Earlier this month<\/a>\u00a0the RAF announced a world first by flying an aircraft, an Ikarus C42 microlight, using 100% synthetic fuel produced by small British company Zero Petroleum.<\/p>\nDetails of the second synthetic aviation fuel program may be revealed soon. Essentially it will involve a different commercial partner than Zero Petroleum and a different technology.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe RAF are working with a variety of leading commercial technology partners and will be offering additional information on another fuel project in early December,\u201d an RAF spokesman said.<\/p>\n
Zero Petroleum manufactures its synthetic fuel from air and water. It extracts hydrogen from water and carbon from atmospheric carbon dioxide. Using energy generated from renewable sources like wind or solar, the hydrogen and carbon are combined under heat and pressure with metal catalysts to create the synthetic fuel.<\/p>\n
The company designed, built and installed a manufacturing plant on a Scottish island in a matter of weeks in order to supply its synthetic fuel for the test flight.<\/p>\n
The RAF is already using sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) made from feedstocks such as ethanol or recycled waste oil, but its high cost and lack of availability are raising questions about its viability.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there was an assured, affordable supply now we would use it, but the challenge in the short to medium term is insufficient capacity in the production and supply chains,\u201d said Wigston. \u201cTo put that into context, global jet fuel consumption is currently around 320 million metric tons per annum. The entire global production of SAF is currently 100,000 metric tonnes, with little immediate prospect of ability to scale it upwards, and its spot price remains steadfastly around ten times that of conventional kerosene.\u201d<\/p>\n
The RAF recently flew the prince of Wales to Jordan in its A330 VIP jet using a sustainable aviation fuel blend.<\/p>\n
Wigston said that for some platforms \u201cwe are pushing with industry for a 100% SAF blend flight soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
But, the RAF chief said, synthetic fuel offered an \u201cexciting alternative ” and wider benefits compared to sustainable fuel.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe new approaches to synthetic fuel production are environmentally friendly and sustainable; they offer sovereign security of supply; and the chemically purer fuel we are producing indicates that we will have cleaner engines that result in lower maintenance, longer equipment life, and lower noise, heat and visual signatures such as contrails,\u201d Wigston told his audience.<\/p>\n
Sustainable or synthetic fuels aren\u2019t the only green options to petrol and jet engines. Electric or hydrogen propulsion offered alternatives, particularly for smaller, lighter, trainer platforms the air chief said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe aim to have our first zero-emission aircraft operational by the end of this decade. I think it is entirely appropriate that this aircraft will be for our air cadets, university cadets and the very first stages of flying training. If we achieve that, it will be the first military registered and certified zero-carbon aircraft in the world,\u201d said Wigston.<\/p>\n
The RAF spokesman said the service was currently \u201cassessing a variety of current technology to gain a better understanding of the new technologies\u201d on offer. \u201cIn doing so we are looking to develop future concepts and requirements, as an intelligent customer.\u201d<\/p>\n
The air service is looking to replace the 90 Grob built Tudor T1 trainers currently in service.<\/p>\n
Rolls-Royce recently demonstrated the progress being made with electric flight, announcing Nov. 19 that it had submitted data to the World Air Sports Federation showing that it had broken three world records with its Spirit of Innovation all-electric aircraft.<\/p>\n
According to Rolls-Royce data, the aircraft reached a top speed of 555.9 km\/h (345.4 mph) over 3 kilometers, smashing the existing record by 213.04 km\/h (132 mph).<\/p>\n
In further runs at the MoD\u2019s Boscombe Down experimental aircraft testing site, the aircraft achieved 532 km\/h (330 mph) over 15 kilometers \u2013 293 km\/h (182 mph) faster than the previous record \u2013 and broke the fastest time to climb to 3,000 meters by 60 seconds with a time of 202 seconds, the company said. During its record-breaking runs, the aircraft clocked up a maximum speed of 623 km\/h, or 387 mph.<\/p>\n
Fuente:<\/strong> https:\/\/www.defensenews.com<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"El jefe de la Fuerza A\u00e9rea de Gran Breta\u00f1a, expres\u00f3 que imagina un futuro en el que el combustible sint\u00e9tico para las aeronaves, pueda producirse… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9007,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[28,24],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9006"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9006"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9008,"href":"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9006\/revisions\/9008"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}