Over the years I've had lots of ideas and new concepts to save fuel for aviation, perhaps, it is my aviation upbringing which has challenged me to think here? In the future with better material and better designs, and engines or advanced propulsion systems we could see our airliners hosting 50% - 75% increases in efficiency, which would also translate to better fuel economy and less emissions for those who've jumped on the environmental global band-wagon trends.
There was an interesting article recently in "Airport International News" in the December 2011 edition titled; "Electric Green Taxing System Trials" and the article stated: "French defense/aerospace firm Safran and Honeywell have teamed up to develop and environmentally friendly airport technology, full-operational trials to begin in 3-years - a system which would allow for an annual fuel bill reduction of $300,000 per year per aircraft; the towing system is designed for the A320 NEO, as the first demo.
It is an electric taxi system which shuttles the aircraft between runway and terminal, without the use of the jet engines.
" Now then, while I am not a Global Warming Alarmist, nor a supporter of the EU's somewhat draconian regulations on the auto or airline industry - I am very much a believer in efficiency.
To me it's paramount, not only for profits, but also for more re-investment revenue and it's just "plane" good engineering the way I see it.
Okay so, this new taxing system will save tons of fuel, it makes sense, and with that said, maybe we can do much more, for instance how about a cradle system to move the aircraft along on the ground prior to take-off and right after landing.
Less fuel will save weight and thus, efficiency too.
It takes a lot of jet fuel just to move an aircraft around the airport, so this idea in the Airport Trade Journal makes perfect sense to me for sure, and previously I had considered how to get some of that wasted energy back using wind turbines to catch the wing-tip vortices as the aircraft takes off on the run-way, or to catch jet blast and prop-wash from taxing aircraft and run-up tests.
Let's take this new concept of Electric Green Taxing and also find a way to launch aircraft safely - allowing the airliners to save the fuel needed for take-off, as that could amount to almost 10% of the flight and fuel.
By doing this we can extend the range, fuel economy, efficiency, performance, and save lots of money too.
Indeed, I hope you will please consider all this.