Zero has marked the one year anniversary of its groundbreaking first synthetically fuelled aircraft flight by revealing plans for more fuelling activities in the New Year, with the aim of further demonstrating how its fossil-free carbon neutral fuels can be used directly in existing engines without modification.
The first flight, which took place on 2nd November 2021, was the culmination of the initial stage of a collaborative project between the British synthetic fuel company and its partner the Royal Air Force. It demonstrated, for the first time, how synthetic fuels can be used without altering the performance of current fossil-fuelled machinery.
Speaking after that flight, Group Captain Peter ‘Willy’ Hackett remarked: “From the minute we put the fuel into the aeroplane, I had a good feeling about it. When I started the engine, it started at the first push of the button and it just ran sweetly from there on in. When I selected full power, it responded immediately, it was very predictable and smooth. I couldn’t tell it was a revolutionary new fuel in it because it behaved just like it was burning fossil fuel. We did the flight to prove that the technology works. It’s just the first step, we need to mature this technology and produce it in mass quantities so the rest of the aviation world can use it.”