Did you know that by shifting the load of bags and cargo in the hold of an aircraft can reduce fuel use in the flight by as much as half a percent? Or that one airport has saved 33,000 tonnes of CO2 each year by installing fixed electrical ground power? Or that the Wright Brothers’ first flight in 1903 travelled around 37 metres, but that aircraft today are built to fly over 15 million metres without much effort?

These facts all demonstrate the progress that has been, and is being, made in fuel efficiency by the aviation sector. They can all be found in a new publication that we have produced called the Beginner’s Guide to Aviation Efficiency.

It is a follow-up to the very successful publication Beginner’s Guide to Aviation Biofuels that we released last year. As our Executive Director, Paul Steele says: “The progress on achieving greener flights has been extraordinary. For aviation, efficiency is at the very heart of what we do on a daily basis. Fuel is expensive and heavy to carry, so airlines have long focused efforts to reduce the amount of fuel they use and aircraft makers spend a majority of their research development budgets on reducing fuel use.”

It is important to point to the vast array of projects being undertaken across the industry. We try to provide a snapshot of them here on enviro.aero, but it is really quite extraordinary to discover just how many different parts of the aviation experience are focused on operational efficiency, infrastructure efficiency and, importantly, new technologies.

As Paul points out, “The technology being used today is amazing. Most passengers don’t think about it, but even just looking at the engines on a modern aircraft you have some of the safest, most efficient, high-technology machines on earth… but built to withstand daily use, huge differences in temperature, lightning strikes, hail storms and the massive forces in play during flight.”

When you put it that way, I think we’re doing a pretty good job.