NASA has recently announced a competition for eco-minded aircraft designers, one in which low-carbon flying machines will compete for a $1.5m prize at a contest to be held in California in 2011.

The competition will be run and organized by NASA’s light-aircraft collaborator organization, the Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency Foundation. It will be known as the CAFE Green Flight Challenge (CGFC), and competing aircraft will be assessed in flight trials to take place at the Charles M Schulz Sonoma County Airport in Santa Rosa, California, in July 2011.