Today’s Airplane Pollution Is A Big Problem
As people are starting to enjoy flying more and taking longer trips, carbon emissions from aircraft are being released into the atmosphere even more. Currently, about 2.5% of total global CO2 emissions come from airplanes, and that number is rising.
By 2050, it’s estimated that airplanes will be responsible for 5% of the worldwide carbon emissions, which is 43 gigatons of pollution – a mix of CO2 and nitrogen oxides. Obviously, the source of all this pollution is due to the fuel consumed by the plane.
To address this problem, a new partnership between the Delft University of Technology and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has been announced, along with an innovative design of a unique efficient plane. The Flying-V is a plane that’s all wing, and it promises 20% less fuel than the most advanced plane of today, the Airbus 350.
Who Designed The V-Plane?
It was actually a TU Berlin student named Justus Benad, he developed it while working on his thesis.
In October, at the commemoration of KLM’s 100-year anniversary, they plan to debut a flying scale model and also to display a full-sized cabin section.
Flying -V Features
- The Flying-V, has the obvious shape of a “V”.
- It is all wing, with no central fuselage. Therefore, the passenger cabins, cargo hold, and fuel tanks all reside in both of the Flying-V’s wings.
- The wingspan of the craft is about 20 meters shorter in length than the Airbus 350. The plane’s smaller overall size would incur less aerodynamic resistance.
- The Flying-V would accommodate up to 314 passengers and would have the same kerosene fuel capacity, 160m3, as the Airbus 350— although, this amount of fuel would take the Flying-V much farther.
The partners also see this new plane and form factor as an opportunity to improve the cabin experience for passengers and to make it more comfortable, though the details on this have not been announced.
The dean of aerospace engineering at TU Delft, Henri Werj, discussed the project:
We are incredibly pleased to be able to cooperate with our trusted partner KLM on our combined mission to make aviation more sustainable. Radically new and highly energy-efficient aircraft designs such as the Flying-V are important in this respect, as are new forms of propulsion. Our ultimate aim is one of emission free flight. Our cooperation with KLM offers a tremendous opportunity to bring about real change.
The Downfall Of The Flying-V
The only issue with this design ever becoming reality is the manner in which the plane turns in the sky. Planes bank as they change course, one wing tips up as the other tips down.
In a typical conventional craft, passengers sit along the spine of the fuselage, therefore when the plane turns it’s fairly easy to stomach. However, when you’re seated outward in a wing far away from the center axis, banking feels far more extreme and may feel more like a rollercoaster than just a plane ride.
Luckily, the actual deployment of the Flying-V is estimated to be 20-30 years off, so there’s still plenty of time to train your stomach to be stronger or to devise a remedy.
