Airplane energy use and conservation strategies

Technical Report · Wed May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1974

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/7232476· OSTI ID:7232476

Pilati, D. A.

Domestic commercial airplane fuel use is examined as a function of stage length. A fuel use model is developed using the eight most popular airplanes. Short flights are very fuel inefficient; a 100-mile flight consumes 2.5 times as much fuel per passenger-mile than a 1,000-mile flight. Half of today's flights are for distances under 260 miles. Fuel consumption for purposes other than flying directly between airports is examined. Over 10% of total fuel use is for those portions of the flight in which no enroute distance is achieved. Delays account for at least 4.2% of the fuel consumption and auxiliary power units use over 1%. Fuel requirements for attempting to recover lost time and for fuel ferrying are also discussed. Airplane fuel efficiency can be increased in the short term by operational changes, particularly by increasing the load factor. A load factor increase from 50 to 60% would reduce airplane fuel use by 16% for the same traffic. Other options include reducing cruise speeds, increasing cruise altitudes, and changing ground operations. Each of these strategies offer savings of 1 to 3%. Total transportation energy use can be reduced by shifting air passengers to ground modes, especially for the inefficient short-stage traffic. Net energy savings for diverting half the flights under 200 miles to buses or trains is equivalent to 6% of the fleet fuel use. (6 tables, 6 fig., 36 references)

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., Tenn. (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-26
• OSTI ID: 7232476
• Report Number(s): ORNL-NSF-EP-69
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290700 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Transport & Storage
291000 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Conservation
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
320201* -- Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization-- Transportation-- Air & Aerospace
AIRCRAFT
AVIATION FUELS
EFFICIENCY
ENERGY CONSERVATION
ENERGY CONSUMPTION
FUEL CONSUMPTION
FUELS
TRANSPORT
TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS