- From frying oil to flying oil, can this 747 take flight?
Let's find out guys.
(upbeat, rocking electric guitar music)
- Here's a sample of the sustainable aviation fuel.
These actually came out of the tank from the aeroplane.
- It's not as strong as the Jet A.
This feels like a diet version of the Jet A fuel, actually.
But it's certainly the same clarity, I can see,
it's very transparent here.
It's all look like very clear.
The big question is, can aviation go green?
So with the sustainable aviation fuel,
and a 747 has four engines,
but one of the engine is a 787 Trent 1010 engine.
So that's where the sustainable aviation fuel
is going to go into that engine to prove if that engine
on a 787 can take 100% sustainable aviation fuel.
(upbeat, rocking electric guitar music)
- Hey, this is Charlie all the way from Derbyshire,
all the way to sunny Tucson.
This is our Rolls-Royce 747 flying testbed.
And I'm about to give Sam Chui a tour on it.
- What a pleasure.
My first time walking on board a 747 testbed.
My favourite aeroplane, 747.
Look it up Experimental, Tucson.
- Hey, welcome inside the Rolls-Royce flying testbed.
This the nose of the plane underneath the cockpit here.
We have everything removed.
It gives us more space for maintenance.
(upbeat, energetic electric guitar music)
- So today we're going to be flying
the new SAF fuel, sustainable aviation fuel
on the flying testbed.
So it's just really good.
Today, we're going to be doing some sharp accelerations
and decelerations to see how the engine behaves.
We're going to switch the engine off
and switch it back on again,
and look at the progression of the relay
to see how that behaves with the new SAF fuel.
So the pilots are going to be doing
all those kind of manoeuvres.
And right here, I'm going to be looking
at the engine in a bit more detail.
I'm going to be looking at different shaft speeds.
I'm going to be looking at how
the igniters behave during the relight.
So yeah, it should be a good flight.
- [Sam] Are you confident that this aeroplane,
the engine can use 100% SAF to perform all the duties?
- Yes, on the Trent 1000 engine we've done
some ground testing to de-risk
the SAF running on a Trent 1000.
So we're very, very confident
that we can get this engine running and up in the air.
(upbeat, dramatic electric guitar music)
- Isn't this cool?
The whole section has only one seat here.
And I'm the only passenger in this giant section
in the middle of the 747.
And see here, we still have the old Sony camera.
- Oh yeah, yeah.
- You know, the projectors.
- That projectors and all,
and then the screen will be here.
- [Sam] On the testbed you have movies.
What are these stuff here?
- So this is when we modified from...
We have an electronic start on the Trent 1000 engines
that we have to put on wings.
So this aircraft had to be modified,
specifically, for electric start.
And then we kept seats in the back,
therefore balanced for the aircraft when you take off.
- [Sam] Okay.
- And obviously, nobody sits back here
when we do our flight testing,
'cause there's no drop down oxygen.
We're now in the full pit area at the track.
- [Sam] Look at this.
- Don't see that on a plane very much.
And then up here, Sam, we have the flight recorder.
The flight recorders. - You set up flight recorders.
- Yeah, yeah.
Spiral staircase, they don't have them anymore,
'cause it's kind of cool.
Let's go, man.
- It's been awhile, I remember myself,
coming onto one of these spiral staircase.
It's beautiful, classic birds, just love it.
Oh my gosh, there's actually, (chuckles)
business class seats on it.
Wow, look at this.
My one doesn't quite recline, but I'm really happy here,
because I think the green colour business class,
it's kind of giving away the origin of this aeroplane.
I think it came from a very prominent Asian Pacific airline.
So you guys can guess it and look up
the history of this aeroplane.
(upbeat, intense electric guitar music)
I'm with a legend here, Captain Buzz Nelson.
(Buzz laughs)
Who actually flew to China before I was born.
He flew to China before the diplomatic relations
were restored in 1973,
delivered one of the first 707 to CAAC.
- First flight with a Trent 1000 engine with SAF fuel.
We're expecting to have a normal flight.
Don't expect any kind of surprises
with the engine and the fuel.
It's going to be a rather intensive flight.
We have a lot of test conditions to do,
so we're going to wring out the engine,
and the fuel combination.
The route of flight will be from Tucson to the east.
We're going to climb to a medium altitude,
about 20,000 feet initially
to perform a few tests as we head
to the east to Western Texas.
The entire flight, we're estimating at
about four hours flight time today.
(engine whooshes loudly)
(engine whooshes and whines)
(engine whining and revving)
(engine roaring)
(engines whining and roaring)
(engines roaring)
(engine whooshes)
- I love that jet fuel smell when it taxied past me.
I'm not sure it's the Jet A,
or the sustainable aviation fuel.
(engines roar)
(Sam speaking faintly)
- The inboard lights are on. (switches clicking)
(co-pilot mumbles)
- Okay, got inboards on.
Got your steering and we'll go up.
Get this stream going, okay, here we go.
(engines whooshing)
(metal rattles)
First speeds alive.
