwakemsnakemsmakem

    September 3, 2011 at 5:00 pm | Report abuse |
  15. Snow393

    thats right!

    September 3, 2011 at 5:08 pm | Report abuse |
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
« Back to main