Virgin Atlantic Celebrates First Flight Fully Powered by Sustainable Alternative to Jet Fuel
The Boeing 787 passenger jet, dubbed “Flight100,” took off from London’s Heathrow Airport on Tuesday, bound for New York.Virgin Atlantic is celebrating becoming the first airline ever to send off a commercial airliner fully powered by “sustainable” jet fuel on a transatlantic flight.
The Boeing 787 passenger jet, dubbed “Flight100,” took off from London’s Heathrow Airport on the morning of Nov. 28 at 11:49 a.m. local time (6:49 a.m. ET) before landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City at 2:05 p.m. ET, according to Flightradar24.
The test flight did not carry fare-paying passengers but consisted of engineers, scientists, and industry experts.
The UK Civil Aviation Authority earlier this month granted permission for Virgin Atlantic and its partners, including Rolls-Royce, Boeing, and BP, to fly Tuesday’s Virgin Atlantic flight after a series of technical reviews in 2022.
Additionally, the UK Transport Department provided £1 million ($1.27 million) to plan and operate the flight.
According to a press release from Virgin Atlantic, the “historic” flight was made using “100 percent Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)” and marks the “culmination of a year of radical collaboration, to demonstrate the capability of SAF as a safe drop-in replacement for fossil-derived jet fuel, compatible with today’s engines, airframes, and fuel infrastructure.”
The “sustainable” fuel is made up of 88 percent hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids, or waste fats, supplied by AirBP and 12 percent synthetic aromatic kerosene made from plant sugars supplied by Virent, a subsidiary of Marathon Petroleum Corporation.
The remaining plant proteins, oil, and fibers will thus continue into the food chain, the British airline said.
According to the airline, SAF delivers CO2 lifecycle emissions savings of up to 70 percent, whilst “performing like the traditional jet fuel it replaces.”
This, according to officials at Virgin Atlantic, plays a significant role in the decarbonization of long-haul aviation, and industry efforts to bring net emissions down to zero.
‘Only Viable Solution for Decarbonizing Long Haul Aviation’
The “sustainable” fuel is also available to be used immediately while other technologies such as electric and hydrogen remain “decades away,” the company said.”To achieve Net Zero 2050, the innovation and investment needed across all available feedstocks and technologies must be harnessed to maximize SAF volumes as well as continuing the research and development needed to bring new zero-emission aircraft to market,” the company said.
For Tuesday’s flight, the Boeing 787 was filled with 50 tons of SAF, the BBC reported.
The test flight was done both to prove the capabilities of SAF and how its use affects the flight’s non-carbon emissions.
Data from the test flight will be shared with industry experts in the coming weeks and Virgin Atlantic will continue its involvement with contrail work (the vapor trails left behind by aircraft engine exhausts) through the Rocky Mountain Institute’s Climate Impact Task Force, which is part-funded by Virgin Unite.
Virgin Atlantic billionaire founder Richard Branson, CEO Shai Weiss, and UK Secretary of State for Transport Mark Harper were on board Tuesday’s flight.Entrepreneur Mr. Branson said he “couldn’t be prouder” to be on board the flight, and praised his company for “challenging the status quo and pushing the aviation industry” to never settle.
“Flight100 proves that Sustainable Aviation Fuel can be used as a safe, drop-in replacement for fossil-derived jet fuel and it’s the only viable solution for decarbonizing long haul aviation. It’s taken radical collaboration to get here and we’re proud to have reached this important milestone, but we need to push further,” said Mr. Weiss.”There’s simply not enough SAF and it’s clear that in order to reach production at scale, we need to see significantly more investment. This will only happen when regulatory certainty and price support mechanisms, backed by the Government, are in place. Flight100 proves that if you make it, we’ll fly it,” Mr. Weiss continued.
Virgin Atlantic flies world’s first 100 percent Sustainable Aviation Fuel flight from London Heathrow to New York JFKSAF Challenges While industry experts touted Tuesday’s flight, which was not 100 percent emission-free, but rather net-zero emissions, the availability of SAF is currently less than one-thousandth of the total volume of jet fuel used worldwide, The Guardian reported.
Meanwhile, the cost of SAF is also high, at roughly three to five times as much as regular jet fuel.
The process of making SAF—which is produced from non-petroleum-based renewable feedstocks including, but not limited to, the food and yard waste portion of municipal solid waste, woody biomass, fats/greases/oils, and other feedstocks—also requires a lot of energy.
It also still produces emissions, although, as Virgin Atlantic argues, the overall CO2 lifecycle emissions are drastically lower when compared to regular petroleum-based fuel.As stated by the International Air Transport Association, SAF can also be produced synthetically via a process that captures carbon directly from the air.
The fuel is considered “sustainable” because the raw feedstock does not compete with food crops or water supplies, or is not responsible for forest degradation.
However, the UK’s Royal Society, a national scientific organization, warned in a briefing earlier this year that producing enough SAF to supply the UK’s net zero ambitions would require “enormous quantities” of UK agricultural land or renewable electricity to keep flying at today’s levels.
According to that briefing, doing so would require roughly one-half of UK agricultural land while producing sufficient green hydrogen fuel would require 2.4 to 3.4 times the UK’s 2020 renewable (wind and solar) electricity generation.Commercial aviation industry members in Europe also anticipate the costs of air travel to rise amid the transition away from fossil fuels and toward more sustainable alternatives.
Still, Virgin Atlantic said Tuesday’s flight represented a “major milestone” for the entire aviation industry in its journey toward achieving net zero carbon emissions.Reuters contributed to this report.
