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`Reshaping Flight for Fuel Efficiency: Five
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`Technologies on the Runway
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`Beyond Boeing Dreamliner 787, a new thrust to curb soaring emissions.
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`By Thomas K. Grose, for National Geographic
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`Reshaping Flight for Fuel Efficiency: Five
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`Technologies on the Runway
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`Beyond Boeing Dreamliner 787, a new thrust to curb soaring emissions.
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`By Thomas K. Grose, for National Geographic
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`Super-efficient geared turbofans like the one shown here during assembly of a
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`Pratt & Whitney PurePower engine are one of many strategies currently being
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`tested to help commercial aircraft become more fuel efficient.
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`A half-mile per gallon might seem like dreadful fuel
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`economy, but for vehicles carrying hundreds of
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`passengers at high altitude, it marks a huge advance in
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`efficiency.
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`For U.S. airlines, domestic flights now average 0.54
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`aircraft-mile per gallon ofjet fuel (0.23 kilometer per
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`liter), an increase of more than 40 percent since 2000.
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`There's also been progress for the heavierjets on
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`international flights: a 17 percent improvement to 0.27
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`mpg (0.12 km/l.)
`And yet, there's a need to do far more. (See related quiz:
`"What You Don't Know About Flights and Fuel.")
`Air traffic worldwide is increasing so rapidly that global
`carbon dioxide emissions from aviation, which now represent
`just 2 to 3 percent of all CO2 pollution, could jump as much as
`500 percent by 2050, according to one forecast. And for most
`airlines, fuel costs have surpassed labor costs as their largest
`expense, about 40 percent of operations, or $47.3 billion last
`year for U.S. carriers. Renewable jet fuel is available, but
`currently it is even more expensive than the petroleum-based
`kerosene it replaces. (See related stories: "As Jet Fuel Prices
`Soar, A Green Option Nears The Runway" and "First
`Commercial U.S. Biofuels Flight Takes Off.")
`That's why the aviation world is looking at technologies,
`shapes, and materials that would transform flight far more
`dramatically than the advances embodied in Boeing's 787
`Dreamliner, which before it was grounded in January was one
`of the world's most fuel-efficient commercial airliners. The
`Dreamliner uses 20 percent less fuel per mile than the similar-
`size Boeing 767, thanks mainly to improved aerodynamics and
`the use of lightweight composite materials.
`Boeing also relied on a powerful lithium-ion battery so it
`could replace some mechanical components with electronics
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`to cut the plane's weight. But two nasty battery incidents—one
`overheated on a runway in Boston, while another caught fire,
`forcing an emergency landing in Japan—led to the grounding of
`all 50 Dreamliners in operation. Boeing has taken steps to
`rewire the batteries to prevent them from overheating, and will
`also encase them in heavy-duty steel boxes that vent outside
`the aircraft.
`On Friday, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration
`approved the modifications, and the Dreamliners are expected
`to be back in the air soon. The U.S. National Transportation
`Safety Board is holding investigative hearings on the battery
`this week.
`While the Dreamliner moves closer to retaking the skies,
`here are five new technologies—including one that will debut
`within months—that could soar far higher in fuel efficiency.
`Geared Turbofan Engine
`Connecticut-based engine-maker Pratt & Whitney, a
`division of United Technologies, tried a radical approach for
`making turbofan engines more efficient—adding a gear. The
`resulting fan-drive gear system engine, more than a decade in
`the making, can cut fuel use by up to 16 percent. "That's huge,"
`says Magdy Attia, a professor of aerospace engineering at
`Florida's Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. "It's a real
`game-changer."
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`The use of the "blended-wing" design seen here on this Boeing X-48C Hybrid
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`Wing Body demonstration aircraft, when used with lightweight materials, could
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`improve aerodynamics on commercial airliners. (More on this design below.)
