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The ratio of the energy liberated during a flight to the revenue work done (ETRW) of an airplane can be employed as a key indicator to assess its environmental impact. It remains constant during the life cycle of the aircraft and is fixed by its designers. The goal of an environmentally optimum airplane is to minimize the ETRW. This paper seeks to address these issues.

For an existing airplane, there are two major parameters that can greatly affect the ETRW, which are the ratio of actual payload to maximum possible payload “c” and the flight range R. The goal of this paper is to study the effect of c and R on ETRW and minimize it by using a genetic algorithm (GA). The study is performed on a Boeing 737‐800 and a Boeing 747‐400 aircraft as well as recently proposed aircraft designs, namely the Boeing second generation Blended‐Wing‐Body (BWB) and MIT Double‐Bubble D8.2.

It turns out that the maximum possible values of payload and range do not necessarily lead to a flight with minimal environmental impact. For new aircraft designs, the minimization of ETRW should account for advances in materials, alternative fuels, structures, aerodynamics and propulsion technologies which can be taken into consideration at the design stage.

It should be noted that other factors which also affect the emissions, namely the aircraft operations and air traffic management, are not included in the ETRW.

The optimization study is valuable in determining the payload and range of an existing aircraft or a new aircraft configuration for minimal environmental impact.

This paper aims to address the different aspects of end-of-life (EOL) aircraft problems and their effects on original manufacturer’s supply chain. Aircraft manufacturers, in the greener aviation context, need to care about the footprint of planes at the EOL. Considering the challenges in EOL aircraft recovery, the reverse logistics and green supply chain solutions in the other industrial sections cannot be applied in the aerospace industry. A conceptual framework with four elements, supply chain competency, governance policy, relationship in supply chain and aerospace industry context, provides a basis for assessing the opportunities and challenges of the green supply chain in this industry.

The basic research method utilized in this paper is the literature review. The literature review is a research methodology that includes examining books, journals, conference proceedings and dissertations for available information on the area of research. The research area regarding EOL aircraft is new. A substantial amount of literature exists in the field of end-of-life vehicle, but the main content of literature about the aircraft recycling can be obtained via relatively few literature, technical reports, news and industrial experts’ opinions. The literature is complete in some respects while inadequate in others. A considerable amount of information has been gathered through graduate student projects. The other information has been collected via contacts with professionals involved in an EOL aircraft recycling project. The basis for this methodological framework comes from a research process proposed by Mayring (2010) that emphasizes on four steps: material collection, descriptive analysis, category section and material evaluation.

This paper addresses the opportunities and challenges of applying a green supply chain for aircraft manufacturers and analyzes the different aspects of aircraft at the EOL in the context of green supply chain.

This study enriches the literature by identifying EOL aircraft value chain analysis in the sustainable development context. It provides an introduction to a fresh research theme and sheds some light on green supply challenges in the aerospace industry.

The proposed conceptual framework in this paper helps practitioners to realize the opportunities and challenges of aircraft manufacturers in applying long-term strategies with respect to EOL aircrafts. The proposed framework helps manufacturers to evaluate different perspectives of the EOL aircraft problem. Moreover, the current contribution of aircraft manufacturers into EOL projects is not in a systematic structure and performed through several managerial and professional meetings. The proposed framework in this study is a valuable tool to evaluate the different opportunities and challenges in an organized way.

This work provides a valuable framework for future research related to green supply chains in the aerospace context. It also aids practitioners to realize the EOL aircraft problem in the context of the green supply chain, considering the opportunities and challenges.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the possibilities of introducing a number of visionary and pioneering ideas and upcoming enabling technologies for a conceptual and aerodynamic design of green business jet aircraft to meet various requirements within Green and N + 2 Aircraft framework, and at the same time, to meet the requirements of air transportation demand, economic growth and environmental conservation.

A synthesis of various aircraft design methodologies has been carried out through iterative optimization to arrive at the conceptually designed aircraft with novel concept with optimum performance within the subsonic flight regimes. Major ideas derived from D8 and other novel concepts are appropriately applied in the work, which starts with fuel efficient motivation, and followed by wing aerodynamics and other critical factors related to the design requirements and objectives.

Through a meticulous effort following the synthesized design methodologies in the conceptual design phase, a conceptual design of a quad-bubble business jets with a set of specifications that meet the green and N + 2 aircraft technology requirements and exhibit promising performances is proposed and assessed within recent aircraft technology development.

The research work is limited to conceptual design and analytical work which should be followed by further iterative steps incorporating experiments and detailed structural and aerodynamic computations.

The conceptual design proposed can be utilized as a baseline for further practical step in an aircraft development project.

The conceptual design proposed could be utilized for business and economic study for future air transportation system.

