Japan Airlines readies second-gen biofuels test flight

What do Air New Zealand, KLM, Continental and Virgin got in common?

If you said they’re all airlines, you’d be right. If you said they’re all international airlines, you’d be right too. If you said they all have vowels in their name, you’d be wrong – KLM doesn’t.

But if you said they’re all going planning or trialling biofuels flight you’d be right and would put an end to this daft guessing game.

The latest airline to join in all the fun is Japan Airlines: the land of the rising sun’s national carrier will be conducting short test flight with the help of Boeing and Pratt & Whitney using second-gen biofuel/normal jet fuel mix.

No word on what will be Japan Airlines’ biofuel of choice though.

A little more from Japan Airlines:

A second-generation biofuel will be blended with jet fuel and tested in one of the four engines of a JAL Boeing 747-300 aircraft equipped with Pratt & Whitney JT9D engines. The biofuel to be used has not been decided yet.

JAL will provide the aircraft and staff for the short approximately 1 hour demonstration flight out of an airport in Japan scheduled for the end of FY2008, the year ending March 31, 2009. The flight will be the first biofuel demonstration by an Asian carrier, and the first using Pratt & Whitney engines.[…]

The highest levels of safety will be adhered to throughout the whole biofuel flight demonstration process. Boeing will conduct a preliminary biofuel screening evaluation after which the best performing biofuel will be selected by the end of August 2008. The biofuel will be used in only one of the four engines of the Boeing 747-300 aircraft operated by JAL.