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Four companies and one university will receive NASA funding to redefine aircraft concepts, key technologies and designs.
NASA announced yesterday (12 November) that it will begin funding studies that focus on the creation of more sustainable aircraft.
The agency will fund five separate research awards, which are worth a combined total of $11.5m.
These awards went to four companies and one university, NASA said in its statement.
According to the agency, the Advanced Aircraft Concepts for Environmental Sustainability (AACES) 2050 programme is a long-term initiative which aims to identify “transformative solutions” which could help advance the air travel industry towards sustainability.
Through the funding, NASA has tasked industry experts and academia to come up with in-depth studies, and that it expects the awardees to complete their studies by mid-2026.
These projects would explore the potential redefining of aircraft concepts, key technologies, and designs that could offer the solutions needed to ensure a more sustainable future in the field of aviation by 2050.
Commenting on the importance of the studies, NASA said that they will aid the agency in identifying and selecting “promising aircraft concepts and technologies for further investigations”.
Bob Pearce, NASA’s associate administrator for the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, elaborated: “Through initiatives like AACES, NASA is positioned to harness a broad set of perspectives about how to further increase aircraft efficiency, reduce aviation’s environmental impact and enhance technological competitiveness in the 2040s, 2050s, and beyond.”
Nateri Madavan, director for NASA’s Advanced Air Vehicles Program, also said that the AACES 2050 solicitation drew “significant interest” from across the aviation community, and as a result, “the award process was highly competitive”.
The new awardee institutions are as follows: Aurora Flight Sciences, Electra, JetZero, Pratt and Whitney, and the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Carbon dioxide growth has bounced back
The latest announcement from NASA is notable as the subject of aircraft pollution is quickly entering into the mainstream consciousness again post-Covid.
Despite reductions in flying during the Covid lockdowns, demand is expected to grow rapidly through 2030, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
According to the IEA, new aircraft can be up to 20pc more efficient than the models they replace, however, growth in activity has historically outpaced efficiency improvement.
The IEA further said that back in 2022, aviation accounted for 2pc of global energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, having grown faster in recent decades compared to the rail, road or shipping industries.
As international travel demand recovered following the Covid-19 pandemic, aviation emissions in 2022 reached almost 800m tonnes of CO2, or around 80pc of the pre-pandemic level.
In Irish tech news related to NASA, a recent commercial resupply services space mission which was conducted by NASA and SpaceX was featured contributions by two researchers from the South East Technological University.
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