ZEROe Airbus, taking a new direction, announced that they are, “Exploring game-changing concept aircraft – known as ZEROe – powered by hydrogen, a disruptive zero-emission technology with the potential to reduce aircraft emissions by up to 50%.” Two seem to be evolutionary, employing a different fuel and powertrain within fairly conventional airframes. The third, a blended-wing body (BWB) structure, emulates Boeing’s and NASA’s BWB. All three, though, employ hydrogen to meet the planet’s need to reduce or eliminate carbon dioxide and other emissions. All three use hydrogen hybrid power systems. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in a 2019 report looked at the different electric and hybrid systems available. The organization included a factor examined before in this blog. “The climate benefits of electric aviation may come not only from its reduced CO2 emissions, but also from the elimination of contrails – the long, thin clouds that form in the wake of jet engines2. Although no scientific consensus exists on …
Contrails and Climate Change
Contrails are the trails of condensed water vapor that follow an airplane at a high enough and cold enough altitude. They became a visible presence in World War II and were part of newsreels of allied bombers hitting Germany and dog fights over the English countryside. There was more than just an aesthetic side to the new, high clouds in the sky, though. Post-9/11 During the attacks on September 11, 2001, FAA controllers, “Did the only thing they could think of to try to control the situation: ordering every aircraft in U.S. airspace, about 4,000 of them, to land somewhere, anywhere, immediately.” “Canadian officials followed. Airports in Atlantic Canada quickly filled with thousands of bewildered people who had been flying west across the Atlantic from Europe, but found themselves stranded in Goose Bay, Labrador or Stephenville, [Newfoundland].” Following this mass grounding, an observable cooling took place. Andrew Carleton, a geographer at Pennsylvania State University recalled his observations at the time. “I remember walking …
Capturing Carbon and Making Airplanes from It
Climate scientists have tracked the growing percentage of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air, and noted a correlation between that rise and global warming. Scientists from Michael Mann to Benjamin Santer have measured the changes in CO2 levels against climate change, with 97 out of 100 climate scientists accepting that human activities and rises in CO2 (and other greenhouse gases such as methane) are affecting our overall climate. Not to start an argument about this matter, this entry looks at a novel method of removing CO2 from the atmosphere and using it to make possible carbon materials that would be used in aerospace and other components. The question of carbon removal usually includes some method of storing it. Futurism.com has a great overview (too large to display here) that shows those methods. One enterprising group of scientists avoids the costly and difficult means of carbon storage and instead focuses on retrieving carbon and turning it into carbon wool, a usable …
5th Annual CAFE Electric Aircraft Symposium Launches New Age of Flight
Dr. Brien Seeley, founder and President of the CAFE Foundation, shares this important news. SANTA ROSA, CA.—On April 29-30, 2011, an outstanding faculty from NASA, industry and academia will present the technologies necessary to inaugurate the Age of Electric Flight. The 5th Annual CAFE Electric Aircraft Symposium (EAS V) will reveal how safe, emission-free, 2-4 seat electric aircraft could soon make a doorstep-to-doorstep round trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles on a single battery charge at nearly twice the overall trip speed of airline travel. The latest breakthroughs in energy storage, motors, quiet propulsion, powered lift, electronic pilot assistance, autonomous flight and aerodynamics will be presented along with proposals for how they can transform transportation. EAS V will again network its faculty with the attendees, including venture capitalists, leaders of the aircraft industry, government researchers and aviation enthusiasts in the highly successful evening Theme Dinners in the Grand Ballroom of the Flamingo Resort and Spa in Santa Rosa, California. As …
Dr. Stephen H. Schneider: 1945 – 2010
Dr. Stephen Schneider, Stanford University climate scientist, early advocate of climate change and a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the U.N. organization that with former Vice President Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, died Monday of a heart attack while on a flight to London from a science meeting in Stockholm, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. He held many post-doctoral degrees and was a scientific advisor for every president from Richard Nixon to Barack Obama. He was awarded several post-doctoral fellowships and won the prestigious MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” in 1972. He and his wife, Dr. Terry Root, shared the national Conservation Achievement Award in 1993 from the National Wildlife Federation. His web site provides an insight into this “climate warrior’s” outlook and approach. Battling the forces arrayed against even acknowledging the serious threat climate change poses to life on earth, he explained the issues in his book, Science as a Contact Sport: Inside the Battle to …