At this year's Berlin and Farnborough Air Shows, EADS showcased the world's first flight of an aircraft powered by pure biofuel made from algae. To great acclaim, a Diamond DA42 New Generation aircraft powered by two Austro AE300 engines took part in the daily flight demonstrations.

 
Only minor modifications and adjustments have to be made to the aircraft to run on algae based biofuel and consumption is lower compared to conventional JET-A1 fuel due to its high energy content.

"All other demonstrations with third-generation biofuel have been done with blends," said EADS research and technology chief Jean Botti. "This is the first time anyone has done it with 100% biofuel." Bench tests with algae biofuel in the AE300 engine indicate fuel savings of 5-10% over kerosene as the biofuel burns more efficiently. "We are amazed that it had better combustion than kerosene," added Botti.

Such developments are a good match with the efficiency goals set by IATA which include an average improvement in fuel efficiency of 1.5% per year to 2020, a cap on aviation CO2 emissions from 2020 to ensure carbon-neutral growth and a goal to reduce CO2 emissions 50% by 2050 compared to 2005.

EADS, its partners and many other companies are currently researching further to support the growth of an algae-powered industry. Cost efficiency is key in the immediate future: currently it is more expensive to produce fuel from algae in comparison to sourcing crude oil. So if algae-based fuel is to compete with kerosene, research and development work must aim to establish an effective mass production to ensure availability in the near future.

Another research project spearheaded by EADS is a concept helicopter featuring a diesel-electric hybrid propulsion system. With the potential to halve fuel consumption compared to a typical twin-turbine helicopter, it uses two opposed piston opposed cylinder diesel engines supplied by EcoMotors International of the USA to generate electrical power for the main and tail rotors.

The engines alone are around 30% more fuel efficient than today's turbine engines, while other weight savings and aerodynamic improvements facilitated by the hybrid architecture increase the total potential fuel saving to 50%, says EADS.

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.

Last night, just down the road from me in Switzerland, aviation history was made when Solar Impulse, the solar-powered aircraft, flew throughout the night, its batteries charged from the sun during a flight yesterday. It was in the air for more than 26 hours and used exactly 0 litres of jet fuel. The pilot, Andre Borschberg, who had been squashed in a cabin the size of a bathtub for all that time, had this to say:

"I've been a pilot for 40 years now, but this flight has been the most incredible one of my flying career. Just sitting there and watching the battery charge level rise and rise thanks to the sun... And then that suspense, not knowing whether we were going to manage to stay up in the air the whole night. And finally the joy of seeing the sun rise and feeling the energy beginning to circulate in the solar panels again!"

Bertrand Piccard, the initiator and president of the project, which he has been working on for 11 years, said: "This is a crucial step forward, it gives full credibility to the speeches we hold since years about renewable energies and CleanTechs and allows us now to get closer to the perpetual flight without using a drop of fuel!"

While we are not expecting that we will have passengers flying on the sun's energy any time soon (or at all), these types of experimental aircraft can actually have very practical purposes for aviation: in the use of very lightweight materials and, most importantly, the development of efficient solar cells. We may, for example, see a new generation of thin solar cells applied to the wings of commercial aircraft to power things such as air conditioning or cabin lighting. 

The flight's take-off was captured in this video: 

This may not be a glamourous shot of a new type of sexy aircraft, but those two yellow pipes are delivering pre-conditioned air to the passengers on board this A380 and are helping to make aircraft ground operations more fuel efficient.

Yesterday a group of 15 airports in the United Kingdom which together represent 70% of the passenger traffic announced the implementation of a set of guidelines to reduce emissions from aircraft while they are on the ground. Over 95% of aviation's carbon emissions occur as aircraft fly, but airports can make a significant dent in the remaining 5% by implementing a number of small projects - many of which are outlined in the UK Airport Operators Association guidelines.

