Tuesday, August 4, 2009

NASA Launches $1.5M Green Aircraft Prize

Taking a page from the X Prize Foundation, NASA has launched its own prize competition which challenges companies to create aircraft that can average at least 100 mph on a 200-mile flight, while getting greater than 200 passenger miles-per-gallon. NASA said it would award $1.5M to the best performance, and $150,000 to the best aircraft fueled by bio-fuel. The effort comes from NASA'a Innovative Partnerships Program and the Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency (CAFE) Foundation. The X Prize Foundation is running its own, fuel efficient vehicle competition--but for automobiles, through the Progressive Automotive X Prize. NASA is also providing prize money for the XPrize's Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge.

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