Air Force to Try Out a New Kind of Jet Fuel

[bemildred]

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE — If you think your fuel bill has skyrocketed, pity the people who operate the eight-engine B-52 bomber.

The lumbering aircraft, built in the 1950s when jet fuel cost a quarter a gallon, guzzles 47,000 gallons in a single mission. Today, that's $100,000 a fill-up.

Tally in the gas hogs in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere — fighter jets, bombers and cargo planes — and you can understand why the American taxpayer got a $5-billion fuel bill last year for the Air Force alone.

On Tuesday, the Air Force will begin test flights here that could represent a major step in the Pentagon's plan to find less costly sources of fuel. A B-52 will take off with two of its engines burning a new blend that may eventually replace the oil-based kerosene formula that has powered jet engines since they were invented.

Well, my tank holds about 17 gallons. If you divide 17 into 47,000 you get 2764 fillups to bounce the rubble one more time in Afghanistan. If I fill up once a week, that 53 years of gas.

LA Times

[TomInTib]

1. Always interesting when one does the math to put things in perspective

That's a lot of driving around to equal the fuel it takes to bomb even more little rocks into yet smaller rocks.

[EVDebs]

2. Army or AF flew a hydrogen powered plane over OH

I think Cleveland area in the '50s.