Air Force Times: A complete alternative-fuel fleet by 2011?

[bananas]

http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2007/09/airforce_alternative_fuel_070904/

A complete alternative-fuel fleet by 2011?
By Erik Holmes - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Sep 4, 2007 13:48:21 EDT

The Air Force plans by 2011 to qualify all the aircraft engines in its inventory to run with alternative fuels, a senior Air Force official said Monday. The plan also calls for purchasing 50 percent of fuel from domestic sources by 2016.

The service is taking a harder look at alternative fuels, the official said, because oil prices are likely to continue to rise, further straining an already tight Air Force budget.

The service’s annual fuel bill spikes about $60 million for each $10 rise in the price of a barrel of oil, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne told reporters in June.

The Air Force is the largest fuel consumer in the U.S., burning 2.6 billion gallons in 2006.

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[friendly_iconoclast]

1. They are testing synthetic jet fuels, and they work well

It's made by the Fischer-Tropsch process. More details here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer-tropsch

Now if they can come up with a substitute for Jet-A that'll work in civilian
planes, that would be really helpful.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. Electric airplanes will run on hydrogen or some other alternative

fuel. They will go supersonic. They will be quiet, nonpolluting and relatively easy on the eye.