`
`It was11't a new idea. Honeywell years ago used geared
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`engines for very s111all private jets, but never advanced the
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`technology. That's probably because it's difficult to do, Attia
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`says. The 250-pou11d (113.4—ki1ogra1n), 18-inch (45.7-
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`ce11ti111eter) gearbox 11as 30,000 horsepower passing through it,
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`111ea11i11g there is a lot of heat to manage a11d expel quickly. A11d
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`most aeronautical engineers aren't experts in gearboxes. But
`Pratt focused on making a geared engine that works, and the
`payoff has been huge. Five manufacturers—including Airbus,
`Bombardier, and Embraer—have so far placed orders for 3,500
`PurePower engines. According to Attia, an engine-maker
`typically has to sell 350 units before it starts recouping its
`investment in developing a new engine. So already the geared
`engine is a success, well in advance of its June debut aboard the
`new Bombardier C Series planes.
`Pratt & Whitney says the PurePower line of engines will
`be able to cut carrier operating costs by 20 percent (or about
`$1.7 million per plane per year), dampen noise levels by half,
`and cut CO2 emissions by 3,600 metric tons a year.
`Why does the gear improve efficiency? Modern turbofan
`engines create thrust by expelling fast-moving hot gases from
`their core. But they also use their fans to push slower air
`around the outside of the engine, so it mingles with the faster
`hot gases at the rear, increasing thrust. Typically, engines have
`a bypass ratio of 8:1; eight pounds of the air hitting the engine
`bypass the core for every pound that enters. The higher the
`bypass ratio, the greater the engine's thrust and efficiency.
`Pratt's geared engine has a ratio of 12:1. A jet engine's fan works
`more efficiently at slower speeds than does the core's turbine,
`and the gearbox allows the two to spin independently, each at
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`its optimum speed. Accordingly, PurePower engines have
`larger fans, and smaller, lighter turbines.
`The geared engine does come with its own unique set of
`problems, however. With a larger fan, it cannot be retrofitted
`beneath the wings of existing aircraft. All the planes that will
`use it will be new, designed especially to accommodate the
`fatter fan. Moreover, gearboxes have metal-on-metal moving
`parts, which jet engines don't have. Attia expects that will
`require carriers to schedule more frequent inspections and
`require them to look for cracks and fatigue that they don't have
`to worry about now.
`The first PurePower engines are designed for single-aisle
`jets. But Attia says their "true potential" would be fully realized
`if they were used on larger, 777-size aircraft. "At that size, the
`savings would be just astronomical." Pratt, in an email
`response to questions from National Geographic News,
`certainly indicated larger engines are in the pipeline.
`Eventually. Said Pratt: "We have not yet announced a definitive
`timetable for a Pratt & Whitney Geared Turbofan widebody
`engine."
`Composite Ceramics
`While Pratt opted for a major design change to improve
`jet engine efficiency, other researchers are focused on
`materials, especially those that would allow for hotter
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`combustion. In fact, one of the primary ways engine-makers
`have improved jet efficiency so far has been finding ways to
`burn the fuel and air mix inside turbofan jet engine combustors
`at hotter temperatures, while developing nickel-based alloys
`that can withstand the heat. But there's been a problem with
`this approach. "We have hit their thermodynamic limit,"
`Robert O. Ritchie, a materials scientist at the U.S. Department
`of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in
`California, says of those alloys. That's around 1,150°C (2,102°F).
`"If we go much hotter, they (engine turbine blades) will
`literally melt."
`So researchers have turned to a material found in most
`cupboards: ceramics.
`Some engine parts, including turbine blades, have
`ceramic coatings, but it's not an ideal solution because the
`coatings can spall off, and they also reduce the blades'
`efficiency, Ritchie says. But parts made purely from ceramics
`could withstand temperatures approaching 1,300°C to 1,500°C
`(2,372°F to 2,732°F).
`However, as anyone who has ever dropped a teacup
`knows, ceramics are brittle. Metals, on the other hand, have
`ductility; they bend before they break. But materials scientists
`have developed composite ceramics reinforced with, well,
`ceramics. They've introduced ceramic fibers to the mix, giving
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`the material ductility.
