The Struggling Airlines: Bring Back Propellers or Brew New Fuels

June 21, 2008 – Vol.13 No.13

THE STRUGGLING AIRLINES: BRING BACK PROPELLERS OR BREW NEW FUELS.

Think filling up the tank of the family sedan is a frightening experience? Try gassing up a fleet of jetliners.

Almost daily there’s news of cost-cutting from the world’s airlines. The first cuts were charging for checked baggage. Now it’s pulling planes out of service, canceling routes and laying off personnel. Next will be bankruptcies.

At more than 25 percent of expenditures fuel is the highest single cost for an airline.

One airline may weather the fuel crisis better than most: Southwest. The low-cost, no frills, peanuts (or pretzels) only airline has been fuel conscious for years. The Texas-based carrier buys its fuel years in advance. The company orders its Boeing 737’s with drag-reducing, energy-saving upswept wing tips and now it’s reportedly hosing down the insides of its jet engines for smoother air flow and better fuel economy.

Frankly, it’s those jet engines combined with the high cost of aviation fuel that have got the airlines in trouble: Gas turbines, those jet engines, are one of the fuel hungriest machines ever devised by man. When fuel costs are low the engines offer extreme reliability, are reasonably clean burning, and of course are powerful, simple (one major moving part), and allow airliners to fly fast at high altitudes where the air is smoother and more comfortable to passengers. But now that fuel is so expensive those engines are like albatrosses hanging from the wings.

With so much invested in jets it’s hard to imagine the airlines as well as the aircraft manufacturers switching to something else. Reportedly, too, the airlines say they want to stick with jets no matter what. They and their flying customers like them. Still, if the price of fuel stays where it is (or higher as expected) the airlines may have to reconsider.

One option would be to switch to turboprops, essentially a gas turbine engine with a propeller attached. These are still commonplace around the world for commuter airlines the military, cargo planes and some corporate aircraft. The advantage of the turboprop over the jet engine is thrust: the big three, four, six or now eight-bladed propellers grab at the air and push the plane forward forward more efficiently than with just the thrust of a jet engine.

While fuel efficiency per aircraft may vary, compared side-by-side with a regional jet of the same passenger capacity, a commuter turboprop will use about 30 percent less fuel and get there in nearly the same time. The world’s militaries, knowing how important fuel is in battle, employ turboprops for their efficiency.

Of course the airlines would be reluctant to switch back to propellers. Passengers are used to used to seeing smooth wings without whirring propellers. Though turboprops are still produced, the airline manufacturers have no plans to bring back large, propeller driven aircraft like those that crossed the oceans decades ago.

The other option for the airlines is to find a cheaper fuel. Air New Zealand has plans to burn a biofuel based on jatropha oil in for 10 percent of their needs by 2013. The airline, along with Continental and Virgin Atlantic Airways, has also joined the Algal Biomass Organization in the hopes that algae may, in the future, be a source of fuel. A new fuel, however, will take a long time to develop, be certified by aviation regulatory agencies and be brought into full production,

In the short term there are no good answers for the airlines, other than hope the high cost of fuel is an anomaly and will go down. They could scour the world’s boneyards for out-of-service turboprops just to keep some services going, but that kind of desperation has yet to incur. In another six months they may be thinking about bringing back propellers.

Links:

Algal Biomass Organization
http://algalbiomass.org

Bombardier Regional Aircraft
http://www.bombardier.com

--- Jatropha Curcas: Promising Biofuel Feedstock or Invasive Species?

--- UOP, a Honeywell Company, to Study Biofuels Use for Commercial Aircraft.

--- Virgin Atlantic: First Airline to Fly on Biofuel Blend.