Page 38 - Flight International (January 2020)

TECHNOLOGY REVOLUTION

Solar Impulse made first
circumnavigation in 2016 Solar Impulse

try’s long-term goal of cutting emissions to Even in light of these efforts, Piccard says ple who live in a badly insulated house and
half of 2005 levels by 2050. that the industry has an image problem when stream cat movies – they criticise aviation.”
“It’s clear that getting rid of all CO2 emis- it comes to carbon emissions. Ever since Procedure modifications, state-of-the-art
sions is difficult, but offsetting is a good op- Swedish environmentalist Greta Thunberg technologies and better story telling are one
tion. And it’s not expensive. All airlines could shunned a jet in favour of travelling from thing. But the biggest impediment to lasting
be carbon neutral with a single administrative Europe to North America by sea and back change in terms of climate protection, which
decision from management.” again, aviation has become a popular punch- also applies to aviation, is the glacial speed of
One of the foundation’s 1,000 solutions is a ing bag for climate-change activists, though it policy making.
software package called Skybreathe, which produces just 2% of annual global emissions. But this, too, is shifting, Piccard says. “Poli-
uses artificial intelligence and big data to help ticians finally have an alibi to act. For the past
pilots reduce fuel consumption by up to FELINE OFFENDERS year, young people have been demonstrating
5% per flight without any modifications to “Aviation is not worse than other industries. in the streets for climate action. This is new
the aircraft. “That is huge for any airline,” Streaming videos of sex and cats on the inter- and this is what we need.”
Piccard says. net represents half of the emissions of CO2 of Piccard is optimistic that aviation industry
Despite this kind of success, Piccard says all of air transport around the world,” Piccard leaders will make the necessary choices to re-
the time for incremental optimisation is over. says. “The textile industry produces 7% of main responsible global citizens – if only for
Technologies must now be revolutionary if global emissions. Houses produce 40%. Peo- the sake of their bottom lines. ■
the aviation industry is to contribute to
solving today’s climate emergency in any
meaningful way.
“If you look at the history of aviation, the
first 50 years brought us from the Wright
Brothers Flyer to the Boeing 707. Every inno-
vation was disruptive. But since then, the air-
planes have looked the same, there has been
no innovation, just optimisation – less noise,
less fuel, safer, more comfortable. We have to
go back to innovation, and that innovation
will bring hybrid power sources, electric air-
planes, new types of shapes, designs and ma-
terials, and this is very promising.”
Air France recently partnered with the
Solar Impulse Foundation, committing to de-
velop projects that support its environmental
roadmap. These are not limited to engine effi- Aviation pioneer
ciencies and improving fuel burn, but will and environmental
also include alternatives to single-use plastics campaigner Bertrand
and cabin waste management, clean ground Piccard at the controls Solar Impulse
operations and noise reduction.

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