The aviation company Airbus announced that the biggest passenger airplane in the world, the A380, has finished a test flight powered by a 100 percent sustainable aviation fuel, i.e., SAF.
The double-decker flew from Blagnac Airport in Toulouse on the 25th of March.
The company notes that the flight lasted three hours and the airplane used only one Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine which ran on 100 percent SAF.
How Was the SAF Made?
The SAF was made in Normandy from fatty acids and hydro-processed esters. This fuel doesn’t contain any aromatics and sulfur and mostly consists of used cooking oil and other waste fats.
The fuel was supplied by Total Energies, a company in Normandy, France.
What’s more, the second test flight with the same aircraft took off from Toulouse on the 29th of March and flew to Nice where they tested the SAF during the takeoff and landing.
SAF, that’s said to be carbon neutral due to the CO2 absorbed while the organic ingredients are grown, is already used in limited amounts by other airlines.
However, considering its high price, global adoption isn’t expected to occur anytime soon.
The Company Has an Ambitious Goal & Is Doing Their Best to Reach It
The company stated that the increase in SAF use is a key path to reaching its goal of becoming net-zero carbon by 2050. They claim that the usage of SAF will help them reduce between 53 percent and 71 percent of the needed carbon reductions so that they meet their objective.
This is the third successful test flight on an Airbus aircraft using 100 percent SAF in the past year. The first one was A350 and was followed by an A319neo single-aisle one.
The company emphasizes that all Airbus airplanes are certified for flying with up to 50 percent blend of SAF combined with kerosene and the aim is to get certified for 100 percent SAF by the end of this decade.
Airbus also announced that their A380 will be used to test an experimental engine run by hydrogen, another innovation whose goal is to reduce the environmental footprint of flying.
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