Clean, Blue Skies and Green Initiatives Gain Momentum

Many alliances are being witnessed in the aviation industry that are driving advancements in aerospace sustainability and emissions reductions plugging in their resources to deal with the great challenge facing the industry; to become more sustainable while managing exponential growth rates. Many of these leading innovators from the aerospace sustainability sector were present at the airshow, where sustainability was advocated not just by exhibitors but also by the organisers.

• Electric buggies and segways were used to move visitors around the show.
• Etihad Airways and Boeing lead the industry’s move to reduce emissions through a first-of-its-kind ‘eco partnership’ with their green liner, a specially-themed Boeing 787 Dreamliner which will be used as a flying laboratory to test products, procedures and initiatives designed to reduce aircraft carbon emissions. The aircraft is expected to be introduced next year. A special Boeing 787 ‘eco flight’ to Brussels will take place during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week in January 2020, announced Etihad.
• The world’s first eco-friendly air race – Air Race E, the Airbusbacked electric racing series, unveiled the first electric race plane, ‘White Lightning’. Announced and unveiled by Air Race E race promoter Jeff Zaltman, it is the first-ever example of an electric race plane by Yorkshire-based Team Condor and will compete in the inaugural Air Race E event in 2020.
• The first afternoon of Dubai Airshow 2019 flying the display was opened by Emirates Airbus A380 through a special flypast. To make a special nod to Expo 2020 theme, sustainability, the Airbus A380 was in green livery.
• Aerospace company, Leonardo and Falcon Aviation Services demonstrated a rotorcraft-dedicated terminal concept to meet the growing demands for sustainable and vertical lift mobility and greater access to urban areas. This new rotorcraft terminal combines a helipad, a showroom and lounge areas in a single city-based heliport in a unique manner, ideally supporting the development of a network of point-topoint connections for both urban transfers as well as connections between cities. The rotorcraft terminal features strong environmentally friendly design and modularity using recyclable materials and, if required, it can be transported.