New Aircraft Engine Designs to Cut Impact on Climate Change

Open rotor design predicted to deliver 25-30% cut in CO2 emissions. $1 trillion future aircraft market opportunity to address environmental concerns.

The Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC) launches the third in its series of eleven briefing papers explaining the technology that the aviation industry is developing to tackle climate change.

This paper looks at the concept of powering new single aisle, shorter-range aircraft using open rotor engines - a technology that is predicted to deliver a cut of between 25 and 30 per cent in fuel burn and therefore CO2 emissions when compared to current traditional jet engines. The aviation industry, through the Sustainable Aviation initiative, has set itself the target of cutting CO2 emissions by 50 per cent of 2000 levels by 2020.

The need to replace ageing fleets in the traditional markets such as the US and Europe along with an expansion of aviation in emerging markets such as China, India and Latin America has led to forecasts of demand for 15,000 new aircraft. This market is worth US$1 trillion but it is also a huge opportunity to introduce new technologies to cut aviation's impact on the environment. Open rotors are one potential technology that could help achieve this reduction.

Although further development work is required to address certain issues associated with open rotor engines, such as noise and different certification requirements, by undertaking the appropriate research and development, the industry is confident that these challenges can be overcome.

Other published papers examined the work being done within the aviation industry to tackle noise and engine emissions.

Ian Godden, SBAC Chief Executive, said: "Environmental fringe groups have used protest stunts to seek to portray the aviation industry as determined to ignore the issue of climate change and plough on regardless. Nothing could be further fromthe truth. The concept of open rotors is one that we are exploring as part of our efforts to discover new, geener ways of flying.

"Some of the brightest minds in the UK, working in some of our most innovative companies, are exploring the edges of technological possibilities to supply future aircraft markets with the cleanest aircraft possible.

"Our industry spends GBP2.5 billion per year on research and development. Airlines and their passengers - our customers - wish to continue flying but in a greener way. We are meeting their demands through technological advances that also provide high-value jobs. Our industry is a manufacturing success story for the UK and it is doing all in its power to address the issue of climate change."

Source : SBAC

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