A sustainable post-pandemic future for aerospace

The last year has been a very difficult one for the aerospace and aviation industries. Severe restrictions on travel have turned otherwise crowded airports into deserted landscapes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most companies in the aerospace and aviation sector had to undertake difficult measures to be able to survive. On a positive note, a crisis such as a pandemic can often be an opportunity to bring changes for a more sustainable future. While predicting the future is always difficult and risky, there are certain factors that point toward a hopeful and renewed future for the aerospace and aviation industries. A quick search of news from the aerospace sector since the start of the pandemic will drive our attention to three points that I would like to emphasize in this article. The first two points are linked with the plan of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to cut carbon emissions to half of 2005 levels by 2050. In September 2020, Airbus announced its new zero-emission concept for future aircraft. It is based on hydrogen-propelled aircraft with three different configurations: two hybrid liquid hydrogen-turbofan configurations, one of which is a blended wing-body design, and a hybrid liquid hydrogen-turboprop. Airbus expects these new aircraft configurations to be ready by 2035. With this important push for a greener aviation, we can expect to see the airports of the future change drastically compared to what they are today. In particular, the refuelling of these new aircraft at airports demands a new infrastructure to generate, transport and store hydrogen. While hydrogen has almost three times the amount of energy per kilogram as gasoline, it has only a fourth of the amount of energy per litre. Therefore, storing liquid hydrogen requires a considerable amount of volume. If hydrogen is stored as a gas then high-pressure tanks and a process to transform it to liquid hydrogen are needed. Additionally, before a new aircraft configuration can fly it must be certified, which will add extra pressure to the ambitious schedule of readiness by 2035. In January 2021, Boeing announced that it expects to deliver commercial airplanes flying 100 per cent on biofuels by 2030. Boeing has already successfully flown the world’s first commercial flight using solely biofuel in 2018 and has now decided to move forward with this ambitious new goal. To do this, Boeing will have to make the necessary changes to its aircraft systems and to certify the new aircraft. In terms of local airport infrastructure it is expected that the path to 100 per cent biofuels is expected to be easier than that for hydrogen because biofuels are already in use with mixes of up to half biofuel and half jet fuel. Nonetheless, a significant growth in the use of biofuels is still a challenge in terms of the production and supply chain, including transportation. Efficient biofuel distribution demands higher levels of decentralization for the conversion processes, as detailed in the sustainable aviation fuels guide of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). In 2020, Transport Canada issued a call for proposals for traffic management services testing for remotely piloted aircraft systems. This initiative falls within the rapidly growing sector of unmanned air vehicles (UAVs or drones). Drones have become ubiquitous in our everyday lives for both recreational activities and military operations. Unmanned air traffic management (UTM) is an area that has developed significantly since 2015 when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) opened U.S. skies to drones with the first notice of proposed rule-making for unmanned flight regulation. The possibility of a near future where drones are widely used for search and rescue, package delivery, and urban mobility, has drawn attention to the need of new regulations. This is essential for commercial jets to fly safely on an approach and landing trajectory without worrying about UAVs in their flight path. The first collision of an aircraft with a UAV in North America occurred in 2017 when an aircraft was descending into Québec City. The post-pandemic aerospace industry seems to be geared toward a more sustainable solution for transportation of goods and passengers and to safer airspace regulations to accommodate both manned and unmanned aircraft. This is a promising path to the future. Luis Rodrigues is a professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering of Concordia University where he leads a research group on guidance, navigation, and control. He has worked on collaborative research and development projects with several companies in the aerospace industry. He is a former director of education of the Concordia Institute of Aerospace Design & Innovation and is associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems. The Hill Times