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Old 09-07-2012, 04:22 PM   #1
BiseCreesia

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Default Flying in Formation and other Improvements: It's not only for the Birds.
Birds do it—Passenger planes will fly in formation too
September 6, 2012 by Nancy Owano



(Phys.org)—Toulouse-based Airbus, a world-leading aircraft manufacturer, has issued its "vision" of what truly smart flying—smart, that is, as in sustainable rather than smart as in sensor-packed—will be like in 2050. The presentation is designed to address making passenger flying more comfortable, safer, more reliable, and, as key, to address the need to curb aviation emissions that pollute the environment. In all, Airbus has ideas for sustainable aviation in 2050 and beyond. If global air transport is to grow as projected, the company knows there is work ahead to cut emissions and institute ways that flying can be less burdensome to the environment. They are suggesting ways to minimize noise, reduce fuel emissions and potentially shorten flight times.




One such step foresees a new method for takeoff, with renewably powered propelled acceleration that allows aircraft to climb steeper and reach cruise altitude faster. They have suggested a propelled platform with its own set of wheels under the plane's fuselage that could boost acceleration before detaching just before takeoff.




In approaching airports, Airbus also suggested the plans could glide towards the airports using a steeper approach than usual as an alternative to the use of engine thrust and air brakes.

Their presentation looks at slowing aircraft at earlier stages and making shorter landing distances possible. Using shorter runways would mean less land use, also in the name of going green, or in the words of an Airbus statement, "as space becomes a premium and mega-cities become a reality."


Airbus further suggests that flying in formation be used to cut air drag and boost fuel efficiency. "High frequency routes would allow aircraft to benefit from flying in formation like birds during cruise bringing efficiency improvements due to drag reduction and lower energy use," according to the Vision statement.


Airbus executive vice president of engineering, Charles Champion, said "We know people want to fly more in the future and our forecasts support this. We also know that they don't want to fly at any cost."


Fuel is a key topic in the Airbus' proposal; Airbus says it is already working on development and use of alternative fuels. "The use of sustainable biofuels and other potential alternative energy sources (such as electricity, hydrogen, solar etc) will be necessary to secure supply and further reduce aviation's environmental footprint in the long term," said Airbus. This would allow an extensive introduction of regionally sourced renewable energy close to airports, the company added, feeding aircraft sustainably.




When you look at Airbus stats, it is easy to see that numbers in tons of excess fuel and avoidable CO2 emissions suggest that efforts to come up with smarter moves are needed. According to Airbus, if the Air Traffic Management system and technology on board the aircraft were optimized, then flights in Europe and the US could on average be around 13 minutes shorter, and flights in other parts of the world could be shorter too. Assuming around 30 million flights per year, this would save around 9 million tons of excess fuel annually, which equates to over 28 million tons of avoidable CO2 emissions and, for passengers, a saving of 5 million hours of excess flight time.


More information: http://www.airbus.com/no_cache/newse...smarter-skies/






http://phys.org/news/2012-09-birds-i...formation.html
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Old 09-07-2012, 07:39 PM   #2
f6HLLFcw

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'Sideways' aircraft for supersonic speed?
by Staff Writers
Miami (UPI) Sep 5, 2012

disclaimer: image is for illustration purposes only


An aircraft that could pivot 90 degrees in midair after takeoff to reach supersonic speeds has been given $100,000 in NASA funding, its research team says.

Ge-Cheng Zha, an aerospace engineer at the University of Miami, with colleagues from Florida State University, has proposed the supersonic, bidirectional flying wing aircraft, essentially two flying wings on top of one another at a 90-degree angle that would take off facing one way for subsonic flight and then rotate another way for supersonic flight.

Jet engines on top of the aircraft would rotate to remain facing forwards as the plane turned sideways to transition between in flight modes, InnovationNewsDaily reported.

Its designers suggest the aircraft could attain supersonic speeds without producing a sonic boom, the Achilles heel that limited where the supersonic Concorde passenger jet could fly over populated land masses.

"I am hoping to develop an environmentally friendly and economically viable airplane for supersonic civil transport in the next 20 to 30 years," Zha said. "Imagine flying from New York to Tokyo in four hours instead of 15 hours."





http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Si...speed_999.html
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Old 09-07-2012, 09:03 PM   #3
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http://www.abcforums.com/showthread....-000-from-NASA
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Old 09-08-2012, 02:43 AM   #4
lomonel

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Airbus further suggests that flying in formation be used to cut air drag and boost fuel efficiency. "High frequency routes would allow aircraft to benefit from flying in formation like birds during cruise bringing efficiency improvements due to drag reduction and lower energy use," according to the Vision statement. That's going to take an extremely sophisticated autopilot to do safely. The consequences of a bird on bird collision during formation flying is negligible... aircraft full of passengers, less so.
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Old 09-08-2012, 04:12 PM   #5
inmeirulez

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I see a few issues.

First would be capital cost. Propelled take off systems wont be cheap.

Flying in formation does reduce drag, but from air force formation flying experience doesn't always reduce fuel. That is because the outside fliers are always adjusting speed to stay in tight formation, and that pumping the throttle wastes fuel.


Then if you do fly in formation you can't all take off and land at the same time. So you need to wait at each end to form up, then split up. That would waste fuel.

Idle descents is already what we try to achieve. Flying faster on descent won't help (we fly pretty close to best glide speeds now). In fact we tend to fly on the fast side of best glide, so steeper descent will be worse.

By far the biggest saving in fuel can be made with better ATC and airport infrastructure. No point saving three drops of fuel in cruise and descent to waste three tonnes holding.

So for instance now you takeoff from Perth to fly to Brisbane. A four hour flight. It isn't until you get 200 miles from Brisbane that you find out you have to hold for 30 minutes. You could have lot that time in cruise, and saved a bit of fuel doing so in the process. However the ATC systems are not yet designed to make those long range flow controls.

Of course having 2 runways would mean no holding at all. There are many tens to hundreds of,holds a day. That is a lot of fuel wasted.
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