Swarm intelligence to cut emissions
Higher and closer together to go further.
Irrespective of all of the ongoing efforts to reduce aviation’s emissions – transport will only be sustainable through the energy that it doesn’t consume. Two ideas were mooted during the course of the Glasgow COP26 climate conference that are simple and yet brilliant.
On 9 November this year Airbus demonstrated a long-haul formation flight in general aviation for the first time. The project was carried out across trans-Atlantic airspace in the context of a project called ‘Fello’fly’ (see also ITJ Daily of 21 September 2020). It saw two Airbus A350s fly from Toulouse to Montréal 3 km apart.
A flight steering system developed by the European aeroplane manufacturer allows an aircraft following behind another one to place itself securely in the slipstream upwinds of the aeroplane in front of it. This reduces the thrust required by the second unit and thus its fuel consumption too. A similar phenomenon can be observed amongst large migratory birds, including geese, who fly together in a V formation. The long-haul jets involved in this experiment saved approximately 6 t of CO2. This confirms that fuel savings of up to 5% can be made on long-haul flights.
Sabine Klauke, the chief technical officer at Airbus, explained the firm’s motivation. “This demonstration flight is one concrete example of our commitment to implementing our decarbonisation goals. It also shows that pan-industry cooperation is key to attaining these targets. We received a lot of support from our partner airlines and aviation managers for this project.”
Partners on board
Pilots who usually fly for Airbus’s partner airlines Frenchbee and SAS Scandinavian Airlineswere also on board the flight as observers. The flight was made possible not only by Airbus, but also by its aviation management partners and by air traffic control organisations (DSNA, Nats, NAV Canada, Eurocontrol and IAA), with the support of DGAC, the French aviation authority.
Together they showed that the use of aviation technology to regain energy in the slipstream of other aircraft doesn’t have to be attained at the cost of safety in a ‘Fello’fly’ flight. The next step will be to get official support from the authorities to certify the new operational concept.
On the same date, 9 November, Eurocontrol published a further observation with great potential for the future of the industry. It analysed data going back to the 1990s and established that aeroplanes have been asking for ever higher cruising heights when planning their flights, espe-cially when crossing the North Atlantic, on account of progress on the technological front as well as concerning airspace mana-gement. These altitudes allow flights to consume less fuel.
Cruising heights that are higher than around 35,000 ft could, according to Euro-control, result in annual fuel savings of more than 300,000 t, which represents almost 1 million t less of CO2 emitted.
Offering the users of airspace and air traffic controllers a greater degree of flexi-bility and thus enabling them to make use of greater capacities at higher altitudes could thus contribute substantially to reducing the impact of air traffic activities on the environment.