FIVE YEARS AGO, the European Commission told commercial aircraft companies to halve the fuel consumption of their planes by 2020. Unfortunately, the Commission gave few clues about how this was to be achieved. It proposed a new generation of cryogenic fuels and noted that aircraft are now being designed to use lighter, composite materials. But there are limits. The Commission applauded plans to pack more people into each airliner, since this would reduce the pollution per passenger-mile. But even for a fully laden Airbus A,'580. more than half its take-off weight is made up of passengers, luggage and fuel.
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