NASA has a "critical responsibility" to the flying public to develop environmentally responsible solutions to the nation's most pressing aviation problems, Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. said Wednesday. Addressing the Green Aviation Summit, which ran through Thursday at NASA's Ames Research Center, Bolden said air travel is one of the safest modes of transportation and vital to the U.S. economy, but increasing air traffic is taking a toll on the environment and the nation's aviation infrastructure.
"We need to make some changes -- both in the design of aircraft and in the way they transit through our skies to not only maintain, but improve safety and efficiency," Bolden said. "That's a huge challenge, but we at NASA enthusiastically accept it."
NASA has a suite of incremental goals for demonstrating the feasibility of aircraft technology and air traffic management techniques that can minimize the environmental effects of air transportation by:
- Enabling aircraft to burn 33 percent less fuel than today's most efficient models by 2015, 50 percent less by 2020, and better than 50 percent less by 2025.
- Cutting engine emissions of nitric oxide and nitrogen oxide, which contribute to ozone creation, 20 percent by 2015, 50 percent by 2020, and better than 50 percent by 2025 -- when compared with today's best engines. Reducing the amount of fuel burned reduces emissions of carbon dioxide, which contribute to global warming.
- Reducing the nuisance noise footprint around airports to one-third its current size by 2015 and one-sixth by 2020, and containing it within the airport property boundary by 2025.
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