MAY 08

If Elon Musk is right, we might one day fly in electric planes. That day is probably far off, but there are still things that the airline industry can do to cut their fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emission (2% of the nation’s total). And a lot of those things are easy, low hanging fruit.

Naverus is a company founded by former Alaska Airline pilots. Naverus specializes in navigation technology that helps makes flights more direct. This makes flights better for us passengers, but it also burns less fuel. Their navigation method, called RNP (Required Navigation Performance) also helps minimize the time a plane spends waiting to take off or land.

How much difference do these methods make? Test flights using them were conducted in both Texas and Australia, and they managed to save, respectively, 8% and 18% of the fuel normally required for the trips.

It seems that those results are good enough for the Obama administration. The government is pledging $865 million to the Department of Transportation to incorporate these methods into our existing air traffic control infrastructure.

Via Greentech Media

Comments (14)

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runescape gold
written by runescape gold, May 09, 2009

When you play games, you really thought about the Department of your equipment well enough, your account than others, your gold enough ... There are better! What you want to have here.come on..Let's go!

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written by David, May 09, 2009

That's interesting. I wonder if it would be hard to implement internationally, I guess there is all this flying around countries that won't give permission and stuff. But it's definitely something the European union should look at.

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written by campbell, May 09, 2009

Electric airplanes? Not likely. A lot of payload capacity lost in light of the increased weight of electric generation. Unless......it is solar.

Which airplanes cannot do simply because they do not have the square foot space needed by photovolatics...

But, airships do. And so, we are working towards solar powered airships. see you on board!

(NOT blimps)

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Make Flights
written by Glenn, May 10, 2009

Now this will be progress! Sometimes I feel like I was born in the coal age... Guess I an feel fortunate that I was born in the emerging electrical age instead...

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written by CNCMike, May 10, 2009

You can already fly an electric plane if you want to put it together yourself.

http://www.electraflyer.com/electraflyerc.php

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written by John Rowell, May 10, 2009

In the mean time I'd like to see some basic emissions reduction technology on airplanes. Smaller prop-driven planes have no emissions regulations that I'm aware of - I doubt they even have catalytic converters - and they still use leaded fuel and pollute like crazy! I'm sure there's plenty of room for improvement with the 747's as well. I'm all for CO2 reduction, but even more I'd like to see the basic matter of pollution reduction which can be achieved so much more easily. If you've ever been to an airport then I'm sure you, like me, have smelled all the nasty smog that envelopes one.

And yes, electric airplanes are the future. If not cellulosic ethanol or bacteria-derived jet fuel or something similar.

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Electric plane
written by Ashb, May 10, 2009

I am not sure how that is going to work, unless you make all propeller planes again, there is nothing as such as electric jet plane. Or is there?

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I'd rather see...
written by ed, May 12, 2009

more effort in finally building up High Speed Rail in the US. flights of 500 miles and below can be eliminated if high speed rail is given more attention. there's absolutely no reason not to ramp up the arrival of HSR and eliminate unnecessary short range flights.

that in itself can eliminate tons of CO2 emissions annually. if the Airlines complain about loss of profits, then have them operate the high speed rails as private enterprise in partnership with rail companies. I'm sure that the Airlines would make decent profits if they eliminate costly short range flights and use high speed rail instead....but, knowing how the government operates, they'd rather give HSR to the mismanaged Amtrak.

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Dans,Dance,hiphop
written by Dans, May 13, 2009

I have always dreamed you want to dance at the speed of such aircraft have a very good aircraft

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Marketing Analyst
written by Ekaterina, May 19, 2009

Good to know that aviation industry is also taking positive steps toward emissions reduction. Important to remember, that the first step to reducing your footprint is to establish your baseline. Publishing a carbon report—and then tracking the results of your reduction efforts—on a public registry is also a great way to showcase your organization’s corporate social responsibility efforts. CSA just launched the GHG CleanStart™ Registry to help organizations measure, monitor and manage their carbon emissions. Check it out at www.csa.ca/carbonperformance Also, CSA Climate Change is being featured in Canadian Business Journal: http://www.canadianbusinessjou...may_09.swf

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güzel
written by film izle, May 21, 2009

nice web site thanx webmaster

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lotro powerleveling
written by lotro powerleveling, June 19, 2009

I am glad to talk with you and you give me great help! Thanks for that,I am wonderring if I can contact you via email when I meet problems.

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written by Fred, June 30, 2009

I'd prefer my usual aircraft

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Cheap Canadian Flights
written by Cheap Canadian Flights, August 04, 2009

Hi. Thank you for this post, I'm glad to see someone writing about this topic. This is helpful because electrical airplanes really interesting topics .Thank you to your post. Keep it up. Goodbye. Have a nice day.

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