Virgin Atlantic and a New Zealand company, LanzaTech, plan to develop and produce a low-carbon aviation fuel made from the waste gases of industrial steel production. Boeing and Stockholm-based Swedish Biofuels AB are among the other partners in the project, and a demonstration flight using the fuel is planned in the next 12-18 months.

India’s federal government likely will allow cash-strapped Air India to acquire 27 Boeing 787s and three Boeing 777-300ERs after the U.S. Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im Bank) decided to provide $1.3 billion in loan guarantees supporting Boeing commercial aircraft sales to the state-run carrier.

NEW DELHI — India’s defense ministry on Oct. 7 approved the offset proposals of the two short-listed vendors in its $11 billion Medium-Multi-Role Combat Aircraft program, paving the way for the opening of commercial bids. According to a defense ministry official, bids should be opened in the next few days for the Eurofighter consortium’s Typhoon and Dassault’s Rafale, though no specific time frame was given. The original tender was issued by the defense ministry in August 2007.