Tag: ecoDemonstrator

Boeing, Airbus Widebody Debuts Set for 2025

Aviation Week reports that the slow-moving “world of new widebody passenger aircraft should see a welcome uptick in activity in 2025, thanks to the introduction of the ultra-long-haul Airbus A350-1000 version for Qantas’ Project Sunrise and the long-delayed commercial debut of Boeing’s 777-9 stretched twinjet.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)

Latest Boeing EcoDemonstrator Studies SAF Use on Contrails

Aviation International News reports that while studies have determined an 85% reduction of carbon emissions from sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), the contrails produced by SAF have not been studied to determine how they differ from those generated by kerosene. To that end, The Boeing Company has partnered with United Airlines and NASA “to study the phenomenon with its latest EcoDemonstrator aircraft.” In early October, Boeing “began flying a CFM LEAP-1B-powered 737 MAX 10 destined for United Airlines on 100 percent sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and conventional fuel in separate tanks, alternating the fuels during testing.” Studying multiple fuels “with the same engine allows researchers to differentiate the emissions reductions resulting from advanced engine technology from those resulting from advanced jet fuel chemistry.” Although the sample “of results from last month’s testing remains too small to draw any conclusions, researchers from Boeing, NASA, GE Aerospace, and German aerospace research center DLR expressed optimism over the observations from the first three weeks of trials.” DLR Research Team Lead Christine Voigt explained some of the science behind the effect of SAF on contrail production and said, “These sustainable aviation fuels have a lower aromatic content and these are precursors to the soot particle emissions and the soot particles are the precursors for the ice crystals and contrails. Science tells us that warming from contrails might be as large as the warming from CO2 emissions.”
Full Story (Aviation International News)

Boeing 737 ecoDemonstrator Will Test Satellite Data Link for Pilot-to-Controller Communications

Aviation Today reported a heavily modified Alaska Airlines 737-9 will be the test bed for The Boeing Company’s 2021 ecoDemonstrator program. The aircraft will “provide the opportunity for Inmarsat to evaluate the use of Internet Protocol Suite (IPS)-based satellite data link communications between pilots and controllers.” The 737-9 has been equipped with “antennas, modems, and radios to enable the use of Inmarsat’s Iris satellite communications technology for data link messages – normally transmitted over Very High Frequency (VHF) radio – exchanged between the aircraft’s flight management computer and ground-based air traffic control systems.”
Full Story (Aviation Today)

Boeing’s EcoDemonstrator Trials Looked to Reduce Noise, Optimize Routes

Aviation International News reports that in early September, The Boeing Company completed flight trials of its ecoDemonstrator. The trials “evaluated the effectiveness of noise-mitigating fairings attached to the 787-10’s Safran landing gear. Further noise testing involved the use of 200 small microphones attached to the left side of the aircraft’s fuselage and 1,000 more listening devices on the ground in Montana.” The tests “also demonstrated a system meant to more accurately guide flights around hazards such as storms, allowing pilots to better plan their routes and more quickly arrive at their destinations.” EcoDemonstrator program manager Doug Christensen explained that the trials also looked at optimizing routing by incorporating “a system called Four-dimensional Trajectory Optimization and the Terminal Area Management System under development at NASA.” The system “uses digital signals via satellites that ground personnel send to the flight deck and provide immediate information that now gets communicated via radio transmission or Acars.”
Full Story (Aviation International News)