FAA, Germany to cooperate in alternative aviation fuels

The FAA and the German Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development (BMVBS) signed a Declaration of Cooperation at a ceremony during the ILA Berlin Air Show in September to work together in facilitating the promotion, development and use of sustainable alternative aviation fuels in the United States and Germany.

“Together, we can leverage our research, our knowledge and our greatest resource — our experts — to work toward creating new sustainable alternative jet fuels,” said Philip D. Murphy, U.S. Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany, who signed the Declaration on behalf of the FAA with Dr. Peter Ramsauer, Federal Minister for Transport Building and Urban Development. “This, and other Declarations of Cooperation with international partners, such as Australia and Brazil, will enable us to better share and exchange technologies and that will benefit aviation on a global level.”

The goals of the Declaration are to exchange ideas, information, skills and techniques and to collaborate on problems and projects of mutual interest in relation to sustainable alternative aviation fuels development and use. The Declaration identifies specific areas in which the FAA and the BMVBS may cooperate, which include exchanging information about research results, publications, funded research and development activities and the sharing of best practices in alternative jet fuel conversion research and development and deployment. The Declaration also enables the FAA and the BMVBS to explore the possibilities for cooperation in other areas, such as researching the lifecycle impact of the use of candidate alternative fuels on atmospheric emissions, and research leading to cost reductions in the production of alternative aviation fuels.