The Airplane - Jay Spenser [134]
A high-ceilinged entryway welcomes boarding Dreamliner passengers with the uplifting sense that all hassles have been left behind.
Boeing
Like city buses in relation to vans or cars, bigger jetliners are supposed to be more economical per passenger seat than smaller ones. However, the Dreamliner—a medium-size jet smaller than the 777—is so efficient that its fuel consumption per seat is suggestive of a much larger airplane. Helping to explain this astonishing fuel efficiency are the new-generation Rolls-Royce or General Electric engines that power the Dreamliner.
This airplane’s high-bypass-ratio fanjets are equipped with the latest in noise-reduction technology. The jagged serrations at the back of the 787’s engine nacelles make the airplane even quieter by affecting how the ambient air mixes with the engines’ bypass and core-exhaust flows.
An arch motif, innovative lighting, larger and taller windows that serve the entire cabin, and greater humidity in the air also distinguish the Dreamliner travel experience.
Boeing
The Dreamliner also saves energy through dramatically rethought airplane systems centered on a more electric architecture. It’s a very different flying machine under the skin, one that requires less energy to operate and does not squander it when not needed the way many current airplane systems do. This systems rethinking also makes the airplane inherently easier to keep airworthy. For example, previous jetliners constantly bleed high-pressure air off their engines to pressurize their cabins. This robs the engines of some thrust and adds to fuel consumption. Those traditional pressurization systems also require extensive pneumatic ducting complete with precoolers and check valves, all of which adds weight to the airplane and demands considerable maintenance time and attention.
In contrast, the 787’s no-bleed architecture dispenses with that ducting and does not rob the engines of high-pressure air. Instead, electrically driven compressors pressurize the cabin. The result is a fundamentally simpler, lighter, and more reliable system that consumes up to 35 percent less energy and requires far less maintenance.
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner has set off a new burst of collective inventiveness in the arena of flight. While it is difficult these days to put a single human face to advancements in aviation, for those in the field, it is precisely this more inclusive, integrated, and effective process of creation—an unprecedented richness of collaboration—that makes aviation an exciting field. It should be noted that today’s aerospace workers are vastly more knowledgeable and better trained than their illustrious precursors from flight’s early days.
More than two centuries after George Cayley first imagined the airplane, and over one century since Wilbur and Orville Wright invented it, progress in flight continues at an astonishing pace.
Humankind’s oldest dream lives on.
POSTSCRIPT
TOMORROW’S WINGS
FUTURE AIR TRAVEL TECHNOLOGIES
Our success aloft shows how much we humans can accomplish when we work together to a shared vision. This success and our accelerating technological prowess suggest that amazing things will happen when we begin collaborating broadly in other areas.
Of the many challenges confronting the world in the twenty-first century, global climate change is the most significant. Based on vast evidence and informed by our best scientific understanding, a broad consensus has emerged that global warming must be addressed effectively. Hand in hand with this global focus is the final consolidation of a long-emerging paradigm shift. This beneficial paradigm sees the planet as a closed system with finite resources rather than the boundless frontier we once thought