The flight marks the primary time a business airline has flown lengthy haul absolutely on sustainable aviation gasoline.
A Virgin Atlantic passenger jet flying from London to New York powered by one hundred pc sustainable aviation gasoline (SAF) took off on Tuesday, with the aviation world carefully monitoring the flight.
It marks the primary time a business airline has flown lengthy haul on one hundred pc SAF.
The flight follows the profitable transatlantic crossing by a Gulfstream G600 enterprise jet utilizing the identical gasoline final week.
Because the world decarbonises, airways are banking on gasoline constructed from waste to cut back their emissions by as much as 70 p.c, enabling them to maintain working earlier than electrical and hydrogen-powered air journey turns into a actuality within the a long time to return.
Tuesday’s flight, which took off at 11:49GMT and arrives at New York’s John F Kennedy Worldwide Airport at round 19:50GMT, is operated by a Virgin Boeing 787 powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines.
Virgin Atlantic’s billionaire founder Richard Branson, the airline’s chief govt Shai Weiss, and Britain’s Transport Minister Mark Harper have been reportedly all on board.
There have been no paying passengers or cargo on board what Virgin dubbed Flight100.
SAF is vital to lowering emissions
The flight comes days earlier than the beginning of COP28 local weather talks in Dubai on Thursday.
SAF is already utilized in jet engines as a part of a mix with conventional kerosene, however after profitable floor exams, Virgin and its companions Rolls-Royce, Boeing, BP and others gained permission to fly utilizing solely SAF.
Aviation accounts for an estimated 2-3 p.c of world carbon emissions. SAF is vital in direction of lowering these emissions, however it’s expensive and accounts for lower than 0.1 p.c of whole world jet gasoline in use in the present day.
The gasoline used to energy Tuesday’s flight is usually constructed from used cooking oil and waste animal fats blended with a small quantity of artificial fragrant kerosene constructed from waste corn, Virgin Atlantic stated.
Many European airways – together with Virgin-owned British Airways, and Air France – have stated they wish to be utilizing 10 p.c SAF by 2030, and the business’s purpose of “net zero” emissions by 2050 depends on that share rising to 65 p.c.
But the 2030 goal seems to be difficult given SAF’s small volumes and its excessive price, proper now about three to 5 occasions as a lot as common jet gasoline.