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`An engine component developed for the Reaction Engine Skylon space plane
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`above could also be used to boost the efficiency of current plane engines. (See
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`more below.)
`
`There are still 111a11y u11know11s about co111posite
`
`cera111ics, including 110W best to make them a11d improve their
`
`properties. To aid u11dersta11ding, Ritchie recently developed a
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`scanning device that uses three—di111e11sional tomography that
`
`literally peers through the materials i11 real time as they're
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`pulled apart amid temperatures reachi11g 111ore than 1,700°C
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`(3,092°F). His imaging device 11as a resolution of half a micron.
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`(For comparison, a human hair is roughly 75 microns in
`diameter). "We test it to the breaking point to see how it fails,"
`he explains. That information can be used to compute the
`predicted life of the material and how far it can be safely
`pushed. It also allows scientists to reformulate a composite's
`mix to improve its microstructure and make it more robust and
`reliable.
`Ritchie predicts that within five to ten years, commercial
`jet engines with a significant number of parts composed
`entirely of ceramic composites will be in use, allowing engines
`to run hotter by several hundred degrees Celsius. "Today we're
`excited if we can increase temperatures by 5°C (9°F)."
`Moreover, fuel efficiency will be further improved because the
`ceramic parts should decrease engine weight by 10 to 30
`percent. "This is truly a disruptive technology," Ritchie says.
`The "Double Bubble"
`Could changing the shape of the fuselage, the iconic
`tube-like central body of an aircraft, make a difference in fuel
`economy?
`Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of
`Technology (MIT) think so. In a project funded by NASA, an
`MIT team came up with a concept called the "double bubble,"
`which essentially merges two fuselages into one rather chubby
`one. It also has two rear-mounted engines. According to Rich
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`Wahls, a NASA project scientist, it is designed to provide part of
`the lift in the fuselage, not just the wings, which allows it to
`have much thinner, lighter wings made from new-age
`materials.
`Moreover, the rear engines ingest boundary layer airflow,
`giving the aircraft better drag. The bottom line: The technique
`allows the engines to use less fuel for the same amount of
`thrust as a conventional aircraft.
`Wahls reckons the double bubble would be 60 to 70
`percent more efficient than current passenger jets, although
`those estimates are based, in part, on assumptions that the
`materials and structures of choice will, by then, be stronger
`and lighter. Half of that efficiency gain would be due to the new
`shape, says Wahls, and nearly half of that projected
`improvement relies on the assumption that the plane's cruise
`speed is Mach 0.72, or slightly slower than today's average,
`Mach 0.8.
`A more detailed assessment of the double bubble
`potential will be developed later this year, when a prototype is
`to be tested in a wind tunnel at the NASA Langley Research
`Center in Virginia. The MIT concept emerged from a project
`that NASA initiated in 2008, challenging engineering teams to
`restyle jetliners to use considerably less fuel. Boeing also came
`up with a concept in the NASA program that will be tested later
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`this year at Langley.
`Boeing's concept is nicknamed SUGAR, for Subsonic
`(slower than the speed of sound) Ultra Green Aircraft
`Research. In SUGAR, wings sit atop the fuselage and are held in
`place with struts fastened to the body's undercarriage—like
`small, single-engine Cessnas. Boeing's engineers believe that
`by using modern computational fluid dynamics they can
`minimize the extra drag caused by the struts, allowing for the
`longer, lighter, and higher wings—a weight reduction that saves
`fuel. The longer wings also lower drag, another fuel savings.
`Overall, Boeing estimates that the strut-wing design could
`reduce fuel consumption by about 60 percent.
`Boeing is also considering different propulsion systems.
`The SUGAR Volt would use an electric battery/gas turbine
`hybrid power system. Conventional jet engines would be used
`for takeoffs, but the aircraft would cruise using battery power.
`Another version is the SUGAR Freeze, which would be powered
`by liquefied natural gas.
`The Flying Wing
`Imagine commercial flight in an aircraft shaped like a B-
`2 stealth bomber.
