[BOEING]
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Flightpath.
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[AIRBUS]
[GE AVIATION]
3
2
Boeing continues to work with international partners in China, UAE, Brazil, US and other countries to advance the commercialisation of sustainable aviation biofuel. It is engaged with the global industry to reduce hazardous chemicals used in products and improve the efficiency of the global air traffic network. Boeing has shown its commitment to responsible environmental leadership across a range of its activities — the performance of its products and the way they are built and flown by Boeing’s customers. Other fuel-saving and performance enhancing ideas are being pioneered by Toulouse-based aircraft manufacturer, ATR, which makes turboprop-powered regional aircraft. With so many clients flying to airports based in or around city centres, ATR aircraft, from the outset, have featured technologies to reduce fuel consumption while being quiet neighbours for airport communities. The latest propulsion technology combined with good aerodynamic design and a low-drag airframe,
means ATR aircraft have a minimal environmental impact — meeting Stage 4 noise requirements with wide margins and allowing day and night operations into airports with specific, stringent local noise regulations. Some of the technology innovations which have made this possible include decreasing propeller rotational speed, optimising the blade profile and improving engine rotating components. As a result, the noise footprints produced by a modern turboprop affects an area of just 3.5 sq km around an airport compared to 13.5 sq km for a 40-year old turboprop and nearly 30 sq km for a 40-year old jet aircraft. Other fuel saving and noise alleviating innovations introduced by ATR as a result of detailed studies of local speed and pressure loads on the complete aircraft include the design of an optimised shape of wing, engine nacelles and main landing gear fairings. High structural efficiency is now possible thanks to the use of composite materials, which now account for more than 20% of the primary structure of the aircraft.
Continuous research on weight savings by ATR has also resulted in greater comfort and weight optimisation with the new ‘Armonia’ cabin — including the introduction of light and slim seats providing up to 160kg of weight savings over former designs. ATR is actively cooperating with its customer base of 190 operators to introduce new operational procedures to save fuel. These include better preflight procedures such as optimising fuel-load calculations to minimise the take-off weight, and distributing passengers throughout the cabin to achieve fuel-efficient centre of gravity operations. In service, airlines can further save fuel by flying the most efficient routings, using one engine to taxi whenever safely possible and increasing the use of propeller brakes. Closely monitoring the fuel efficiency of each aircraft and investigating whether airframe damage or engine performance deterioration is impacting aircraft performance is another important ingredient to improving fuel burn. »