To promote renewable energy, pilot flies high with ethanol

FORT WORTH -- At air shows across the country, the small red plane tumbles nose over tail, once, twice, three times, as it plummets toward the ground

Uppermost in the mind of its pilot, Greg Poe, is not how to best pull out of the maneuver he calls Newton's Folly, nor how hard the ground would feel if he crashed -- but how the exhaust no longer smells foul.

A year ago, the Boise, Idaho, native began using a new fuel for his plane: ethanol, 200-proof alcohol made from corn. Now he says his plane is running cooler, cleaner and stronger. And the exhaust smells sweet.

Poe will demonstrate his ethanol-powered plane in a 12-minute show of spinning and twisting acrobatics at the Alliance Air Show, Oct. 20-21 at Alliance Airport in far north Fort Worth.

"We want to promote ethanol," Poe said. "It burns cleaner, and it's a renewable source of energy grown here. If we use it, we lessen our dependence on foreign oil."

Star-Telegram.com | 10/09/2007 | To promote renewable energy, pilot flies high with ethanol