Fly electric

摘要

When will the aviation industry clean up its act? Not any time soon, to judge by last October's meeting of the International Civil Aviation Organization in Montreal, Canada. At the gathering, held to plan its response to climate change, the ICAO voted to continue making incremental improvements in fuel efficiency, a policy that has produced no net reduction in emissions in over 20 years. The problem is that these small percentage point efficiency improvements haven't matched the growth in air traffic, which averages over 5 per cent annually (New Scientist, 24 February 2007, p 32). It looks like business as usual. Yet elsewhere in the aviation world, there is a smell of revolution in the air. In 2009 NASA announced funding for the aviation equivalent of the automotive X Prize. Its Green Flight Challenge will reward the light aircraft with the best fuel efficiency.