The electric plane accelerates its takeoff to fight against CO ₂

The shame of flying, the Swedish environmental movement that seeks to punish the plane to reduce CO2 emissions, is gaining weight in northern Europe at a time when the airline industry is cleaner than ever and the development of electric and hybrid aircraft is a priority. For example, over the past 18 years, easyJet has reduced its emissions by more than 32% thanks to the use of lighter, less polluting aircraft, such as Airbus’ Neo, which reduces fuel consumption by up to 20%.

A trail that follows the entire aviation sector (Vueling will add 47 Neo aircraft to its fleet) with a view to halving net emissions by 2050 compared to 2005 levels “by implementing all available fuel efficiency measures and participating in a long-term shift towards sustainable fuels”, explains IATA. An ambitious goal, since, according to Airbus, the global fleet of passenger aircraft will double in the next 20 years to reach 48,000 units, and that goes through the use of biofuels, the implementation of hybrid engines in commercial aviation and overcoming the challenge of taking off with a one hundred percent electric engine.

Projects to develop electric aircraft have doubled worldwide in just over a year

“Commercial aviation currently accounts for 2-3% of the world’s CO2 emissions. A figure that can reach 30% by 2050 if the industry does not carry out the necessary technological changes,” says Professor Richard J. Parker, chairman of the board of Clean Sky.

Thus, while in Sweden air passenger traffic has fallen by 5% in the first quarter of 2019 and that of the railway company SJ has registered record demand figures, projects to develop electric aircraft have doubled worldwide in just over a year. According to a report by the consulting firm Roland Berger, by mid-2018 100 different projects had been announced for the implementation of non-polluting aircraft, a figure that rose to 170 in May 2019 and will exceed 200 programs by the end of the year.

The projects collected by the consultancy are those that have already made a first test flight with prototypes. In recent years, the number of electrically powered aircraft that are in development around the world has accelerated its growth from the 30 known in 2014, to 44 in 2016, a figure that almost doubled in 2017 to reach 85 projects.

“The transition to electric aviation is necessary and inevitable. Eliminating our dependence on fossil fuels in aviation is critical as the industry grows. Potentially, it also enables a more financially viable future in aviation. Thanks to a reduced number of moving parts, electric aircraft have already shown lower operating costs in light sports aircraft, and we expect this to be extended to general aviation and larger aircraft,” said Kyle Clark, Team Leader Blue-Beta Racing, one of Airbus’ innovation subsidiaries.

In early 2019, the European manufacturer teamed up with Air Race E to launch the world’s first electric aircraft race in 2020. The aim of this partnership is to drive the development of cleaner, faster and technologically advanced electric motors that can be applied to urban air mobility and commercial aircraft in a second phase.

At the moment, the European multinational is focused on launching the so-called taxis or flying cars. Airbus has been conducting test flights of the Vahana since 2018 and in May 2019 carried out the first take-off of the CityAirbus model. Both prototypes, which work with a one hundred percent electric engine and batteries, are designed for short journeys within cities, which allow replacing the car. Thus, the Vahana only has one seat and is autonomous while the CityAirbus has capacity for four people. At the moment they have very little autonomy.

In this line, Boeing successfully performed the first takeoff and landing of its vertical propulsion aircraft (eVTOL), which it develops through Aurora. The company began in 2018 with the development of the one hundred percent zero emissions model and now continues to work on shielding its safety and usefulness to be an alternative for urban transport. In this line, Embraer collaborates with Uber in the implementation of urban air taxis.

50% of the electric aviation projects that are underway focus on the development of urban air taxis, mostly with vertical takeoffs, and 47% on general aviation, that is, on recreational or small aircraft with capacity for up to 15 people. In this case, aircraft usually have hybrid natural gas engines. Zunum Aero is a company that works to revolutionize the regional airline industry with hybrid or one hundred percent electric aircraft, a sector that has grown little due to the strong competition of the train. The company says that trips will be faster and cheaper with its aircraft, which reduce noise by 75% and CO2 emissions by 80%.

In this segment are the electric aircraft developed by Norway and whose first prototype has suffered an accident this week when it was conducting a test for members of the Government. The Alpha Electro G2 is a small battery-charged light aircraft that uses an electric motor and began flying in tests in 2018.

Barriers to trade

At this point, hardly any zero-emission prototypes have been developed for commercial aviation, which will not be able to be one hundred percent electric until 2030, at the earliest. At the moment, Airbus has developed with Siemens and Rolls Royce a hybrid aircraft (electric-gasoline), the E Fan X, which has capacity for 90 people. Within this program we have worked on other one hundred percent smaller electric models. The European manufacturer, which has broken the alliance with the German giant a year ahead of schedule, is now looking to redouble its efforts to boost zero-emission models while, in the short term, it continues to work to reduce fuel consumption as much as possible.

For its part, Boeing announced in January of this year that it would partner with companies, universities and the Government of Japan to develop the technologies necessary for the manufacture of a new generation of aircraft with electric propulsion. In a first phase, the partnership will focus on developing electric propulsion. The goal will be to reduce the weight of the batteries. To make transoceanic commercial aircraft with zero emissions a reality, three barriers must be overcome: technological, commercial and regulatory.

Although the technology required to move a small plane or a car is more than proven, the industry is still a long way from getting the electrical power needed to move an aircraft as large as an ocean liner during the flight hours needed to go from America to Europe. The batteries are not yet dense enough to accumulate the necessary energy so many large ones would be needed that could weigh a lot of weight on the plane. At this point, the engines also don’t have the power to get a large commercial aircraft, such as the A350, off the ground. Although there are already some sufficiently powerful ground engines, these have yet to evolve as the combination with weight and temperature are key to ensuring take-off.

“Not only are smaller developments easier to finance and test, but current electrical system technology still favors lower power and shorter-haul flights. Today’s commercial electric aircraft concepts tend to employ hybrid turboelectric systems,” says Roland Berger.

Airlines are also looking to the emission-free future and, for example, easyJet is collaborating with Wright Electric to develop a 180-seat commercial aircraft capable of covering 500 kilometres by 2027. “For the first time, our industry can imagine a future that is not totally dependent on jet fuel, thereby reducing its associated CO2 emissions and where our noise footprint is reduced for all flights,” said easyJet CEO and Chairman Johan Lundgren.

Source: The Economist