On Sat, 23 Oct 2004 06:00:15 GMT, "Mal" wrote:

It would make a good glider tug !

BRAZILIAN aircraft manufacturer Embraer today unveiled the world's first
mass-produced commercial aircraft that runs on sugar cane ethanol fuel.

The Ipanema aircraft is designed to take advantage of Brazil's supplies of
the fuel, which is cheaper, burns more cleanly and is more efficient than
fuels refined from crude oil, company officials said.

Brazil is also a major producer of ethanol fuel, extracted from sugar cane.

Satoshi Yokota, a top Embraer official, said operating the plane on ethanol
was three to four times cheaper than using airplane fuel.

The Ipanema is designed mainly as a crop duster.

well those claims are deluded nonsense arent they.
ethanol is less efficient as a fuel energy source than avgas.
200 litres of ethanol does not have the anywhere near the range of
avgas and being a fermented biological material we'd denude the entire
world of arable land if we switched to it globally as a fuel.

....but then the greens were never good at maths.
Stealth Pilot