Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
Leeham News and Analysis
- Embraer downplays tariff impact on 2025 results May 6, 2025
- JetZero readies effort for private equity fund raising May 5, 2025
- Bjorn’s Corner: Air Transport’s route to 2050. Part 20. May 2, 2025
- Supplier Howmet exceeds expectations despite tariffs May 1, 2025
- Airbus 1Q2025 results: So far, so good, but US tariffs make future results unpredictable May 1, 2025
Bjorn’s Corner: Electrical flight, how real?
By Bjorn Fehrm
10 July 2015, ©. Leeham Co: We have just witnessed the first solar electrical aircraft, Solar Impulse 2, cross the ocean from Tokyo to Hawaii. Today, Friday, Airbus Group will cross the English Channel with a battery powered electrical aircraft, the E-Fan.
How real is electrical flying? Real enough to make demonstration flights like the one to Hawaii and to Calais. Both these aircraft are technology demonstrators but it is symptomatic that they do these hops now, 2015.
Airbus Group’s E-Fan aircraft is preparing to cross the English Channel. Source: Airbus.
We live in the years when electrical cars have gone from exotic one-offs to serial produced products, still expensive but more and more practical. Why should not the aircraft industry follow? Read more
PNAA Conference Pt 3: Renewable biofuels
The future of bio-fuel is different from the bio-fuel today, says John Plaza, CEO of Imperium Renewables. He is speaking at the Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance conference in suburban Seattle. It will be drop-in fuel, potential to be cheaper, meet same specifications as petroleum, equivalent to civilian (JP-8) and military fleets (JP-10).
First generation of bio-fuel is bio-diesel. Second generation will be the drop-in described above. Bio-fuels have to become multiple products as in the petroleum industry.
- We’re seeing increasing density of bio-fuels, which increases BTUs and efficiency on long-haul flights.
- WA State has one of highest recycling programs in the country but still generates a lot of trash (much of which is trained to Oregon). Trash can contribute to bio-fuel.
- Bio-fuel without subsidy costs around $4/gal vs $3.25 or so for jet fuel, so there is still a price disparity.
- 200 million gallons of jet fuel within 100 mile radius of wood slash can be generated.
- Other feed stocks: Jatropha, Eucalyptus, mixed growth plots. Algae is interesting but requires more research.
Enviro Aerospace conferences this week, next month
Here is a good enviro-aerospace conference coming up next month that provides one of the broadest coverage of topics to anyone interested in the emerging green-aviation issues. Sponsored by the AIAA, the conference
is called Making a Difference: Aerospace Leadership for Energy and Environmental Challenges.
“Making A Difference” has about the best agenda and broad spectrum of speakers we’ve seen of any enviro-aviation conference in the US. Representatives of the FAA, Air Transport Association, Shell [Oil] Global Solutions, the Office of Science and Technology of the Office of the President of the United States, MIT, Billy Glover, Boeing’s top enviro guru, the USAF, Delta Air Lines, EADS, United Technologies (parent of Pratt & Whitney), NASA and a number of other top-level organizations, agencies and companies are speakers. This event is May 11-12 in Washington (DC).
This follows an event this week (April 27-29), also in Washington, entitled Advanced Biofuels leadership Conference. The Air Transport Associationm United Airlines, Lufthansa, the FAA’s CAAFI bio-fuels group, FedEX, several biofuels companies, UOP (the Honeywell company at the forefront of aviation biofuels) and US Airways are among the companies, agencies and groups at this conference.
These two conferences provide the broadest possible coverage of these enviro-aerospace topics.
Key conferences coming up
There are a couple of key conferences coming up that we want to particularly bring to the attention of our readers.
In Washington State, there is the Innovation Summit next Friday, April 9.
Aside from the fact we’re appearing on the aerospace panel (our third conference appearance this year already), this summit goes well beyond commercial aerospace and also deals with defense and non-defense issues, including clean technology.
Which leads us to the Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference April 27-29 in the “other Washington,” WA DC. With aviation moving toward biofuels at an increasingly rapid pace is an important event.
