The Future of Flying – Is Sustainable Air Travel Possible?

– I'm in the KLM hangar here.

This is a Dreamliner.

(dramatic music) Thanks for having me on theDreamliner cockpit here.

– This is very much a realistic idea for a new passenger aircraft.

So right now we're standing in a mock-up section of the Flying-V.

– When do you expect to see the Flying-V, this model, and the reality one takes off? Welcome on board.

My next stop is Amsterdam.

(upbeat music) So I just arrived in Amsterdam here at the KLM Engineering Service, to learn about what KLM's doing to sustain the future of aviation.

So Ramona, what are we going to see today of what you guys have done so far? – Yeah, so today I'm goingto explain you a bit more about what our stabilityapproach in general.

Then we will show you3D printing initiative with recycled materials.

You will talk with our fuel director on sustainable aviation fuel.

Then you will see one of our pursuers talking about our closed loop initiative.

And you will see a pilottalking about efficiency.

And I think tomorrow you'll also go to technical university in Delft.

– Right.

– About our Flying-V project.

(upbeat music) – Hi there.

– Hello.

– Hello.

– I'm Ranette (inaudible last name) .

– Very tall.

– (laughing) It's true.

Welcome to the Engine Services Makerspace.

Where, this is one outof eight innovation hubs where we do 3-D printing andengineering and maintenance.

– [Sam] I have no understanding, what's 3D printing.

So, show me what you guys doing.

– [Ranette] So what we'reprinting here are aircraft tools, that are tools that support the maintenance process of our aircraft.

This is a fan blade cover.

And if you are sendingin front of an engine, you'll see a lot of these blades.

And during the maintenance process, we need to shot peen them.

So we started thinking how can we use 3D printingas a method to create tools that make the maintenance process faster, safer, or more durable? At this moment we did a pilot of one week where we used all the PET plastic waste of one week of our operation, to create 150 kilos of filament.

So one week gives you 150 rolls of these.

(upbeat music) – So Sam, here's a table we made for the new KLM Headquarters.

It's made out of recycled plastic, and is made by topology optimization.

You can see here with a specialtype of support down here, it's calculated to reduce waste material.

and it's supposed to be able tosupport about 150 kilogrammes.

– Right, So it's made from plastic bottles to make furniture.

– Yep.

– A table for the KLM Headquarter.

– Definitely yeah.

– 150 kilo, I'm about that.

(laughs) Let me do a stress test on your product.

– Yeah, very stable, I sit on, oh boy, I heard a crack.

(both laughing) How many hour it took you to develop this? – To print it, it took about240 hours I think, so– – 240 hours?- Yeah, just to print it.

– This is all, a man's, themachine is doing by itself.

– Yeah the machine, you programme it in and then it prints it out for you.

(upbeat music) – All right so what I actuallymade here was uh the KLM 100 gear house and I madeit specially for you.

– Wow! – With the material fromthe recycling uh plant.

– My God.

What is really cool I'm uhabsolutely stunned because 3-D printing can make just like theuh original look of the dull blue house this is almostthe same shape, but this is created by recycled products.

– Indeed.

– You know.

Wow.

– So that could be your petbubble that you use one time in the KLM flight.

– (laughing) That's reallycool.

Thank you so much.

This is a great idea, brilliant.

(upbeat music) I'm in the KLM hangar here thisis a Dreamliner I'm going to go inside a 787 Dreamlinerto discover and learn a bit more about sustainabilityinside this Dreamliner.

(upbeat music) So, I got onboard the Dreamlinerand in the galley here Purser Mio and two ladies heresgoing to explain to me that showing me their latest KLMrecyclable products will be used onboard.

So Mio can youexplain a bit more about what's behind this and how youcame up with this idea? – [Mio] Normally this itemsare uh uh thrown away after the flight.

– Yeah.

– And now we collected all items from four flights from Vancouverto Amsterdam, cleaned it recycled it, and used itagain on the flight from Amsterdam to Vancouver.

So, wedidn't throw it away we used the material again.

– You recycle all the stufffrom the flight, from Vancouver and then used them againafter recycling these are the new products and on theflight back to Vancouver? – Yes.

– This is what you have done, yeah? – Yeah, yes.

Uh we save the meal mainmeal uh dish the salad bowl, the glass and the cutlery.

– I want to check your cutlerybecause your cutlery's metal 'cause you can wash them? – (inaudible) uh plastic.

– Plastic.

– Plastic, plastic yeah.

