Global Aviation Research Articles

Challenges of sustainable development and safety of world civil aviation in the conditions of globalization

The UN's global strategic document is the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It is an action plan aimed at ensuring global sustainable development in economic, social and environmental directions, which ensures that no UN member country is left behind. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals in the 2030 Agenda can be used as guidelines for the coordinated development of UN member states. Every year, the number of countries that also connect aviation to a wider range of UN Sustainable Development Goals, such as 4, 8, 9, 11, 13, 14, 16 and 17, is increasing. At the same time, the achievement of these goals requires working out the theoretical foundations of strategic management of global civil aviation safety. The issue of aviation safety is one of the top priority challenges from the first day of flights. Years passed, technology, avionics, engines, navigation aids changed and developed, but the problem did not lose its relevance. ICAO's purpose: to ensure the safe and orderly development of all aspects of international civil aviation. ICAO develops Standards and Recommended Practices. They are set out in 19 Annexes to the Convention on International Civil Aviation. ICAO's new strategies are the basis for further sustainable development of global civil aviation.

Исследование аэродинамических характеристик самолета при попадании в зону турбулентности ясного неба и вопросы безопасности полета

Shear flows in the atmosphere lead to formation of the clear-air turbulence (CAT) zones. These zones are having the characteristic horizontal size of 20 km to 2000 km and may be less than 1000 m thick making it difficult to detect them and create effective systems to find the bypass routes. Intense CAT zones could appear at the altitudes of up to 30 km and higher. The main CAT feature lies in the fact that it occurs not in the clouds, but in the clear sky with good visibility, where meteorological radar is unable to detect it, and the flight crew is unable to get prepared. Every year, about 750 cases of the aircraft entering the CAT zones are registered in the global civil aviation. This work constructs a grid solution that simulates the large-scale atmospheric turbulence based on the atmospheric profiles taken from the experiment within the framework of the boundary value problem for the Reynolds-averaged Navier – Stokes equations. On the basis of the obtained solution and within the frames of the engineering method, coherent vortex structures (CVS) are formed, interaction with which, assuming the hypothesis of the perturbed speed frozen field, makes it possible to evaluate possible increments in the aerodynamic forces and moments and to simulate a situation of the aircraft entering the CAT zones.

Is hydrogen the fuel of the future? [Sustainability - transport

As the global aviation industry reeled from the impact of Covid-19, with thousands of jets grounded and passenger numbers down by 60 per cent, a bold initiative began at the aerospace technology institute in Cranfield, England. Early in 2021, a team of 100 experts from across the UK launched a one-year intensive research project to investigate the best route to zero-emission commercial flight.

Statistics and Machine Learning in Aviation Environmental Impact Analysis: A Survey of Recent Progress

The rapid growth of global aviation operations has made its negative environmental impact an international concern. Accurate modeling of aircraft fuel burn, emissions, and noise is the prerequisite for informing new operational procedures, technologies, and policies towards a more sustainable future of aviation. In the past decade, due to the advances in big data technologies and effective algorithms, the transformative data-driven analysis has begun to play a substantial role in aviation environmental impact analysis. The integration of statistical and machine learning methods in the workflow has made such analysis more efficient and accurate. Through summarizing and classifying the representative works in this intersection area, this survey paper aims to extract prevailing research trends and suggest research opportunities for the future. The methodology overview section presents a comprehensive development process and landscape of statistical and machine learning methods for applied researchers. In the main section, relevant works in the literature are organized into seven application themes: data reduction, efficient computation, predictive modeling, uncertainty quantification, pattern discovery, verification and validation, and infrastructure and tools. Each theme contains background information, in-depth discussion, and a summary of representative works. The paper concludes with the proposal of five future opportunities for this research area.