Then there is the Making a Difference: Aerospace Leadership for Energy and Environmental Challenges May 11-12, also in Washington, DC. This is a particularly attractive program. This one is sponsored by AIAA, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Coupled with Aviation Week’s Eco-Aviation conference (dates this year still to be announced), these provide the most comprehensive opportunities in the US for aviation environmental conferences.
Aviation Week’s 2009 conference.
Airfinance Journal has its 30th Annual conference April 26-27 in New York City. This is a premier aviation conference that focuses on commercial aviation finance.
Eco-Aviation Conference May 26
Air Transport World and Leeham Co. have organized the second USA Eco-Aviation Conference in Washington DC. More information may be found here.
2nd Eco-Aviation Conference set
The second Air Transport World-Leeham Co. Eco-Aviation Conference has been scheduled. More information is here.
Boeing Environmental Report
Boeing just issued a 50 page report on its approach to environmental issues. In addition to the link here, we’ve added this permanently under our Green Aviation section.
Boeing is participating our our Eco-Aviation conference June 18-20 in Washington, DC, organized with Air Transport World.
There is a high quality list of speakers.
Eco-aviation continues to gain importance in profile and substance. Boeing’s Scott Carson, president of the Commercial Aircraft division, spent a fair amount of time during his presentation at the annual investors’ conference yesterday talking about aviation and the environmental movement.
In an interview we just completed with Airbus for the new publication, Aviation and the Environment, Airbus discussed the environmental advances of the A350’s new Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engine compared with the new Trent 1000 on the Boeing 787. Although the Trent XWB doesn’t represent a technological break-through, it does provide advances over Rolls’ own latest engine technology for the game-changing 787.
Whereas fuel efficiency and noise have been the drivers in the past for new airplanes, there are a whole new set of drivers for technological advances to protect the environment.
Boeing’s new environmental report is important reading for a better understanding of what Boeing is doing and the issues in eco-aviation.
Leeham website update
Our Corporate Website has been updated with in-depth commentary. This week we write about eco-aviation and of technology transfer to Japan and the Boeing 787.
We quickly received a note from Lynn Lunsford of The Wall Street Journal on the latter subject. We cited a Forbes story in our comment–Lynn points out Forbes picked up the item from his piece on March 27. The relevant except is below:
In what could prove to be an important alliance, Mitsubishi Heavy has persuaded Boeing to participate in the program by working with it to adapt elements of the same carbon-fiber composite technology being used in Boeing‘s new 787 Dreamliner. Mitsubishi Heavy and two other Japanese companies are major financial partners with Boeing on the bigger jet, so they already have experience with these materials. By incorporating composite materials that don’t corrode or fatigue with age, Japanese officials hope to differentiate their product from those of competitors that rely largely on aluminum.
Mitsubishi Heavy and Japanese government officials had hoped that Boeing would sign on as a significant investor in the project, but the Chicago aerospace company declined, saying it needed to stay focused on getting its delayed Dreamliner out of the door. “We will participate in a limited way. Discussions are under way to determine exactly what will be of most value to the program,” said a Boeing executive familiar with the talks.
Eco-Aviation in the US
Eco-Aviation continues to gain ground in the US. Environmental forces in Europe have been targeting aviation for several years, and very aggressively. In the US, the issue has been much slower to catch on.
Airbus and Boeing have been working for years to reduce the environmental impact of their airplanes. The development of the A380, 787 and A350 are manifestations of this effort. In concert with the engine makers, GE/CFM, Rolls-Royce, Pratt & Whitney and International Aero Engines, the manufacturers have worked to reduce CO2 emissions.
We’ll be taking a more in-depth look at this issue next week on our corporate website bi-weekly update. In the meantime, Air Transport World and Leeham Co. have organized the USA’s first dedicated Eco-Aviation conference.
This conference has representation of the environmental community, US regulators, airframe and engine manufacturers and the airlines.
More information about the conference may be found here.