A lifelong aviation enthusiast who joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in 2007, Curt came to&nbsp;the publication&nbsp;from the broadcast industry where he was a national science and technology television reporter and producer. He writes on the FBO field, aviation finance, and sustainable aviation and occasionally contributes to&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;sister publication&nbsp;Business Jet Traveler. Curt was a member of the AINtv reporting staff that won the 2008 Aerospace Journalist of the Year award for Best Airshow Daily. That same year, he was a finalist for another AJOYA award. He earned an AJOYA for Best Business Aviation Submission in 2018 and was a finalist in that category in 2021. He received the National Air Transportation Association’s&nbsp; Aviation Journalist Award in 2012 and won a Pegasus Sapphire Business Aviation Award for outstanding journalism in 2021.
Before joining AIN, Curt worked with&nbsp;Consumer Reports’ television division, CRTV, and for several local television news staffs. An honors graduate of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he earned a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Boston University in 1995. Curt lives in New York State with his wife and two young sons.

Business Aviation Services Editor

Curt Epstein

The Minnesota SAF Hub—a coalition of more than 300 businesses, universities, cities, counties, and philanthropic organizations in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area—noted several milestones in the year since it was established to create the first large-scale sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) value chain in the U.S.
Ahead of the North American SAF Conference this week in St. Paul, the group announced the launch of the first SAF blending facility in the state. Flint Hills Resources is collaborating with Delta Air Lines, which has a major hub at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport (KMSP), to develop a plant capable of blending up to 30 million gallons of neat SAF a year. Expected to be completed by the end of 2025, it is believed to be the first facility in the central U.S. with blending capability. The fuel will be delivered via existing pipeline to KMSP.
Last month, the FAA awarded a nearly $17 million grant to convert an existing Gevo ethanol and isobutanol fuel refinery in the state into a fully integrated alcohol-to-jet-fuel facility, which will allow it to use Minnesota-grown feedstocks for the first time.
Lastly, to spur production and drive down the cost of SAF, the Hub has established a “Demand Consortium” that includes companies such as Delta, Bank of America, Deloitte, and Ecolab. The consortium would then purchase millions of gallons of SAF a year, with an anticipated start in late 2025.
The group has established three horizon goalposts with associated milestones. Horizon 1, with a window of 2024 to 2027, entails beginning the flow of SAF to KMSP and starting the production of the renewable fuel in the state. The next phase (2028 to 2035) will see large-scale SAF production in Minnesota, with higher volumes reaching the airport. Looking more than a decade in the future, Horizon 3 calls for real-scale production using multiple pathways, and driving down the carbon intensity score of SAF through the use of currently experimental crops such as winter camelina seed as feedstock.

News about environmental issues relating to aircraft operations, including noise issues, emissisions, and regulations. See Fuel for biofuel.

Minnesota Sustainable Aviation Fuel Coalition Notes Progress

Group looks to develop and expand SAF production in the state

The first SAF blending facility in the central U.S. is under construction.

Minnesota SAF Coalition Notes Progress

2024 Corporate Aviation Leadership Summit

Charles Alcock

News and issues about aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO), covering all segments of the aviation industry; and modifications for aircraft and engines. Subjects include product support of aircraft, engines and avionics, MRO company mergers, acquisitions, announcements and personnel, Airworthiness Directives, Supplemental Type Certificate approvals and other topics.

News and issues relating to business, corporate and private aviation, primarily regarding turbine-engine-powered airplanes and helicopters. Subjects include aircraft, engines, maintenance, operations, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security, and training.

Manufacturer says solar power is part of efforts to reduce environmental footprint 

Solar Panels Now Power Gulfstream’s Mesa Service Center

News and developments about airplanes, helicopters and unmanned air vehicles used in all varieties of operations, including airlines, military, business, commercial, general aviation and private.

News about commercial airlines, including regulations, aircraft orders, safety, acquisitions, and mergers.

Green Flyways initiative is considering the potential for MD Aircraft's eViator commuter

Partners Trial Electric Air Services in Norway and Sweden

Charlotte Bailey

News, issues, personnel, equipment and developments about air traffic management.

News and issues relating to the aerospace industry that are related to the science, engineering and business of flight in space involving civil, industrial and military applications, and similar topics related to flight in the atmosphere of the Earth that are not covered more directly by other AINonline subject channels. In other words, both astronautical and aeronautical subjects, except for those aeronautical topics that are specifically covered elsewhere on this website.

UK’s ‘Operation Blue Skies’ to redirect commercial traffic in Shanwick airspace

North Atlantic Airspace-Scale Contrail Trial Underway

Emissions reduction indexes will help contrast economics with compliance mandates

Argus Releases Sustainable Aviation Fuel Evaluation Tool

Government-funded consortium to aims to connect remote communities 

Project SEAN Trials Electric Flights For Scotland

News and developments about aviation fuel, including jet fuel, aviation gasoline, and biofuel.

News about bills, laws, regulations and other governmental decisions affecting aviation and aerospace. Topics include FAA re-authorizations, taxes on fuel and aviation activities, environmental legislation, ICAO decisions, governmental mediation of labor conflicts and World Trade Organization disputes and decisions.

News and issues relating to international air transport and cargo carriers, national airlines and regional airlines, including aircraft, engines, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security and training.

Shift could come as the state's tax incentives change

Louisiana Could Supplant California as SAF Leader

New three-year campaign will design, build, and fly wing extension devices

WoT? Experimental Elongated Airbus Wings To Fly Next Year

Cristofer Slotoroff

News and issues concerning general aviation, specifically airplanes and helicopters powered by piston and alternative engines (i.e., non-turbine powered aircraft). Subjects include aircraft, engines, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security and training.

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