Climate Impact Mitigation Potential of Novel Aircraft Features

Abstract

This work presents a transpacific airliner designed for minimal climate impact, incorporating several novel design features. These include open rotor engines, sustainable aviation fuels, natural laminar flow airfoils, and riblets. The design’s configuration and mission have been optimised simultaneously using a combination of standard preliminary techniques, experimental data, a multi-point mission analysis, and a model of average temperature response. It is demonstrated that, on an 8000 km mission, the design offers an 89.8% reduction in average temperature response relative to an Airbus A330-200, at the expense of a 7.3% increase in direct operating cost. The sensitivity of these results is investigated by comparing the performance over a range of operating conditions. In addition, several alternative designs incorporating only some of the above-mentioned features are analysed, allowing for an assessment of their individual contribution. Finally, a life-cycle average temperature response analysis is presented to place the climate impact of operation, manufacturing and end-of-life procedures in context.