Employing Artificial Intelligence.
“More and more people were talking about global warming, and there was an increased awareness of young people regarding a lot of practices of the airline industry. And I think that’s when we had a focus change in the airlines because that’s where they realized that there was a strategic risk for them and that they would lose customers if they did not align with the future of society.”
The aerospace industry is confronting one of its greatest challenges to date. Suppose the industry is to have any hope of reaching its ambitious target of net-zero CO2 emissions by the year 2050. Just 27 years from now. This industry is going to need several technological advancements to align. Fast.
One of the most immediate actions this industry can take to reduce its carbon footprint is increasing the efficiency of fuel usage by its aerospace systems. One of their cleverest ideas? Leveraging AI technology.
If global aviation were a country, it would rank as the 20th largest carbon dioxide emitter. Fact. At this rate, in the absence of new policies, global aircraft emissions are projected to triple by 2050, contravening said goal.
Optimizing fuel during the climb phase can result in appreciable fuel savings, considering an aircraft consumes fuel at its highest rate during this phase. They developed an ML tool that allows pilots to tweak climb profiles prior to each flight. This way, they anticipate saving up to 6% fuel each climb phase.
Another approach is to utilize AI-powered systems to fabricate lightweight aircraft components. AI is used in generative design to enable a paradigm shift in the design process based on predefined criteria. It employs enormous amounts of computational power to conjure novel scenarios, revolutionizing the way human designers work, and enabling us to build products beyond creative boundaries. This way specialized engineers tend to focus on the specifications of the product, which might include better aerodynamics, reduced weight, and propulsive efficiency, maximizing lift-to-drag ratio by minimizing parasitic drag and lift-generated induced drag, while AI creates unfathomable designs. I’d say it’s a fair trade.
AI-based flexible navigation systems intend to replace the existing navigation plans with real-time updates. This allows airplanes to avoid unpleasant weather situations like storms and high winds while taking advantage of good weather conditions. A similar strategy includes Continuous Climb and Continuous Descent Operations, which enable aircraft to follow an optimal, variable flight path that conveys major natural and financial advantages. Additionally, AI assists in harnessing and analyzing great volumes of data, which in turn is used to reduce carbon footprints and boost global productivity.
While AI requires significant investment and still faces some barriers for its wider adoption, this breakthrough technology offers immense promise to optimize manufacturing, tackle malfunctions, improve performance, and most importantly tackle the climate crisis. AI being very much in its infancy, will incentivize innovation and efficiency.
