Contrails

Airlines, air navigation service providers and technology specialists are working on trials to assess the impact of contrail mitigation on decarbonization.

Technology companies, airlines, ANSPs and governments are focusing on a potential boon for the aviation industry’s decarbonization efforts: contrail mitigation.

Greater focus on contrail mitigation could buy the aviation industry time to decarbonize, according to a new report by European eco-lobby Transport & Environment.

UK eyes sovereign HAPS network; airborne laser revival; contrail avoidance success.

Air France results from a large-scale trial aimed at preventing contrail formation conclude that flight operations can incorporate such measures.

Our roundup of the main aerospace and defense stories making the news this week.

The UK government and industry partners, including Google, have launched a large-scale contrail-avoidance trial on flights across the North Atlantic, one of the world’s contrail hot spots.

UK air navigation service provider NATS plans to stage a major contrail management trial later this year.

Beta begins eIPP demonstrations, South Korea’s hybrid eVTOL plan, DJI first fixed-wing drone and Gulfstream explores SAF and contrails.

Honda eVTOL flies; helping to avoid contrails; bio-based carbon fiber advances; Korea’s engine independence bid; and Airbus’ Canadian tech hub.

A new platform designed to make estimates of the climate impact of contrails more accessible has been unveiled by research organization Contrails.org.

NASA’s X-plane call; batteries for eR66; air-to-fuel SAF process; and volatiles key to contrails.

German aerospace research center DLR has released the results of the flight tests conducted with Airbus and CFM International in 2023.

Nuclear fusion rocket power; Matrix autonomy joins the Army; ship-to-shore contested logistics; and sulfur’s role in contrails formation.

Airbus is leading a flight test campaign to measure the effect of sulfur content in jet fuel on contrail formation and mitigation.

Truncated flight for X-59; UK Royal Mail flies electric; contrail avoidance success; and high-voltage electric demo.

Contrails represent a significant but concentrated share of aviation’s climate impact—about 5% of flights generate up to 80% of the effect.

Contrails and their effects—cited by scientists as the main source of non-CO2 climate emissions—are notoriously difficult to characterize and measure.

A German project has concluded that further research is needed before contrail-avoidance procedures can be used in regular airline operations.

Environmental group Transport & Environment has called for targeted contrail mitigation on winter transatlantic night flights, based on a new data analysis.

Hybrid focus for Clean Aviation; exhaust additives reduce contrails; point-to-point cargo eVTOL demo; and anti-jamming for urban air taxis.

A U.S. researcher has proposed adding ice-nucleating particles to engine exhaust to make contrails less harmful by shortening their lifespan.

GoAero eVTOL prize progress; wind farm radar clutter; Archer licenses tiltrotor tech; and JAL expands atmospheric sampling.

The UK has launched the first government-supported research projects under a new program to understand the climate contribution of non-CO2 aircraft emissions.

Aviation can minimize its climate impact by acting quickly to control short-lived climate pollutants, notably contrails, an influential NGO says.