Boeing has unvieled a new prototype unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), or spy plane to you and I, called Phantom Eye which runs on hydrogen fuel. While this strange-looking aircraft will not be used for commercial flights, we often get questions such as "when will we be flying on hydrogen-powered planes?".

The answer is: "no time soon". While hydrogen is a great, clean, fuel source, it's main problem is the volume of fuel required. Compared to our current fuel, or the biofuel we will be using in the coming years, hydrogen has a lot less 'power' for each litre of fuel - and therefore a lot more needs to be carried. In effect, you'd almost need to replace the whole lower deck of an A380 with fuel tanks to power a flight of any reasonable length.

This is not to say that hydrogen might not have some benefits and projects like the Phantom Eye and Boeing's hydrogen fuel cell are providing much-needed insights into the use of such fuels. 

We are often talking about the effects that planes have on the climate, but not so often the impact that the climate has on planes. Well, Boeing has released some video of their new 787 aircraft being frozen to ensure that it can operate in all conditions.

The 787, currently undergoing its very rigorous test programme, will be one of the most fuel efficient aircraft in the sky when it enters the fleet later this year.

We've spoken about the benefits of retro-fitting winglets on aircraft before. Now, Aviation Partners Boeing, the makers of winglet devices for the Boeing 737, 757 and 767 have announced just how much these devices can save - as of tomorrow, March 5 at 19:05 in Seattle, blended winglets will have saved the world's airlines 2 billion gallons of jet fuel. This represents a global reduction in CO2 emissions of almost 21.5 million tonnes since they were first introduced in 2001.

These winglets are now flying on more than 3,700 aircraft around the world and many, such as Air New Zealand, are finding that they are saving more fuel than planned. Airbus is also getting in on the game, joining Aviation Partners to design blended winglets for their own models.

- Image from Flickr user Erwyn van der Meer.

In December, we witnessed the first test flight of the Boeing 787, a new generation of super-efficient aircraft. The 787 test aircraft (ZA001 and ZA002) have now logged well over 100 hours of flight tests and are proving to be even more fuel-efficient than the designers thought. Well, on Monday another new Boeing, the 747-8, took to the skies for the first time. And this new model will also be a very thrifty plane if the first test flight is anything to go by.

In 1969, Boeing rolled out the first generation of true jumbo jet - the 747. Since then, new models have included the -200, -300 and -400 series. But when Boeing sat down to look at its next generation of big aircraft, they decided to re-engineer the 747 with a whole new wing, new engines (actually based on the 787's engines), and a stretched fuselage. They called it the 747-8 series and these new features were designed specifically to increase fuel efficiency.

As Jason Paur of Wired Magazine reports, they may have reduced fuel use even more than they thought:

"Well into the first flight of Boeing’s new 747-8, co-pilot Tom Imrich brought up the fuel page on a display in the cockpit. Chief pilot Mark Feuerstein did a double take when he saw it. The plane, which was burning less fuel than expected. “You’re generally familiar with the odd burns — off nominal, and you know what they are,” Feuerstein said, explaining the unusual flying conditions of a first flight. “I said, ‘This is amazing.’”

The test flights, and first deliveries of this new aircraft, are the frieght-only version. But the normal version, expected to carry around 465 passengers, has been sold to Lufthansa and Korean Air.

Things are hotting up here in Copenhagen. After the country representatives spent all last week working on the text dealing with aviation, suddenly yesterday the President of the COP - who chairs the proceedings - announced that she was splitting these workstreams into even smaller groups and making the sessions closed to observers. It is very difficult for us to know what is happening behind these closed doors, so we just continue to speak to delegates in the halls and track the other exciting news of the day - the expected first flight of the Boeing 787.

This aircraft heralds a new era in efficient flight - built from lightweight composite materials and utilising new engine and aerodynamic design, it is 20% more efficient per passenger than the aircraft they replace. After a number of delays, partly due to the brand new technology that has been developed, the 787 test aircraft took its first high-speed run yesterday in Seattle. Today, at 10am Pacific Standard Time (7 pm CET), subject to weather conditions - and it is fairly cold in Seattle at this point - the aircraft will take off for its first flight. We will be watching and bring you any new information, but if you want to watch yourself, Boeing are providing a live feed on their website.

