The Airbus A380 has completed a trial flight powered on cooking oil.
Airbus is a European multinational aerospace corporation that designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft in Europe and various countries outside Europe
Their A380 model is the world’s largest passenger aeroplane. The model hasn’t been doing well on the market partly because they’re less fuel-efficient than more modern long-range aeroplanes. Airbus delivered the final ever A380 to Dubai airline Emirates in late 2021.
Despite the misfortunes of the A380 model, Airbus plans to bring the world’s first zero-emission aircraft to market by 2035.
The test aeroplane completed a three-hour flight from Blagnac Airport in Toulouse to Airbus’ French headquarters on 25 March. It was powered by Sustainable Aviation Fuel or SAF predominantly made of used cooking oil and waste fats and operating on a single Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine
Airbus then followed up with a second A380 flight, using the same cooking oil fuel, on March 29, flying from Toulouse to Nice. The second flight was to monitor SAF use during take-off and landing.
The fuel used was supplied by TotalEnergies, a company based in France’s Normandy region. It was made from Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids (HEFA), which are free of both aromatics and sulfur.
“Increasing the use of SAF remains a key pathway to achieving the industry’s ambition of NetZero carbon emissions by 2050,” said Airbus in a statement.
The company claims that flying planes on SAF could net between 53% to 71% of the carbon reductions required to meet that goal.