A Jumbojet Just Flew for Three Hours, Powered by Used Cooking Oil

"I consider it to have a distinct odor of cooking oil."

Fry-le High Club

Do you want fries with that? Passengers may soon have the option of flying on jumbojets powered entirely by renewable fuel made from used cooking oil, according to a new Airbus press release.

Airbus' A380 test aircraft took off from an airstrip in France and completed a three-hour flight while running on Sustainable Aviation Fuel, or SAF. The SAF produced for the flight was primarily made of used cooking oil and other "waste fats," according to the company.

And yes, it does smell like french fries — we asked.

"I consider it to have a distinct odor of cooking oil," Matthieu Duvelleroy, a member of Airbus' communications team, confirmed during a phone call Thursday morning.

Heating Up

A key point of the presser was that all Airbus aircraft are certified to fly with fuels made of up to 50 percent SAF. Airbus is Europe's biggest aeronautics and space company, employing 130,000 people predicted to deliver 720 planes in 2022, compared to Boeing's 340 in 2021, according to a February Fortune report.

That adds up to a lot of Airbus planes — meaning, potentially, a lot of sustainable cooking oil fuel. As climate change melts giant ice shelves, warms both ends of the Earth's poles and coral reef bleaches in the increasingly acidic ocean, it feels pretty good, actually, that at least somebody is making strides toward a more renewable future.

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