Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2022 - 34

Aeronautics
AIAA is dedicated to increasing diversity in the aeronautics workforce. High school students from the Girls Take Flight Drone Program
in San Diego, CA, show off their hardware at the 2022 AIAA SciTech Forum. (Image: AIAA)
sure safety and continued smooth sustainable economic growth
for all stakeholders.
Sustainable Industry and Environment
How do we power aircraft that can take us into the next century
without leaving more environmental and resource challenges
for our children and grandchildren?
Oil has fueled 20th
-century revolutions in mobility, economics,
geopolitics, and our way of life. Even as aviation moves to
ever-more efficient use of petroleum (e.g., the airline industry
" Industry leaders and
policymakers must continue
working together to support
the growth, evolution, and
diversification of the future
workforce to fill the job needs
across aviation and aeronautics. "
has improved fuel efficiency by 1.5 percent annually from 2009
to 2020), we know that those advances are insufficient to protect
our civilization in coming decades. We must do more.
Incremental advances in aerodynamics, lightweight structures
and materials, manufacturing processes, and air traffic
34
efficiencies will provide only part of the solutions. For significant
carbon reductions, more efficient aircraft engines are
needed. The solutions we pursue will reduce the overall
need for energy and will enable shifting to more sustainable
sources of energy. The efficiencies from advances in electric
aircraft propulsion will complement revolutionary aircraft
concepts.
The transition from oil to new energy sources presents
challenges for every facet of aviation systems. The R&D infrastructure
in the aeronautics community is ready to meet
these challenges through development of sustainable aviation
fuels (SAF), hydrogen fuel cells (HFC), hydrogen turbine
propulsion (HTP), battery-electric vehicles (BEV), and
innovations yet to be discovered. Past R&D investments ensure
that battery-electric vehicles deliver improved performance
by a few percent annually. HFC systems are likely to
be cost-competitive with internal combustion in as little as
five years. " Green " hydrogen production costs are declining
to levels competitive with oil. Meanwhile, SAF is available today
but needs support for greater production and wider
adoption. If the community focuses and invests in these
products and systems, aeronautics can play a leading role in
decarbonization.
Can we achieve decarbonization by 2050? Yes, we have a
chance. What will it take? AIAA recommends several steps, including:
*
More government support for the goal of carbon-free
aviation by 2050
* Deployment of SAF for current airline fleets, while also
addressing fleet recapitalization
* Adoption of hydrogen fuel cells and other clean, renewable
energy sources
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Tech Briefs, July 2022

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Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2022

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