Pacific Air Forces has proclaimed itself the energy reduction king of major commands for 2006, saying it has reduced its energy use by 17 percent below a 2003 baseline. In large part, officials say, the command’s success relies on airmen to be energy conscious, since the far-flung command’s weather extremes make one, all encompassing approach impractical. PACAF also is at the forefront of USAF’s drive to shift to alternative fuels, having opened a hydrogen-generating station last fall.
In 1941, Gen. Henry H. “Hap” Arnold of the then-U.S. Army Air Corps, personally reviewed a jet engine patented by Sir Frank Whittle flying on a Gloster E.28/39 aircraft. Impressed by its design, Arnold arranged for a Whittle engine to be brought back to the U.S. and tasked General Electric…