An Inventive Aircraft Design Could Cut Carbon Emissions by 20 Percent

Civil aviation is one of the main contributors to climate change. As globalization gains momentum, the number of aircraft in the skies has increased exponentially over the last few decades. However, unlike automobiles, which are beginning to adopt new electric motors, most planes continue to fly thanks to kerosene, with a small percentage powered by biofuels. One explanation is that the ratio of battery weight to required energy makes designing an operational aircraft very difficult. Therefore, much effort has been devoted to improving energy efficiency. Therefore, between 2009 and 2020, fuel efficiency improved by 2.1% per year.

A team of engineers in the Netherlands is now making a breakthrough with an efficiency increase of about 20%. They rely on his revolutionary V-shaped design, unprecedented only in the military industry. They named it Flying-V. A distinctive feature is that the passenger cabin is located together with the wing, and the turbines are installed above the fuselage.

Engineers from the University of Delft worked closely with Airbus to create a scale prototype that demonstrates the viability of the technology. The first aircraft, with a wingspan of just three meters, has just completed its first test flight demonstrating its aerodynamic properties. The flight exceeded all expectations in terms of both stability and energy consumption, although engineers report that the landing was a bit steeper than expected.

Once the flight data is captured by the onboard sensors, the next step is to transfer it to a digital simulator so the design can be fine-tuned to produce the final aircraft. In fact, it promises to be much larger than the prototype, as the developers estimate that the wingspan will allow him to exceed 60 meters and carry more than 300 passengers.

Other Promising Designs

In addition to initiatives such as Flying-V, the aviation industry is busy creating new designs that fundamentally change its approach. His MAVERIC, unveiled by Airbus at the 2020 Singapore Air Show, technology project We share the Dutch prototype approach. Both share the use of turbines mounted on the upper fuselage. However, the latter has adopted a hang-glider design. Passengers are distributed across the width of the aircraft structure instead of longitudinally. Fuel efficiency is expected to improve by 20%.

Naturally, true sustainability comes from the use of new zero-carbon propulsion technologies. An example of this is the E-Fan X prototype displayed at the same trade fair. This is an electric aircraft for which the first feasibility tests have already been carried out. It is estimated that this type of aircraft may enter service in the next decade.

For now, we are most likely to see the introduction of hybrid propulsion models that combine conventional fuels with electric motors to support them. transition promises to be an equally difficult transition.

sauce: business insider, airbus