̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - aviation

Flight path to net zero

plc32 — Sun, 22 Sep 2024 22:18:18 +0000

Global aviation could be on a flight path to net zero if industry and governments reach just four goals by 2030, according to a new report from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

Steven Barrett appointed Regius Professor of Engineering

sc604 — Wed, 17 Apr 2024 18:48:18 +0000

Professor Steven Barrett has been appointed Regius Professor of Engineering at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, effective 1 June. He joins the ̽��ֱ�� from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he is head of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro).

Barrett’s appointment marks his return to Cambridge, where he was an undergraduate at Pembroke College, and received his PhD. He was a Lecturer in the Department of Engineering from 2008 until 2010, when he joined the faculty at MIT.

̽��ֱ��Regius Professorships are royal academic titles created by the monarch. ̽��ֱ��Regius Professorship in Engineering was announced in 2011, in honour of HRH Prince Philip, ̽��ֱ��Duke of Edinburgh’s 35 years as Chancellor of the ̽��ֱ��.

“It’s a pleasure to welcome Steven back to Cambridge to take up one of the ̽��ֱ��’s most prestigious roles,” said Vice-Chancellor Professor Deborah Prentice. “His work on sustainable aviation will build on Cambridge’s existing strengths, and will help us develop the solutions we need to address the threat posed by climate change.”

Barrett’s research focuses on the impact aviation has on the environment. He has developed a number of solutions to mitigate the impact aviation has on air quality, climate, and noise pollution. ̽��ֱ��overall goal of his research is to help develop technologies that eliminate the environmental impact of aviation. His work on the first-ever plane with no moving propulsion parts was named one of the 10 Breakthroughs of 2018 by Physics World.

“This is an exciting time to work on sustainable aviation, and Cambridge, as well as the UK more generally, is a wonderful platform to advance that,” said Barrett. “Cambridge’s multidisciplinary Department of Engineering, as well as the platform that the Regius Professorship provides, makes this a great opportunity. I’ve learned a lot at MIT, but I’d always hoped to come back to Cambridge at some point.”

Much of Barrett’s research focuses on the elimination of contrails, line-shaped clouds produced by aircraft engine exhaust in cold and humid conditions. Contrails cause half of all aviation-related global warming – more than the entirety of the UK economy. Barrett uses a combination of satellite observation and machine learning techniques to help determine whether avoiding certain regions of airspace could reduce or eliminate contrail formation.

“It will take several years to make this work, but if it does, it could drastically reduce emissions at a very low cost to the consumer,” said Barrett. “We could make the UK the first ‘Blue Skies’ country in the world – the first without any contrails in the sky.”

“Steven’s pioneering work on contrail formation and avoidance is a key element in reducing the environmental impact of aviation, and will strengthen the UK’s position as a world leader in this area,” said Professor Colm Durkan, Head of Cambridge’s Department of Engineering. “Together with Steven’s work on alternative aviation propulsion systems, this will strengthen Cambridge’s vision of helping us all achieve net zero at an accelerated rate.”

In addition to the Professorship in Engineering, there are seven other Regius Professorships at Cambridge: Divinity, Hebrew, Greek, Civil Law and Physic (all founded by Henry VIII in 1540), History (founded by George I in 1724) and Botany (founded in 2009, to mark the ̽��ֱ��’s 800th anniversary).

An expert on the environmental impacts of aviation, Barrett joins the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge from MIT.

It’s a pleasure to welcome Steven back to Cambridge to take up one of the ̽��ֱ��’s most prestigious roles

Vice-Chancellor Professor Deborah Prentice

MIT

Steven Barrett

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Raising ambition in net zero flight – A briefing from COP28

plc32 — Mon, 04 Dec 2023 15:39:43 +0000

Professor Rob Miller, Director of the Whittle Laboratory, shares his thoughts on COP28 and the ambition for zero emission aviation.