Following a series of flight tests earlier this year, KLM will be undertaking a demonstration flight on 23 November, flying a Boeing 747-400 with one of its engines being powered by 50% traditional jet fuel and 50% biofuel from camelina. Significantly, this flight will have a special VIP passenger list. Previous biofuels flights have been 'crew only'.

We will be in Amsterdam for the flight and will live blog the event on enviro.aero - watch this space!

- Image by Flickr user Exclusive Photo

From the enticingly-named Boeing "Phantom Works" team we learn of some work being carried out on a new type of aircraft fuselage - the so-called "blended wing". It's probably easier to show you what it looks like rather than try to describe it:

This is one of the first operational prototype aircraft in an entirely new way to think about building aircraft. Although our industry has made some pretty amazing technological leaps over the past hundred years and the latest aircraft may be built from entirely different materials, the overall design is still basically the same - a long tube with wings and a tail.

The blended wing is one potential option to change this - and entirely re-think the aerodynamics and fuel efficiency of passenger aircraft in the future. There are other options on plane designer drawing boards (we've talked about them before), but this option is the latest to be involved in actual flight trials. The smaller-than-life scale model called the X-48B is being tested at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Check out the Wired.com piece on the trials, with a set of photos of the plane. Although the end result in a few decades may not look quite like this, it is another step on the way towards a new aircraft type.

One witty commentor at Wired.com said: "What is this? A plane for ants? It needs to be… at least 3 times this big!!!" (a reference to this scene from the hit movie Zoolander). Hopefully it will be at some point in the future. It is this type of extremely high-end technology that will be part of our effort to reduce aviation emissions by 2050 to half of what they were in 2005.

ATW's Eco-Aviation Today reports that Air New Zealand has made even greater fuel (and therefore emissions) savings than anticipated on its 767 aircraft that have been fitted with new winglets (famously called "sexy" additions to the aircraft). These upturned extensions to the wing increase aerodynamics and therefore increase fuel efficiency. As Captain Dave Morgan, Air New Zealand's chief pilot explained to ATW's Geoffrey Thomas:

"Aviation Partners Boeing had guaranteed a 3.8% improvement [in fuel efficiency] and Air NZ expected to get 4.5% but is actually achieving 5.3%... The 3.4 metre-high wingtips will save us 1.3 million liters of fuel on each 767 annually."

Across their fleet of five 767 aircraft, this will save 18,400 tonnes of CO2 each year. The new winglets can be seen on this YouTube clip:

Boeing, Honeywell UOP and Masdar Institute have today announced they will be undertaking in-depth study into halophytes as potential sources of second-generation biofuels. These grasses can grow in very arid land and salt water and are not a food source. Preliminary investigations have shown that they can provide a lot of oil per hectare of land used, so could be a potentially lucrative source of fuels. We had Darrin Morgan, Boeing's director of biofuels at the Greener Skies event today and he spoke with us before his presentation...

It is sometimes easy to forget, as we check-in online, or wait in security queues, or make sure our seat back is upright and our table is folded away, that flying was once considered the height of luxury... indeed flying was once a dream in the minds of visionaries, one that many thought would never happen. Today, it is a necessary part of modern transport infrastructure. It carries millions of people each day and helps build trade links and deliver commodities and consumers all over the globe. But it is nice to know that we have not totally forgotten the visionaries.

Bauhaus Luftfahrt is a German-based aviation think-tank that “develops sustainable, innovative solutions for future air travel and air transportation”. One of the projects it is currently working on is called Claire. Rather than just describe… her, it may be easier to simply show you what she looks like:

This concept aircraft would utilise the latest in engine and wing design to be ultra-efficient and ultra-quiet while carrying large numbers of passengers in comfort. While the design may seem far-fetched, it is important to note that any of the cutting-edge elements that make up this design may spawn new technologies in their own right.

Take the idea of morphing winglets, for example. New Scientist reports that both Boeing and Airbus are looking at technologies that would allow the winglets (that are at the end of the wings on a large number of modern aircraft) to change shape mid-flight, taking advantage of the optimum operating conditions – basically altering to be the most effective angle and position at each point in the journey. This development could also provide massive savings in fuel consumption.

