Green future for planes

A sea change is taking place in the way aircraft are being designed and manufactured so as to cut down both wastage during manufcturing and cost and also cut down emissions during running, thereby increasing fuel efficiency. In all this choice of materials plays a key role.

While manufacturing an aircraft, it has to be ensured that the operating costs of the aircraft will be minimum. Hence, right from the design phase, electing the type of material to be used has to be kept in mind.

The lightest and the strongest material has to be considered, said A R Upadhya, director, National Aerospace Laboratories. He was speaking at a seminar, 'Aluminium in Aerospace'.

While earlier the emphasis was on checking servicing costs (this is high in the case of aircraft), now the emphasis has shifted to increasing efficiency. Scientists are working on designing aircraft such that the emissions are cut.

The carbon dioxide emissions will be cut by 20 per cent, emission of other gases by 80 per cent and noise will be cut by half in future. In addition to this and as part of this exercise, fuel efficiency will improve by 40 per cent. To achieve these, there has to be an increase in the efficiency of processing of materials, castings and forgings and emphasis has to shift to the cost of manufacturing process.