Cambridge and Boeing celebrate a 20-year partnership

skbf2 — Thu, 05 Oct 2023 12:09:32 +0000

Over the last two decades, the two organisations have worked together on a wide range of topics such as transitioning the aviation sector to net zero, developing electric and hybrid-electric propulsion, making breakthroughs in materials and manufacturing technologies and managing airport disruption.

To recognise the success of the partnership, Todd Citron, Boeing’s Chief Technology Officer, and Pat Stokes, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Research Portfolio Lead for Boeing, presented Professors David Cardwell and Duncan McFarlane, and Philip Guildford, Chief Operating Officer of the Department of Engineering, with awards recognising their outstanding leadership and dedication supporting 20 years of collaborative research excellence.

As well as sharing ideas and reviewing a wide range of projects with ̽��ֱ�� researchers, the Boeing and Cambridge teams toured the ̽��ֱ��’s Whittle Laboratory and Institute for Manufacturing.

Inspiring the next generation of aerospace engineers is also an important facet of the longstanding partnership. As part of the summit, Scott Walston, vice president of Boeing’s Enterprise and Technology Office talked to students about Boeing research and life as an engineer in the aviation sector.

"We are immensely proud of our 20-year partnership with the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, a collaboration that has exemplified the power of global research and development partnerships in driving aerospace innovation,” said Pat Stokes. “Together, we've tackled some of aviation’s biggest challenges, including finding ways to accelerate sustainable aviation. Our partnership underscores the importance of academia and industry working hand in hand to shape the future of aerospace and demonstrates how much we can achieve when we come together.”

Philip Guildford added, “ ̽��ֱ��relationship works so well because the engineers and scientists from these two organisations are truly world-class and they get to talk with each other, be creative and work on innovative projects. Everyone gives their best to make aviation more efficient, sustainable and safe.”

Senior executives and employees from research and technology teams at Boeing spent three days in Cambridge to celebrate 20 years of successful collaboration and to identify the next set of challenges they want to address.

Boeing

Dr Louisa Michael from Boeing talked about her work on multi-physics modelling of the impact of lightning strikes

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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̽��ֱ��King breaks ground on Cambridge’s New Whittle Laboratory

sc604 — Tue, 09 May 2023 14:26:07 +0000

His Majesty was in Cambridge to break ground on the New Whittle Laboratory, where he also met with staff and researchers, leaders from the aviation industry and senior government representatives.

̽��ֱ��New Whittle Laboratory, a £58 million facility, will be the leading global centre for net-zero aviation and energy. Its mission is to halve the time to develop key technologies to support a sustainable aviation industry.

Alongside the ground-breaking, senior figures from government and industry gathered for an international roundtable as part of an initiative led by Cambridge and MIT. This will present insights based on global aviation systems modelling capabilities developed through the Aviation Impact Accelerator, a project led by the Whittle Laboratory and the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership.

Today, it typically takes six to eight years to develop a new technology to a point where it can be considered for commercial deployment in the aerospace and energy sectors, recent trials in the Whittle Laboratory have shown this timeframe can be accelerated by breaking down barriers that exist between academia and industry.

̽��ֱ��New Whittle Laboratory will incorporate the Bennett Innovation Laboratory – made possible through a philanthropic gift from the Peter Bennett Foundation – to bring together a critical mass of talent, giving them the right skills, tools, culture and working environment to solve complex multidisciplinary challenges. It will also be home to the UK’s National Centre for Propulsion and Power, built around a fast feedback model pioneered in Formula One, to cut the time to develop technologies from years to months.

Participating organisations in the roundtable included the UK Government, UK Aerospace Technology Institute, the US Federal Aviation Administration, NASA, EU Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking, Airbus, Boeing, Rolls-Royce, and the Sustainable Markets Initiative.

As ̽��ֱ��Prince of Wales, His Majesty previously visited the Whittle Laboratory in January 2020, and March 2022, to encourage the acceleration of sustainable aviation, as well as hosting an industry roundtable in February 2020 in London with the Sustainable Markets Initiative and World Economic Forum to explore solutions for decarbonising air travel.

