The first flight by a commercial airline to be powered partly by biofuel has taken place. A Virgin Atlantic jumbo jet has flown between London's Heathrow and Amsterdam using fuel derived from a mixture of Brazilian babassu nuts and coconuts.(BBC, via Drudge)
When asked what it was doing to reduce fuel consumption and its carbon footprint, Air India responded: "We are way ahead of the industry in this regard. We've been serving re-heated chole and oily puris since 1968."
Totally gratuitous post update: Lekhni asks: "Btw, if the pantry runs out of snacks, do they raid the fuel tank?". Har har. What can I say, flying over long distances is a real gas.
7 comments:
Going by the way they look, it's also safe to assume the chole and puris were made in 1968.
Btw, if the pantry runs out of snacks, do they raid the fuel tank?
Oh come... AI has its faults but food isn't one of them. It's the only international airline I've been on with decent food. It's pretty bad on domestic (former Indian Airlines) flights nowadays though. And I like the cabin crew too. The only negative points I see are the sometimes rude ground staff, and the tatty fittings on their older planes.
Rahul: I fly mostly AI. The food's actually pretty decent. But the fact is, they are the only airline serving chole :)
So what did you say when you were served chole, "Yeh chhole chalega nahin, udega*"? Heh.
* One of the biggest problems in Romanizing Hindi - the undifferentiation of the various d and t sounds. Is muy bugging.
And that post is coming up today - I just can't seem to finish it.
??!: LOL. Let's just Hindi is on a looong Roman Holiday.
I've got my boxing gloves ready. Be waiting for that post :)
Oh, and more on my comment: apparently Branson actually tried the fuel: see here.
Just before 12:30 at Heathrow, Virgin Atlantic's 747 touched down in Amsterdam, finishing off the event without a hiccup — which is more than could be said for Branson himself. For kicks, the mogul had drunk a sample of his firm's coconut oil and babassu oil jet-fuel blend. "My God that was horrible," he told reporters afterward. "I've been burping ever since."
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