The first flight by a US commercial aircraft using natural gas synthetic jet fuel has been successfully completed by United Airlines.

An Airbus A319 aircraft conducted an engineering validation flight using certified synthetic jet fuel by Rentech in a 40/60 mix with conventional jet fuel in one of its two engines.

During the flight test, the airplane climbed to an altitude of 39,000ft and data was collected on the performance of the fuel during several manoeuvres, including taxi, take-off, climb, cruise, auxiliary power unit start, descent and approach.

United Airlines’ senior vice president of operations, Joseph Kolshak, said the flight confirms their assumptions about how this fuel performs on a commercial aircraft and is the next step in the carrier’s effort to stimulate competition in the aviation fuel supply chain.

The ‘drop-in’ fuel is derived from natural gas and converted into liquid fuel, and can be used in existing engines without modifications.

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