I have just returned from Montreal, where I met with a number of colleagues from across the aviation sector at the ICAO Environment Colloquium. Hélène Gagnon, one of our Board members from airframe manufacturer Bombardier, explains about the colloquium in this video:

Hélène mentions our industry targets and goals in that video. One of them, to reduce our emission to half of what they were in 2005, by the year 2050 (despite growth in air travel), is an incredibly ambitious goal. But we are confident we can get there. Part of the goal will require a large upswing in the amount of sustainable biofuel we use. But a lot of the reduction in emissions will come with radical new technologies, some of which were presented recently…

Another colleague from the industry was also in Montreal – Carl Burleson from the FAA. He has just reviewed a set of new proposals from the design and future thinking powerhouse at MIT. Their radical new aircraft designs, presented as part of a NASA project, could result in significant savings of carbon emissions:

The D Series

This aircraft uses a double tube design (basically like joining two current aircraft fuselages next to each other and then adding wings) and new engine technology to produce an aircraft that could fly with 70% less emissions than current models. The structure has a very wide fuselage to provide extra lift. The aircraft would be used for domestic flights to carry 180 passengers for replacement of current narrow body aircraft.

The H Series

The MIT team also presented NASA with its design for the H “hybrid wing body” series to replace the widebody aircraft now used for international flights. The design features a triangular-shaped hybrid wing body aircraft that blends a wider fuselage with the wings for improved aerodyamics. The large centre body creates a forward lift that eliminates the need for a tail to balance the aircraft. The plane is designed to carry 350 passengers.

Now they look pretty cool, but perhaps the MIT guys could also work on better and more inspirational names!! Can you think of any?