80 knots. - Okay.
(engine whooshing)
B1.
Rotate.
(indistinct) Gear up.
(engines roaring)
- I love seeing that 747 classic rotate in 2021.
So it's going to take the four-hour test flight going
over to West Texas.
And hopefully, it'll come back.
And let's see how the performance
using sustainable aviation fuel.
Can aviation go green? Let's find out.
(upbeat, rocking electric guitar music)
So after the plane took off we came back to our office here,
the engineer's monitoring the flight progress
on the Flight Aware.
Right now, it's doing about 24,000 feet climbing
just over New Mexico.
The only 747-200 in the sky, isn't it amazing?
How's it performing right now?
Why is it still a little slow, 360 miles per hour?
- Currently, the aircraft is at
the slower speed replicating some of the experiments
that we're going to do during the three-hour saute.
We'll be accelerating the aircraft,
decelerating the aircraft,
changing altitudes on the aircraft,
just to replicate the tests that we want to do.
- You know, I would have go on a flight
to feel the acceleration, deceleration,
but I'm not an engineer.
- That's right. - I can only wait
on the ground, now.
So while the flight is out testing,
I have an expert from Boeing, focus on the sustainability.
He's going to explain to us what exactly
is sustainable aviation fuel?
- So I'm holding a sample of sustainable aviation fuel.
It's the same as normal jet fuel,
except it comes from sustainable sources.
It can come from any number of different things.
We tend to focus on waste-based feed stocks in aviation,
things like used cooking oil, fats, oils and greases.
In the future, forestry waste,
municipal solid waste, agricultural waste.
Really any type of carbon source,
any kind of biomass can be converted into fuel,
provided it's made sustainably.
- But is the SAF really sustainable in the sense
that there's not enough supplies out there?
- It's a little bit of a chicken and the egg problem
where there's low supply, and therefore, the cost is high.
So we need to get the scale up
in order to drive the cost down.
But we can't get the scale up,
until the costs come down.
So we really need some government incentive support
to help bridge the gap between today's supply base,
and the future supply base,
so it can be economical for the operators and the producers.
- [Sam] How many millions of gallons of SAF
are we producing right now?
- Today's production volume is around five
to 10 million gallons per year.
But we're looking forward to scaling hat up rapidly over
the next decade or so.
The Biden Administration has set a goal
of hitting three billion gallons by 2030 for the US.
And that would be a great accomplishment for us.
- So Sam, we've now completed the test plat.
We're descending back down 20,000 feet
to try to get back to Tucson.
(engine whooshing)
(wind whooshes)
- [Co-Pilot] 100.
50, 40, 30, 20, 10, five.
(metal rattles)
(wind whooshes)
(engine whooshing)
(indistinct) 360 here.
- 60. - Yeah.
I think that's what he said.
(equipment beeping)
All right. Good job, Buzz.
- Good job, Brad. Good one.
(engine roaring)
(engine roars)
- I saw a very graceful touchdown, the 747-200.
So we're coming down to the hardstand,
try to meet the plane now.
(upbeat, rocking electric guitar music)
So I can't wait to hear from you guys.
How did that test flight go?
- Today was successful.
We were able to complete all the test points
as we set out to.
- So we used the SAF fuel throughout the entire mission
through the Trent engine today.
We did some sharp accelerations, some decelerations,
so that the pilots did a snap with a throttle
to full throttle, and then back to idle again.
It's all looking really good. We've got some great data.
We're going to look into that data in the next few months,
and it's really looking promising for the SAF fuel.
- [Sam] Tell us about today's flight.
- Well, I have to say it was very routine.
It was just exactly like a normal,
any other flight that I've done on this aeroplane.
I've been flying this testbed for more than 10 years.
And today's flight was exactly like all the others.
- [Sam] So what did you do to number two during the flight?
- Well, the orange colour is there just to indicate
and make it easier for the flight crew to know
that in fact is the Trent engine,
and not one of the others.
Because it's easy when you grab all four engines,
and you want to do a particular test with the Trent.
We set the Trent engine up
to the condition they want to test,
and then we use the RB-211s
to maintain the altitude and air speed
that we need to do.
You can see the engines.
Throttles will look sort of like this all over the place.
They're never lined up.
- [Sam] What's this little string on this?
- Well, that's just a reminder that when we come in to land
(levers clicking)
we want this engine to be at idle,
only because it makes the flight a little more efficient.
We want to cool the Trent for five minutes
at idle before we shut it down.
So typically, we don't use the Trent
during approach and landing.
We just make a three-engine approach
and landing using that.
And that's not because it wouldn't work fine,
but then after landing we have to idle it for five minutes
before we can shut it down.
And we'd already be back at the parking spot before then.
(upbeat, energetic electric guitar music)
(everyone applauds)
(Buzz applauds)
(upbeat, energetic electric guitar music)
- Every test flight is a little step closer.
I am looking forward to the greener future of aviation.
(upbeat, energetic electric guitar music)