Mapping carbon emission improvements
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By Aimée Turner
How would an attempt to show improvements in carbon emissions of representative jet aircraft look?
The San Francisco-based International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) has examined industry trends in efficiency improvements in new aircraft with the help of aviation design software house Piano.
Daniel Rutherford, ICCT senior researcher, helped prepare this graphic for Flight International that for clarity simply identifies historical gains in aircraft efficiency on a type and service-entry basis.
He points out that the three aircraft classes shown (narrowbody, two- and four-engined widebodies) serve different market segments and should not be compared - rather, the focus should be on the trend of improvement within a given type.
"This graphic suggests that rates of efficiency improvement vary over time and between different aircraft types and that efficiency improvements are used for some combination of reducing fuel burn/CO2 emissions at a given flight length and to enable greater range," says Rutherford.
