<p class="title">On Republic Day, the IAF will create history by flying an AN-32 transport aircraft on biofuel over the Rajpath.</p>.<p class="bodytext">This will be the IAF's second biofuel flight and comes more than a month after the successful maiden AN-32 sortie in Chandigarh.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A part of the Republic Day parade flypast will be a three aircraft-vic-formation of AN-32 aircraft, considered the workhorse in Indian military transport.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The lead aircraft, to be piloted by Sqn Ldr Mehtab Sond, will be flying utilising aviation turbine fuel, blended with 10% bio-fuel.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The bio-fuel has been extracted from Jatropha plant seeds using a technology patented by the Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun— one of the constituent laboratories under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, said an IAF official.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Last year, IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal B S Dhanoa announced that the force's plan to fly one of its aircraft with bio-fuel on the Republic Day, 2019 in tune with the government's plan to use fuels with low carbon footprint more.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The test flight took place on December 17 when pilots from Aircraft System Testing Establishment, Bengaluru, took to the skies with metal birds carrying 10% biofuel along with the ATF.</p>.<p class="bodytext">However, the credit to fly the first Indian aircraft with biofuel went to Spicejet, which last August flew a 75-seater Bombardier Q400 aircraft that took off from Dehradun’s Jolly Grant airport and successfully landed in Delhi with 25 people on board.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The IAF flypast on the Rajpath will have 33 aircraft including 18 fighter jets. The combat aircraft participating in the parade are Jaguars, upgraded MiG-29s and Su-30 MKI.</p>
<p class="title">On Republic Day, the IAF will create history by flying an AN-32 transport aircraft on biofuel over the Rajpath.</p>.<p class="bodytext">This will be the IAF's second biofuel flight and comes more than a month after the successful maiden AN-32 sortie in Chandigarh.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A part of the Republic Day parade flypast will be a three aircraft-vic-formation of AN-32 aircraft, considered the workhorse in Indian military transport.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The lead aircraft, to be piloted by Sqn Ldr Mehtab Sond, will be flying utilising aviation turbine fuel, blended with 10% bio-fuel.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The bio-fuel has been extracted from Jatropha plant seeds using a technology patented by the Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun— one of the constituent laboratories under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, said an IAF official.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Last year, IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal B S Dhanoa announced that the force's plan to fly one of its aircraft with bio-fuel on the Republic Day, 2019 in tune with the government's plan to use fuels with low carbon footprint more.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The test flight took place on December 17 when pilots from Aircraft System Testing Establishment, Bengaluru, took to the skies with metal birds carrying 10% biofuel along with the ATF.</p>.<p class="bodytext">However, the credit to fly the first Indian aircraft with biofuel went to Spicejet, which last August flew a 75-seater Bombardier Q400 aircraft that took off from Dehradun’s Jolly Grant airport and successfully landed in Delhi with 25 people on board.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The IAF flypast on the Rajpath will have 33 aircraft including 18 fighter jets. The combat aircraft participating in the parade are Jaguars, upgraded MiG-29s and Su-30 MKI.</p>
