10 September 2020: Clean Aviation, electric flights, hybrid engines, carbon neutrality, reducing carbon emissions, sustainable aviation and so on happens to be the latest mantra of aerospace industry. Every major OEM, engine manufacturer and even MROs are planning to achieve one single goal of an environment friendly flight. The goal is to achieve a carbon neutral aviation sector by 2050. Although the goal seems to be far away, steps have to be taken from today to reach that destination. Airbus is making one such attempt with their demonstrator project, fello’fly, for reducing aviation emissions. It is a part of Airbus UpNext, a subsidiary to fast track the building of demonstrators at speed and scale.
As a part of the project Airbus has partnered with two of its airline customers and three Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSP) to demonstrate the operational feasibility of fello’fly. They are Frenchbee, SAS Scandinavian Airlines and ANSP’s – France’s DSNA (Direction des Services de la Navigation Aérienne), the UK’s NATS and EUROCONTROL.
Frenchbee and SAS will provide airline expertise in flight planning and operations for the collaborative requirements necessary for bringing together aircraft before and during a fello’fly operation. DSNA, NATS and EUROCONTROL will contribute air navigation expertise defining how two aircraft can be brought safely together, minimising impact on today’s procedures. In parallel Airbus will continue working on the technical solution to assist pilots in ensuring that aircraft remain safely positioned.
Under the agreements, Airbus, Frenchbee, SAS, DSNA, NATS and EUROCONTROL will develop a safe and realistic concept of operations (CONOPS) necessary to shape future operational regulations for fello’flights. Flight testing will take place throughout 2020 using two Airbus A350 aircraft, with the involvement of the airlines and ANSPs as early as 2021 in an oceanic airspace.
Inspired by biomimicry, fello’fly is based on Wake Energy Retrieval (WER) to reduce aviation emissions. WER replicates the behaviour of birds, which fly together to reduce their energy consumption. The technique of a follower aircraft retrieving energy lost by a leader, by flying in the smooth updraft of air the wake creates, reduces fuel consumption in the range of 5-10 per cent per trip.
Given the high potential to make a significant impact on emissions reduction for the aviation industry as a whole, directly contributing to the sector’s sustainable growth goals, Airbus is targeting a controlled Entry-Into-Service (EIS), which is expected by the middle of this decade.
