Posted on 03/31/2010 8:08:23 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
Check this out for a brain-twisting juxtaposition: The U.S. military has successfully tested out a biofuel system for a "Warthog" A10 Thunderbolt II, one of the most feared combat aircraft in the World. Which is now fluffily green.
Specifically, the aircraft was an A10C, and the fuel that was pumped through its modified General Electric TF34-GE-100A turbofans was based on Camelina. This plant, also known as false flax, has been trialled on other U.S. military aircraft, and was converted into a 50% biofuel and 50% aviation fuel mix for the A10 experiment.
As much as the move sounds like a stunt designed to reduced the U.S. military's dependence on foreign oil supply--which is a critical failure point in conflicts like the Gulf War, if you think about it--it's actually also designed to reduce the financial burden of burning oil products and to actually reduce the military's ecologically damaging powers. Camelina is great for this last part, since it burns to produce 80% less carbon by-products. It's also a nonfood crop that grows swiftly with a low water-supply burden, and its growth season ends in July so the soil can be recharged with moisture before the heat of summer causes erosion problems. There is something slightly odd about the idea of having such an efficient killing machine as the A10 powered by biofuel, however--check out the video of A10s in the clip below. The military doesn't think biofuel is odd, of course, since it comes with such an impressive list of benefits--and it plans to test out the same stuff in an F15 Eagle, a C17 Globemaster III cargo aircraft and the cream of the crop, the F22 Raptor.
(Excerpt) Read more at fastcompany.com ...
Great - now the warthog is an Obama social experiment.
If they could run the warthog on diesel, that would be something, but some custom blend biofuel - yikes..
This thing cracks the pavement when it flies overhead, and it pours depleted uranium out the business end.
I think this is real, but I think it’s kinda tongue-in-cheek.
Sacrilege !!
;-)
You can bet nothing else runs on it and it’s a useless advance until every aircraft in the inventory can drink it.
Just wait until Obama envisions squadrons Toyota Priuses with wings. That will become the bulk of our Air Force
I thought this was going to become a PETA-protest issue.
Hydrocarbons are hydrocarbons. Maybe the Warthog could be trained to run on ‘rat soylent green.
The USAF already uses 50/50 FT fuel in their B-52 bombers.The fuel is made by a company located in Tulsa, OK
The Hedgehog is experimenting on the Warthog.....
Not a site friendly to the military. But there’s a GREAT A-10 promo video on it.
Unfortunately, that was the only site that had more than one paragraph on the story
>If they could run the warthog on diesel, that would be something, but some custom blend biofuel - yikes..
Don’t disparage it; the general rule-of-thumb is that if it can do Diesel, it can do biofuel. [the reverse may or may not be true.]
I haven’t done anything with biofuel [yet], but it seems to be a MUCH better idea than Ethanol. [And perhaps Hydrogen, considering the difficulties with storage/production Hydrogen presents.]
Biofuel doesn’t need corn. Eventually you’ll be able to use trees. :)
>Biofuel doesn’t need corn. Eventually you’ll be able to use trees. :)
LOL - Actually I was thinking all the fats and ‘cholesterol’ that our food industry produces could be fuel.
>Eventually you’ll be able to use trees. :)
IIRC, the first Diesel engine ran on sawdust.
How long ‘til the left starts to accuse the USAF of conducting biological warfare?
Unless people start dying.
Great! SwineFill. Bacon at 400 mile per hour over a Gatling gun.
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