And our friends at Finnair have taken the vision of our aviation forefathers and run with it – all the way to the year 2093. They have commissioned artists to represent the aircraft of the future and present them – as well as the vision of aviation industry experts – on a website called Departure 2093. Below is their concept aircraft, the A1700-2400 Cruiser. I will leave you to explore the exciting world that awaits you (or your grandchildren) in 85 years…

As Japan Airlines prepares for tomorrow’s biofuel test flight (more on that in a second), USA Today has a great article about bio- and synthetic-fuels which suggests that we could use left-over chicken fat to power our aircraft in the future. Now, this is the first time I’ve heard of this possibility, but according to the USA Today:

Dynamic Fuels, a partnership between Syntroleum and meat-processing giant Tyson Foods of Arkansas, broke ground in October on a $138 million refining facility in Geismar, La. The plant will turn chicken fat, beef tallow, pork lard and grease into liquid fuel. It is expected to begin production in 2010 and turn out about 75 million gallons of fuel a year, says Ron Stinebaugh, Syntroleum's senior vice president of finance.

It’s an interesting notion… let’s see how far it will fly, but I would probably place my bets on other sources that can be more sustainably grown. Of course, the aviation industry is looking at a variety of sources and we probably won’t end up with a single biofuel solution, so re-using oil products that would otherwise go to waste may be an option! The question being asked on the USA Today panels is whether airports will now start smelling like fried chicken fast food outlets!
 

Back to more regular examples of a potential biofuel – the Japan Airlines test flight set to take off at 1150 in Tokyo tomorrow morning (0250 GMT). This 747-300 will have its number three engine fuelled by a mix of 50% jet fuel and 50% sustainable biofuel. The biofuel is a mix of three different sources: camelina, jatropha and algae. This is the first test flight to use camelina and the first to be a combination of three biofuel sources. The photo above shows technicians filling the #3 engine tank with the biofuel/jet fuel mix today.

Over the next few hours, I will update on the plans for the flight and provide details of the fuel feed stock being used… stay tuned!

Update 1

The flight is around nine hours away now and I thought I would fill you in a bit on the main biofuel crop being used on this flight - camelina. The plant is also known as gold-of-pleasure and German sesame, among other things. It has been grown as a crop by farmers in Europe for at least 3,000 years and one of the oldest places it has been found is just a small distance from where I am in Switzerland. Prior to electricity and gas, the oil from its seeds was harvested to produce oil lamp and it is also used as a cooking oil, although has largely been replaced by other crops.

Its seeds contain a very high oil content and it can be grown in rotation with other food crops such as wheat and cereal, in moderate climates such as the US, Europe and Central Asia. It is estimated that the US state of Montana alone could support between two and three million acres of camelina, generating 200 to 300 million gallons of oil each year.

Although it looks nothing like them, it comes from the same family as cauliflower, radish and cabbage! The fact that it can be grown in the off-season from food supply crops and on the marginal land (as well as being drought-resistant), makes camelina a good source of sustainable aviation biofuel. For this flight, the camelina oil was provided by Sustainable Oils from the USA. It will be mixed with jatropha provided by Terasol Energy and a small amount of algae oil supplied by Sapphire Energy. These have been refined and blended together with Jet-A1 by Honeywell UOP - a company that specialises in refining biofuel. The ability to blend supplies from different sources will enable the aviation industry to have a more secure supply and regional diversity. It is very unlikely that we will only use one type of biofuel in the future.

Update 2

The test flight took off at 1150 JST and will last for an hour and a half, flying north from Tokyo's Haneda Airport to perform the tests over the ocean to the east of Sendai:

Update 3

The flight has now landed and, following a series of tests, the pilots have reported that there was no difference in performance between the engines using normal jet fuel and the #3 engine powered by the biofuel blend. The crew, led by Captain Keiji Kobayashi, performed a series of tests at different altitudes, including shutting the engine down mid-flight and re-starting it, accelerating and decelerating rapidly. From now, more testing and analysis will be carried out to determine how the biofuel impacted on the internal workings of the Pratt & Whitney JT9D engine.

Update 4

Japan Airlines has issued their post-flight media release. For us at the Air Transport Action Group, this flight has shown that working together is key to aviation's green future. Paul Steele, our executive director said:

“In flying a test using three types of biofuel, Japan Airlines will demonstrate how aviation is able to pursue a range of biofuel options, not just rely on one source. This is important as we look to sustainable biofuels as an alternative energy source for aviation. The ability to blend supplies from different sources will enable a more secure supply and regional diversity.”

