Let me see, Since it's the military, it won't be very long...Any second now...
Posted on 12/18/2006 10:19:50 AM PST by Paul Ross
Bomber makes test flight using only synthetic fuel
By Peter Pae, Times Staff Writer
December 16, 2006
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE — A B-52 bomber took off from here Friday with all eight of its engines running on synthetic fuel, the first time that a U.S. military aircraft has flown without the kerosene formula that has been used since the advent of the jets.
The nearly six-hour flight of the lumbering Stratofortress went off without a hitch, Air Force officials said, lifting prospects for the use of alternative fuel by the military and commercial airlines as they grapple with the high price of crude oil.
"So far so good," said Chris Stroh, the Air Force's lead engineer on the project, after the B-52 was in the air for about two hours. "We're seeing very little difference" in the plane's performance.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Let's hope the cold-weather tests in Grand Forks go as well.
Other reports say that the fuel wasn't purely synthetic but instead was a 50/50 mixture of synfuel and JP-8.
How long before some Demo-Traitor comes up with a reason to be against this?
Let me see, Since it's the military, it won't be very long...Any second now...
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/12/b52_flight_uses.html 
B-52 Flight Uses GTL Blend in All Eight Engines 16 December 2006 Synmxtl Syntroleum Fischer-Tropsch technology is indifferent to the source of the syngas. Click to enlarge. Source: Syntroleum. A B-52 Stratofortress successfully completed a test flight on 15 December using a blend of Gas-to-Liquids fuels and conventional JP-8 in all eight engines. This is the first time a B-52 has flown using a synfuel blend as the only fuel on board. In September, the Air Force successfully flew a B-52 with two engines using the synfuel-blend—using GTL fuel supplied by Syntroleum—while the others used standard fuel. (Earlier post.) The test flight further demonstrated the Air Force’s commitment to using alternate fuels and is the next step in the testing and certification process before the fuel can go into widespread use, according to Air Force officials. According to William Anderson, assistant secretary of the Air Force for installations, environment and logistics, the Air Force has reinvigorated its energy strategy which is underpinned by supply-side availability and demand-side conservation. The next test phase for the B-52 will be cold-weather testing to determine how well the synfuel-blend performs in extreme weather conditions.
This helps take more of what we have an abundance of...coal...converts it to a liquid fuel...and gives us the potential luxury of still being able to economically fly if something drastic happens in the Middle East...and in South America.
You gotta get your ND right. Plus it isn't cold here yet.
They are already lining up.
Synthetic Jet fuel comes **GASP** strip mines and releases more GHG into the air than regular Jet Fuel.
WE'RE DOOMED!!!!!
At first glance, I thought it said, "by Peter Pan".
The article does say Minot, not GF, so you're right. I do remember the B-1s thundering off the runways at GF, however. Wonder if they will soon get the same testing, although they are based considerably further south nowadays:
Next month, the B-52 is scheduled to go to Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to participate in tests of how the engines perform with blended fuel in frigid temperatures before the Air Force begins the process of certifying the fuel for use by its entire B-52 fleet.
And who do you think it will be first? Which one of our favorite raving leftist congressional morons? Rangel? Kennedy? Leahy? Murtha?
So in other words, while freeing ourselves from Arab Oil on the one hand, we're tying our fate to ManBearPig on the other.
LOL! He really did fly with an alternative fuel...pixie dust!
GMTA!
But now, it will Neverland....
Jet engines would operate perfectly well using liquified butane or propane. Some of the plumbing would have to be modified, and minor adjustments made to the metering of the fuel to the combustion chamber. It is just that the planes now flying are all calibrated to use the standard formulation of JP-8, helps keep down the multiple inventories.
Kerosene has a very high energy density per pound of fuel, most lighter petroleum fractions are a lot lower energy density. The reason you would want to use the lighter fractions is that it would require less energy input to generate the end product, using this process. Fractionation would take place at a lower temperature. But that may be a meaningless considertion.
The gas-to-liquid, or coal-to-gas-to-liquid process was used during the Second World War to provide fuel for the Nazi Luftwaffe to keep flying after they were denied access to the oil fields of Romania after 1943.
Are we going to have to be pushed to this sort of wall before we develop our own domestic energy supplies?
Isn't the critical part in how many BTU's per ounce that a fuel delivers?
I bet that bomber could fly for an hour on the grease from Charlie rangels head and anothet hour off Al Sharptons.
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