Wired reports on the development of a aircraft engine more efficient and with a smaller carbon footprint. The industry contributes 2 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions.

Pratt & Whitney has spent the better part of two decades developing the geared turbofan engine that burns 12 to 15 percent less fuel than other jet engines and cuts carbon dioxide emissions by 1,500 tons per plane per year.

Jet fuel cost more than 90% more than this time last year and is significantly impacting the cost of a ticket, summer travel, and the economy here and abroad

While most consumers know all too well how much it costs to gas up their cars, few know how much they are paying for gas when they fly on an airline. It turns out to be shockingly high at today’s prices — well more than half the cost of the average ticket on many routes.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported: You can fly between New York and Los Angeles for as little as $370 round-trip… And out of that, how much will the airline spend on fuel? Almost $300 per passenger for JetBlue at current prices, and nearly $500 for American. Just Friday’s $10.75 leap in oil prices would raise the cost to fly someone from New York to Los Angeles and back by almost $24. Holy crap! How can any business stay aloft with such a narrow margin. No wonder the airlines are charging for every little extra.

And, Virgin America is being particularly frank with us about their latest fuel surcharge saying: “At current oil prices, the average fuel cost of transporting a passenger roundtrip on a Virgin America short-haul flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles is over USD70.”

Back in February, Virgin Atlantic started testing the use of biofuels in their aircraft. Richard Branson discussed the flight on CNN: