Out of the frying pan into the flier as RAF plans ‘cooking oil fighters’

FIGHTER jets may start using fuel made from old cooking oil after the RAF proved it was possible with its first net zero flight.

It flew a Voyager tanker plane powered solely by 100 per cent sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) over Oxfordshire for 90 minutes on Wednesday. The flight, which replicated an air-to-air refuelling sortie, was the first time a military aircraft of its size, or any aircraft in the UK, had succeeded in carrying out such a feat. The Voyager did not have to be modified and a defence source said if avtur fuel, a type of paraffin used to power gas-turbine engines, could be replicated “it could work in future fighter jets”. It could, therefore, “be part of the plan for making the RAF carbon neutral in due course”, they added. It comes after the Chancellor ignored pleas to increase defence spending to 3 per cent of national income by 2030 in his Autumn Statement on Thursday.

Sustainable aviation fuel is made from waste-based sustainable feedstocks, such as used cooking oil, and reduces planes’ lifecycle carbon emissions on average by up to 80 per cent compared with conventional jet fuel. It is commercially available but acquiring large quantities of it presents a challenge. However, the Ministry of Defence, which is responsible for 50 per cent of the Government’s emissions, said it hoped such trials would stimulate demand across the aviation sector and lead to increased production and, therefore, reduced costs.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston, Chief of the Air Staff, who has said he knows it seems “crazy” that despite being head of the RAF he is so invested in environmental matters, said: “Climate change is a transnational challenge that threatens our resilience, our security and our collective prosperity.”

He added that the way aircraft were powered “will be key” to achieving this goal, and the RAF was “already thinking

about how [it] will operate beyond fossil fuels”.

“This exciting trial flight of a Voyager, from RAF Brize Norton, powered entirely by sustainable aviation fuel is an important milestone on that journey, and marks another technological first for the RAF, alongside our industry partners,” he said.

Under Sir Mike, Project Astra was set up as an initiative to look at every area of the RAF with a view to improving it and making it more efficient. In September last year the service spent £30,000 on e-scooters to replace a shuttle bus on an airbase as part of its commitment to the environment and, in a world first, last November flew a plane powered by fuel made from “air and water”.

Other innovations have included flying an electric aircraft at RAF Cranwell and creating fuel from genetically modified bacteria. The RAF also plans to have its first net zero air base by 2025.

Baroness Goldie, the defence minister, praised the service’s “pioneering spirit”, adding that British science and engineering was “leading the way in improving operational resilience and developing future operating capability in a climate-changed world”.

‘Climate change is a transnational challenge that threatens our security and our collective prosperity’