Nowadays, aviation news is all over the mainstream press. One of the biggest stories nowadays has to do with the rising cost of fuel. It is a pretty complicated situation really, but basically it boils down to oil-producing companies and countries taking advantage of consumer insecurity about the market. Everyone feels threatened about the oil supply, so they exploit that fear to drive prices up. Unfortunately, this means more expensive tickets for most people, which in turn means less commercial air travel..
Fortunately, not all of the aviation news is bad. I have a friend who has been in the aviation industry for decades, and he is pretty excited about some of the developments he is seeing. All the drives towards maximizing fuel economy caused by the coming oil crisis and the rising prices has led to some pretty neat stuff. There are a number of different developers working on commercial airplanes that are meant to be more efficient than ever before. These work on a few different principles.
According to one of my favorite aviation news sources, the first principle is pretty simple. Basically, bigger is better when you're talking about transportation. A bus which carries 50 people is more efficient than a car. A train which can carry hundreds is more efficient than the bus. It goes the same way with airplanes. For some of the major carriers on the major routes, they are currently developing super jumbo airplanes that will carry nearly twice as many people as your typical flight. This will save fuel on full flights by allowing the plane to maximize its capacity.
Of course I've read aviation news sources that talk about much more high-tech developments in airline efficiency. You see, by using more sophisticated aerodynamics you can also improve efficiency – even for smaller planes. Airplanes get lighter all the time as the materials needed to make them get stronger, but design philosophies change too. There are people working on lifting bodies – basically, airplanes that work on the same principle as the space shuttle. With these current airplanes, the whole fuselage acts as one giant wing. This makes for a more efficient design, although they can be a little bit more difficult to engineer. I've been reading the aviation safety news for months looking for any details, and to me it looks like they are going to be approved for sure. Apparently, when serviced by properly trained technicians, they will be as safe as any other commercial planes.
