The aviation industry is aiming to achieve net zero emissions, but it’s not there yet.
FLYING IS A dirty business. Airliners account for more than 2% of the annual global emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, many times commercial aviation’s contribution to world GDP. Two forces look poised to push this figure up in the years to come.
Tweaking the airframes, such as the potential upgrade to Airbus’s A320 short-haul jets with composite wings that can carry larger, more efficient engines, may help—but only a bit. Work on more radical airframe redesigns, like using a narrower, lighter wing held in place with a strut extending for the bottom of the fuselage as in small propeller planes, under development by Boeing and NASA, America’s space agency, is preliminary at best.
If Mission Possible’s efficiency targets look distant, the prospects for all-new types of planes or fuel seem remote. A few startups, such as Electra.Airflow and Heart Aerospace, are working on battery-powered prototypes. Heart already has orders from Air Canada and United Airlines for 30-seaters that could fly 200km on batteries alone, or double that with hybrid power using sustainable fuel. If all goes well, these could be in the air by 2028. Anders Forslund, Heart’s boss, reckons that by 2050 all routes up to 1,500km could be served by electric planes. But such trips account for only 20% of today’s airliner emissions.
Original article from www.economist.com