Company
FUEL STORE: A New Era of Energy
AIR&D: AIRCO’s Internal Research & Development Engine
Company
AIR&D: AIRCO’s Internal Research & Development Engine
Across a century of breakthroughs, one pattern has repeated: the most transformative technologies are incubated and tested by partners that can tolerate the high, early costs, such as government and defense agencies, before being scaled for the masses and integrated into everyday life. Think solar power designed for spacecraft before it reached rooftops, GPS born for battlefield precision before ride-hailing, and an internet that connected research labs before it connected everyone in the ways it does today.
AIRCO’s internal research and development engine, AIR&D (see what we did there?), follows that same logic: invent products and systems that extend human capability on Earth and beyond, and commercialize them once they've been proven at scale to maximize impact. Our AIRMADE™ Technology converts carbon dioxide (CO₂) and hydrogen (H₂) into chemicals that create a multitude of products, including, most recently, jet fuel and rocket fuel. Through AIR&D, we pressure-test these technologies and products first with government and aerospace partners whose performance requirements are unforgiving, and then translate the wins into scalable commercial products.
That’s exactly how we went from lab data to Air Force flight demonstrations, to airline-backed distribution with our AIRMADE® SAF (synthetic aviation fuel). Not by skipping steps, but by choosing the right first customer and partner.
AIR&D: Our R&D Engine
AIR&D is more than a program; it’s our disciplined pipeline from concept to commercialization.
The playbook:
Strategizes and builds with end-use in mind. We design experiments backward from operational constraints (freeze points, stability, density, storability, and logistics).
Prove our technology and processes in complex environments first. Our government and aerospace partners help us validate under extreme conditions (heat, cold, pressure, vibration, and mission tempo).
Bring to market what works. The moment any of our pathways clear performance, safety, and reliability gates, we package it for commercial scale.
Continue the journey to reduce the cost of production to satisfy our commercial and government customers
This is R&D as a product factory.
Why We Often Start with Government & Defense Partners
Government partners do three things especially well in early-stage fuel innovation:
Absorb early costs to reduce risk. Government programs, such as AFWERX (the innovation arm of the Department of the Air Force) and the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, enable companies like ours to prove the feasibility of a new project, build working prototypes, and eventually open up pathways to procurement.
Impose constraints so we can build with real-world demands in mind. Real assignments require honest engineering—solutions that meet stringent requirements, work reliably, and can be backed up with real data that withstands audit.
Clearing rigorous government testing builds credibility that lasts, making subsequent commercial adoption faster, safer, and more cost-effective for everyone else.
This pathway is not just a theory; it’s a proven reality. As we mentioned before, it’s how GPS, the Internet, and space-borne solar created trillion-dollar ecosystems.
We Take the Same Approach with Commercial Partners
In parallel, we’re applying this same incubation playbook to our work with commercial partners since our AIRMADE™ Technology can be leveraged to create a wide range of products across multiple industries, including those that rely on fuels, ethanol, or methanol in their processes or products.
These partners collaborate with us to fund the research and development of our technology in the same way our government partners do: testing and optimizing it so that it can ultimately be scaled to meet their specific industry needs. Think: ethanol for fragrances, methanol for plastics or paints, or niche fuels for high-performance engines—to name a few.
We Scaled Our AIRMADE® SAF This Way
We first piloted our CO2-derived SAF with the U.S. Air Force as a 100% drop-in replacement for conventional jet fuel (Jet-A). That work unlocked further programs, airline partnerships, and distribution pathways for our fuel.
Why it mattered: A defense customer validated the performance of our fuel without the need for blending long before commercial standards would allow this (current regulations state that SAF must be blended with Jet-A in order to be used in civil aviation). This significantly shortened the time needed from the lab to testing.
What followed: Strategic offtake agreements and a preferred-distribution pathway for clean jet fuel, with aviation partners participating not just as buyers but as builders of the category.
In Conclusion
Our commitment isn’t to ideas. It’s to solutions that stand the test of science and time.
We’re not in the business of promising outcomes before the science is ready. Instead, we build a public, test-driven record—letting data lead the way.
The way we see it is, if you want to move fast, you prototype in the lab. If you want to go far, you validate with the world’s most demanding customers. Then you bring it home to enable widespread adoption.
Promises are easy. Proof is hard. We choose the hard path—and that’s AIR&D.
