Environmental issues such as reducing carbon emissions and preparing for air transport growth are a hot trend in the aviation industry, especially now, six months ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference to be held here in Paris.
The main goal of the conference is to limit carbon emissions to neutral growth beginning in 2020, as well as to cut carbon emissions in half by 2050 compared to 2005. Since 2009, the goal in aviation has been to improve fuel efficiency by 1.5 percent a year, a rate that has been sustained, so far. Worldwide air traffic managed a 2.9-percent fuel efficiency improvement since 2009 despite slight growth in volume, according to Airbus. New Airbus designs are all targeting eco-performance–which also translates to increased benefits for the airlines: the A350 XWB promises 25 percent less in emissions compared to the A340: and the A320neo should bring 20 percent CO2 savings per seat starting in 2020. Meanwhile, the A380 already burns 40 percent less fuel per seat compared to previous-generation aircraft.
In order to display its accomplishments and upcoming advancements, Airbus brought together airlines, suppliers and journalists in Toulouse on May 21 to celebrate its innovations in protecting the environment. The speakers conceded that reducing consumption and becoming environmentally conscious would not have come about so fast without the carbon tax and the Clean Sky project launched in 2008 by the European commission. But the first results are already bearing fruit. “We are the only industry to voluntarily decide to reduce our emissions. We are a global industry and need to act globally,” said Chris Buckley, Airbus executive v-p for customer affairs.
To reach that ambitious goal, Airbus has gathered small- and medium-size companies in the Aerospace Valley in the southwest of France to develop conjoined programs along with bigger suppliers, such as Rolls-Royce. With customers British Airways, KLM and Cathay Pacific, who all came to Toulouse to present their own projects to help win the challenge, Airbus launched its Sustainable Aviation Program to help them work on CO2 and noise reductions.
From design to retirement, the life cycle of an airplane’s emissions can and is undergoing improvement. Bob Lange, head of market and product strategy at Airbus, described the main focuses that should drive the industry forward: technological improvements, infrastructure and air traffic management, aircraft operations and sustainable fuels. These subjects are also heavily researched by the airlines themselves.
If reducing CO2 emissions is the main quantifiable target, noise is second on the list. Then there is reducing and reusing materials. Airbus spends €2 billion a year ($2.2 billion) in R&D–but there are also a lot of savings that result: for example, in order to reduce carbon emissions per passenger, it is easier (and more profitable) to put more seats in the cabin than to develop a new engine. This is the solution currently being tested with the new A350 and the new A380 11-seat-row configuration presented by Airbus during the Aircraft Interiors exhibition in Hamburg last April.
The airlines have been trying to keep up with the trend. KLM is partnered with Airbus working on new ecological fuel within the ITAKA project. But biofuel must be shown not to negatively affect the earth and its food supply. It must also be shown to be sustainable.
British Airways is targeting the “perfect flight,” a more efficient way to fly enroute and during the departure and approach phases, helping reduce fuel burn and noise. A new steeper arrival procedure of 3.2 degrees delivers 1 dB benefit for residents who life nearby airports, while a more extreme 4-degree approach during the first segment of the approach offers up to 3 dB noise reduction to airport neighbors. British Airways is also looking at biofuel and is the only airline that has published target numbers: BA aspires to 3 percent biofuel consumption in 2030 and 24 percent in 2050.
As for Cathay Pacific, its research is impacted by the special topography of the crowded Hong-Kong islands: real estate values versus airport expansion have provoked heavy debates between the needs of the airline, a huge factor of the local economy, and residents’ quality of life. Waste is also becoming a problem on the tiny piece of land, and Cathay is now trying to produce fuel from the waste while working on the noise footprint of its aircraft on the airport area.
Airbus executive v-p of engineering Charles Champion said the company is now focused on its new programs, but tries to anticipate future trends, one of them being the incremental innovation from existing platforms, such as the A321neo, which should yield a 23 percent improvement in fuel efficiency.
Airbus also is developing the eFan, a electric aircraft that could help the manufacturer to learn more about possible hybrid electric propulsion, which could help save up to 25 percent in fuel consumption.
In the mid-term, Airbus plans to test a contrarotating open-rotor design together with Rolls-Royce, potentially offering a 20-percent fuel-burn reduction. A flight test demonstrator should be available in 2020. Green taxiing, developed by Safran and Honeywell, is already offering 4-percent fuel-burn reduction and up to 75 percent CO2 and NOx reduction.
New designs will help too: riblets aid laminar flow, and will be implemented and tested this year. A full-scale demonstrator will be built starting in 2016. Nanotechnologies are also being researched along with additive layer manufacturing, (3D-printing), which is already being used. It reduces material waste from 95 percent to 5 percent and the weight up to 50 percent. A350 brackets are already being manufactured using this new technique.
On Display at Le Bourget
Here at the Paris Air Show, Airbus is displaying three large-scale demonstrators of the CleanSky2 project, built at a cost of €1.6 billion. The study, half funded by Europe, aims to explore engine and aircraft configuration, innovative physical integration and cabin structure, and the next generation of electric aircraft, cockpits and avionics. The idea is now to gather the whole industry to achieve its target of reducing aviation’s impact on environment.
But these very ambitious targets need to face the realities of flying. As experimental test pilot Franck Chapman said during the visit of the new A350 cockpit at the Airbus factory, “the steeper approach (as studied by British Airways) is a way to manage the fuel issue, but it is very complicated.” The aircraft will arrive more sooner, burning less fuel in the process, but if the airport is crowded, then a go-around is more likely with the steep approach. “To save 30 kilograms of fuel, we may burn a ton,” the pilot explained.
The main problem remains the incredible growth air transport will experience in the next century: it has so far doubled every 20 years, but sites for building bigger, more efficient airports are facing resistance. That problem is out of the hands of the industry, and could very well handicap it in achieving its ambitious targets.