Intel
I news I Number of Aircraft Retiring from Global Fleet Will Nearly Double in Next Decade
Larry Schneider, Boeing’s vice president for Product Development said he expected “the number of airplanes leaving the global fleet to nearly double in the next decade,” up from the rate of close to 400 a year. Speaking at the Aircraft Fleet Recycling Association’s (AFRA’s) Annual Meeting, in Seattle recently, the Boeing executive said accelerated fleet replacement would ‘rapidly increase the demand for aircraft dismantling and recycling services and introduce unique challenges to the sector’.
Boeing believes that accelerated fleet renewal is largely being driven by higher fuel burn costs, which now make up some 60 percent of total operating costs, up from 30 per cent of costs in the not too distant past. Around 44 percent of the global fleet will be replaced in the next 20 years, amounting to more than 13,000 airplanes. “Our new generation of airplanes can reduce fuel burn costs
by more than 20 percent, this is clearly a key factor driving the replacement of the fleet at higher rate,” says Schneider. The age profile of airplanes being replaced is also dropping significantly, which should provide a boost to the dismantling and recycling industries.
Schneider went on to say that, “AFRA is leading the industry in the development of recycling technologies.” He sees collaboration as the key in developing recycling processes and technologies, if Boeing is to reach its stated aims of recycling 90 percent of airplanes by 2016. “Boeing looks for collaborative opportunities in the fields of dismantling and recycling; we look to work with the best people who have the capacity and the skills to accelerate the development of these technologies. It will take an enormous amount of collaboration when the rates of airplanes leaving the fleet are more than 400 a year,” says Schneider.
The Boeing executive stressed that there is a need to have technologies which “reduce the full lifecycle costs of recycling in order to give a higher recycling value to aircraft so owners and airlines will want to recycle. There needs to be a greater economic incentive to recycle.”
Schneider is keen to see more recycled materials go into both aviation and non-aviation applications. However, “it is much more exciting if we can use recycled materials to design products that can go back into the aviation market,” he says. Boeing has already proven that with manufacturing scrapes airplane components — made from composites — such as small coach seat armrests, galley doors, air conditioning hoses and stow-bin hangers. In terms of supporting demand for recycled aircraft materials Boeing believes there is a need to increase market desire for recycled materials. “It is no use having this material, if you don’t have the people who want to use it. Using recycled aircraft material has to be a viable business, and there is no reason it should not be,” states Schneider. Martin Fraissignes AFRA’s executive director adds, “There needs to
be greater market demand for recycled material. Manufacturers have to design these material options into their products and recyclers have to develop new technologies, and produce the volumes that encourage the whole process.” Boeing’s Eco-Demonstrator program, which includes demonstration flights aimed to develop technologies in a more rapid fashion, could accelerate the development of environmentally sustainable technologies. The company’s closed loop manufacturing system also aims to deliver airplanes than can be reclaimed and recycled with less effort, placing more of a focus on the whole lifecycle value of the airplane.
14 Aviation Maintenance |
avm-mag.com | August / September 2012
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