Urgent search for better fuel efficiency to cut emissions is driving radical innovation in aircraft design.
Almost everybody on the planet knows what a passenger aeroplane looks like. Its shape hasn’t changed for decades.
Take the world’s bestselling liner, the Boeing 737: the first model in 1967 looks roughly the same as the latest version, the 737 Max. Yet that extraordinary run may be about to change as manufacturers look at a new wave of innovations that could literally change the shape of aviation.
Longer, thinner wings, jet engines with uncovered fans, and an approach that blends the wing into the body of the plane are all being considered by manufacturers, in a potential shift away from the decades-old “tube and wing” approach.
The aviation industry is under pressure to cut the carbon emissions from aircraft, which are responsible for 2.5% of global emissions (but 4% of warming effects). Yet the possible solutions touted have been limited in different ways: “sustainable” aviation fuel (SAF) is not being produced at industrial scale, batteries are not yet dense enough for most flights, and there has been no hydrogen technology breakthrough.
But aircraft manufacturers believe there are still major gains that can be made on fuel efficiency instead as they gear up for new planes by the middle of the next decade. That could make air travel cheaper. More efficient planes could also give the industry some political cover, even as total carbon emissions continue to rise.
“We’re going to be out of runway in terms of conventional design,” said Richard Aboulafia, the managing director at AeroDynamic Advisory, a consultancy. “To have a prayer of getting fuel burn under control, radical ideas are already the way to go.”
If the manufacturers go in different directions, then passengers might start paying serious attention to plane design, says Addison Schonland, an analyst who tracks the industry at AirInsight.
“I don’t think we’ve ever had a situation before, to look at an aeroplane and say, ‘that’s completely different’,” he says.