The work is original, incorporating review of state-of-the-art technology, environmental requirements and a synthesis of a novel product.

European air transport policy, emerged through the confluence of case law and legislation, in four broad areas: liberalization, safety and security, greening, and the external policy. Following the implementation of the single market for air transport, policy shifted to liberalizing and regulating associated services and in recent years to greening, the external aviation policy, and safety and security. Inclusion of air transport in the Environmental Trading Scheme of the European Union exemplifies the European Commission’s proactive stand on bringing the industry in line with emission reduction trajectories of other industries. However, the bid to include flights to third countries in the trading scheme pushed the EU into a controversial position, causing the Commission to halt implementation and to give ICAO time to seek a global multilateral agreement. The chapter also discusses how the nationality clauses in air services agreements breached the Treaty of Rome, and a court ruling to that effect enabled the EC to extend EU liberalization policies beyond the European Union, resulting in the Common Aviation Area with EU fringe countries and the Open Aviation Area with the USA. Another important area of progress was aviation safety, where the EU region is unsurpassed in the world, yet the Commission has pushed the boundary even further, by establishing the European Safety Agency to oversee the European Aviation Safety Management System. Another important area of regulatory development was aviation security, a major focus after the woeful events in 2001, but increasingly under industry scrutiny on costs and effectiveness. The chapter concludes by arguing that in the coming decade, the EU will strive to strengthen its position as a global countervailing power, symbolized in air transport by a leadership position in environmental policy and international market liberalization, exemplified in the EU’s external aviation policy.

The purpose of the paper is to determine the optimal conditions of the take-off and the optimal trajectory of the initial climb minimizing the fuel consumption of the aircraft aided in the ground phase of the take-off by the system using the MAGLEV technology.

The study concerned determining the optimal trajectory of the initial phase of the transport aircraft climb aided in the phase of acceleration by the system using the magnetic levitation phenomenon. The simplified algorithm of the Ritz–Galerkin method was used in this work which uses an approximate solution to boundary value problems for determining the optimal flight trajectory. It uses the method of approximation of the flight path by the third-degree polynomial. The method allows determining the optimal trajectory of the flight satisfying the initial/final conditions and control functions and path constrains for an aircraft. General stating of the task supposes determining the optimal trajectory of movement of a flying vehicle described by the system of ordinary differential equations. The resulting sparse non-linear programming problem has been solved using own elaborated software. The typical profiles computation has been performed with a tool combining three degree of freedom flight dynamics differential equations with procedure-oriented flight control.

Different conditions of the take-off of the aircraft aided by the ground system using the MAGLEV technology give possibilities to shape the trajectory of the initial stage of the aircraft climb after the lift-off to decrease the negative influence on the environment. Optimization of the departure trajectory minimizing fuel consumption or noise emissions can become the basis for working out new procedures for a new kind of take-off modified in relation to the optimal solution which will increase the safety of this segment of the flight.

The analysis was carried out only for the departure trajectory to minimize fuel consumption, without investigation of possibilities of noise reduction. The trajectory guaranteeing minimization of the fuel consumption would also give a solution characterized by minimal emission of substances harmful for the environment.

Application of the innovatory solution of aided take-off is connected with modification of the climbing procedures after the take-off to minimize the negative effect of the aircraft on the surrounded environment. The results can become the basis for working out new procedures which will minimize negative influence to the natural environment in the vicinity of the airports of air transport and increase safety of the take-off and landing operations.

Innovative method of the take-off implies new shape of the trajectory. The study presents the results of the climb trajectory optimization of the aircraft supported at the ground stage by the technology using magnetic levitation phenomenon.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effective taxonomies of airline green operations strategy.

To this end, a sample of 23 airlines from five regions (North America, South America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East) was surveyed. The annual sustainability reports of the surveyed airlines for the period 2013‒2016 were retrieved from the Global Reporting Initiatives website. K-means clustering analysis was used to generate taxonomic clusters of airline green operations strategy. A special data analysis technique, called rank analysis, was also adopted to identify the significant green actions and develop indicative models.

This study revealed that three effective taxonomies were adopted by airlines: a low-effect strategic pattern, a low-to-moderate effect strategic pattern and a high-effect strategic pattern. A different combination of green operation actions characterized each strategic pattern.

The research contribution of taxonomies of green operations strategy has so far been limited, country focused and concentrated on the manufacturing sector. This study reported the taxonomies and performed an in-depth analysis of the categories of effective actions taken to promote green performance. Moreover, this study developed indicative models for the relationship between categories of action and green performance for each strategic pattern, an action that has seldom been reported by previous studies of green operations strategies for airlines.

The purpose of this paper is to present a definition of modern configuration for a medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (MALE UAV) and its on-board systems to obtain a suitable basis for future definitions such as a possible logistic support configuration first hypothesis.

