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.
About time Fat America's love of the french fry paid off!!
Caca doo doo!!!!!
That would be funny except the article says the bio fuel is made from the Camelina high-oil flowering plant. Might want to actually read the article next time you try to be funny.
http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2011/05/17/this-empty-front-seat/
Weeeeeëėęeeeeee
I ll make up lies and get reelected
It worked for GW
@leeintulsa:
Like I've never heard that song before.... 🙂
I think you said it best when you said GMTA 🙂 battery dying, lates
Oooooooohhhhh, that really hurts my feelings.
Boo hoo.
Rrrrrrrrrrrriiiuuuiiicccccccccccoooooiiii
Buuuubbbbaaaaaahhhhhhh
Doo doo daah daah??? Boo boo woo woo gaagaa goo goo!?!?!?
Great now my airshow,s now gonna smell like a fish fry
I hope we don/t lose a 122 million dollar Raptor cause we saved 5 dollars on JP5 jet fuel.
Yeah, I'm sure the Navy decided not to bother making sure this stuff was up to spec because they're all sort of loosey goosey over there when it comes to their planes.
100 million dollar aircraft flying on plant oil dropping flowered munitions on the Taliban, what is the world coming to?
word!
What's the difference between Obama, Bachmann, Romney, and the falling U.S. dollar?
..the dollar was once worth something....
Arguably, unlike the others, it still is, just not nearly as much as before.
I hear ya...thank god for that at least
Well, better to test this stuff on military jets with ejection seats instead of on civilian jetliners with hundreds aboard who have no choice but to ride down on the world's largest gliders should the fuel fail to burn in the combustion chambers. I heard these biofules can be prone to freezing up in the sub-zero temperatures of 35,000 feet where jetliners cruise. I just flew across the Atlantic, Amsterdam to Washington/ Dulles on a KLM A330. I asked myself a couple of times: "What would happen if we lost both engines?" Hmmmmm...
Green warplanes. Isn't that a contradiction in terms?
Good strategic research. If another great war breaks out there won't be any imported oil. That makes experiments in alternative & synthetic fuels essential to our national defense.
You can still import oil from Canada!
except it costs 37 dollars a gallon... no mention of that here
I could wage a green war if I wanted to do that.
I'd just use several different cans for trash.