"The US Air Force, too, is working hard to shake off its current dependence on crude, too.

In future if now right now, there might be some prospect of carbon reductions..."

Well done.

It's not analagous to Fischer-Tropsch synthesis - it IS Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. FTS is simply the process by which synthetic fuels are produced from a mixture of Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen (Syngas or Synthesis Gas) - where that mixture comes from is irrelevant. Coal, natural gas and biomass can all be gassified to produce syngas.

"The US Air Force, too, is working hard to shake off its current dependence on crude, too.

In future if now right now, there might be some prospect of carbon reductions..."

Now I'm sure I remember my Dad telling me all them pretty little fires on top of all the oil drilling rigs in Bahrain were just burning off unwanted natural gas.... Looks to me like this will just enable the same unstable/unfriendly regimes in the Middle East to eek a bit more money out of their oilfields, just as soon as some willing oil company sells them the technology.

I think the choice is down to the airline - airlines tend to buy 'domestic' engines, hence British Airways uses Rolls Royce, whereas few US carriers do. Despite the (petty) criticisms raised, its an interesting article.

Paris Hilton because I understand she produces a lot of gas...

Hmm, South Africa has been producing synthetic fuel on a massive scale using Fisher Tropsch for more than half a century with coal and natural gas input and the Canadian oil sands is also cracked using similar processes licensed from South Africa.

Eventually synthetic fuel production will overtake simple distillation as the cheap oil runs out and we are forced to use the thick stuff that were previously only good for ships and road surfaces.

Where this is a problem though, is that the synthetix stuff which is largely methanol, tends to cause more engine corrosion.

Yes so much better not to rely on the dodgy oil states, best trust the Russian gas fields instead, as they provide 100% reliability (unless they don't like you of course).

Phew.

‘A380 superjumbo in natural-gas powered test flight’

Ermm, does it have a.... pilot-light ?

The engines don't need much, if any modification to run on the different fuel; after all there are variations on the same core engines flying in aircraft & powering ships as gas turbines.

I believe one of the main reasons for using GTL synthetic fuels is that they're much cleaner, for example no sulphur content.

There's also the possibility of extracting the feed stock from sources other than fossil, though volume would be a problem.

I am beginning to see here a use for one of the by-products produced by the the worlds vegetarians via FTS

There is very little difference between Jet-A fuel and Diesel-1. Basically a slight viscosity difference and sulfur content

This difference is so slight that for extreme Arctic/Antarctic use a combined low temperature diesel/jet fuel called Diesel Fuel Arctic (DFA) was used to power all plant, vehicles and aircraft.

Jezza

"Eventually synthetic fuel production will overtake simple distillation as the cheap oil runs out and we are forced to use the thick stuff that were previously only good for ships and road surfaces."

So how far down the line after the oil has run out, do we see mining/re-cycling of the roads. Slap down that concrete and dig up that oil.

Talking of slapping, did I hear someone mention Paris.

...not :(

It's hard to imagine Boeing publicly doing these tests, given the likely effect on gas futures prices (and the Russian current account). Or is that too theoretical-conspiratorial?

We have loads and loads of natural gas where I live. Free flights for all !!!