Airbus relies on hydrogen, Boeing wants to analyze the climate impact of new drives first. But the Americans already have some ideas.
As Mike Sinnett, head of Boeing’s product development, at the 2017 Paris Air Show presented concepts for future pilots, it was regarding airplanes with only one pilot and with supersonic propulsion. A lot has changed in aviation since then.
The overriding topics when looking into the future are now environmental compatibility and alternative drives. Airbus has – also under government pressure – the focus on the development of hydrogen aircraft placed. For a long time, Boeing has been fully committed to sustainable kerosene and still does not want to commit itself so clearly today.
Drafts, but no decision on the type of drive yet
On Monday (July 18), the American manufacturer showed some visualizations of concepts for future aircraft with battery, hydrogen and hybrid drives at the Farnborough International Airshow. However, he did not give any details regarding these designs.
It’s tempting to look at such an image and say this is the aircraft of the future, said chief engineer Brian Yutko. But the truth is, work is still in progress to explore the overall climate impact of different drives. This also includes asking how hydrogen is produced and where electricity for charging batteries comes from.
New software should pave the way to sustainable aircraft
“Our industry still doesn’t know what the right way is,” said Sinnett, referring to the goal of climate-neutral flying. “Hydrogen is a good example,” says the Boeing manager. However, as long as one does not know how the influence of hydrogen contrails on the climate is, one does not yet know whether hydrogen is the right way to go.
Boeing emphasizes that research is already being done on all potential paths such as hydrogen, fuel cells, batteries and much more, some for a long time. Now the manufacturer wants to use a new software called Cascade to evaluate the emissions of the various drive types more precisely than ever before, from generation to distribution to use. With sustainable aviation fuels, for example, Boeing can use Cascade to incorporate and evaluate different types and manufacturing processes.
Boeing wants to test planes with strutted wings
In one respect only, the aircraft manufacturer has already shown its cards, and that was not the engine. Boeing has been working on so-called truss-braced wing aircraft for years. They have wings with struts and a large aspect ratio (English: apect ratio). This number is equal to the square of the wingspan divided by the wing area. High aspect ratio is efficient but can create stability and maneuverability issues.
Such an aircraft with strutted wings is now really being used as a test aircraft, says Sinnett. “We have teams that are designing it right now.” Boeing had already presented the idea for this in Paris in 2017.
More concrete concepts
In addition, according to the presentation in Farnborough, Boeing is also planning a test aircraft with a hybrid drive. However, the manufacturer has not yet revealed any details. At the same time, he continues to rely on Wisk, a partner-developed, fully electric, self-flying air taxi with a range of 40 kilometers.
See more images of Boeing’s concepts in the image gallery above.
