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First fighter jet flies on synthetic fuel mix

For F-15E pilot Maj. Dan Badia, it was just another flight — and that made the folks at the Air Force Alternative Fuels Certification office very happy.

The Air Force flew a fighter jet on a 50-50 mix of regular and synthetic fuels for the first time Tuesday, and Badia said in an Air Force news release that he “wouldn’t have known the difference.”

Ryan Mead, an F-15 fuels engineer, said that for all practical purposes, the aircraft functioned in the same range it would have with the JP-8 jet fuel. He expects the jet to be certified on the fuel as a result of the test flights.

The Air Force plans to certify all of its airframes to run on a domestic synthetic fuel by 2011. So far, the B-52 and C-17 have been tested and given the green light. The (Macon, Ga.) Telegraph reported that the F-22 and KC-135 are scheduled to be tested next week.