Professor Rob Miller, Director of the Whittle Laboratory, said:

“We need to completely transform the innovation landscape in the aviation and energy sectors if we are to reach net zero by 2050. ̽��ֱ��new Whittle Lab has been designed as a disruptive innovation laboratory targeting the critical early stages in the lifecycles of technologies, where there are windows of opportunity to translate scientific strengths into global technological and industrial leadership.

“ ̽��ֱ��Lab is designed to work at the intersection of cutting-edge science and emerging engineering applications, providing fast feedback between the two, and dramatically cutting the time to deliver zero-emission technologies.”

Grant Shapps, the UK Government’s Energy Security Secretary, said:

" ̽��ֱ��UK is leading a revolution in aviation, looking to new technologies to cut emissions.

"Having established the Jet Zero Council three years ago by bringing together government, industry and academia, I strongly welcome the Whittle Laboratory being at the forefront of that endeavour today.

"This will further help the best minds from the fields of energy and aviation push ever-further and faster with the latest innovations in order to solve the problem of environmentally friendly and affordable flying."

Mark Harper, the UK Government’s Transport Secretary, said:

“Having already invested £165 million into the production of sustainable aviation fuels, this Government is determined to harness the economic benefits of flying while supporting industry and academia to create cleaner skies for the future.”

“ ̽��ֱ��breaking ground of Whittle Laboratory is great news for the UK's world-leading aviation sector, representing another step towards the UK hitting our Jet Zero goals.”

Peter Bennett, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge alumnus, philanthropist and founder of the Peter Bennett Foundation, said:

“To tackle the most complex challenges, we need to take a whole systems approach, where innovative technologies can be explored within the context of the realities that may impact their roll out. Rigorous testing using models such as the Aviation Impact Accelerator expedites the process of innovation and implementation.

“We need new ways to work together at speed, which is why the Bennett Innovation Lab will bring together global experts from government, industry and academia, enabling radical collaboration. I believe by using Cambridge’s convening power, this can make a real difference, fast.”

Grazia Vittadini, Chief Technology Officer at Rolls-Royce, said:

“ ̽��ֱ��Whittle Laboratory and Rolls-Royce have worked together for 50 years. Over this time the partnership has delivered hundreds of technologies into Rolls-Royce products. Deep technology partnerships like this are critical if the UK is to maintain its role as a science superpower and to create high value jobs in the UK. ̽��ֱ��New Whittle Laboratory offers an exciting opportunity to raise this ambition by bringing together cutting-edge science and engineering application in one building with the aim of meeting the challenge of net zero flight by 2050.”

Jim Hileman, Vice President and Chief Engineer, Sustainability and Future Mobility at Boeing said:

"Boeing's partnership with the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge is central to the effort of making aviation carbon neutral. As well as helping us to find technology solutions, it is bringing together different companies and academic disciplines from across the sector to drive change at the system level. We are excited by the way in which the New Whittle Laboratory has been designed to break down silos, bringing together a wide range of disciplines to take on the most challenging net zero aviation problems.”

Eisaku Ito, Chief Technology Officer at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, said:

“At Mitsubishi Heavy Industries we have a goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040, through our Mission Net Zero initiative. But we know that we can only reach this through accelerating the pace of innovation, and scaling up the development of net zero technologies. We have benefited from a strategic research partnership with the Whittle Laboratory since the 1980s, so we are excited to see work begin on this new facility that will become an important global centre for collaboration and disruptive innovation.

“We look forward to continuing our relationship with the Whittle Laboratory over the coming decades, and we want our engineers to think of the new Lab as their European home – a unique environment where they can participate in a culture that brings together the best global ideas, expertise, software, tools and testing facilities that can help solve the challenge of climate change.”

