The Role of Technology and Operations in Aviation Sustainability and Environmental Impact

Description of work:

The environmental cost of every activity and product is considered to a greater extent every day. While other industries have the potential to rapidly change and become green, the aviation industry is lacking radical options. Moving hundreds of people together across the globe in hours is incredibly energy intensive. Rather, aviation research has developed many different technologies and operational optimisations that each contribute a small amount to help reduce the environmental impact of the aviation industry. This project seeks to analyse and assess the numerous technological and operational improvements available to the aviation industry to understand which will work in combination, and hence understand both short term and long term implications for the various environmental sustainability metrics (CO2 emission etc). It is also essential to understand the practical implications of any and all technologies and operations, to understand how these will influence real world operations, in an industry with very high operating costs, significant expense in terms of assets, and narrow profit margins. Both STEM and business tools and analysis techniques will be required to understand the implications to the aviation industry, at various scales (commercial air transport and general aviation, for fixed wing and rotor wing, and for emerging areas of remotely piloted and autonomous systems).

Contact:

G.Wild@adfa.edu.au

Supervisor