BY COLM MCGINN
THE American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics conference took place in Belfast recently, the first time in its history that it moved outside the USA. Ninety of the movers and shakers of the aircraft industry were present at the Hastings Hotel.
The conference was in Belfast because of connections with Bombardier Aerospace, the Queen's University School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and with Invest NI.
It had one fundamental divide in terms of the interests represented there, the heavier-than-air craft that we all use, and the lighter-than-air airships that exist for most people only as a historical footnote.
A new paradigm of air travel in conflict with existing, and let us say, entrenched, philosophies of aircraft type and propulsion.
The esoteric ideas floated at the seminars, by people from as far afield as USA, India, Japan, Germany, France, Brazil, UK and Ireland, had the capacity to surprise and inspire.
The conventional aircraft industry had impressive analysis of aircraft, of weather patterns and effects, of the costs attached to using very powerful jet engines. The lighter-than-air guys were obviously the poor relations of this project. But that didn't stop them from detailed and impressive presentations of exciting ideas, of reducing the environmental cost of air transport to a fraction of it's existing level.
An interview with Silvain Michel, from Switzerland, elicited the thought of airships with vibrating skins, achieved by the application of thousands of volts between inner and outer layers (reducing air drag), of airship travel at a fraction of the environmental cost of jet aircraft.
When? Well, still at the experimental stage, maybe 15 years away, however, Middle-Eastern financial interests expressed interest, within your reporter's hearing.
Outside of the industry, there might be general agreement that aircraft are a very polluting form of transport, not so within the aircraft manufacturers. Any deviation from the line – "aircraft are responsible for only 2% of CO2 emissions" – elicits a certain amount of unhappiness. However, the representatives of Airbus, Boeing, the USAF and of many smaller enterprises met this reporter with unfailing courtesy and openness.
The lighter-than-air group had elegant and discursive talks from Dr Bernd Straeter, former CEO Zeppelin ZF (yes, the original company), from Chris Severns of Boeing, from Dr Maekowa of Japan, Dr Pant of India, Dr Patrick Hendrick of Belgium, Ron Hochstetler of USA and many other learned practitioners of science and of the engineering arts.
They gave clear explanations of the science involved and of the financial difficulties of airship producers, of a certain fear that airships have disappointed too often, to investors who, having lost money within airship projects, are unwilling to try again, a certain caution was evident.
As against that, ambitious designs were offered with a payload of 1000 tonnes and upwards (about equivalent to 7 Boeing large aircraft) and with exponentially lower environmental costs, of CO2 and other emissions.
Indeed, two projects discussed included fully solar powered airships; Zero emissions, Zero fuel cost.
And when can we expect these to reach the production line? Regrettably, not any time soon.
Until European consumers and politicians desire change, when CO2 and other environmental costs are charged to the polluter in the form of fuel and air travel taxes, when low energy, low CO2 producing industries are encouraged by taxation advantage, until then, little will change.
So, yes, when you, dear reader, want to travel on your holidays at a low environmental cost, then this will happen; when you can accept a slower, though more spacious and comfortable, pace of travel (Belfast to Alicante, 12 hours?), when you think that we really must do something about environmental damage and it's effect on the poorest humans on the planet.
Until then we will continue to fly in 300 Tonne, 500 mph projectiles.
Environmental damage, give me a break!