– Yes, so why you use plastic'cause I thought plastic is uh harmful to the uh environment? – Well if you throw it away in nature – Uh-hu.

– It's harmful.

– Okay.

– The three uh use it again.

We wash it and clean it.

– You wash the plastic and reuse them? – Yes for for this test flightto Vancouver it is a really good quality so we canwash it and use it again.

– What's the feedback sofar? Do the passenger notice the difference or? – Yes we made an announcement.

– Um.

– Uh in which we explainedwhat we are doing and they reacted very energetic.

– Passengers help us withseparating the plastic when we uh on the European flight forexample come by to collect all the plastic waste weseparate the bottles and the cans from the meal boxes andthey actually help us.

– Really? Wow! – So uh it becomes easier for us to do it.

– That's great to hear.

Wish more airlines doing the same thing.

– Look at the carpet.

– Yeah.

What's wrong with the carpet? – If you look at the carpetyou look at the blue and the blue in my uniform.

– Hm.

– Do you have an iead? – No idea, but, I justsee dot dot dots.

But I – Well the – I don't know.

It's all blue.

– The blue that you see inthe carpet is the same blue as my uniform is actuallymade from the uniforms, our old uniforms so KLM recycled it – Really – Yes, and they made carpet from it – I'm also going to try outyour new seats here on the 787 – Yeah this new – I haven't flown the KLMDreamliner, yeah, good seats, huh – It's like a small house – Oh hi, you can see yourselfhere, that's nice, very nice lik a blue house open and close like that, look at this – And you see how handsomeyou are after a 24-hour flight – Oh yes, after a longflight I became handsome (laughing) (upbeat music) – [Sam] So Captain Imervile, thanks for having me on theDreamliner cockpit here.

So, I want to know froma captains perspective, from a pilots perspective, what are you guys doing to be more sustainable in aviation.

– Very good question, wecan do a lot as pilots.

Cause we are handling the thrust levers.

We are dealing with the amount of fuel.

So we can do a lot of thingsand we say to our pilots, if you can burn only 50 kiloseach flight it's nothing compared to how much fuel is in the tanks.

But you add it up eachflight, each day, and at the end of the year you have alow amount of fuel burned and therefore also CO2.

And you can do, you canpostpone the moment of starting your engines.

You can, when taxi in, youcan shut off one engine.

So you taxi on onlyone engine to the gate.

Its completely safe, it's completely okay.

You save a lot of money.

You can postpone yourmoment of starting decent.

You can postpone yourmoment of setting flaps.

To have less drag so to burn some fuel.

– [Sam] You need to coordinate with ATC.

You can't just make a decision on your own when to start to descendor to line up the runway.

– [Captain] Yes, of course, it's depending on the airport you are flying to.

Because John F.

Kennedy, New York is quite busy.

So you're not entitledto have a lot of room for your decisions when youfly, let's say within Europe.

It's not that busy, soyou have more space.

But of course even atSkipol you can respond.

If you're always lookingfor the small things to gain in the end you'll end up witha lot of earning on fuel.

– Thank you very much for sharing all the insight with me today, thank you.

– Yeah, Yeah you're welcome.

Very good.

Thank you.

(upbeat music) – [Sam] But exactly issustainable aviation fuel? Can you explain a bit more to me? – Yeah so, sustainableaviation fuel for us is fuel that is made from wasteproducts and converted into a fuel which is comparableto the normal fuel.

– [Sam] Cause I've heard a lotof people mentioning bio fuel and also people talk about synthetic fuel.

So is this all sustainable aviation fuel you're trying to take? – Not really, bio fuel wesee as first generation fuel.

Which is created fromour palm oil or soy oil and there we see asustainability challenge.

Because, the farmers thereare cutting down forests to create the palm plantationsand that's something we do not like.

We didn't want to focus on waste streams and waste cooking oil.

Then you have syntheticoil, which is something where you take CO2 out ofthe air and convert that into a sustainable aviation fuel.

The challenge there isenergy that is required and also the price.

The price is two to two and a half times expensive as normal fuel.

It's also 10 years awaybecause it's a big challenge to get the price down and to have enough factories in the world becausethere aren't enough now.

And they're also at a study phase.

There are still a lotof challenges to be met.

(upbeat music) – [Sam] Wow! Look at this, a veryunconventional futuristic design of the aeroplane.

A V-shaped fuselage, engines mounted at back.

Not the round fuselageconventional design.

I'm at the TU Delf.

Delf University ofTechnology here in Colon.

Malcolm, thank you verymuch for inviting me here.

– Thank you – Tell me more about this flying V.

Is this really a realistic idea or is this just someone's sci-fiidea on the drawing board? – [Malcolm] This is very mucha realistic idea for a new passenger aircraft.

So with this concept, it'sbased on the A350 design.

It also carries 315 passengers and flies 5, 000 nautical miles.

With the design of the aircraft, purely from this V-shaped and being a flying wing, from all of those benefits we are able to save 20 percent fuel and respect to the A350.

– [Sam] So Malcolm, lookingat this electric fin engine it can power the model, right? But what about the real1-to-1 scale powering? – [Malcolm] Currently, for the design we are using the engine from the A350 so that's a big turbo fanengine that runs on carnosine.

That 20 percent reduction comes purely from the aerodynamicsand not from an improved engine technology.

So the unconventional V design.

And in future, we are lookingat other engine options such as synthetic fuel, hydrogen, or maybe hybrid electric aircraft.

But once the technologyimproves and it becomes ready for that kind of integration we can also integrate that into it.

– [Sam] So Malcolm, Iguess the big question is When do you expect to seethe flying V, this model and the reality when one takes off? – [Malcolm] This model oncewe are finished building it we'll fly later this year thenwe're going to take the test flying and check all theaerodynamics of this model.

But then the results of thatwill be used to carry on the design which will still takequite a long time because there is a long design road ahead.

So we hope that between 2035to 2040 that the full scale design will be finishedwhere the passengers can then go and enjoy the flying V.

But for the moment I inviteyou to go and checkout we have a mock-up of the full-scale cabin.

So then you can also seewhat the passenger experience in that new cabin and theoval section because there's also different seatingoptions and different comfort ideas for the passengersand also how to improve the passenger experience in the Flying V.

(upbeat music) – So right now we arestanding in a mock-up section of the Flying V.

This is the same width as A350 Airbus.

– Okay And what you have to imagine right now is we have economy class andwe have different solutions for more comfort in economyclass in the Flying V.

Now the one thing you're not seeing which is our centre pieceare the staggered seats.

Which make sure that you sit in the direction of whichyou fly, which is nice.

But we have some other very cool concepts that we'd like you to see.

– [Sam] I'm seeing there arepeople here, trying out, right – There's people here.

– Designer, right? – We have some design students and they can tell you alittle bit more about each individual concept for economy.

– Oh yeah it really fitsfour people here, right.

This is like the good oledays when aviation when they fly the plane all along thoseplanes used to fly very slow and they need time to do likethis family time together.

– [Woman] With this you can allow people to sit more closely to eachother and it's actually taking the same spaceas two rows of seats.

– [Sam] Right, it's jus two row.

One row there and one row.

But we're just facing eachother that's all it is.

Just reverse the seatsand you create a good family area or a social area.

– Yeah, exactly.

– Pretty cool, pretty cool.

– So I don't quite get it, this is like one is higher and they look like a swing here.

And one is lower.

So, is that going to be staggered like high low, high low, like this? – Yes, exactly like that.

It will be staggered, the idea is we staggered high low, high low, because this way the seat itself can changeinto about 3 positions.

You can slide under and bevery comfortable laying.

– Like this guy.

– You could sit up normallyor you can even stand and lean for a bit.

– Ah okay, you can stand and lean.

– Because the number one priority is to change your position every hour change your position a bit.

That way you don't get those tired legs.

– [Sam] You see it's likeyou have a lot of head room to utilise.

– Head room to utilise andyou have room underneath in this specific position.

– [Woman] This is actually three beds.

(inaudible mumble) In researchsay that 60 percent wants to sleep on a haul flight.

So we were thinkinghow can we enable that.

With these three beds we canallow three persons to sleep and during take-off and landing, of course people have to be ableto sit in a seatbelt.

So, therefore the lowestbed can be folded.

Then three persons cansit next to each other in the seatbelt.

– We're listening toher idea but we're also proving this idea.

So this worked.

So during take-off andlanding we'll sit here and after take-off we go into our bed.

That's pretty cool.

Is this actually economy class? Or you don't have economy class.

This is all one? – This is really to enableeconomy class to be able to sleep as well with the same price.

– Wicked idea.

This would be a winner, realy.

After take-off go straight, there's a person there.

I was thinking I was touchingsomeone's feet there.

(laughing) (upbeat music) Thank you so much Captainand everyone showing me the environmentinitiative KLM is taking.

I know this is KLM 100birthday this year and I wish KLM many many morehundreds birthdays to come.

(group cheer).