Blogging about aviation
Handling of environment and sustainability in the aviation industry
The European aircraft manufacturer Airbus could have succeeded in taking an important step in the ecological competition with Boeing and Co: For the first time, Airbus is flying an aircraft entirely without conventional kerosene: with SAF (Sustainable Aviation Fuel).
As Airbus announced on 29 October, this is the first time that the company and French aviation company has operated an aircraft with regenerative fuel. An Continue reading “First flight without conventional kerosene”
On Sunday, January 31, 2021, a Lufthansa Airbus A350-900 will take off for the longest nonstop flight in Lufthansa history: 13,700 kilometers from Hamburg to the military base Mount Pleasant in the Falkland Islands. On board there will be scientists and crew members of the research vessel “Polarstern”.
At 9:30 p.m., it’s “Ready for take-off” for 16 crew members and 92 passengers. On board the special flight are Continue reading “Lufthansa takes off with polar explorers to a 13,700-kilometer Nonstop Journey”
Synthetic fuels, along with battery and fuel cell propulsion systems, are another technological building block for making the mobility of the future sustainable and climate-neutral. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) has now been commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) to plan a pilot plant for the production of climate-neutral synthetic fuels on an industrial scale.
The pilot project is intended to Continue reading “DLR starts planning production of climate-neutral kerosene”
The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is an important key to the further development of aviation. It requires ambitious research and solutions that go far beyond the continuous improvement of current aircraft technologies. On January 20, 2020, Bauhaus Luftfahrt e. V. and its partners from aviation research and industry officially launched the IMOTHEP project in Brussels, a research initiative on hybrid electric propulsion that is funded by the European Commission as part of Horizon 2020 .
Aviation X Lab, an aviation-specific incubator that brings together Airbus, Collins Aerospace, Emirates, GE Aviation and Thales under one roof, was recently unveiled at Area 2071 and established a long-term partnership among the five industry giants. It invites startups, innovators, academics, NGOs, activists and companies worldwide to participate in problem solving. Continue reading “Aviation X Lab wants to redesign the future of aviation”
Serving the irresponsibility and the greed of consumers for ever cheaper ticket offers, to quickly jet somewhere at the weekend, to fly domestic routes, has further dramatic not only ecological but also economic consequences for the airlines itselves.
On the morning of 30 July, the Lufthansa share fell by up to seven per cent to its lowest level for two years. The discount battle with airline tickets Continue reading “Ruinous price war in the sky – Airlines serve greed and irresponsibility of consumers”
“We do not currently see any restraint – on the contrary,” Lufthansa Group CEO Carsten Spohr told the Neue Züricher Zeitung (NZZ) on 14 July in an interview on the question of a possible Greta effect. The Swedish schoolgirl Greta Thunberg is the initiator of the worldwide student protests, which also blame the growing number of flights for climate change. Continue reading “Lufthansa does not feel a “Greta effect””
Air traffic has come under fire in the discussion about climate protection, also through “Fridays for Future”. Among other things, French President Emmanuel Macron called for kerosene to be taxed throughout Europe. In an interview with Zeit online, the CEO of the Federal Association of the German Air Transport Industry (BDL) said that air traffic is already bearing its full costs for society. This is not true, writes energy economist Sebastian Timmerberg in a guest article for Zeit online and calls for a kerosene tax. Continue reading ““Flight shame” – expression of a bad conscience”
The conversion from fossil to renewable fuels is one of the most important challenges of the future. The “SUN-to-LIQUID” project, funded by the European Union and Switzerland, was the first to produce solar kerosene. The production of renewable kerosene from water and CO2 is made possible by concentrated sunlight. Continue reading “Kerosene from sunlight, water and CO2”
In 2022, the first European factory for biokerosene starts operations in the Netherlands. KLM undertakes to purchase the majority of its production. Continue reading “First European factory for biokerosene”