Could the ‘flying piano’ assist rework air cargo?

US start-up Aerolane is searching for the key to airborne browsing.

Geese already know how you can do it. When you see them flying in a v-formation, they’re browsing on the air currents created by formation members forward and round them.

At an airfield in Texas, Todd Graetz is hoping to make use of that idea to disrupt the marketplace for air cargo.

Aerolane has been mimicking the methods utilized by migrating birds, aided by modified planes towed into the air by one other plane.

Smoke launched from the main aircraft allowed cameras put in within the towed plane to seize vortices within the air {that a} glider can exploit to remain aloft.

Their newest check plane is named the “flying piano” due to its poor gliding traits.

Its twin engines idle for electrical energy whereas it glides together with propellers turning for purely aerodynamic functions.

Other assessments have measured the strain within the towing line.

They noticed when the road went slack, indicating the glider is browsing alongside on currents generated by the plane forward.

Aerolane’s plan is to feed all this information right into a program that can information an unmanned cargo aircraft by means of wakes and turbulence to use the chances of gliding lengthy distances with out burning gasoline.

One or extra such cargo planes could possibly be towed by a jet, additionally carrying cargo, to their vacation spot the place they’d land autonomously.

The solely gasoline prices would come from supplying the towing plane’s engines.

In concept this could work like a truck pulling a trailer, with air currents doing a lot of the heavy lifting. This is what Mr Graetz calls “a combination of gliding and surfing”.

The similar concept occurred to Airbus, which examined the method in 2021 with two A350 airliners flying 3km (1.9 miles) aside throughout the Atlantic.

Although the plane weren’t linked by a tow line, the experiment noticed one plane successful an uplift from the lead A350’s wake to cut back CO2 emissions and gasoline burn.

Mr Graetz, a pilot with 12 years’ expertise, based Aerolane with Gur Kimchi and Doron Appelboim, veterans of Amazon’s drone supply venture, on the premise that “there has got to be a better way to get more out of existing aircraft”.

The project has raised eyebrows among experienced pilots. Flying large gliders in commercial airspace means meeting strict flight safety regulations.

For instance, the towing aircraft has to be confident it can release the tow line at any point in the flight, safe in the knowledge that the auto-piloted glider can make it down to a runway without dropping on top of the local population.

Aerolane says a small electric motor driving a propeller will act as a safety net on their cargo gliders, giving them enough juice to go around again if a landing looks wrong or to divert to another location close by.

Mr Graetz counters that Aerolane employs active commercial pilots who are hard-headed about the practicalities of the project.

“We’ve engaged outside advisors to be devil’s advocates,” he adds.

He says big freight businesses are interested in anything that allows them to cut the cost per delivery.

On top of the cost of fuel, air freight firms also have to think about jet engine emissions and a shortage of pilots.

James Earl, a former RAF helicopter pilot and aviation consultant, thinks Mr Graetz may just be onto something.

“It stands to reason that gains can be had by slipstreaming and combining efforts in the sky. And any innovation in the cargo space is good.”

However, he cautions that public acceptance of unpowered cargo flights over built-up areas is one other factor totally.

“It should have a good gliding range to get to a landing spot in the event of a major failure by the tow plane. Whether that can be effectively communicated to the public is another matter though.”

Regulators are more likely to be cautious as effectively, significantly within the US, the place the Federal Aviation Authority is underneath stress after critical issues with Boeing plane.

Mr Graetz replies that his staff has complied with each request from the FAA up to now. “The FAA has always been super risk averse. That’s their business!”

Fred Lopez spent 36 years in aviation operations at cargo large UPS. As he says, he’s put “my entire adult life” into understanding essentially the most cost-effective technique to function an air freight enterprise.

Mr Lopez admits he was profoundly sceptical about cargo gliders when Aerolane first approached him. But the prospect of great gasoline financial savings received him over and now he sits on their advisory board.

Cutting gasoline prices is an obsession in civil aviation. When the upturned wing-tips we see out of a cabin window grew to become an ordinary design function airways minimize gasoline prices by round 5%.

But gliders solely eat the gasoline required by their tow aircraft. If that too is a cargo plane, a pair of gliders drawn by one jet represents a major discount in gasoline consumption on a big cargo.

The preliminary Aerolane design makes use of their autopilot plus what Mr Lopez phrases a human “safety pilot”. This ought to make certification from the FAA simpler.

“Aerolane is not trying to change everything at one go” he says.

Their final aim is autonomous operation utilizing AI, or as Mr Lopez places it “to tug the pilot out of the seat”.

And, if the flying piano can surf, then who knows what’s possible?