Amazon Nuts Power A Plane

By: Ray Hawthorne Email

Posted: Mon 1:40 PM, Feb 25, 2008

A flight from London to Amsterdam might sound ordinary, but a plane that flew the route did something extraordinary.

The plane was the first to fly using Amazon nuts on Sunday. One of its fuel tanks used a mixture of babassu and coconut oils. Even though only 20 percent of the fuel was not conventional jet fuel, Virgin Atlantic Airlines (the company whose plane accomplished the feat) said it's a vital breakthrough. Environmentalists say carbon savings from crop-based fuels will be small at best and that the growing airline industry will wipe out any progress in 10 years.

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