The Editor's Letter

Georgina Hunter-Jones

The Brazilian company Neiva, an Embraer subsidiary, has delivered the first ethanol fuelled crop duster aircraft, the Ipanema, to a customer. The alcohol fuelled aircraft, noted as one of the top 50 worldwide inventions of 2005 by Scientific American magazine, was certified by the Brazilian authority Centro TŽcnico Aeroespacial (CTA) in October 2004. The fuel is derived from sugar cane and Neiva registered the name Aviation Alcohol (AvAlc) for use in Brazil.

This probably means that Richard Branson's aim of getting his airlines to run on alternative fuel (letters) and the helicopter industry's desire to run clean, quiet machines may well be even closer than it seemed in the last issue of Helicopter Life. Imagine, for example, that the EC135 Dutch Air Ambulance were able to run safely and efficiently on alternative fuels. The EC135 is already comparatively quiet for its size and the whole industry is now committed to lowering the decibel levels of helicopters, if they could now also reduce their pollution levels and avoid using the scarce oil resources there could be nothing to be said against a helicopter service that is already accepted by the majority of thinking people as necessary, worthwhile and cost effective.

There...