Do you have an irresistible desire to pilot an aircraft? Do you dream of becoming a pilot? As a rule, this question arises in people who have already achieved something in life, and have financial opportunities and free time to realize their dreams. It will help you make the right choice and become a real pilot. It is wonderful if a childhood dream is to become a pilot, but for it, you need education and quality training. Pilot training begins on the ground and is based on the study of theoretical disciplines. Quality training is one of the most important factors of success in the world of aviation and flight safety.
Nowadays, as it was 20 years ago, every other high school student has dreamed of becoming a pilot. Such a profession requires serious training. Therefore, we recommend you start learning useful information from your school years. This profession is not only prestigious, and highly paid, but also very interesting. If schoolwork takes up all your free time,
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All future pilots will be interested to know what kind of aviation there will be in the future. So, what new developments will soon become commonplace?
Lilium Jet
Civil aviation seems to be one of the most conservative industries: from a layman’s perspective, we’re still operating half-century-old technology, and little has changed since the Jet Revolution. However, this is a peculiarity of human consciousness: a couple of years pass and it seems that any miracle of technology has always existed. What will very soon look commonplace and natural to us?
Digitalization of air travel
The industry is rapidly digitalizing: the most economically active people are becoming Generation Z, in English-speaking literature referred to as digital natives. For them, smartphones and ubiquitous Internet access have always existed. Unlike the “analog” generations, they prefer messaging rather than live communication with humans. Therefore, airport checkouts, check-in agents, and call centers are rapidly becoming a thing of the past and are being replaced by digital services – from automatic baggage claim counters and boarding gate turnstiles to self-measuring hand luggage with a smartphone camera. Automated passport control is being actively implemented.
As of the end of 2019 — this is the latest docudrama data from Switzerland’s SITA (which provides IT services in aviation) — more than 25% of the world’s airlines had chatbots answering most passenger questions. Often in multiple languages and with integration into a voice assistant like Siri.
Closely related to digitalization is the introduction of biometric identification, which the pandemic has not so much put the brakes on, but pointed in a slightly different direction. Before the coronavirus epidemic, 70% of the world’s airlines were planning to implement biometric passenger identification by 2021, at least in the form of pilot projects. 50% of airports were planning to start using blockchain for end-to-end authorization of passengers at all stages of control. Now blockchain and tokens come in the form of IATA Travelpass “digital passports,” originally proposed for vaccination control, but easily augmented with any other data control function: a secure token can contain both personal and biometric data. Such solutions are already working in single airports in the US, China, Qatar, Oman, etc.
Alternative fuel
The European trends are responsible consumption and environmental friendliness. Some environmentalists are calling for an end to flying in favor of railroads. European countries impose environmental levies that in some cases make no sense to fly low-cost airlines, and the French parliamentarians in April 2021 voted for a ban on domestic flights over short distances – the ones that can be covered by the train in less than 2.5 hours (the bill is not passed yet).
The aviation industry responds to this by switching to alternative fuels. Boeing, for example, promises by 2030 to convert planes to biofuel, which is made not from oil but from vegetable raw materials (such as inedible plants) and organic industrial waste (from compost to wood processing waste) and can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 80%. “Green fuels are the most effective and affordable way to reduce CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions in civil aviation in the next 20-30 years,” Boeing’s press office said in a reply to Vedomosti&. – Biofuel is safe and has passed numerous tests. More than a quarter of a million flights have been made with it, and their number continues to grow. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, eco-friendly aviation fuels help reduce CO2 emissions by 80%, potentially by 100%.”
The first world commercial biofuel flight, using a Boeing 777, a freighter was successfully performed in 2018. Now biofuels can also be used, but only in a 50/50 mixture with kerosene, according to certification requirements. However, only 0.2% of flights between 2016 and 2020 used blends. The reason is simple: biofuel is still four times more expensive than kerosene.
Governments are encouraging the switch to new fuels. The French one, for example, will sponsor the industry for 15 billion euros, setting a goal to create a replacement for the narrow fuselage Airbus A320 family by 2026-2028, which will fly on biofuel and have the possibility of further conversion to hydrogen. The start of commercial operation is planned for 2033-2035. Even earlier, by 2030, a new zero-emission regional jet should start flying, it will use either a hydrogen or hybrid propulsion system. The propellers could be powered by electric motors, which would be powered by fuel cells on proton-exchange membranes: lithium batteries are too heavy to fly for more than a couple of hours. Hydrogen is much lighter than kerosene, but it would need to be taken in four times its volume.
“The hydrogen tanks will not be in the wing. The concepts we are considering (made public last year) include tanks in the fuselage. When designing, we, first of all, decide how many passengers and what range the aircraft will be designed for, and only after that do we develop the design of the passenger cabin. If that requires adapting the design accordingly (for example, requiring four times as much space), we will do that,” says Glen Livin, vice president of Zero Emission Aircraft at Airbus.
Airbus
The zero-CO2 aircraft concepts Airbus wants to begin producing by 2035 involve simply burning hydrogen in gas turbine engines, similar in principle to existing engines. Two of these concepts are A320 replacements and a regional turboprop aircraft similar to the ATR-72. And the third one uses a fundamentally new aerodynamic scheme.
New aerodynamic schemes
All civil aircraft are similar: it is a conventional tube with a wing. It is proposed to replace the classical aerodynamic scheme with a “flying wing” – when the wide and flat fuselage itself becomes an aerodynamic surface and creates lift. According to Airbus, this will allow using 20% less fuel and the passengers will get a spacious cabin with a fundamentally new zoning scheme, which will have room for sleeping compartments, meeting rooms, and large hydrogen tanks. The interior arrangement will look more like a cruise ship or an airship. The idea is not new, but the “flying wing” scheme has managed to create only a few relatively small warplanes like the American B-2 bomber. It was not used for passenger planes due to the complicated control system, however, modern computing technologies allow the Airbus MAVERIC prototype (Model Aircraft for Validation and Experimentation of Robust Innovative Controls) to fly stably.
The “flying wing” principle is also the basis of the Flying V concept developed at Delft University in the Netherlands, but the “flying wing” here has a V-shape. It, like MAVERIC, exists as a flying scale model. The development of this aircraft is sponsored by KLM.
True, there are still a lot of questions about such layouts. For example, entrances and exits can only be located along the perimeter, and this potentially increases passenger boarding time – and especially their emergency evacuation. In addition, those sitting closer to the outside of the wing will move vertically with great amplitude and experience discomfort during maneuvers. To avoid it, it will be necessary to limit the roll angles and, consequently, the maneuverability of the aircraft.
The Boeing SUGAR Volt concept is more conservative: the Americans propose to increase the wing span and make it thinner, and for stiffness to establish a specially profiled strut, which creates additional lifting force. Such an airplane should consume 9% less fuel, and to avoid having to rebuild airports, the main wing will be folded, like on the Boeing 777X being tested. Another idea of this concept is to take off with conventional fuel and to cruise with electricity.
Boeing
Airbus is also testing a foldable wing, more precisely a semi-elastic wingtip that can either be rigidly fixed or sway freely, like an albatross. This reduces the aerodynamic drag and makes the wing itself lighter and increases its wingspan by about 1.5 times since the loads acting on the center plane are lower with this scheme. The larger the span, the higher the lift of the wing, which means that less fuel is needed to lift the airplane into the air and fly.
Supersonic Aircraft
A revival of supersonic commercial aviation is expected soon (the most famous passenger planes of the past are the Tu-144 and the Concorde). By 2029, the Boom Overture aircraft, which already in 2017 gathered 76 orders, is scheduled to begin operation, and on June 3, 2021, American United Airlines signed an agreement to purchase 15 aircraft of this type with an option for another 50. The head of Boom Technology, founded in 2014 in the U.S. (this is its development), Blake Scholl estimates the global market for such machines at 2,000 units.
We hope our article is useful for you. Study, practice, and achieve your goals with confidence. If you have study difficulties, don’t hesitate to contact the best essay writing service to get help and improve your grades in college. Make time not only for studying but also for recreation. For pilots, health is the most important thing. We wish you to fulfill your life dream and become a legendary pilot.