The single-seat EMB 202 Ipanema is the first production-series model approved by aviation authorities to run on ethanol produced from sugar cane.

Its makers, Neiva Aeronautic Industry, said it had orders for 70 of the single-engine planes this year.

The Ipanema is a new step forward for Brazil's pioneering national ethanol fuel program, launched in response to the 1970s oil crisis.

Drawing on its world-leading sugar cane production to produce the alternative to petroleum-based gasoline, by the 1980s ethanol was the dominant fuel for automobiles.

Today, under a flexibility program, roughly a third of all cars sold are adapted to use both ethanol and regular gasoline.