Le Bourget

An an unprecedented step, the FAA and European Commission say they will back transatlantic flight trials by Boeing, Airbus and a half-dozen airlines to show how new methods can cut fuel burn, noise and emissions.

The tests will start later this year and run 36-48 months. The participants will then decide on the next steps to take, say FAA Administrator Marion Blakey and European Union Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot. New standard operating procedures on the North Atlantic could eventually evolve from the demonstrations-but that’s yet to be seen.

The move comes at a time when regulatory authorities, airlines and airports are facing growing pressure to cut aviation’s carbon footprint. Aircraft and engine manufacturers, however, have been working together for decades to cut fuel burn and emissions.

The Air Traffic Alliance (comprising EADS, Airbus and Thales) and Boeing’s Air Traffic Management unit have conducted flight trials in recent years, and they had already been planning tests on the North Atlantic. However, the two partners never before attracted this high level of U.S. and European backing.

The flights will be "gate to gate," or from pushback to taxiing into the gate at the arrival airport. A variety of techniques will be explored for use in different phases of flight, including pre-taxi, climb, cruise and descent. But the tasks may not all be performed on a single Atlantic crossing. The pre-taxi ATC-aircraft collaboration will avoid having the aircraft push back until it can taxi for an immediate departure and minimize fuel burn, says Bertrand de l’Epinois, president of the Air Traffic Alliance. During climb, techniques will be explored for optimizing speed based on aircraft weight, flying characteristics and weather conditions.

During transatlantic flight, some techniques will be explored to optimize the altitude being flown based on the weather and wind conditions. Descents will employ CDAs (continuous descent approaches) with aircraft flying at near-idle power from top of descent point to touchdown. But tailored arrivals will also be used. Tailored arrivals involve a stream of aircraft, explains Boeing ATM Vice President and General Manager Kevin Brown. These approaches are "optimized at the system level," he says, and are what will be needed to reduce fuel burn for a large number of aircraft in a high-density terminal area.

Both Brown and de l’Epinois say they’re excited about the strong backing of the FAA and the EC, which will allow more integrated flight tests than the partners have been able to mount on their own in the past. Blakey says the trials will cost an unspecified amount (in the millions of dollars), but a lot of the work-such as Airbus and Boeing’s cooperative tests-were already in a planning stage.

For more details, see the June 25 issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology