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| Science & Technology |
| Navy's Green Hornet to Launch on Earth Day |
| 2010-04-22 |
| When the F/A-18 jet called the Green Hornet takes off over the Chesapeake Bay on Earth Day, it will aim to break a barrier that has proven far more durable than the speed of sound. The twin-engine tactical aircraft is prepared on April 22 to make a supersonic flight on biofuel -- its tanks filled 50 percent with oil refined from the crushed seeds of the flowering Camelina sativa plant. The test flight at the Naval Air Station at Patuxent River, Maryland will be a milestone in the Navy's efforts to reduce its reliance on petroleum, and perhaps, in the elusive search for an alternative fuel for aviation. The event is meant to showcase the Pentagon's efforts to increase use of renewable energy, not only as a climate change initiative but to protect the military from energy price fluctuations and dependence on foreign oil. When President Obama announced his offshore drilling and energy security plan last month at Andrews Air Force Base, he used the Green Hornet as a backdrop. As naval aviation's biggest fuel consumer, the F/A-18 Super Hornet is a fitting test aircraft. |
| Posted by:GolfBravoUSMC |
| #5 Hmm. While it *is* a good nitrogen-fixer, and thus a useful crop for rotation with more efficient cash crops, it also seems to be a really good vegetable oil stock, which puts the lie to this "not in competition with food usage" business. Amusingly enough, it's a flax weed. |
| Posted by: Mitch H. 2010-04-22 13:18 |
| #4 Although I can see the potential, like the development of synthetic rubber alternatives for WWII, I too wonder about the return on investment (acres per gallons produced, cost of growth and harvest, suseptability of crop to weather). I would hate to think that the strength of the military depends on whether a farmer gets rain. Unless of course this is science for science sake, or just showbiz. Perhaps it is a product of the Kato Institute and will be armed with only knock-out gas munitions? |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2010-04-22 11:20 |
| #3 First flight of the "Flameout Express" |
| Posted by: mojo 2010-04-22 10:48 |
| #2 All these biofuel companies float on an ocean of extracted petroleum products and other fossil fuels. I doubt they use biofuel-derived fertilizer on their fields instead of ammonia made from natural gas.... trucks and tractors probably run drilled diesel.... etc. |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2010-04-22 09:15 |
| #1 Hoo boy, There's at least one error in every single paragraph of that Editor! |
| Posted by: Parabellum 2010-04-22 07:41 |