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Rolls-Royce brings propeller engines back in vogue
Alok Jha, Guardian
Aviation company claims the design could cut an airline’s fuel bills and greenhouse gas emissions by 30%
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It evokes images of the vintage days of aviation, when flying around the world was a luxury few could afford. But propeller-driven aircraft, inspired by the iconic Spirit of St Louis, could make a return thanks to innovative fuel-saving designs.
The Guardian has learned that Rolls-Royce recently cleared a major hurdle in testing its new design for a propeller-driven engine, involving a double rotor and new blade shape. Engineers have called Rolls-Royce’s design a “tremendously significant” step forward.
The company claims the design could cut an airline’s fuel bills and greenhouse gas emissions by 30%. “We’re talking about saving $3m or 10,000 tonnes of CO2 per year per aircraft if you introduce an open-rotor on to a 100-200-seater aircraft,” said Mark Taylor, an engineer at Rolls-Royce who is leading a project to design the next generation of aircraft engines.
Modern propeller-driven engines, also known as advanced open rotors or turboprops, are acknowledged to be more fuel efficient than the turbofan and turbojet engines used by most aircraft today.
(20 October 2008)
Author Alok Jha is listed at the Guardian’s “green technology correspondent.”
Los Angeles transit may have to cut commuter service (AIG fallout)
Steve Hymon and Martin Zimmerman, Los Angeles Times
It may not be able to keep trains and buses running if it has to quickly pay investors in AIG-related lease-back deals.
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The next potential victims of the nation’s credit crunch: nearly 1.5 million people who ride buses and trains each weekday in Los Angeles County. Transit officials say riders could soon be facing serious service cuts.
That’s because the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority might have to quickly come up with hundreds of millions of dollars to pay investors under terms of deals it made involving American International Group, the troubled financial and insurance giant.
(18 October 2008)
End of our affair with air travel?
Martin Hickman, The Independent
Air travel is declining for the first time in almost 20 years, The Independent on Sunday discloses today. Airline failures, harder economic times and a dismal airport experience have caused a sharp downturn in the number of travellers boarding planes at British airports.
IoS figures show that traffic at 18 leading UK airports fell by 4.5 per cent last month from 20.8 million to 19.9 million, with almost one million fewer fliers in the skies. The biggest airports recorded large falls in traffic: Heathrow was down 3.6 per cent and Gatwick 6.8 per cent; Manchester tumbled 6.7 per cent. Overall, the seven airports controlled by BAA, the UK’s biggest airport operator, fell 5 per cent.
At the same time, the number of flights crossing Britain’s skies dipped by 2.6 per cent, the third monthly fall in a row. The downturn suggests that Britons may be falling out of love with flying after years of boom for low-cost flights. It is likely to end two decades of unbroken growth in UK air traffic, which has risen every year since 1991, an increase that continued even in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US. Industry observers say that air travel – heavily criticised by green groups for causing climate change emissions – is in much worse shape than it was then…
(12 October 2008)