Fuel Cell Hybrid-Electric Aircraft: Design, Operational, and Environmental Impact

To reduce the environmental footprint of the aviation industry, aircraft with new propulsion systems are increasingly under consideration. In this paper, the potential of a fuel cell hybrid-electric aircraft (FCHEA) powered by hydrogen and kerosene is assessed. First, the methodology for the conceptual design of a single-aisle short-range FCHEA is developed and presented. Then, the environmental impact of this aircraft on its design mission is determined by means of a one-dimensional climate model and the climate metric sustained global temperature potential with a time horizon of 100 years. To complete the picture, the fleet adoption of the FCHEA concept is determined with the help of a fleet system dynamics model taking future air traffic development, fleet age, and production capacities into account. This makes it possible to analyze the potential of FCHEA to improve the environmental footprint of aviation considering the operational environment in the global aviation market. The results show that for a single FCHEA powered by liquid hydrogen produced via electrolysis with renewable energies, climate impact reductions of 15.2–17.8% can be achieved. The fleet uptake of the FCHEA made full use of the available production capacities, but still it was able to serve only 15.8% of total available seat kilometers.

Recent Advantages on Waste Management in Hydrogen Industry.

The turn to hydrogen as an energy source is a fundamentally important task facing the global energetics, aviation and automotive industries. This step would reduce the negative man-made impact on the environment on the one hand, and provide previously inaccessible power modes and increased resources for technical systems, predetermining the development of an absolutely new life cycle for important areas of technology, on the other. The most important aspect in this case is the development of next-generation technologies for hydrogen industry waste management that will definitely reduce the negative impact of technology on the environment. We consider the approaches and methods related to new technologies in the area of hydrogen storage (HS), which requires the use of specialized equipment equipped with efficient and controlled temperature control systems, as well as the involvement of innovative materials that allow HS in solid form. Technologies for controlling hydrogen production and storage systems are of great importance, and can be implemented using neural networks, making it possible to significantly improve all technological stages according to the criteria of energy efficiency reliability, safety, and eco-friendliness. The recent advantages in these directions are also reviewed.

Transport patterns of global aviation NOx and their short-term O3 radiative forcing – a machine learning approach

Abstract. Aviation produces a net climate warming contribution that comprises multiple forcing terms of mixed sign. Aircraft NOx emissions are associated with both warming and cooling terms, with the short-term increase in O3 induced by NOx emissions being the dominant warming effect. The uncertainty associated with the magnitude of this climate forcer is amongst the highest out of all contributors from aviation and is owed to the nonlinearity of the NOx–O3 chemistry and the large dependency of the response on space and time, i.e., on the meteorological condition and background atmospheric composition. This study addresses how transport patterns of emitted NOx and their climate effects vary with respect to regions (North America, South America, Africa, Eurasia and Australasia) and seasons (January–March and July–September in 2014) by employing global-scale simulations. We quantify the climate effects from NOx emissions released at a representative aircraft cruise altitude of 250 hPa (∼10 400 m) in terms of radiative forcing resulting from their induced short-term contributions to O3. The emitted NOx is transported with Lagrangian air parcels within the ECHAM5/MESSy Atmospheric Chemistry (EMAC) model. To identify the main global transport patterns and associated climate impacts of the 14 000 simulated air parcel trajectories, the unsupervised QuickBundles clustering algorithm is adapted and applied. Results reveal a strong seasonal dependence of the contribution of NOx emissions to O3. For most regions, an inverse relationship is found between an air parcel's downward transport and its mean contribution to O3. NOx emitted in the northern regions (North America and Eurasia) experience the longest residence times in the upper midlatitudes (40 %–45 % of their lifetime), while those beginning in the south (South America, Africa and Australasia) remain mostly in the Tropics (45 %–50 % of their lifetime). Due to elevated O3 sensitivities, emissions in Australasia induce the highest overall radiative forcing, attaining values that are larger by factors of 2.7 and 1.2 relative to Eurasia during January and July, respectively. The location of the emissions does not necessarily correspond to the region that will be most affected – for instance, NOx over North America in July will induce the largest radiative forcing in Europe. Overall, this study highlights the spatially and temporally heterogeneous nature of the NOx–O3 chemistry from a global perspective, which needs to be accounted for in efforts to minimize aviation's climate impact, given the sector's resilient growth.

