Green jet race: Gulfstream nips Boeing to claim first biofuel-powered transatlantic crossing en-route to Paris Air Show

PARIS, 19 June 2011. The honor of achieving the first biofuel-powered jet transatlantic crossing using green jet fuel, in a surprise announcement, goes to Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. in Savannah, Ga., defeating the Boeing Co. Commercial Airplanes segment in Seattle.Honeywell International in Morristown N.J., flew a Gulfstream G450 business jet Saturday from Morristown, N.J., to Le Bourget Airport in France -- site of this week's Paris Air Show -- powering one of the aircraft’s Rolls-Royce engines with a 50/50 blend of petroleum-based jet fuel and aviation biofuel made by UOP LLC, a Honeywell company based in Des Plaines, Ill.The trip was the first aircraft to fly from North America to Europe using biologically derived fuel, Honeywell officials say. Boeing had planned on achieving the first biofuel-powered transatlantic jet aircraft crossing Monday when one of the company's new 747-8 jumbo jet freighter is scheduled to fly to the Paris Air Show using a fuel blend of 15 percent Honeywell Green Jet Fuel mixed with 85 percent traditional kerosene fuel (Jet-A).

Boeing earlier had announced this flight was to be the first commercial jet transatlantic crossing using biologically derived fuel. Now Gulfstream and Honeywell can claim that honor. The Gulfstream Honeywell flight left Morristown N.J., at 9 p.m. Friday and arrived at Le Bourget north of Paris on Saturday morning about seven hours later, Honeywell officials say.

The Honeywell Green Jet Fuel-powered Gulfstream G450 closely followed the route taken by Charles Lindbergh’s first flight across the Atlantic in 1927 when the famous aviator flew the propeller-driven Sprit of St. Louis aircraft from New York to Paris, Honeywell officials say. The flight saved about 5.5 metric tons of net carbon dioxide emissions, Honeywell officials say.

Honeywell, Gulfstream, and Boeing are making the transatlantic flights using biologically derived fuel to showcase their companies' efforts to reduce carbon emissions using aviation biofuel. Honeywell Green Jet Fuel is derived from camelina, a dedicated energy crop that grows in rotation with wheat.

Honeywell has produced more than 700,000 gallons of Honeywell Green Jet Fuel from camelina, jatropha, and algae, with which the company has conducted 16 biofuel-powered commercial and military test flights. Scientists first developed how to produce biologically derived jet fuel in 2007 with funding and supervision of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va.

For more information contact Honeywell International online at www.honeywell.com, Gulfstream Aerospace at www.gulfstream.com, UOP LLC at www.uop.com, or the Paris Air Show at www.paris-air-show.com.