For more information on energy-related research in Cambridge, please visit Energy IRC, which brings together Cambridge’s research knowledge and expertise, in collaboration with global partners, to create solutions for a sustainable and resilient energy landscape for generations to come.

His Majesty ̽��ֱ��King visited the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge today, in his first public engagement following the Coronation.

Lloyd Mann

̽��ֱ��King at the groundbreaking for the New Whittle Laboratory

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

Yes

̽��ֱ��future of flying

skbf2 — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 14:46:49 +0000

Cambridge and Boeing have been working together for 20 years. Today they are combining their research strengths and industry know-how to speed aviation towards a carbon-neutral future.

Can aviation be sustainable?

sc604 — Wed, 23 Nov 2022 16:28:40 +0000

Air travel is one of the major contributors to global warming. Cambridge scientists are working with leading energy companies to help develop sustainable aviation fuels, which could reduce the industry’s carbon emissions by up to 80%.

̽��ֱ��future of aviation: how will we fly to COP in 2035?

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Nov 2022 09:33:50 +0000

Along with all areas of the global economy, flight must become climate neutral. However, huge uncertainty remains around what technology, policy, finance, and behaviour will be needed to get it there.

Inspired by a call in early 2020 from His Majesty, King Charles III, for industry, academia, and Government to move much faster to get aviation to net zero, the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge set up the Aviation Impact Accelerator (AIA). ̽��ֱ��AIA aims to accelerate the journey to sustainable aviation by developing evidence-based tools that allow people to map, understand, and embark on the pathways towards sustainable flight.   

̽��ֱ��team are now working on the Journey Impact Simulator, a tool that can be used to explore how a flight from A to B might look now and in the future, showing the best possible technology options to minimise climate impact while showing the user the trade-offs in terms of cost, land and electricity required. This tool draws results from the whole system model built by the AIA’s international and multi-disciplinary team.

“What we are trying to do is work with experts from industry, government, academia and civil society from around the world to identify 'unlocks' which will open the door to much wider transformation in the sector,” explains Professor Rob Miller, AIA lead and Director of the Whittle Laboratory, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

Dr Samuel Gabra, an Egyptian research associate with the AIA, is passionate about scaling up energy access while reaching net-zero. Explaining how one might use the Simulator to explore a flight from London to Sharm El Sheikh in 2035, he says that the model suggests a synthetic jet fuel and hydrogen combustion aircraft as the best options for limiting the climate impact.

“Although we reduce emissions by depending on hydrogen and synthetic jet fuel, this comes with a significant cost,” Gabra says.

It is startling to see the cost, land and electricity required for these future options. For example, for just one flight from London to Egypt in 2035 using synthetic jet fuel, the electricity requirement is approximately 166% of Egypt’s average electricity use per capita per year.

Gabra adds: “As we saw, the future of sustainable aviation is likely to require a huge amount of energy, which means it is impossible for a single country or region to single-handedly provide this amount of energy. This presents an opportunity for all countries, especially developing ones, to participate in the future of sustainable aviation. By capitalising on their abundant renewable resources, countries can act as hubs for producing green electricity and synthetic jet fuel.”

It is vital that as the world faces climate change adaptation and mitigation, all countries are included in the discussion around the opportunities and challenges. Aviation plays a key role in connecting our world, but access to the economic and social opportunities it brings are not equally available. As the aviation industry works to transform the sector, it is not just the climate impact that must be considered but the impact on people.

Adapted from an article from the Aviation Impact Accelerator

In the week of COP27 people across the world have flown to Sharm El Sheikh to discuss action on climate change. Aviation is a crucial way to bring us together to tackle this challenge – but it is also a major contributor to the problem.

̽��ֱ��future of sustainable aviation is likely to require a huge amount of energy... This presents an opportunity for all countries, especially developing ones, to participate in the future of sustainable aviation

Samuel Gabra

How will we fly to COP in 2035?

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Aeroplane flying

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

Yes