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Environment and energy

Environment and energy

Physics challenges for green aviation

17 Nov 2020
Taken from the November 2020 issue of Physics World.

Commercial air travel has changed a lot since the first aeroplane took passengers around a century ago. Brian Tillotson explores the future challenges to make aviation greener

Plane shapes
All shapes and sizes The popular Cessna 172 (top left) features a straight truss-braced wing (Courtesy: Adrian Pingstone, Public Domain), while commercial airliners, like the Boeing 707 (top right), have sweeping wings (Courtesy: Carlos Ponte, Public Domain). The Boeing 787 (bottom right) has succeeded the 707, and the design differences make it quieter and more efficient (Courtesy: CC BY-SA 2.0 pjs2005). Concorde (bottom left) was a commercial supersonic aircraft but was retired in 2003 (Courtesy: Adrian Pingstone, Public Domain).
Once upon a time, air travel was risky, costly and highly polluting. But these days modern airliners

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Brian Tillotson is an aerospace physicist based in Seattle, US
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