Current Situation Analysis and Future Outlook of Boeing Co.

Boeing Company is the leading aerospace company in contemporary times. As a result of pandemics recently, the global aviation industry has been severely impacted, and the operational risks faced by Boeing have also expanded. Based on the business strategy and profit model of Boeing Company in recent years, this paper analyzes the dangers that the Boeing Company has experienced in its operations and growth from the standpoint of the interaction between its resources, operations, and financial data over the last three years, in order to forecast its future growth.

Nitrogen deposition from aviation emissions

Excess nitrogen deposition from anthropogenic sources of atmospheric emissions, such as agriculture and transportation, can have negative effects on natural environments. Designing effective conservation efforts requires knowledge of the contribution of individual sectors. This study utilizes a global atmospheric chemistry-transport model to quantify, for the first time, the contribution of global aviation NOx emissions to nitrogen deposition for 2005 and 2019. We find that aviation led to an additional 1.39 Tg of nitrogen deposited globally in 2019, up 72 % from 2005, with 67 % of each year's total occurring through wet deposition. In 2019, aviation was responsible for an average of 0.66 %, 1.13 %, and 1.61 % of modeled nitrogen deposition from all sources over Asia, Europe, and North America, respectively. These impacts are spatially widespread, with 56 % of deposition occurring over water. Emissions during the landing, taxi and takeoff (LTO) phases of flight are responsible for 8 % of aviation's nitrogen deposition impacts on average globally, and between 16 and 32 % over most land in regions with high aviation activity. Despite currently representing less than 1.2 % of nitrogen deposition globally, further growth of aviation emissions would result in increases in aviation's contribution to nitrogen deposition and associated critical loads.

Towards True Climate Neutrality for Global Aviation: A Negative Emissions Fund for Airlines

What would it take for aviation to become climate-neutral by 2050? We develop and model a trajectory for aviation to reduce its CO2 emissions by 90% by 2050, down to a level where all residual emissions can be removed from the atmosphere without crowding out other sectors that also need negative emissions. To make emitters pay for the carbon removal, we propose and model a negative emissions fund for airlines (NEFA). We show that it can pay for the removal of all CO2 emitted by aviation from 2030 onwards, for a contribution to the fund of USD 200–250 per ton CO2 emitted. In our baseline simulation, USD 3.3 trillion is invested by the fund over 40 years in high-quality carbon removal projects designed for biodiversity and societal co-benefits. While we do propose a number of governance principles and concrete solutions, our main goal is to start a societal dialogue to ensure aviation becomes both responsible and broadly beneficial.

Impact of airlines’ human resources strategic management implementation on organizational performance : Focusing on the moderating role of organizational commitment

The global aviation industry suffered great disruption during the COVID-19 pandemic. Numbers of airplanes, routes, and employees were all reduced. However, in 2022 the situation has begun to improve, and increased travel demand means more pressure on aviation company human resources. This study examined the relationship between strategic human resource management (SHRM) and the organizational performance of airline cabin crew members. An online survey was performed to employees at a Korean full-service carrier, resulting in 279 usable samples for analysis. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) discovered three variables (training development, career development, and compensation and reward) of SHRM. Regression analysis showed that all three variables had a significant effect on organizational performance. Hierarchical regression analysis found that organizational commitment performed a moderating effect between SHRM and organizational performance. This means the effect of SHRM on organizational performance varies depending on organizational commitment. Thus, organizational commitment is an important variable that regulates the relationship between SHRM and organizational performance. The study provides broad suggestions regarding airline operations and human resource management by discussing the effect of SHRM factors on cabin crew members’ organizational performance. Moreover, the findings can suggest future methods for airline company human resource management after COVID-19.

