British Airways and Rolls Royce will test alternative fuels

British Airways and Rolls-Royce have jointly announced an alternative fuel testing programme that “will seek to identify practical alternatives to the current industry-standard fuel kerosene.”

The air carrier and the jet engine manufacturer will put in place a joint tender process aimed at finding suppliers that will be capable of offering fuel samples for testing on Rolls-Royce RB211 engines, which power BA’s 747s. The testing will be conducted indoors at an engine test bed in Derby at the Rolls-Royce manufacturing facility.

The two companies are planning on choosing as many as four alternative fuels for testing purposes. Both BA and Rolls-Royce will supply 60,000 litres of alternative fuel for the project. “In each case, the engine will be operated through its full range of power settings including idle, acceleration, takeoff and cruise,” the companies have said. All testing should be complete before the end of March, 2009.

In this bio-fuel testing initiative, British Airways is joining carriers Air New Zealand, Continental Airlines, Japan Airlines and JetBlue Airways, who have also committed to test bio-fuels. Virgin Atlantic Airways is the only carrier thus far to actually carry out a demonstration flight using bio-fuel.

www.britishairways.com