TECH TALK
globally (if the industry were compared to countries). For this reason, ICAO has begun to create a market-based mechanism (cap and trade scheme) for aviation by 2016, capable of being implemented by 2020. The U.S. and other countries have resisted participating in the EU’s version, but now that ICAO is tasked with the initiative, we expect objections (to the initiative) to dissipate somewhat. Climate change issues are not the only driver behind our dependence upon petroleum-based jet fuel since national security concerns come into play. With increased oil and gas production driving down fuel prices in the U.S., and increased domestic supply, this debate might not have the same urgency as it did a few years ago. The need to diversify away from petroleum is just as valid an argument now as ever. The U.S. still imports ~40 percent of its petroleum (Y2012 fi gure), and while this may decline slightly in the years to come, we are still highly dependent upon imported oil. This impacts not only the availability of fuel supplies during times of crisis, but also aff ects our economic balance of trade.
A larger transportation industry issue is how to develop
and provide “drop-in” sustainable alternative fuels. This aff ects not only aviation but vehicles, trains and ships as well. Aviation faces the higher level of risk for the obvious reasons, but this is a shared issue and one area where the government should concentrate its resources. This exercise
requires long-term, wide-scale investments which industry is not prepared to tackle. NASA can help by leading the way in identifying and testing any and all potentially viable alternate fuels.
NASA and industry need to address two sets of issues:
building more fuel-effi cient aircraft and developing and using alternative fuels. Industry has been slowly advancing on the fuel effi ciency front for many years now with lighter materials, more effi cient engines and better operational procedures (assisted by NextGen and RVSM advances, etc.). We seem to be reaching the upper limits on what can be achieved with the base design of today’s aircraft, and radical new designs such as blended wing bodies or radical new engine technologies (or other novel research) to advance aircraft effi ciencies better. These simply cannot come quickly enough.
MEGA DRIVER 3 — TECHNOLOGY CONVERGENCE This seems to be the main area where NASA can work with industry to help advance the current state. Aviation is expected to continue to profi t considerably from utilizing new technologies that are revolutionizing other industries — smart materials (such as shape memory material (SMM)), additive manufacturing (aka 3-D printing), deterministic higher-bandwidth networking (the AFDX bus), and embedded micro- and nano-sensors. As a notable example,
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