THE ALBATROSS PROJECT – A EUROPEAN INITIATIVE TO REDUCE AVIATION’S CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS IN LARGE SCALE

Abstract

Aviation is seeking further ways to reduce its environmental footprint. To showcase currently still hidden potentials for fuel saving multiple European actors from different fields come together to implement a solution for the most efficient flight regarding state-of-the-art aircraft, airspace and ground infrastructure. Collaboration of all stakeholder is the key to seek benefits and make them permanent. Those acting parties are in particular Pilots, Air Navigation and Service Providers, Network Managers, Airport Operators, System Developers, Airlines and Airframers. This paper presents the approach of the ALBATROSS project. ALBATROSS is a 2-year very large scale SESAR1 demonstration (VLD). The project participants work together to identify the potential for fuel savings and to demonstrate them in a large European-wide scale. The overall objective of the ALBATROSS project is to define and demonstrate operational solutions and processes allowing greener flights, minimising the environmental impact of aviation while maximising flight efficiency. This is done by a series of live trials and the comparison of the results with historical flight data. The feasibility of operating such flights in various operating environments, with fuel consumption as close as possible compared to the theoretical optimum and as low as possible compared to the average fuel consumption observed historically will be demonstrated. For the sake of comparability the investigations are conducted for similar aircraft types operating on the chosen city-pairs under similar operational conditions.