With ground testing successfully done, Virgin Atlantic now awaits final approvals from regulators to make the flight from London to New York, powered entirely by sustainable aviation fuel.
Rolls Royce, Boeing and University of Sheffield are some of the members of the consortium and the plane that will take on the transatlantic flight is the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, writes ESG Today.
The maiden flight follows the UK government's pledge to conduct the first-ever SAF-powered transatlantic flight by the end of this year.
Before batteries and hydrogen will receive regulatory approvals and will get more advanced, so that we can fly fully net-zero, SAF can be a great helper in reducing aviation's carbon emissions. The upcoming flight aims to show the industry that SAF can be used as a replacement for kerosene and that it can be used exclusively to operate a plane.
Shai Weiss, CEO, Virgin Atlantic, said that "the 100% Sustainable Aviation Fuel transatlantic flight will be a historic moment in aviation’s roadmap to decarbonisation. Alongside fleet transformation, SAF is the most readily available way for our industry to decarbonise, but currently there’s not enough supply and without it and the radical collaboration required to produce it, we can’t meet our 2030 targets."
Rolls Royce's Trent 100 engines were fueled with 100% sustainable aviation fuel to demonstrate in ground testing that the alternative is truly compatible with current technology.
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