Sustainable Commercial Air Transport Calls for a Holistic Approach

Sustainable Operations

Alternative propulsion solutions are core to delivering sustainable operations, whether through sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), hydrogen, fuel cell or battery technology.

While these technologies almost certainly hold the long-term answer for sustainable commercial flying, they are still maturing, leaving a gap to close for commercial air transport to meet its climate targets within the timescales.

Offsetting and carbon capture throughout the value chain can help close this gap, along with the use of new materials and manufacturing methods to reduce aircraft weight, increase efficiency, and lower the energy density bar for new propulsion technologies.

UAM offers a source of fresh thinking and alternative approaches to some of the sustainability challenges facing the established commercial aviation sector, in areas such as safety and propulsion.

All this points to the need for a holistic approach to sustainable operations, encompassing supply chain and materials innovation, carbon offsetting and capture, and learning lessons from the UAM experience.

Innovative Compliant Materials

The materials used in manufacturing aircraft, and the mechanisms for joining, protecting, replacing and reusing them, impact air transport sustainability in multiple ways.

As Airbus, Boeing and other manufacturers have found, maximizing the use of light and durable composite materials significantly reduces fuel consumption and makes alternative power sources with lower energy density more feasible.

Maintenance overheads for composites are lower, particularly when combined with innovative bonding and filling technologies.

The range of materials and options for joining them enables manufacturers to optimize airframes for minimum maintenance and maximum life.

While ease of debonding and re-bonding components to increase life is unlikely to be a significant benefit in aircraft structures because of safety considerations, its application in non-structural areas can still deliver efficiency and sustainability benefits, for example by simplifying cabin refits.

Surface treatments for aluminum components may not immediately spring to mind when considering sustainable air transport, yet they demonstrate how sustainability needs to run right through the supply chain. For example, by creating chromium-free treatments, Henkel is delivering greater sustainability and cost-efficiency around a material that is still a key component in most aircraft.