Two Swiss pilots are currently flying around the world to promote greener aviation.
The pilots say they will achieve their global circumnavigation with net-zero carbon emissions through green initiatives and technologies, mainly using Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) in their Diamond DA50 RG.
Dubbed Diamondo Earthrounding, the flight took off Jan. 2, 2022, from Zurich. Flying in an easterly direction, the pilots are visiting multiple airports, cities, and sustainable initiatives with a mission to connect worldwide projects for sustainable aviation, raise awareness of sustainable technologies and how to utilize them, as well as aim to accelerate aviation’s path to net-zero carbon emissions.
Diamondo’s founding partners and pilots Robin Wenger and Matt Niederhäuser believe that one of the main pillars for green air transport is SAF. During the circumnavigation, they are visiting and reporting from sites critical to the production of SAF.
In addition to raising awareness for sustainable technologies, the pilots also promote ways of investing in them on a voluntary basis. The Diamondo Earthrounding website offers guidance on how airline passengers, business aviation customers, and private pilots can fly with net-zero emissions.
Since its departure, the Diamond’s journey has completed layovers to initiatives in Austria, UAE, and India.
Close to Vienna, the crew stopped by the production facilities of the aircraft they are flying.
“Building light and aerodynamically clean airframes equipped with fuel-efficient engines need to precede any discussion on SAF,” says Robin. “We, therefore, feel privileged to be operating the modern Diamond DA50 RG platform for our mission.”
In the UAE, the crew visited the enormous Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park. The arid climate of the UAE favors the production of electricity by solar energy. This energy can subsequently power the production of green hydrogen, a key component required to produce synthetic SAF.
“Seeing the abundance of solar energy available, the desert of the UAE really is the perfect spot to harvest this potential and divert part of it towards synthetic SAF production,” Matt noted.
The journey continued onwards to India, where the pilots were given the opportunity to inaugurate the Aerodrome Reference Point (ARP) of Noida International Airport, currently under construction in the Indian State of Uttar Pradesh.
“Constructing a greenfield airport provides the team at Noida the opportunity to incorporate sustainability right from the beginning,” Matt said. “But it’s a chance which has to be taken and we are delighted to see Noida stood up to the challenge and are following a holistic and thus ambitious net-zero carbon emission philosophy from day 1 onwards.”
Robin and Matt are currently in Thailand, where the DA50 aircraft is undergoing scheduled maintenance inspections.
The two pilots say they can claim they have covered the first quarter of their trip on SAF, despite not fueling the DA50 with SAF blended jet fuel once so far. While this seems paradoxical, Jet Aviation’s “Book and Claim” system makes it possible. Through Book and Claim, the same amount of jet fuel that is put into the DA50 flows into the global aviation system as SAF at locations where it is available, they explained.
After Thailand, Diamondo Earthrounding is preparing to cross the Pacific heading to the USA from West to East with a loop including two initiatives in the Caribbean.
The journey is scheduled to end back in Zurich on April 22, 2022, Earth Day.
To track the journey, visit Diamondo-Earthrounding.com/Track-Us.