The US Air Force (USAF) conducted the first test flight of a new alcohol-to-jet (ATJ) fuel powered A-10C Thunderbolt II aircraft on 28 June 2012, at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, US.
Powered by a mixture of the AJT and the standard Air Force JP-8 aviation fuel, the aircraft underwent a series of ground and flight tests, to validate the new fuel for fleet-wide use and as a replacement for the USAF’s existing petroleum-derived fuel.
The ground tests involved monitoring the engine performance, while the flight tests included analysis of the aircraft’s performance during controlled accelerations and operational manoeuvering.
A-10 test engineer, Joseph Rojas, said the A-10 serves as an excellent platform for testing the new fuel, as it features a segregated fuel system.