Global commercial aviation policies in the context of the climate crisis and an analysis of these approaches from the perspective of Türkiye

The climate crisis is becoming more visible day by day and is affecting the ecological system more and more. However, despite such a visible threat and its severe effects, efforts at the national and international levels are far from tackling the climate crisis. Especially with its rapid growth and ever-increasing emission rates, the commercial aviation sector remains inadequate in combating the climate crisis. This study discusses the global and Turkish commercial aviation sectors’ struggles with the climate crisis. As a result, both international and domestic commercial aviation sectors follow an unrealistic attitude in the fight against the climate crisis, and there is still a long way to go.

Global tourism, climate change and energy sustainability: assessing carbon reduction mitigating measures from the aviation industry.

As many business activities—especially those associated with the energy-intensive industries—continue to be major sources of greenhouse gas emissions, and hence significantly contributing to global warming, there is a perceived need to identify ways to make business activities eventually carbon neutral. This paper explores the implications of a changing climate for the global tourism business and its intertwining global aviation industry that operates in a self-regulatory environment. Adopting a bibliometric analysis of the literature in the domain of global tourism and climate change (772 articles), the paper reveals the underlying sustainability issues that entail unsustainable energy consumption. The aviation industry as a significant source of carbon emission within the sector is then examined by analyzing the top 20 largest commercial airlines in the world with respect to its ongoing mitigating measures in meeting the Paris Agreement targets. While self-regulatory initiatives are taken to adopt Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) as alternative fuel production and consumption for drastically reducing carbon emission, voluntary alignment and commitment to long-term targets remain inconsistent. A concerted strategic approach to building up complementary sustainable infrastructures among the global network of airports based in various international tourist destination cities to enable a measurable reduction in carbon emission is necessary to achieve a transformational adaptation of a business sector that is of essence to the recovery of the global economy while attempting to tackle climate change in a post-COVID-19 era.

Sektor Penerbangan Global dalam Isu Perubahan Iklim : Dampak dan Mitigasinya

Climate Change is one of the negative impact of globalization which currently challenges the world community. Climate change is also an important issue in the global aviation sector. However, the growth of CO2 and Greenhouse Gas emissions from the global aviation sector continues to increase in line with the demand for aviation services. This paper aims to describe the growth of global aviation industry which has an impact on the increasing of carbon emissions (CO2) trend globally and the mitigation efforts to anticipate weather worsening in the future. The result shows that the growth of Passenger Kilometer Revenue (RPK) on international flights since 2010 has continued to increase significantly. In general, the global aviation industry (including domestic and international; both passenger and cargo) is estimated to contribute to climate change through 1.9% greenhouse gas emissions (which includes all greenhouse gases) and 2.5% CO2 emissions, and 3. 5% of “Effective Radiative Forcing' (ERF).The reduction of CO2 emissions from the aviation sector includes: 1) improvement of technological efficiency; 2) increased operational efficiency, 3) Use of alternative fuels ,4) change the travel behaviour, etc. Moreover, the mitigation strategies to reduce the impact of AIC (Aircraft-Induced Clouds) in the short term and at low cost can be carried out by operational changes to the aircraft trajectory and adaptation of jet engine fuel.

Conceptual Investigation of the Global Significance of English Language: A Contextual Study with Special Reference to India

The English language makes the speakers part of the global community. For this reason, no one can claim that English is his own language. It has been seamlessly measured to be the first global as well as comprehensive language with the feasibility of communication. It has become part and parcel of every existing arena of activities and professions. The English language has shown its power in several aspects so it has been adopted as the language of global communication, trade, education, science, aviation, medicine, information technology, entertainment, research, international relations, and other human affairs. Proper acquaintance and efficacy of the English language have become one of the prerequisites of every professional person in the globalized modern age. Most countries have their own native and instinctive languages but for so many activities English is being given preferable positions. Various opportunities are open to those who are efficient in this language. It has the competence to build friendships, economic relationships, social upliftment, advance learning opportunities, and cultural ties as well as communicate thoughts and ideas. In varieties of cultures and activities, it has a very significant role. Many people have a firm belief that there is such a thing as World English but they do not seem to realize that acknowledging it has comprehensive consequences. A language learner may be more sensitive to a few of these effects than others in the near future. We can only make learned estimates about what will happen in the future at this point. World English creates the most desired boarding pass to universalism and global commodity as well as communication. India as a developing country has to take up so many things into consideration. In India, there are hundreds of regional languages and more than twenty languages recognized in its constitution. In spite of having so many languages, the Indian government has adopted the English language as a second language for official activities. Various opportunities are being generated with the help of the English language. The present research article discusses the status of English as a language from a global perspective as well as in the Indian context. The English language became a global language owing to its quality of adaptation, borrowings, feasibility, assimilation, and flexibility.

