NASA wants to decarbonize the next generation of planes
According to the Air Transport Action Group (ATAG), airplanes are among the biggest emitters of carbon dioxide in the transport sector. In an effort to reduce global warming and thereby usher the world into a new era of more sustainable flight, NASA made an announcement on Thursday. It is a call for partnership to develop the right technologies to create a new generation of single-aisle airliners that emit less CO2 and will be present in airports in the 2030s.
NASA is seeking through its announcement to have the help of a partner to design, build and test the flights under the Sustainable Flight Demonstrator project. The agency’s goal is to reduce CO2 emissions in the aviation sector.
What does the ATAG report say?
It is more and more urgent to find a green solution in the face of the various types of pollution currently raging in the world. Several organizations and individuals are sounding the alarm. Moreover, the figures reported by ATAG are not at all comforting.
According to them, in 2019, flights produced around 915 million tonnes of CO2. As for the emission of carbon dioxide on a global scale, it is 43 billion tons. Concretely, aviation is responsible for 12% of CO2 emissions. Regarding the air sector specifically, 4.5 billion passengers took planes as a means of transport in 2019.
The reasons for this partnership
NASA Associate Administrator Bob Pearce said in a press release Thursday that over the next few years air mobility around the world will deliberately increase. The agency saw this as an opportunity to achieve their own environmental goals while being the world leader in the aviation industry.
This current effort also aligns with the White House goal of making aviation emissions carbon neutral by the year 2050. It is therefore part of the U.S. Aviation Climate Action Plan framework. . Thus, NASA’s closest action is to select at least one industrial partner in early 2023. It will grant it funding and access to its facilities at the Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards California.
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