Page 82 - World Airnews Magazine January 2020 Edition

NEWS DIGITAL

IS THE ELECTRIFICATION OF

AVIATION THE NEXT WHITE

ELEPHANT?

By Joanna Bailey

The aviation industry is
abuzz with talk of how to drive
down CO² emissions.
With growing pressure from
the flying public, every airline
is working its way through the
options available to it, from
carbon offsetting to improve-
ments in fleet efficiencies.
However, there are still many
out there who think that an
electric aircraft will save us
all. Is that realistic, or is it just
another white elephant that will
never really happen?
THE WHITE ELEPHANTS OF
AVIATION
The aviation industry has had a
few notable ‘white elephants’ in
its time.
Just after the Second World
War, the Bristol Brabazon
was intended to revolutionize
transatlantic passenger travel. Airbus is working towards hybrid-electric flight with
However, the airliner had a aircraft such as the E-Fan X. Photo: Airbus
ridiculously high cost per seat
mile so, despite £3.4m of
investment, the project got no
orders and was subsequently
disbanded.
In the 1960s, Boeing spent
today’s equivalent of $35 billion
on a supersonic white elephant:
the 2707. This was a futuristic
speed of sound aircraft with a
massive design flaw that meant
it could carry almost no payload
at all.
Some aircraft which are called
‘white elephants’ were almost
a success. TheConcorde, for
instance, was as groundbreak-
ing as it was iconic. But, in
the end, poor value in terms
of operational costs meant it
never had mass appeal. The
story is similar for the Airbus
A380.
While these white elephants
have one by one been
abandoned at various stages
of their existence, there seems
to be another pale pachyderm An ATR 72 would need a 20 ton battery to get off the ground. Photo: ATR
on the horizon. Is the idea that

World Airnews | January Extra 2020
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