Environmental sustainability of future proposed space activities

As actors in the space sector are proposing ever more ambitious plans for the future, it is important to evaluate their consequences on the Earth's environment, which are yet poorly known. To address this gap, this study presents a streamlined Life Cycle Assessment of future space activities over the period from 2022 to 2050 based on plans that would likely drive the environmental impacts of the space sector if they were realised. Large constellations of satellites, space tourism, Moon missions, and space-based solar power were considered in a first scenario, while rocket-based point-to-point travel on Earth and Mars colonisation were also included in two other scenarios. To this aim, the model is based on data from companies' declarations and actual space systems and uses life cycle inventory and impact assessment data from the Strathclyde Space Systems Database. In the first scenario, the study finds that by 2050 proposed plans would lead to an unprecedented surge in the impacts of the space sector (×9 on climate change) and in the number of satellites in orbit (∼112,000, all from large constellations). Ozone depletion from launch events could reach significant levels (6% of annual global impacts), while in a decade emissions of black carbon and aluminium oxide from rockets may alter the radiative balance of the atmosphere as much as present-day global aviation, although these effects are uncertain and poorly understood yet. Moreover, the mass injected into the atmosphere by re-entering artificial objects would become significant (∼27× the natural level for aluminium), while its environmental consequences remain largely unquantified. In the two other scenarios, results indicate that speculative plans of rocket-based point-to-point travel on Earth and Mars colonisation could deplete ozone several times as much as all other human activities combined, while air acidification and climate change could reach several percent of annual global impacts and planetary boundaries. The mitigation of these impacts using low carbon fuels would be limited by supply availability and by the emission of non-CO2 climate forcers and ozone-destroying compounds during launch and re-entry. Consequently, environmental sustainability is identified as a potential limiting factor to the development of intense space activities and to making humanity a multi-planetary species. Furthermore, political and social acceptability could play a major role in the development of recreational space travel since it exacerbates environmental inequalities due to an unparalleled combination of economic inaccessibility and high environmental footprints per passenger. Overall, results strongly suggest that there is a pressing need to include environmental considerations in addition to technical and economic analyses in space projects definition and space systems design.

Predicting aviation non-volatile particulate matter emissions at cruise via convolutional neural network

Aviation emissions are the only direct source of anthropogenic particulate pollution at high altitudes, which can form contrails and contrail-induced clouds, with consequent effects upon global radiative forcing. In this study, we develop a predictive model, called APMEP-CNN, for aviation non-volatile particulate matter (nvPM) emissions using a convolutional neural network (CNN) technique. The model is established with data sets from the newly published aviation emission databank and measurement results from several field studies on the ground and during cruise operation. The model also takes the influence of sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) on nvPM emissions into account by considering fuel properties. This study demonstrates that the APMEP-CNN can predict nvPM emission index in mass (EIm) and number (EIn) for a number of high-bypass turbofan engines. The accuracy of predicting EIm and EIn at ground level is significantly improved (R2 = 0.96 and 0.96) compared to the published models. We verify the suitability and the applicability of the APMEP-CNN model for estimating nvPM emissions at cruise and burning SAFs and blend fuels, and find that our predictions for EIm are within ±36.4 % of the measurements at cruise and within ±33.0 % of the measurements burning SAFs in average. In the worst case, the APMEP-CNN prediction is different by −69.2 % from the measurements at cruise for the JT3D-3B engine. Thus, the APMEP-CNN model can provide new data for establishing accurate emission inventories of global aviation and help assess the impact of aviation emissions on human health, environment and climate. SynopsisThe results of this paper provide accurate predictions of nvPM emissions from in-use aircraft engines, which impact airport local air quality and global radiative forcing.

