Impact of Vehicle Technologies and Operational Improvements on Aviation System Fuel Burn

Abstract

With the expected growth in demand for commercial aviation and the consequent rise in number of flight operations, there are major concerns regarding the negative environmental impact of such growth, especially with regard to fuel burn, jet emissions, and airport noise levels. Regulatory bodies have been striving to drastically limit such impact by outlining aggressive environmental goals for the aviation industry to abide by. This study focuses on the potential fuel burn reductions from vehicle technologies and operational improvements to achieve those system-level goals. Moreover, the interdependencies between both technological and operational solutions are investigated. Results show that vehicle technologies are essential to achieve the long-term environmental goals with operational improvements providing immediate benefits in the short-term. Furthermore, it is shown that, for some combinations of technological and operational solutions, interdependencies are significant and could be positively exploited to achieve additional fuel burn reductions.