Saving energy: Aerolane wants to take gliding cargo aircraft in tow
An airplane pulls an autonomous cargo plane behind it in flight, which "surfs" on the air currents with little energy. However, the implementation is difficult.
Aerolane tests the towing operation of a cargo aircraft.
(Image: Aerolane)
The US start-up Aerolane wants to make air freight transport more energy-efficient. The concept is simple: an aircraft that is already flying a route is to take a cargo glider in tow, which consumes less energy in the airflow of the aircraft in front. But its implementation is not quite as simple as the concept.
Migratory birds fly in a V-formation to take advantage of the air currents generated by the aircraft in front and cover longer distances by saving energy. Aerolane makes use of this concept by towing a cargo plane on a rope from an aircraft flying ahead. The Aerolane cargo plane being tested is equipped with two electrically powered engines that idle in flight to drive the propellers, which rotate during towing for purely aerodynamic reasons.
Autonomous cargo surfing
Aerolane wants to use its cargo aircraft to capture and analyze smoke escaping from the aircraft in front with cameras to determine the air turbulence so that the aircraft can be controlled in such a way that it can surf along while making optimum use of energy. This should minimize the fuel consumption of the towing aircraft. This has already been achieved in initial tests. The developers were able to determine when the tow plane requires less energy by applying less or no tractive force to the cable. Todd Graetz, one of the founders of Aerolane, describes this as "a combination of gliding and surfing". Aerolane calculates that up to 65 percent of fuel costs can be saved in this way.
The concept of Graetz and his colleagues is that the cargo plane uses the vortex and cable pull data to steer itself optimally, i.e. to fly autonomously. However, this is not entirely without danger. Many flight safety regulations must be observed. These include the cargo aircraft being able to fly a certain distance under its own power in order to reach a landing site in an emergency. However, this should be possible in any case, as the cargo aircraft should be able to release itself and land at its destination independently during towing operations.
Until then, however, there are still many problems to solve. One of these is the good sailing characteristics of such a cargo aircraft. So far, Aerolane is still using an aircraft in its tests that has the "sailing characteristics of a piano". However, the company is working closely with the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) to put the concept into practice. Aerolane must also work to win the public over to its side to allay skepticism about large autonomous gliders flying over built-up areas.
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Aerolane is not worried about interest from the air freight sector: the industry is overly interested in reducing its fuel consumption to keep freight costs low.
(olb)