An Optimization Method for Critical Node Identification in Aviation Network

Air transport involves a long-distance journey; it is the main method of transnational travel, which is also an important connection channel between countries/regions. The aviation network is one of the core national transportation networks, whose importance is self-evident. To improve the management efficiency of the aviation network, this study studies the topological characteristics of the global aviation network in detail. The findings show that the global aviation network is a scale-free heterogeneous network, and the aviation network is tolerant of random faults. However, if key nodes are deliberately attacked, the network structure can easily be destroyed into fragments. To further explore the importance of nodes, combined with the background of airport mergers or unions, the node shrinkage method is improved by weighing network edges with the number of edges and ranking the importance of each node in the aviation network. This study compares the results of the node importance calculation by the node shrinkage method and improved weighted node shrinkage method, respectively. The results show that the ranking results obtained from the weighted node shrinkage method are better than those obtained from the traditional node shrinkage method. To further verify the validity of the weighted node shrinkage method, this study conducts a sensitivity analysis by calculating the weights of nodes and edges with different values. The results imply that the rank changes of node importance in the top 20 global aviation networks are the same. Therefore, it is important to find the key nodes in the aviation network and take corresponding protective measures to protect the stability of the global aviation network and improve the efficiency of the management of the aviation network.

The Ukrainian Conflict: Impact on the Aviation Finance and Leasing Industry

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has resulted in additional burdens on the aviation industry, compounding the impact of the COVID pandemic. Airline manufacturers and operators are suffering extra costs due to the steep rise in commodities prices, especially those linked to energy costs, and the decline in the supply of crucial manufacturing materials like titanium, as a result of supply chain issues and sanctions. The sanctions, led by the United States and the European Union, impacted Russia multilaterally. They included prohibiting the transfer of maintenance materials and technologies; forbidding aircraft leases to Russian operators; airspace closure; and suspension of airworthiness certificates. Russia responded to the sanctions by suspending bilateral agreements and unilaterally re-registering leased aircraft in Russia. Russia’s responses have impeded aircraft lessors seeking to repossess their assets and forced an inevitable write-down of asset values, leading lessors and financiers to file insurance claims. This has dampened the global aviation finance and ABS markets.

System Design and Engineering Implementation of Vehicle Transponder for A-SMGCS

Global aviation transport industry has entered the stage of rapid development, and the air traffic flow is exploding at an incredible rate. The Asia-Pacific region is the core of the future growth of the aviation industry. The growth of the fleet is expected to reach 50%, especially in China. Nearly 4,000 new aircrafts are expected to be delivered in the next 10 years, with the fleet increasing by more than 100%. The practitioners of modern aviation regard ensuring aviation safety and improving the efficiency of aviation operations as two important themes to promote the surge development of aviation. To solve the effective surveillance, guidance, and control of flights and vehicles operating on the surface in complex airports, the global airports are recommending Advanced-Surface Movement Guidance and Control System (A-SMGCS) to realize the effective management of the airport scene and improve the safety of the surface operational capability. Airport surface security management objectives include aircraft, vehicles, and other moving targets, almost all aircraft has an operative transponder, and the vehicles need the similar function transponder to indicate its identification in A-SMGCS, so it can be guided effectively by a given procedures. This paper introduces a vehicle transponder system design from appearance structure and electrical performance and implements engineering modification on a vehicle. In an airport with A-SMGCS, two methods of fixed reference point and manoeuvre test are selected, and the performance indexes of the transponder are recorded and compared. Finally, it is concluded that the transponder meets the performance parameters specified by FAA technical standards; it can be used as a qualified vehicle transponder to provide vehicle positioning information for the A-SMGCS system.