The weekend saw the first ‘perfect flight’ take place in the UK as British Airways (BA), BAA and air traffic control group NATS attempted to ensure that the BA1462 flight from Heathrow to Edinburgh produced the smallest amount of CO2 possible.
 
By optimizing every possible factor, the companies believe that a quarter of a tonne of fuel was saved, equating to nearly one tonne of CO2. The optimization included changes to the way the plane was flown, ensuring minimal delays at ground level, and after departure, allowing the plane up in a continuous climb to its most fuel-efficient altitude. Finally when it got to 10 miles away from the destination it was able to do a continuous descent approach.

The benefits of all of these techniques are known already but it was previously unclear as to how much of an impact such a ‘perfect flight’ would have in environmental terms. The data gained from such a flight however should prove useful as a ‘proof of concept’ for intelligent Air Traffic Management systems. It will be some time before we can expect to see the ‘perfect flight’ replicated day in, day out but this experiment shows that it is possible in the long term. The data gained from it should also allow companies to assess what techniques for greening their air travel should work best.

In other news, a US industrial designer believes he has come up with a novel way to generate electricity for airports by using the jet exhaust of airplanes to power small turbines.  Richard Hales’ FreeWind generator units would be sited in the vicinity of the jet engine exhaust at the end of the runway and would use it to power turbines that would be connected to a generator. Currently the plan is at the drawing stages, as Hales does not have the funding required to make the project a reality but having recently put a provisional patent on it, Hales is now seeking funding for a real version to be created.