Brazil's biofuel plane fleet grows

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

BOTUCATU, Brazil (AFP) — Brazilian biofuel, already available for nine out of 10 cars on the roads, is also keeping a small but growing fleet of aircraft aloft, the company making them says.

Some 200 single-engine, single-seat Ipanema planes made by Neiva, a subsidiary of Brazilian aircraft maker Embraer, are now burning cheap ethanol made from sugarcane for their crop-dusting and public health missions.

The first of the ethanol-fueled EMB 202As took to the air in 2005, and the company has steadily increased production, with 32 being turned out this year, the head of the factory in the central west town of Botucatu, Almir Borges, told AFP.

Next year, production should stabilize at 36 planes per year, he said.

The biofuel version of the plane is...