Have you ever laid down in a field of grass, looked above and saw an airplane flying overhead and just marveled at the technology that allows that 488-ton vehicle to soar through the skies? Well, when Wilbur and Orville Wright invented the first aircraft, they had no idea the impact their invention would make on modern society. Thanks to air travel, humanity has had the opportunity to spread culture, food, inventions, and people around the world, all within a short span of time.
Why spend a week’s worth of time driving from one coast to the other when you can relax on a six-hour flight and enjoy a few drinks and a movie on the way? What we failed to consider, or perhaps chose to ignore with our adoration of flying was the environmental impact the greenhouse gas emitted from aircraft. According to several analysts, one round-trip flight between New York and California generates 20% of the greenhouse gases emitted from a car over the course of an entire year. For those of you who somehow convinced yourselves that flying is somehow better for the environment, I not only question your judgement, but wish you the best in the future.
Considering the very real danger that our planet is slowly perishing under weight of carbon emissions, it almost seems terrifying that aviation is responsible for 2% of the world’s carbon dioxide. In addition, when aircrafts emit nitrogen oxides and particulates at cruising altitudes, this also contributes to global warming. According to the Air Transport Action Group, aviation “supports almost 63 million jobs worldwide and enables $2.7 trillion in global GDP,” so in no way am I suggesting that we eliminate global aviation. Having said that, we are in dire need of an alternative to fossil fuel-powered planes.
Though we are a significant ways away from doing away with conventional jet engines, engineers are currently working on creating electric-powered planes, thus offering an alternative that could help keep the planet nice and healthy. Because the demand for flying exponentially increases every day due to more people wishing to travel for pleasure and business, by 2020, global international aviation emissions are projected to be 70% higher than in 2005. The International Civil Aviation Organization forecasts that, by 2050, these numbers could grow by a further 700%.
According to Vox, electric aircrafts may not take flight for awhile because the very nature of the technology could threaten airline business operations as they currently exist. Essentially, an electric motor allows for a short — even vertical — take off and landing, which means that these aircrafts won’t need much room to start their journey. This means that conventional airports — and all the businesses that operate within them — could change in the near-future.
“There’s a lot of urban air mobility targets where different air framers and operators are advertising a future where you can take an air taxi from somewhere in a metropolitan area to somewhere 10 miles away and fly over all the rush hour traffic.It is really exciting because it’s starting to grow pretty quickly around the technologies that we’re already working with.”
–Sean Clarke, principal investigator, NASA
It’s not crazy to imagine a future where all forms of human transportation are powered by alternative means, especially due to the globally detrimental effects of our current fuel sources. Having said that, we are naive if we think that the powers that be will simply allow petroleum-powered industries to just switch to a more efficient power source. I believe that, technologically speaking, we are much closer to electric aircrafts than is currently conveyed to us, but we haven’t made significant progress because it would harm big oil companies.
