Airbus has high hopes for low-fuel planes

By James Regan

FARNBOROUGH (Reuters) - Planemakers face major challenges as they try to develop cleaner planes, but new engines will be key in slashing the environmental cost of flying by 2020, Airbus's technology chief said.

Airbus has set itself the goal of cutting carbon dioxide and noise by half from 2000 levels and nitrogen oxides by 80 percent as airlines struggling with soaring fuel costs come under pressure to lower their impact on the environment.

"We have put the bar very high," Airbus'a senior vice president for research and technology Axel Krein told Reuters at the Farnborough Airshow on Tuesday.

"We have some significant technical hurdles in front of us. I would say I'm confident we are on the right track and that we have a chance to meet these targets."

Lowering aircraft emissions hinged on making aircraft more aerodynamic, designing more efficient engines and producing large enough quantities of new fuels such as biofuels. Some testing was already under way, Krein said.

Airbus flew one of its A380 superjumbo aircraft in February using a synthetic fuel derived from natural gas, known as GTL (gas-to-liquid), which is almost free of sulphur, can be used with current engines and could be available in the near future.

Later this year, Airbus plans to fly one of its four-engine widebody A340 aircraft using Pratt & Whitney's new Geared Turbofan engine, which Bombardier plans to use for its future CSeries narrowbody passenger jet family.

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