Farnborough International Airshow 2010
FARNBOROUGH, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Farnborough International Airshow 2010 - GE Aviation, as part of a consortium of industry partners led by LFV Sweden, has been awarded an active role in the AIRE (Atlantic-Interoperability Initiative to Reduce Emissions) Green Connections project to validate how existing technology can be better utilized and how ground-based operations can be improved to reduce air travel C02 emissions. The industry consortium includes partners LFV, Swedavia, SAS Scandinavian Airlines, GE (NYSE:GE) and Rockwell Collins.
Under the project, GE Aviation will provide the flight management system (FMS) reporting four-dimensional trajectories considering latitude, longitude, altitude and time to predict the optimum flight path. The FMS facilitates controlled time of arrivals (CTA), enabling aircraft to fly optimum Required Navigation Performance (RNP) routes developed by GE's Naverus business.
Previous operational evaluations have focused on reducing an aircraft's track miles once in flight and enabling fuel-efficient descents. AIRE Green Connections encompasses the departure phase and at the destination airport, single-engine taxiing.
Chris Beaufait, general manager, Avionics with GE Aviation comments: "This project will be the most holistic operational evaluation approach to air travel and ATM to date. It's the first time the industry has looked at gate-to-gate performance - with the ability to monitor ATC and aircraft efficiencies, plus assess the full operational environment aspects."
The AIRE Green Connections is due to commence later this year and run for 10 months. During that period hundreds of standard, passenger-carrying flights to Stockholm Arlanda Airport's Runway 26 will be evaluated.
"The Green Connection project is a great example of public-private partnership in practice. We expect it to play a pivotal role in demonstrating that by leveraging present aircraft capabilities, green results can be achieved today in all phases of flight. That is a win-win project for all stakeholders," commented Alain Siebert, Chief Environment & Economist at the SESAR Joint Undertaking.
Twenty-five of the flights will be full gate-to-gate evaluations from Götenorg Landvetter Airport to Stockholm Arlanda Airport, and 75 of the flights will take place from cruise altitude to Runway 26 using short approaches to be developed within the project. SAS Scandinavian Airlines will carry out the flight trials using their Boeing 737 NG aircraft.
In the Stockholm terminal area, aircraft will fly using a newly designed RNP-AR (Required Navigation Performance-Approval Required) procedure to Arlanda Airport's Runway 26. It is estimated that the procedure will reduce flight distances by almost 20 NM, compared to today's shortest approaches, and result in fuel savings of around 100 kg and C02 reduction of more than 300kg.
Beaufait concludes: "In addition to the immense environmental benefits that can be derived, AIRE Green Connections represents an important strategic step on the business front, by enabling better negotiations, Reference Business Trajectories for example, between operators and ATM even before a flight departs."
This project is organized in the framework of AIRE, an agreement between the European Commission and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, aiming at developing more environmentally-friendly air transport operation on transatlantic routes.
The SESAR Joint Undertaking (SJU) selected 18 projects involving 40 airline, airport, ANSP and industry partners to expand the Atlantic Interoperability Initiative to Reduce Emissions (AIRE). Under the initiative, the SJU supports integrated flight trials and demonstrations validating solutions for the reduction of C02 emissions for surface, terminal and oceanic flight operations.
http://www.sesarju.eu/sites/default/files/documents/press-releases/Press_release_AIRE2.pdf
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Jennifer Villarreal
GE Aviation
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