flight deck, said Brian Gilbert, flightdeck displays lead. While the touch-screen mobile devices will be used to provide pilots with more real-time data to fly moreefficient routes, converting installed flight-deck hardware controls to touch screens saves weight in the flight deck, which contributes to improved fuel use. Collectively, these innovations could point the way to the next big advance in aviation, explained Jeanne Yu, Boeing Commercial Airplanes director of Environmental and Features Strategy. “It’s like the saying, Many raindrops make a river,” Yu said. “It’s not that one technology solves everything, and it’s not one big problem we are solving. It’s a lot of technologies—we are working on all those many technologies that will add up to a big benefit.” Boeing is the only major airplane manufacturer with a test plane dedicated exclusively to evaluating environmentally progressive technologies, according to Akiyama. Traditionally, engineers designed new technologies to coincide with the introduction of upcoming airplane models or derivatives, Akiyama pointed out, which resulted in 10- to 15-year lags between opportunities to see their technologies in action in a flight-test program. The ecoDemonstrator, with a full schedule of test flights every 12 to 18 months, allows new technologies to be tested as soon as they are ready, speeding implementation on commercial jetliners. Boeing has tested new technologies through airborne “demonstrators” since at least the early 2000s, when it completed two Quiet Technology Demonstrator programs. The noisecanceling chevrons, or serrated edges, visible on the engine casings of today’s 747-8 and 787 Dreamliner, grew from that program. Aviation already is one of the most environmentally efficient ways to travel. Julie Felgar, Commercial Airplanes managing director of Environmental Strategy and Integration, said new airplanes are comparable to electric cars in the amount of fuel they use per passenger mile. But with fuel costs jumping to nearly 40 percent of an airline’s operating costs, even a 1 percent reduction can have a big impact on an airline’s bottom line. Conscious of the need to minimize its environmental footprint, the industry has established big goals for the future of airline travel, including a commitment to carbon-neutral growth from 2020 and a 50 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2050. “That’s not a lot of time,” Felgar said. “The ecoDemonstrator program allows us to accelerate along that timeline to meet those goals. For me, that’s the most exciting part—to see how the ecoDemonstrator inspires our suppliers, customers and others in our industry.” The program, managed by Commercial Airplanes Product Development, leverages 20 Frontiers September 2014
Frontiers September 2014 Issue
To see the actual publication please follow the link above