A Few Small, Clean Steps to the Next-Gen Airplane

Travel Blog  •  Joanna Kakissis  •  03.11.09 | 11:53 AM ET

Photo by shearforce via Flickr (Creative Commons)

Pratt & Whitney has designed an airplane engine that they claim will be about half as noisy, far more fuel-efficient and less polluting than traditional engines, The Economist reports. The PurePower PW100G is a geared turbofan engine that uses a gearbox instead of a shaft between the fan and the turbine, which is what traditional engines use. The engine performed well in an Airbus A340 for more than 75 hours of tests and by 2013 is expected to power two new aircraft being built by Mitsubishi and Bombardier.

Meanwhile, American Airlines is using new wing design that reps say could reduce fuel consumption per airplane by up to 500,000 gallons and reduce carbon emissions by up to 277,000 metric tons, The Dallas Morning News reports. A Boeing 767-300ER passenger jet flew from Dallas/Fort Worth to London’s Heathrow airport with newly-installed 11-foot-tall winglets made by Aviation Partners Boeing.

Tags: Airplanes, Airworld, Eco Travel, News and Briefs

Joanna Kakissis's writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The Washington Post, among other publications. A contributor to the World Hum blog, she's currently a Ted Scripps fellow in environmental journalism at the University of Colorado in Boulder.


1 Comment for A Few Small, Clean Steps to the Next-Gen Airplane

Tom 03.27.09 | 8:36 AM ET

Wow, I am really looking forward to this new model of air plane. I am so excited and I cant wait to see new technology gadgets. Tom

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