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Hot Topic: The Ecoplanes Are Coming! (Part 2)

Last week we looked at a new airplane concept proffered by easyJet, a British airline. Their approach was radically different from a B737 or A320 of today in that the propulsion system they included on their model was from an earlier technology - the prop fan. Tested in the 80's as a result of increased pressure on fuel prices, the prop fan engine and those tests are the subject of this Hot Topic and installation two of our two part article on the forthcoming ecoplanes. As we stated in our last Hot Topic, this is a far cry from IFE, however, we chose to look at this technology as it may be the technology for the next generation of fuel efficient, eco-friendly planes...at least from a carbon footprint point of view. Besides, we like the technology and the fact that easyJet went to the expense and trouble to tell the world what they wanted. We cannot remember an airline that provided Boeing a model of their new plane desires.

But, this ecoplane stuff is not new. It has appeared in the late 80's and early 90's as the Boeing 7J7 and the McDonnell-Douglas MD-81x as demonstrators. The prop fan technology that was incorporated demonstrated very good fuel economy and the inclusion of this type of engine on the demonstrators promised 40 to 70 percent better fuel economy while still providing jet, or near-jet, speeds. The engines were also called ultra high bypass as the fans normally found in a cowling in a turbo fan arrangement, were in view on the outside trailing edge of the engine. In this case, they were counter rotating or sometimes called "contra-fans", a feature said to increase efficiency at cruise speeds. Alas, however, the price of fuel dropped and problems arose with things like gearboxes, supersonic tip speed noise and the programs were dropped for conventional jet aircraft.

Foot Notes: This came in from a reader...we wont share the name and you might have to go to the crypt to resurrect our tipster as he told us: "I won't name the supplier or the airline, but all it took (to crash the system) was to take a blanket out of the plastic package a lay over the in-seat video screen and you guess it.... I locked up all the IFE video screens on the upper deck of a B747. The system had to be turned off and reset. By the way, as I was looking for the cause of the lock-ups I remembered that I had a device that measured static electricity with me. The voltage over-ranged the meter in excess of 20,000 volts." Don't try this one at home kids, but what kind of electrical engineering zealot carries a static electricity meter with him or herself?
 

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Airbus A380 on Display at Asian Aerospace
8/28/2007 11:05:01 AM

Virgin America Announces Multilingual Program Line-Up for Red Inflight Entertainment System
8/28/2007 11:03:42 AM

Boeing, Atlant-Soyuz Identify Next-Generation 737 Order at Moscow Air Show
8/28/2007 11:02:57 AM

Boeing Projects $70 Billion Market for Russia and the CIS
8/28/2007 11:01:51 AM

ARINC's Turnkey Solution for Airline On-Board Sales to Demo at IFSA September 10
8/28/2007 11:00:38 AM
 

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New Airbus chief vows ‘no backtracking’ over cost-cutting plan
Daily Post

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Aero-News

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Bloomberg

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New York Times (Registration Required)

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NetworkWorld
 

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Asian Aerospace 2007
9/3/2007 - 9/6/2007

Aircraft Interiors Expo Asia
9/3/2007 - 9/6/2007

28th Annual WAEA Conference & Exhibition
9/17/2007 - 9/20/2007
 

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