Diamond Trainer Flies On SAF With Lufthansa Academy

A Diamond DA42 training aircraft has flown for the first time on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at the European Flight Academy, part of Lufthansa Aviation Training.

The circuit flights were conducted at Bremen Airport in Germany, using blended fuel produced by Neste and supplied by World Fuel Services.

The project partners had to overcome a lack of availability of SAF for testing to clear the DA42-VI’s kerosene-fueled piston engines, which are produced by Diamond subsidiary Austro Engine, to operate on SAF. Bremen was selected for the flight tests because it is one of the first airports in Germany to stock SAF for its airline customers.

“Kerosene-fueled piston engines play only a minor role in aviation due to their low volumes globally and their low emissions in general,” says Felix Zahradnik, chief technology officer at Austro Engine. “As a result, it was very difficult for us to procure these ‘new’ fuels for analysis and testing, let alone to participate in their certification in order to address the specific requirements of a compression-ignition piston engine.”

But working with customer Lufthansa Aviation Training, Bremen Airport, and World Fuel Services, Austro Engine was able to procure enough fuel for engine bench and flight tests in preparation for certification of the fuels, Zahradnik says. The Bremen flight was conducted on a 33% blend of SAF and fossil jet fuel, Diamond says.

An extensive series of flight tests is planned to determine whether SAF can be used as the sole fuel for the European Flight Academy fleet, the manufacturer says. Working with Austro Engine, Diamond plans to approve its entire range of kerosene-fueled aircraft to use SAF blends up to 50% by 2025, with 100% SAF use expected later.

Bremen Airport has established a tank farm for SAF and has been offering the fuel to its airline customers since mid-2022. The airport is only able to store about 13,000 gal. of SAF but plans to increase its capacity as demand develops.