Bell 505 Helicopter Flies on 100% Pure SAF With No Engine Modifications, And That’s Huge

Aircraft makers all over the world are currently racing to develop greener aircraft by trying out all sorts of ideas, ranging from hydrogen solutions to fully electric powertrains. The most likely to succeed though, at least in the short run, is the so-called Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF).

SAF is basically an aviation fuel resulting from cooking oil or some other sustainable feedstocks. It does have a nasty component though, as for it to be able to work in present-day aircraft engines, it needs to be mixed with petroleum-derived substances known in the industry as aromatics.

But there is one type of SAF that doesn’t have these petroleum aromatics, and uses instead aromatics made from plant sugars. These substances are made by a Wisconsin-based company called Virent, and when mixed with Neste-sourced SAF they helped power the flight of a Bell 505 helicopter.

The 505 is a five-seat, single-engine aircraft, and its flight on 100 percent pure SAF, in the works for about a year now, was just announced by the helicopter’s maker, Bell Textron. For all intents and purposes, it was the first-ever flight of a single-engine helicopter using this fuel.

That’s a big achievement, for sure, but what’s even more important is that the Safran Arrius 2R turboshaft engine that keeps the 505 airborne needed no modification to be able to make use of this solution. As the company says, this SAF is “a 100% drop-in replacement for petroleum-based aviation fuel."

Bell does not say how much the flight of the 505 lasted, or what it means exactly for the other helicopters it makes, but we’ll probably hear more about this in the coming years. That’s because the company plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by the middle of this decade.

As for the 505, it has been on the market as the Jet Ranger X since 2017. The Safran engine that powers it provides 505 shaft horsepower and gives it a top speed of 144 mph (232 kph). The rated distance the helicopter can cover when using normal fuel is 383 miles (617 km).

As per Safran, the Arrius engine fitted in this helicopter is already certified to run on 50 percent SAF, but in the years ahead plans are to certify it for 100 percent. When exactly will that be is anybody’s guess, but make no mistake about it, the aviation industry is turning green too.