NASA has a “critical responsibility” to the flying public to develop environmentally responsible solutions to the nation’s most pressing aviation problems, Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. said Wednesday, Sept. 8.
Addressing the Green Aviation Summit at NASA’s Ames Research Center, Bolden said air travel is one of the safest modes of transportation and vital to the U.S. economy, but increasing air traffic is taking a toll on the environment and the nation’s aviation infrastructure.
“We need to make some changes — both in the design of aircraft and in the way they transit through our skies to not only maintain, but improve safety and efficiency,” Bolden said. “That’s a huge challenge, but we at NASA enthusiastically accept it.”
The two-day meeting brought together about 200 experts from NASA, other federal government organizations, industry and academia. Keynote presentations by leading policymakers as well as detailed technical presentations and panel discussions are focusing on state-of-the-art and emerging technologies that can reduce aircraft noise, emissions and fuel consumption and ensure the safe and manageable growth of the aviation system.
Jaiwon Shin, NASA’s associate administrator for aeronautics research, said NASA technology will become increasingly important because of the lack of available space for new airports. “We really are helping the country to advance to the next generation of air transportation and aviation by working together,” he said. “This summit signifies our strong commitment.”
Summit participants are sharing the results of their work on airplanes that will be designed and built with unconventional configurations, super-efficient engines and lightweight, damage-tolerant materials to increase lift, reduce drag, and deflect noise; innovations that will capitalize on the potential of alternative fuels and advanced power technologies; and efforts to equip aircraft cockpits with computer software and satellite-based navigation and communication systems to assist decision-making by pilots.
Examples of green technology NASA has developed in the past include winglets and chevrons, which are the scalloped edges on the engine nozzles of some models of commercial and cargo aircraft just now entering the market, and are designed to reduce noise.
NASA has a suite of incremental goals for demonstrating the feasibility of aircraft technology and air traffic management techniques that can minimize the environmental effects of air transportation by:
- Enabling aircraft to burn 33% less fuel than today’s most efficient models by 2015, 50% less by 2020, and better than 50% less by 2025.
- Cutting engine emissions of nitric oxide and nitrogen oxide, which contribute to ozone creation, 20% by 2015, 50% by 2020, and better than 5% by 2025 when compared with today’s best engines. Reducing the amount of fuel burned reduces emissions of carbon dioxide, which contribute to global warming.
- Reducing the nuisance noise footprint around airports to one-third its current size by 2015 and one-sixth by 2020, and containing it within the airport property boundary by 2025.
The NASA administrator said it is crucial for the agency and its stakeholders to collaborate closely to that its aeronautics research continues to be both relevant to the aviation community and beneficial to the flying public.
“Just as I like to tell the scientists and engineers who send our human and robotic missions out into the cosmos, you are contributing to national goals and helping people in the work you do every day,” Bolden said. “We are going to make measured progress leading to ever expanding accomplishments to meet the myriad increasing challenges. This is our challenge — to shape the future in aeronautics.”
For more information: Aeronautics.nasa.gov
Wonder if they considered that 80% of GA aircraft could be burning mogas, thus reducing leaded avgas consumption by 40+% today if we just had another pump on our airports … nahhh, too simple.