While making their holiday travel plans for the upcoming season, many consumers have felt the impact of the airline industry’s ever-growing list of hidden fees and their push to scale back the number of flights offered.The good news is that NASA has teamed up with commercial developers to advance the design of a more fuel-efficient engine known as an open rotor.
The technology for this type of engine first appeared in the 1980s, but the cost of development and testing caused the project to be abandoned. As fuel prices threatened to cross the $150 per barrel mark this summer, however, researchers looked for ways to improve on the original design.
Unlike the layout of a traditional jet engine, an open rotor engine has propeller blades that spin outside of the engine’s exterior casing. While this multiple blade design allows for much more fuel efficiency -- possibly up to 30 percent more -- it also makes a lot more noise.
The noise is a major drawback of the design because many cities already have strict regulations regarding the noise that aircraft can make. The benefits of increased fuel efficiency and reduced emissions by these engines, however, may outweigh the noise.
In what is perhaps a testament to the bright future of the open rotor engine, NASA has plans to begin wind tunnel testing at their lab in Cleveland early in 2009.
Click here for the lowdown.
--Bridget O'Sullivan
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