Over the next few hours, I will post some of the media coverage from the JAL flight here.

Update 5

I would like to share with you a quote from one of the background notes for the Japan Airlines flight on the sustainable nature of the biofuel source camelina:

As a rotation crop with wheat, camelina grows on existing farmland, but does not compete with food crops. Rather, farmers plant camelina on portions of their land that would otherwise be “fallow” (non-planted) as part of their normal crop rotation program. One could argue that the use of camelina as part of a crop rotation is the very definition of sustainability, as it provides growers an opportunity to diversify their crop base and reduce mono-cropping (planting the same crop year after year) which has been shown to degrade soil and reduce yields.

This is a very important point, as we need to be looking at issues such as this to determine the sustainability of any biofuel supply for the industry. While we're at it, here is a picture of the seeds from camelina - amazing to think that they are so rich in oil that it can power a 747 engine!

Update 6

Selected media coverage from the JAL flight:

• Japan Times
• Mainichi Daily News
• Scientific American
• AFP

And a clip of the flight on YouTube (the quality is not great and there is no sound, but I thought I would post it anyway...):

The biofuel test flight on a Continental Airlines 737-800 went better than expected – The pilots reported that the biofuel blend in their number two engine had no discernable performance difference than the normal jet fuel used in their number one engine.

But when they got on the ground, they revealed that they actually used less of the biofuel than of the traditional jet fuel, meaning the biofuel blend had a higher amount of energy-per-litre. This is quite a significant discovery that could indicate that, as well as being less CO2 intensive, we could also start using less fuel per flight when biofuel sources such as algae are introduced – but that is still subject to much testing and analysis. All in all, then this was a very successful test flight.

At the end of the month, we have Japan Airlines flying one of their aircraft on a biofuel blend from a slightly different source – the plant camolina. We will provide updates on that from 30 January. Meanwhile, I leave you with some media coverage of yesterday’s ‘pond scum’-powered flight:

• CNN
• LA Times
• Houston Chronicle
• Scientific American
• Associated Press

Well, the flight has been in the air for around an hour now and the two pilots and one engineer on board will be undertaking a series of tests to demonstrate how the biofuel performs in the CFM engines. The two-engined aircraft has one engine being flown on regular Jet-A1 fuel and the other engine is using the biofuel mix, which is 50% jet fuel and 50% biofuel from algae and the jatropha plant.

The pilots have climbed to a series of normal flight-level altitudes to monitor how the fuel behaves at the cold temperatures you experience thousands of feet in the air. They will then undertake a number of manoevers that would take place in a normal flight (such as accelerating and decelerating) and also some very unusual ones. For example, they will shut one of the engines down mid-air and re-start it a number of times. This was something that the Air New Zealand test flight last week also did, but they were flying a four-engine 747! These pilots will be flying on just one engine some of the time. But these aircraft are actually able to do that, if absolutely necessary.

For the flight, the aircraft has been re-certified as 'experimental' and the pilots on board are Continental Airline's test crew.

Within the next few minutes, a Boeing 737-800 aircraft will take off from Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport on an historical mission. It is the first test flight in a commercial jet to utilise algae as a biofuel source. Like last week's Air New Zealand flight, this will test the second-generation biofuel's ability to withstand normal operating conditions. However, this is the first such test to be carried out on a twin-engined aircraft.

Algae has been identified as an excellent potential source for aviation biofuel. It can be cultivated in 'factories' built on land not suitable for food supplies, it can be grown using salt or wastewater (and indeed uses less water than other biofuel stocks) and it has a higher energy yield than other biofuel sources (in fact, according to Solix "Since the whole organism converts sunlight into oil, algae can produce more oil in an area the size of a two-car garage than an entire football field of soybeans").

It has been estimated that one pond of algae the size of Belgium or the US State of Maryland could be enough to fuel the aviation industry - although this sounds massive at first, it is in fact several orders of magnitude smaller than the amount of land used for growing soybeans or sugarcane for first-generation biofuels in the USA. And in any case, it could be done on land that is not able to be used for other purposes such as food production or forestry. This CNN clip profiles one algae (or 'pond scum') producer:

I will post updates on the Continental Airlines flight as it happens, with details on the types of tests being carried out and links to any news articles on the ground.