Collaborative Effort To Help Accelerate Environmental
Technologies For Aviation
Boeing rolled out its ecoDemonstrator Program for accelerating
environmental technologies at news conference at Farnborough on
Wednesday. The ecoDemonstrator Program will emphasize emerging
technologies in the areas of fuel efficiency, noise reduction and
operational efficiency, while readying technologies at a faster
pace for aviation applications.
"Commercial aviation is in rapid pursuit of its goal of
carbon-neutral growth by 2020, primarily driven by technology
advancements," said Billy Glover, managing director of
Environmental Strategy for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. "The
ecoDemonstrator Program can help accelerate industry efforts by
providing a platform that integrates innovation and technologies in
a way that ensures as they mature, they are market-ready. The
program also will enable emerging technologies to be tested for
further research consideration."
The FAA, through its Continuous Lower Energy Emissions Noise
(CLEEN) program recently awarded Boeing a $25 million matching cost
contract for technology development. Under this contract, which
will be a part of the ecoDemonstrator Program, Boeing will deliver
the flight test portion of the program and targeted technologies.
Two ecoDemonstrator aircraft will be used, including a
Next-Generation 737 in 2012, with a second series of flights aboard
a Boeing twin-aisle aircraft in 2013.
The ecoDemonstrator Program will build on the FAA CLEEN program
foundation and be a continuum of focused technology testing, which
will include further collaboration across the aviation industry.
Technologies in development for the FAA CLEEN program include
ceramic matrix composite acoustic engine nozzles, advanced inlets,
and adaptive wing trailing edge flaps that can help reduce fuel
consumption and noise during the take-off, climb and landing phases
of flight. The Boeing ecoDemonstrator Program also will include
collaborative work with IHI Aerospace of Japan to evaluate
regenerative fuel cell technology for onboard auxiliary power
applications. That technology also will be flight tested with other
emerging technologies in an effort to quicken technology
development through rapid prototyping methods, challenging goals
and the rigorous process of integrating technologies onto a
flight-test platform.
"The ecoDemonstrator Program allows aviation to accelerate
promising environmental technologies, from discovery to feasibility
and airplane applicability. Moving these technologies from the
laboratory to flight test enables industry to learn faster about
addressing airplane integration challenges, making demonstrator
programs a proven part of our commitment to environmental
performance," said Jeanne Yu, director of Environmental Performance
for Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
Recently, Boeing completed a successful series of sustainable
biofuel test flights, which demonstrated the technical feasibility
of flying jetliners and military aircraft using renewable fuel
sources. Other recent demonstration program examples include
in-service evaluations of chrome-free paint systems, Tailored
Arrivals for optimizing aircraft landing procedures and in-flight
testing of recycled carpet developed for cabin interiors. The
ecoDemonstrator Program builds on the Quiet Technology
Demonstrators, which successfully highlighted advanced noise
reduction technologies aboard a Boeing 777 aircraft from 2001 to
2005.
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