Air passenger travel is growing three percent a year with projections that numbers of those traveling by air will double or perhaps even triple by 2030, leading futurists to wonder if the new Airbus A380 is a harbinger of the future.
“Current research points to a dramatic re-design of airplanes which will not only accommodate higher volumes of air travel but will also be more environmentally friendly than today’s craft,” says CNN
“We have to come up with solutions in the aerospace world. A large part of these solutions come from introducing aircraft with new technologies,” said Dr Juan Alonso, head of NASA’s Fundamental Aeronautics program.
One of the major drivers in aircraft research is improving craft efficiency. It is conceivable that in craft of the future, fuel burn – which directly affects energy use and environmental impact – could be reduced by anything up to fifty percent.
One way to do this is to change the shape of aircraft.
There is still much debate going on in aeronautical circles, with Boeing, the European Research Program and NASA all searching for the optimum aircraft shape, reports CNN.
There are active programs in Europe, Japan and the US looking into noise reduction technologies for supersonic flight. Supersonic craft of the future will also have a similar environmental impact as subsonic craft.
Supersonic craft of the future are most likely to be small, seating eight to ten passengers, and initially used for business travel.
Report by David Wilkening