Starting from high-level requirements, both the UAV conceptual design and on-board systems preliminary design have been carried out through proprietary tools. Then, some peculiarities from previous studies, such as systems advanced UAV alternative energy, have been maintained and confirmed (diesel propulsion and energy storage system).

The improvement of a component of an aircraft can play a relevant role in the whole system. In the paper, it is considered how a concept of MALE UAV can evolve (this topic is considered by the authors since many years) by incorporating advanced on-board systems concepts.

The numerical results promote and support the use of advanced on-board system solutions and architectures to improve the effectiveness, efficiency and performance of MALE UAVs.

Usually, conceptual and preliminary design phases analyze in-depth the aerodynamic and structural solutions and aircraft performance. In this study, the authors aim to focus on the advanced on-board systems for MALE UAVs. This kind of aircraft is not yet a mature concept, with very few operating machines and many projects in the development phase.

Europe has adopted the Flight Path 2050 (FP2050) challenge demanding that by 2050, 90 per cent of the travelers are able to reach door-to-door destinations in Europe within four hours. A hypothesis can be formulated that without the Small Air Transport (SAT) system, optimized for short distances and for multiple but narrow passenger flows, this challenge cannot be met.

This paper defines design goals and necessary research focused on small aircraft concepts, as a required condition to fulfil the FP2050 challenge “90 per cent d2d 4h”.

The new small aircraft concepts have been defined as SAT Aircraft Family Program. Three demonstrators with common modules could be proposed: two using the same turboprop engine (first, one engine, 9 passengers; second, two engines, 19 passengers) and third demonstrator could be with a diesel hybrid engine.

The SAT Aircraft Family Program depends on demand optimized for specific regional features (passenger flows, passenger time value spectrum and infrastructure) and a set of matured technologies as a result of Clean Sky 2 (CS2) devoted to SAT.

This practical implications consist of developing on SAT technologies in CS2, deploying the demonstrators by the small aviation industry and launching an SAT system pilot phase.

FP2050 has changed the approach to a citizen-oriented from an atomized technologies taxonomy-oriented one. The challenge “90 per cent d2d 4h” also covers the needs of remote regions. This niche could be filled by the SAT system using the small aircrafts family.

The paper value is in defining entry requirements, answering how to build the SAT Aircraft Family Program satisfying the FP2050 challenge “90 per cent d2d 4h”.

THE airborne Eros II Collision Avoidance System (CAS) designed and produced by McDonnell Douglas Corporation is actuated when the computer calculates the aircraft is within 25 sec of or ½ mile of another aircraft whichever event occurs first. At the same time, the pilot of one of the aircraft gets a command to climb while the pilot of the other aircraft is instructed to descend, thus avoiding a potential mid‐air collision.

More electric aircraft (MEA) is defined as the extensive usage of electric power in aircraft. The demand for electric power in new generation aircraft rises due to environmental and economic considerations. Hence, efficient and reliable starter/generators (SGs) are trending nowadays. The conventional main engine starting system and power generation system can be replaced with an individual SG. The constraints of the SG should be investigated to handle the aviation requirements. Even though the SG is basically an electric machine, it requires a multidisciplinary study consisting of electromagnetic, thermal and mechanical works to cope with aviation demands. This study aims to review conventional and new-generation aircraft SGs from the perspective of electric drive applications.

First of all, the importance of the MEA concept has been briefly explained. Also, the historical development and the need for higher electrical power in aircraft have been indicated quantitatively. Considering aviation requirements, the candidate electrical machines for aircraft SG have been determined by the method of scoring. Those machines are compared over 14 criteria, and the most predominant of them are specified as efficiency, power density, rotor thermal tolerance, high-speed capability and machine complexity. The features of the most suitable electrical machine are pointed out with data gathered from empirical studies. Finally, the trending technologies related to efficient SG design have been explained with numeric datasets.

The induction motor, switched reluctance motor and permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) are selected as the candidate machines for SGs. It has been seen that the PMSM is the most preferable machine type due to its efficient operation in a wide range of constant power and speed. It is computationally proven that the using amorphous magnetic alloys in SG cores increases the machine efficiency more. Also, the benefits of high voltage direct current (HVDC) use in aircraft have been explained by a comparison of different aircraft power generation standards. It is concluded that the HVDC use in aircraft decreases total cable weight and increases aircraft operation efficiency. The thermal and mechanical tolerance of the SG is also vital. It has been stated that the liquid cooling techniques are suitable for SGs.

The demand for electrical power in new generation aircraft is increasing. The SG can be used effectively and efficiently instead of conventional systems. To define requirements, constraints and suggestions, this study investigates the SGs from the perspective of electric drive applications.