Reducing Aircraft Emissions for a Better Earth

Last month, we saw our company chairman, Richard Branson, take the reigns on global warming.  But he wasn’t done with making the Earth a better place to live. 

Branson announced that he is in the process of preparing a new plan to reduce aircraft emissions by up to 25%.  As he said, “With global warming, the world is heading for a catastrophe.  The aviation industry must play its part in averting that.”

The plan entails improving aircraft movements by pulling planes closer to the runway before takeoff so that their engine running time would be lessened and the planes would not burn as much fuel, thereby reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

Branson is looking for these initiatives to be implemented “within two years,” he says, and when implemented, will save “over 150 million tons of carbon emissions a year.”

Posted by on 10/12 at 02:56 PM

  1. Saving 25% of fuel used by aircraft from push-back to engine startup to the runway is ludicrous. In some cases the time on the ground even 30 minutes will not add up to 25 % of the fuel used say even on a 3 hour flight. Plus there are engine checks and system checks that are done while taxing out.

    This is where problems are usually found. Start up and take off in 2 or 3 minutes. No thank you. I want to know those turbine engines turning 35,000 rpm per minute are running just right.  Sometimes the crew will start one to taxi if a delay is anticipated and then start the other a few minutes before expected T.O. clearance. This allows system checks to be done.

    While I whole heartily support his move o clean up the air. The 25% fuel savings is just a tad high at 90% of todays airports. There is already a delay built in for push back clearance for a plane waiting to depart the gate. Sometimes, even if pushed back, the crew will wait to start the engines if a long delay is anticipated.  Nobody especially me loves the smell of jet fuel sitting behind 9 airplanes at LAX. You wonder what the CO 2 does to the aircrews blood system. I know pilots that go on O2 if it gets too bad.

    Starting the engines and just flying away 2 minutes later, not enough time to be safe and the absolute worse time for an engine problem, is on take off, hot day, heavy with fuel, people and cargo.

    We already have enough built in danger with noise reduction restrictions. When you hear the engines idle back a little on take off, that is the most likely period for an engine failure.  Lets just get rid of oil, then we will stop killing ourselves. I support Richard but his savings claim is off a bit.

    Plus it’s not the Ozone layer, it’s the first 10,000 feet of air we breath that really matters. Above that you need supplemental oxygen. We better hurry the millions of tons of pollution is just about o get a billion times worse. Just wait till China goes with cars instead of bikes. In Northern Alaska in the winter you can see the red tinge in the air from Japan, Korea China etc a band at about 30,000 feet that rides the jet stream. We do all live on a small blue marble.
    Geoff

    Posted by  on  10/15  at  03:13 AM
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