From the very earliest days, necessity and the human spirit have driven the need for travel. People have travelled in the search of better lives and knowledge, to trade and maintain family ties or friendships, and probably most importantly of all, to discover and understand other cultures. For centuries, travel was often a lengthy affair. In the not so distant past, travellers on cramped trans-Atlantic ships or trans-continental wagon trails could only dream of the miracle of flight, yet today using air travel as a fast, efficient, way to connect the entire world is so commonplace that it is easy to take it for granted.
The benefits of air travel are becoming more accessible, more affordable and more important to people from all economic backgrounds and from all parts of the world, but more particularly those from emerging nations like China, India and in Africa, who stand to gain the most from air transport. Air travel is a vital element of people’s lives around the world. People want and need to fly.
While there is unquestionably an environmental impact from the growth in air transport, some 80% of the industry’s 2% contribution to man-made CO2 is generated by flights for which there are no practical alternative. This is considerably less than the 16% created by other forms of transport, yet aviation contributes, directly and indirectly, 8% of world gross domestic product.
However, the need for an increasingly eco-efficient industry, which creates economic and social value with less environmental impact, is well understood by the millions of people involved in aviation. Aircraft manufacturers have an intrinsic requirement to be technological pioneers and to develop increasingly eco-efficient aircraft.
But, if the evolution of transport technology from the horse and cart to the advent of aviation was impressive; the subsequent technological progress within the aviation industry has been quite simply astonishing.
In just the last 40 years, technological advances have reduced fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by 70%, noise by 75% and unburned hydrocarbons by 90%, while increasing the number of people moved per take-off or landing slot and setting unprecedented levels of comfort.
Such progress is the result of a continual cycle that improves the best mature technologies, while gradually introducing the most appropriate new innovations. The cycle won’t change, but the driving force behind future development has expanded from pure competitiveness to include environmental necessity, with research and development continuing to provide a series of incremental improvements as well as searching for more substantial technological step changes.
Such substantial advances are particularly evident with the A350 XWB and A380, which are certainly step changes from the aircraft they replace. The A380 in service today, consumes less than three litres per 100 seat kilometres, some 20 years ahead of the world fleet as a whole. Today, when the aviation industry considers new product developments, like the potential for a new generation of short-range aircraft, a step change to its predecessors will be required. This will not only require innovation but also vision, ambition and absolute determination: determination to follow a path towards zero emissions. This is a path that may never end, but it is neverthe-less Airbus’ ultimate ambition.
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