aircraft
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Tens of thousands of flights carry millions of passengers around the globe on a daily basis. Needless to say, the environmental impact of this is fairly large--but both airlines and aircraft makers are keen to reduce that impact and lower their own costs, too. Biofuel is the current buzzword in the airline industry, and as Reuters reports (via Navigant Research), it's one area aircraft maker Boeing is keen to explore. Specifically, Boeing aims to seek approval for the use of "green diesel" in jet fuel. Green diesel is made by transforming oils and fats, made from cooking oil, plant oils and...
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Will Biofuels Do Better In Aviation Than Anywhere Else?Given how familiar most of us are with cars, it's easy to see them as the be-all and end-all when it comes to cleaning up transportation. Reduce fossil fuels, increase electric propulsion, increase use of biofuels, job done. With over a billion cars on roads around the world improving them is...
Antony Ingram -
Would You Pay $40,000 For An Electric...Airplane? Now You Can
GreenWing Internation is preparing to ship kits of its eSpyder electric airplane to customers in the U.S. and Europe.
Stephen Edelstein -
Fun For $40,000? Electric Plane Beats Electric Car Every Time...
$40,000 will get you plenty of electric cars these days, including the recently-unveiled 2014 BMW i3. They can be fun on the right road, and it's great knowing you aren't using any gas... but there have to be bigger electric thrills elsewhere, right? The GreenWing eSpyder could be what you need to...
Antony Ingram -
First Aircraft To Taxi On Electric Power: Paris Air Show Premiere
You know that feeling when you realize you've been missing out on some low-hanging fruit for years? That could be what the aviation industry is feeling right now, as Airbus shows off its new Electric Green Taxiing System (EGTS) at this year's Paris air show. The concept, reported by Aviation Week...
Antony Ingram -
Boeing 787 Battery Safety Updates: What Changes Were Made?
People take air safety pretty seriously, so when smoke filled the cabin of a new Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft a few months back, the entire fleet was quickly grounded. It turned out to be an issue with the aircraft's lithium-ion batteries, used to power some secondary functions reducing load on...
Antony Ingram -
Air travel is currently the only realistic way of covering huge distances in very short spaces of time. Unfortunately, it's not a particularly green way of doing so either--airliners use large quantities of fossil fuels and emit plenty of pollutants as they whizz you to a far-flung destination. They could get greener though according to Biodiesel Magazine, thanks to sustainable biofuels. The National Wildlife Federation, Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels (RSB) and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines have come together to announce the first fully-certified biofuel route, between Amsterdam in the...
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Next Kind Of Electric Transport: Solar Electric Aircraft?
In utopian visions of the future, we won't have to burn anything to get anywhere. No fossil fuels, no coal, no burning of any sort. For some, that future is already here--plenty of electric car owners run their cars using solar electricity generated from panels at their home or place of work. It's...
Antony Ingram -
Boeing 787 Batteries Same As Those In Electric Cars? Umm, NO
Gird yourself: It's possible we're about to see a new wave of attacks on electric cars that ignore battery science. This time the culprit is the troubled Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft. The FAA has grounded all 787s after a string of fires in their lithium-ion battery packs; other countries have...
John Voelcker -
Fuel Economy In the Sky: Whose Jets Get the Most Mileage?
It's Friday, so we're straying slightly afield from covering cars. In this case, we're turning our green lens toward jetliners to look at fuel economy in the sky. Anyone who travels on a jet more than once has likely more than doubled their non-flying carbon footprint, and there are unlikely to be...
John Voelcker