The guidelines have been developed by airport operator BAA and taken up by Heathrow, Stansted, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Southampton, Manchester, Bournemouth, East Midlands, Humberside, Belfast City, Birmingham, Bristol, Gatwick and Newcastle airports. They include reduced engine taxiing (such as taxiing on one engine) as well as use of fixed electrical ground power and pre-conditioned air, instead of keeping auxiliary power units running on planes when stationary. It is estimated that these two projects at Heathrow are already saving 100,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.

All across Europe, airports are part of the Airport Carbon Accreditation programme that has been developed by ACI Europe. At their annual conference a couple of weeks ago, ACI announced that, through this programme, airports in Europe had saved an estimated 411,390 tonnes of CO2 in 2009 alone as they move towards carbon-neutral status.

And airports might need to consider expanding their cargo areas, if Professor Sir David King has his crystal ball shined correctly - he is forecasting that within a decade we will see some non-urgent shipments being flown by a new generation of air ships, reducing emissions and leaving the normal planes to concentrate on passengers...

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?

The field of aircraft recycling has really started to grow. It used to be talked of in terms of 'scrapping' aircraft once they had reached the end of their useful service life (often 20-30 years). Now, it is estimated that over 95% of a plane can be recycled, whether that be for spare parts or indeed melted down for use in other areas. In fact, manufacturers of aircraft like Airbus and Boeing are now designing aircraft not just with a safe and long life in mind, but how compatible they will be to recycling once their flying days are over.

The members of AFRA are currently able to recycle around 150 aircraft each year and, as more aircraft get replaced with newer, more efficient models, that number is set to increase. In fact, it is estimated that as many as 6,000 aircraft may retire over the next couple of decades.

As this film from the National Geographic Channel explores, recycling an aircraft can take much more planning than recycling your newspapers!

At a ceremony today in Toulouse, the regional aircraft manufacturer ATR presented their newest product, the ATR 72-600, the first in what’s going to be the ATR ‘-600 series’. The new aircraft is which has been designed specifically to have the lowest possible fuel consumption and CO2 emissions per passenger.  These regional turboprop aircraft are already pretty efficient for short hops, so the latest designs must be even better.

ATR have nick-named the 72-600 the ‘city car in the sky’ due to its high efficiency in short-haul flights, flight trials started in July this year, and the aircraft is predicted to enter into commercial service in 2011. Some more information is available here (article in French) and check out this very stylish promotional video for the aircraft.

It is sometimes easy to forget, as we check-in online, or wait in security queues, or make sure our seat back is upright and our table is folded away, that flying was once considered the height of luxury... indeed flying was once a dream in the minds of visionaries, one that many thought would never happen. Today, it is a necessary part of modern transport infrastructure. It carries millions of people each day and helps build trade links and deliver commodities and consumers all over the globe. But it is nice to know that we have not totally forgotten the visionaries.

Bauhaus Luftfahrt is a German-based aviation think-tank that “develops sustainable, innovative solutions for future air travel and air transportation”. One of the projects it is currently working on is called Claire. Rather than just describe… her, it may be easier to simply show you what she looks like:

This concept aircraft would utilise the latest in engine and wing design to be ultra-efficient and ultra-quiet while carrying large numbers of passengers in comfort. While the design may seem far-fetched, it is important to note that any of the cutting-edge elements that make up this design may spawn new technologies in their own right.

Take the idea of morphing winglets, for example. New Scientist reports that both Boeing and Airbus are looking at technologies that would allow the winglets (that are at the end of the wings on a large number of modern aircraft) to change shape mid-flight, taking advantage of the optimum operating conditions – basically altering to be the most effective angle and position at each point in the journey. This development could also provide massive savings in fuel consumption.

And our friends at Finnair have taken the vision of our aviation forefathers and run with it – all the way to the year 2093. They have commissioned artists to represent the aircraft of the future and present them – as well as the vision of aviation industry experts – on a website called Departure 2093. Below is their concept aircraft, the A1700-2400 Cruiser. I will leave you to explore the exciting world that awaits you (or your grandchildren) in 85 years…