How Technology Has Influenced Commercial Aircraft - Research Paper Example

How Technology has Influenced Commercial Aircraft to Make them More Eco-Friendly and Safer Over the recent years, technology has played a significant part in increasing the ability of various sectors and organizations to minimize the impacts of their business activities on the environment. This is a key objective in all major sectors and organizations because of the increasing global sensitivity to environmental protection and the increased need mitigate global warming as part of a good corporate image. Major sectors and organizations have undertaken measures of reducing their contribution towards global warming by adapting the appropriate technologies. The transport sector is one of them. Over the recent years, manufacturers of various brands of vehicles, trucks and aircrafts have come up with designs that have increased fuel efficiencies. The result of this has been reduced green house gas (GHG) emissions from the sector. In aviation specifically, a four-pillar strategy has been identified as a mitigation measure to GHG emissions from the sector. The four pillars are efficient infrastructure, effective operations, improved technology and positive economic measures (Centro 98). Of the four, technology has proved to be the most important prospect in minimizing aviation emissions. Since its introduction in the early 1900, commercial aircraft has been developing due to technological advances and recent transformations have made commercial airliners more eco-friendly and safer. This paper explores the ways in which has technology influenced commercial aircraft to make them more eco-friendly and safer. The paper begins by outlining technological advancements that have been made on commercial aircraft and how they have increased its environmental friendliness and safety. This is followed by a brief description of the savings made from these advancements and possible future advancements that can be made to make commercial aircraft more eco-friendly and safer than they are today. Technological advancements that have been made on commercial aircraft Commercial aircraft are second to highway vehicles in terms of motor fuel consumption. At the same time, the demand for air travel in the world is growing by almost twice the rate of growth experienced by highway vehicles. This has presented opportunities for airliners to expand their air routes, number of flights and even their fleet. All these have the potential of increasing the environmental hazards presented by commercial aircrafts on the environment. However, the industry has enjoyed many technological advancements to accommodate the increasing traffic while mitigating this. Greene (538) states that since the early 1970s, the energy efficiency of the air transport has more than doubled because of improved operations and technology. Efficiency improvements realized during the 1970s came almost equally from increased aircraft size, increased load factors, upgrading of existing aircraft and changes in usage. Over the next years, the aviation industry made significant advances in technology aimed at increasing the fuel efficiency of aircrafts and reducing flight noise. The major technological advances include radical engine advances, revolutionary plane designs, use of lightweight materials and the development of biofuels. According to Belobaba et al (354), revolutionary plane designs have been achieved by and varying the shape and size of the wings and body. These changes have been made in such a way that they lead to reduced air resistance as the aircraft moves through the air. In this way, such designs have reduced the level of fuel consumption. More and more commercial aircraft components and structure are being made or built using lightweight composite material instead of using heavy materials like aluminum. The use of lightweight materials has helped to reduce the general weight of the aircrafts and this translates into reduced fuel consumption. This signifies that it increases its eco-friendliness because reduced fuel consumption means reduced GHGs emissions. Anything that contributes to weight in an aircraft contributes to flight fuel consumption and by extension, contributes to increased aviation emissions. The radical engine advances that have been made so far are evident in the use of more efficient commercial aircraft engines. The technological advances have also been achieved through retrofitting. Retrofitting refers to the addition of new technology or new features into older systems. A good example of effective retrofit in commercial aircraft is winglets. These tip extensions are about 4 feet wide at the base and narrow to about 2 feet at the tip. They are 8ft 2in tall and add approximately 5 feet to the total wingspan. Those for the Classic are slightly shorter, measuring 7ft tall. Winglets have been mounted on the tips of already existing commercial aircraft and they are a noticeable feature on the new Boeing 737s. They were first mounted on a 737-800 in June 1998 as a trial bed for use on the BBJ. Currently, winglets are available as a standard production option for all NGs and over 50% of all 737NGs have had winglets retrofitted. However, Boeing is still testing the applicability of this on -600 series. Winglets have the potential of offering many benefits. So far, they have improved the aerodynamics of the aircrafts they have been mounted on. According to the International Air Transport Association, IATA (5), these tip extensions provide extra lift and lower lift induced drag. The extra to lift is expressed as improved cruise performance. These extensions can allow an aircraft to reach higher altitudes faster. With blended winglets, commercial aircraft can now climb directly to higher heights which are characterized by low traffic congestion. Because of this, they can take advantage of shortcuts and direct routings, something they could not otherwise consider at their usual heights. Shortcuts and direct routings leads to reduced fuel consumption and this definitely translates to reduced carbondioxide and other green house gases emissions. Operating at heights with low traffic congestion also reduces the chances of