I just finished reading "Fuels for the Future," an article in the Feb09 issue of Sport Aviation, and was reminded again about SwiftFuel, the bioengineered 100LL alternative being developed by a team from Purdue University. I had first heard about SwiftFuel while reading a piece last June by PBS tech-industry columnist Robert X. Cringely.
After reading the Sport Aviation article, I did a quick search on the VAF forums to see what the RV community's take was, and I quickly gathered that the mood was something along the lines of "It sounds great, but I'll believe it when I see it fly."
Well, unless this is some sort of hoax, it looks like the first flight test happened last September -- in an RV-4, no less.
As a future RV builder and green-tech junkie, I'm both excited and skeptical about the promise of this fuel. If it's true that 100LL is going the way of the dodo, then it would be great if something like this could serve as a drop-in replacement without sacrificing performance. I don't know, what you you guys think?
After reading the Sport Aviation article, I did a quick search on the VAF forums to see what the RV community's take was, and I quickly gathered that the mood was something along the lines of "It sounds great, but I'll believe it when I see it fly."
Well, unless this is some sort of hoax, it looks like the first flight test happened last September -- in an RV-4, no less.
As a future RV builder and green-tech junkie, I'm both excited and skeptical about the promise of this fuel. If it's true that 100LL is going the way of the dodo, then it would be great if something like this could serve as a drop-in replacement without sacrificing performance. I don't know, what you you guys think?
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