TECH TALK
REDUCING EMISSIONS AND THE USE OF ALTERNATE FUELS
Aviation has come a long way in experimenting with renewable/alternate fuels to reduce the reliance on fossil fuel, as well as combat the issue of aircraft emissions contributing to global warming. This has been accelerated thanks to funding from various governments. We will see how the collapse of oil prices will aff ect these eff orts. There have been a few experiments with various types of electrical aircraft (which includes solar, fuel cell, etc.) but these have been rather isolated experiments. Automobiles such as the electrically-powered Teslas,
hybrids such as the Toyota Prius, and fl eets of natural gas or propane-powered buses and trucks have started to make some headway. These are all important and needed solutions but the next generation of vehicles will not need dedicated, traditional batteries as we know of them today.
Nanotechnology scientists are developing lightweight
supercapacitors that can essentially be formed as body panels, thus reducing much weight from a vehicle. These body panels will have the capability to hold much higher charges, providing more power to the driver (no more jokes about a Prius holding up traffi c), a faster charge time, and a possible elimination of many expensive rare-earth metals upon which most higher-end batteries depend today. These panels could conceivably make better use of captured energy produced by regenerative braking and extend the range of a vehicle. Early versions of these supercapacitors might need to be combined with lithium batteries to be economically feasible initially, according to recent reports. Once the safer use case of powering a ground-based
vehicle with these supercapacitors is demonstrated, you can see how not only smartphones, tablets/computers and thousands of other commercial electronics devices would benefi t from this, but this would greatly alter designs of satellites, drones and perhaps even aircraft.
DRIVER-ASSIST TECHNOLOGIES WHICH COULD BE APPLIED TO AIRCRAFT
Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) assist the driver in the driving process, and these have been improving constantly. When combined with the earlier-mentioned V2V/V2I communication systems, ADAS will assist in potentially evading accidents by not only alerting a driver to potential problems, but also by taking control when needed. Safety-focused systems can provide automated braking, alerts to dangers or emerging events, maintain proper lane control and provide vision on blind spots, among other features. The use of various types of sensoring technology as illustrated in the diagram borrowed from a recent report on automobile innovation illustrates some of the key capabilities being worked on, or available today.
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Diagram courtesy of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (Auto Alliance)
Why is this of interest to aviation? If these solutions can
be provided for automobiles economically, why can’t they be adapted to aircraft and tied into aircraft control systems? There is little reason besides the lack of impetus. Many incidents that result in damage to aircraft happen on the ground and many can be avoided. Imagine if aircraft wing tips used some form of ‘blind spot detection’ or even a ‘parking assist solution’, how many taxiing accidents could be avoided entirely? What if such automotive solutions adapted for aircraft use could be tied into a smarter control system (such as those starting to enter luxury cars today) that brakes for you? What if it steered you away prior to you noticing the need to do so? Imagine if ground support equipment at airports adapted some of these solutions, such as V2V, blind spot detection and parking assistance. We could possibly eliminate many accidents where aircraft are damaged by GSE. This requires airports and MROs to also support the use of automotive technologies and work with aerospace companies and aircraft operators to fi nd ways to deploy interdependent solutions (sort of an expanded NextGen for ground operations).
DOMmagazine
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