NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Alternative fuels experimenters inspect and service the multitude of sampling tubing and instrumentation control cables laid out on the pavement beside NASA’s DC-8 flying laboratory in between synthetic fuels emission and engine performance tests at the Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif. NASA Photo / Tom Tschida

NASA and 11 other research groups are testing two non-petroleum-based jet fuels in the pursuit of alternative fuels that can power commercial jets and address rising oil costs. The tests, being run on one of the CFM-56 engines of a modified DC-8 jetliner at NASA's Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif., are measuring the performance and emissions of two synthetic fuels derived from coal and natural gas using the Fischer-Tropsch process.
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