The Air Force has been testing alternative fuels in jet engines at Tullahoma’s Arnold Engineering Development Center. (Today/yesterday) the Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne visited the air base and said he wants a quarter of the fuel used by the Air Force to be made from natural gas or coal.
The Air Force uses more petroleum than any other branch of the military – 1.6-billion gallons a year. Wynne says he hopes to create a market for synthetic jet fuel so coal and natural gas companies in the U-S will begin producing it in mass. He announced the recently-tested C-17 will make a coast-to-coast flight in mid-December on a 50-50 blend of standard jet fuel and a synthetic petroleum.
“This is important because it begins now to reach over to the commercial industries, because the same engines that drive the C-17 drives also the 757 airplane.”
Engineers at Arnold now are ground-testing the B-1 engines to be sure synthetics perform at supersonic speeds.
Wynne says the alternative fuel will reduce the military’s dependence on foreign oil but could also provide cost savings. With oil prices continuing to rise, a barrel of jet fuel costs more than 110-dollars. Producers of the alternatives derived from coal and natural gas say they could eventually cost as little as 65-dollars a barrel.
Meanwhile, Secretary Wynne says the environmental impact study for an additional mission at Arnold Air Force Base is nearly complete. The Tullahoma base is being considered along with two other sites for a new mission called Common Battlefield Airmen Training or C-BAT. The winning base will provide field weapons training for 14-thousand airmen each year.
Wynne says he expects a decision on where the new mission will land in January or February.
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