aircraft collision. Descriptions from www.b737.org.uk. (1) reveal that winglets offer the benefit of reduced climb thrust and thus a commercial aircraft equipped with a winglet can take a 3% derate over its non-winglet equivalent. This presents winglets as environmental friendly. If taken, the derate will lower NOx emissions by 5% and the footprint by 6.5%. Blending an aircraft with winglets also results to reduced cruise thrust. This reduces the cruise fuel flow by up to 6%. Despite these potential advantages, not all commercial aircraft have been fitted with winglets. The decision to embrace this advancement rests on cost-benefit analysis. Winglets are expensive and installing takes about a week. This means the company has to forego profits for that period. Once installed, they add about 170-235 kg to the weight of the aircraft and this presents fuel cost for carrying additional weight. Winglets are therefore more attractive for commercial aircraft flying long ranges as compared to short distance or domestic flights. Apart from winglets, other retrofits include engine components. Old engine components have been replaced with advanced ones that have better fuel combustion and airflow. The end product of this is reduced amounts of toxic gases being released into the atmosphere. There are also cabin retrofits that are made from lighter materials. These are used for furnishing. In addition, lower energy-consuming retrofits have been introduced for use in in-flight entertainment and lighting. All these technological advances have the capacity to increase the eco-friendliness of commercial aircraft by reducing the emission of GHGs like Carbon Dioxide and nitrogen compounds. Retrofits have the capacity of reducing aviation emissions by up to 7-13%. Technology has facilitated the development of green and clean commercial aircraft. That is, commercial aircraft that use biofuel. This is one of the latest technological advances in the sector in the move towards the utilization of fuels whose carbon-cycle footprint is low. the ultimate aim of such efforts is to reduce the impacts of commercial aircraft on the environment. Commercial use of biofuels was approved in July 2011 and since then, several airlines have started using biofuels on commercial flights (Wassener 12). On 6th October, 2011, Boeing 757-200 operated which currently operated by Thomson Airways became the first commercial aircraft in Europe to fly on biofuel. The aircraft used a blend of sustainable biofuel in one engine. A change of fuel source is now an attractive alternative to the development of more fuel-efficient aircrafts. According to a report by the IPPC (2), aviation currently accounts for 2% of the global GHGs emissions and this is expected to shoot due to increasing demand for air transport. Their efforts to reduce emissions are therefore very significant. Biofuels, are therefore a key building block in the mission to lower emissions. Savings made from eco-friendly and safety improving technological advancements on commercial aircraft As indicated earlier, the derate resulting from reduced climb trust will lower NOx emissions by 5% and the footprint by 6.5%. This could give savings on airport noise fines or quotas. The ability to fly at higher heights as a result of improved cruise performance allows commercial aircraft to use shortcuts and direct routings. This means they will use lesser amounts of fuel and savings from this could accumulate to considerable amounts if distance avoided is long. Savings on fuel are also achieved from reduced cruise fuel as a result of reduced cruise thrust. Possible future advancements In order to increase fuel efficiency and reduce drag, aircraft manufacturers should consider introducing laminar flow. This will reduce aerodynamic drag by lowering turbulence on aircraft surface. The use of an open rotor should also be considered. This is expected to yield a 25% reduction in fuel burn. The use of a counter rotating fan will lower fuel burn by 10-15% and so will a geared engine. Changing of fuel source is a more promising alternative compared to increasing fuel efficiency through aircraft redesigning. Manufacturers of aircrafts should therefore conduct more research on the potentialities of developing commercial aircraft that are powered by hydrogen and solar. Other studies should also focus on the ways of developing fuel for commercial use from municipal waste. If this gets a breakthrough, wastes in megacities will be converted to aviation fuel and thus reduce the ammonium emitted from such wastes into the atmosphere. Conclusion Commendable technological advancements have already been made on commercial aircraft. In one way or the other, these developments have increased the eco-friendliness and the safety of commercial aircraft by reducing fuel consumption and noise. Reduced fuel consumption means reduced aviation emissions. However, some of them are just short-term solutions for example retrofits. There is therefore room for improvements. It is still possible to attain a much higher level of fuel efficiency by focussing on long-term developments on the structure and components of commercial aircraft. This will facilitate increased fuel efficiency by reducing weight, reducing drag, reduced cruise fuel and improved aerodynamics. Works Cited Belobaba Peter, Odoni Amedeo and Barnhart Cynthia. The Global Airline Industry. New York. Wiley&Sons. 2009. Centro Alessandro. The Airline Industry: Challenges in the 21st Century. New York. Springer. 2008. Greene David. “Energy-Efficiency Improvement Potential of Commercial Aircraft.” Annual Review of Energy and the Environment. (17) pp 537-573. 1992. IPPC. Aviation and the Global Atmosphere. 2011. Web. http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/sres/aviation/126.htm. Retrieved on 30th November, 2011. The International Air Transport Association, IATA (2009). global approach to reducing aviation emissions. Online: corporate.airfrance.com/fileadmin/.../IATA.pdf. Retrieved on 30th November, 2011. Wassener Bettina. “Airlines Weigh the Advantages of Using More Biofuel.” New York Times. October 9, 2011. 30th November, 2011. www.b737.org.uk. (1999). http://www.b737.org.uk/winglets.htm. Retrieved on Read More