`Aviation engineers have long known that the manta-ray
`silhouette of a "flying wing," also known as a "blended wing," is
`a highly efficient shape for airborne vehicles, from a lift-to-
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`drag ratio perspective. But the cigar-shaped fuselage with
`which we're all familiar is easier to design to withstand outside
`forces while maintaining cabin pressure. A blended-wing
`aircraft built using conventional materials and frames would
`be very heavy, indeed. But NASA has been working with Boeing
`on a blended-wing aircraft using lightweight composites.
`For the past six years, in a flight test project that ended
`just this month, NASA and Boeing have been conducting aerial
`research on the concept using a drone, Boeing's X-48 remotely
`piloted blended-wing aircraft. Working with the unmanned
`aircraft allowed the researchers to address issues such as how
`to transform the airframe so it does a better job of shielding
`engine noise from the ground, an improvement that would be
`key for gaining acceptance for such aircraft in communities
`near airports.
`NASA says that, working with Boeing, it has devised a
`method to manufacture a 777-size blended-wing plane that
`would be at least 50 percent more efficient. Strong, but
`lightweight, carbon-composite rods would be used for the
`wing's structural skeleton. Its skin would be made from carbon
`fiber fabric, stitched together, and then coated in epoxy to
`make it rigid. The design overcomes a big hurdle, because the
`lighter a fabric is, the less tolerant it is to damage. That's where
`the stitching comes in. "If you develop a crack in a composite
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`structure, what stops it from growing? The stitching is the low-
`weight solution," Wahls explains.
`While the concepts from other NASA-led projects, the
`double bubble and SUGAR planes, are unlikely to take to the
`skies anytime soon, blended-wing jets could become
`commercially viable within a few years, says Wahls. "Years of
`research have put us ahead of the game on that one," he says.
`High-Speed Heat Exchanger
`Since the retirement of the Concorde in 2003, there have
`been no civilian aircraft in operation that fly faster than the
`speed of sound (Mach 1). But Britain's Reaction Engine aims to
`build Skylon, a space plane that would reach speeds of Mach 5
`and bring any destination on Earth to no more than four hours
`away.
`
`Reaction says its Sabre engine, which would operate like
`a jet engine in the atmosphere and like a rocket in space, could
`fly far faster than today's military supersonic jets, which are
`limited to Mach 2.45. (See related story: "First Green
`Supersonic Jet to Launch on Earth Day.") That's because the air
`first has to be compressed before it enters the core, and trying
`to compress enough air to reach faster speeds produces metal-
`melting heat.
`So Reaction has developed a heat exchanger, a pre-
`cooler, that has a spiral matrix of tubes, each with a wall
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`thickness of only 27 microns, to keep it lightweight. Reaction's
`exchanger can cool air from 1,000°C to -150°C (1,832°F to
`-238°F) within a hundredth of a second, or faster than a blink of
`an eye. Cooling something to that icy a temperature so quickly
`could, however, cause frost to build up and block the engine.
`But Reaction has also developed a technology that prevents the
`formation of frost. For competitive reasons, it's not saying how
`it's done that, but the technology was certified late last year by
`the European Space Agency.
`What's all that got to do with making planes more
`efficient? Reaction says the exchanger could be installed inside
`current subsonic engines to make them 5 to 10 percent more
`efficient. A jet engine's turbine powers its compressor. But if
`the air entering the compressor is chilled, it needs less power
`to compress it. That means that without increasing the
`temperature within the combustion chamber, the turbine will
`create excess power that can be used to generate more thrust.
`Embry-Riddle's Attia says that weight and cost would have to
`be factored in, "but the principle is very smart, indeed."
`A Reaction Engines spokesman says a workable,
`commercial version of the heat exchanger could be on the
`market "as soon as anyone wants one." For now, it's just one of
`the new efficiency technologies waiting on a long runway;
`history has shown the process of testing and adoption of new
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`ideas in aviation moves a good deal more slowly than the speed
`of sound.
`This story is part of a special series that explores energy
`issues. For more, visit The Great Energy Challenge.
`
`(cid:28) Comment on This Story
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