The FAA Brain Trust Paradox
Since its 1995 founding, Lee Enterprises Consulting (LEC) has evolved into one of the world’s premier bioeconomy consulting groups. Employing upwards of 150 biochemical experts, the firm’s foci comprise biofuels, bio-based materials and chemicals, feedstocks, and industrial biotechnologies.
On 10 May 2023, Lee Enterprises Consulting announced it has joined the Forever Flight Alliance (FFA), a joint undertaking of the Lindbergh and XPRIZE foundations which seeks to “accelerate pathways to net-zero-carbon aviation; hasten the advent of true zero-carbon flight; improve aviation’s energy efficiency while reducing its noise footprint; convene solution-seekers across multiple disciplines, industries, and nations; and propose incentive prizes to accelerate transformational breakthroughs.”
Presently, LEC will work with the FFA’s Brain Trust of aviation and environmental authorities for purpose of identifying key barriers to the production, scaling, and use of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF).
Environmental activists and special-interest groups tout SAF is the premier near-term means by which to decrease carbon emissions across the entirety of the aviation industry. The actual need for SAF in the U.S. is wholly subjective; nevertheless, de rigueur green initiatives promulgated by progressive politicians have called for SAF production to ramp up from five-million gallons-per-year in 2021 to three-billion gallons-per-year by 2030 and a staggering 35-billion gallons by 2050.
Lindbergh Foundation chairman Erik Lindbergh stated: “Bringing SAF to scale is a huge challenge but significant advances in aerospace have historically been inspired by incentive prizes, including The Orteig Prize in 1927, won by my grandfather, Charles Lindbergh, and the Ansari XPRIZE in 2004, which jump-started the commercial space flight industry.”
The SAF prize challenge will coincide with the Lindbergh Foundation’s observation of the 100th anniversary of Charles Lindbergh’s historic 1927 transatlantic flight.
The FFA and LEC Collaboration will include the following areas of focus: “Global cooperation with industry experts to identify barriers to scale and adoption of SAFs; Economic and policy expertise to identify key technologies, policies, economic and social barriers, and define prize opportunities; Credible and objective definition of prize rules and success metrics to ensure fair competitions, including competition judging.”
Wayne Lee of LEC remarked: “For more than 25 years, Lee Enterprises Consulting has fostered innovation at the forefront of the bioeconomy and built a reputation as the most trusted group of experts in the bioeconomy. We have a shared vision to advance aviation’s future through the availability and sustainability of sustainable aviation fuels.”
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