Crawley, England-based Virgin Atlantic said today that it would fly the world's first commercial jet powered by biofuel next month.

Ten months ahead of schedule, the test flight will use a Boeing 747 without passengers to fly from London to Amsterdam.

"The demonstration flight next month will give us crucial knowledge that we can use to dramatically reduce our carbon footprint," said Richard Branson, president of Virgin Atlantic, part of the Virgin Group [1].

"Virgin Group pledged to invest all its profits from its transportation companies towards developing clean energy and with this breakthrough we are well down the path to achieving our goals."

The company didn't say what kind of biofuel would be used, only that it doesn't compete with food and fresh water resources.

Virgin said the test flight is being run in conjunction with Chicago's Boeing [2] (NYSE: BA [3]) and GE Aviation, a unit of Fairfield, Conn.-based General Electric [4] (NYSE: GE [5]).

Last year, the airline ordered 15 Boeing 787 Dreamliners, which it said are up to 60 percent quieter and use nearly 30 percent less fuel than the Airbus A340-300s they'll replace in Virgin Atlantic's fleet.

The company has options and purchase rights on another 28 Dreamliners.