We are living in strange times when the Conservative Party in the UK objects to a new runway at Heathrow Airport while the business world wants expansion. Piling on the confusion, the party has floated the idea that building new high-speed rail links in Britain could take the strain from the plane and make runway room available for long-distance flights. This idea does not, it seems, appeal to all of the railway operators who point out that trains are a part of an integrated transport network. So many of their passengers are on their way to catching flights.
If the Conservative Party thinks that protecting bits of west London from concrete will rake in votes, maybe it should read the press release on a recent survey. Commissioned, for some strange, reason by "the UK developer of the digital valve", Camcon Technology, the survey found that, as the press release summarised it, "green issues, such as climate change, noise and air pollution, worry almost three quarters of Brits (74 per cent), yet only 22 per cent of people admitted that these concerns had affected the number of flights they take".
You don't have to shut down air travel to deal with the main objections to it: noise and energy consumption, a proxy for climate change. As well as putting money into electric cars, governments could fund the development of aircraft that are quieter and use less energy.
You might think that the aerospace industry is already on the case. To a certain extent that is true, with both Boeing and Airbus proclaiming their green credentials. But both are really involved in incremental innovation. All of their aircraft are, to use a phrase from one of the UK's experts in aircraft noise, Professor Ann Dowling of Cambridge University, "a long tube with wings stuck on the side".
I recently had a chance to talk to Professor Dowling at length about her work, which, as well as helping to quieten Concorde when the makers belatedly considered this worth doing, has included running the Silent Aircraft Initiative. I first wrote about the SAI here three years ago, but listening to Professor Dowling throws new light on the venture, which has now moved on to address aviation and climate change as well as noise.
Professor Dowling described the way they went about the project. "Setting a very ambitious target for noise levels made us look at the design of an aircraft – the integration of an aircraft, engines and the airframe – in different ways. The important thing was to break away from incremental change, from current thinking."
The result of the project was a "blended-wing body". The large delta-shaped aircraft is effectively a single structure. Unlike conventional aircraft, the SAI has an 'all-lifting' design, with the centre-body producing lift as well as the wings.
While engineers strive to squeeze a per cent or two of noise and fuel consumption out of new aircraft, it is mostly what Professor Dowling would call 'incremental'. The blended wing could be revolutionary – effectively silent beyond an airport's perimeter and with serious gains on fuel efficiency.
The defence sector, often the source of money for innovation in aviation, probably doesn't need this sort of aircraft. And Boeing and Airbus don't have the financial resources it would take to reinvent the airliner. And yet, one Boeing engineer has said, on the record, that given the will it could be done in five years, a number that even Professor Dowling finds optimistic.
If people really do want to keep on flying, and to do it in an environmentally friendly way, how about putting cash into something like this, as well as into electric cars? According to Danny Chapchal, the CEO of Camcon, which commissioned the survey: "The majority of the UK population is evidently concerned about the environment but, rather than altering their travelling habits, people expect airline operators and aircraft manufacturers to reduce aviation's environmental impact." Given the sudden interest in putting government cash into worthwhile ventures, perhaps funding clean and quiet aircraft might find favour with the public.
Further information:
http://www.camcontec.com/press_releases/press_release_25.htm
http://silentaircraft.org/
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