Mike Richardson catches up with the latest progress taking place on Boeing’s 2020 ecoDemonstrator flight test programme.
Icelandic pop chanteuse Bjork once intoned on one of her hit songs, ‘it’s oh so quiet’ – and it’s still oh so quiet with Boeing’s ecoDemonstrator too, ssh, ssh, zing boom!
The Boeing ecoDemonstrator programme tests new technologies leading to quieter, cleaner, more sustainable flight. Using the first 787-10 Dreamliner ecoDemonstrator, Boeing recently tested technologies to reduce airframe and landing gear noise, sanitising technology to combat Covid-19 and other pathogens, and efficient routing and airspace technology – all using sustainable aviation fuel.
So far, seven aircraft have served as flying test beds for the ecoDemonstrator programme. Over the years, engineers and scientists expanded their scope of research beyond enhancing safety and operational efficiency to assess new features, services and approaches that can improve the entire aviation ecosystem. Projects include technologies that reduce fuel use, emissions and noise, and incorporate more sustainable materials. Other projects focus on cabin amenities that make flying more enjoyable for passengers — and features such as smart galleys, seats and lavatories that increase airline reliability and the efficiency of their fleets and crews.
Projects tested on the ecoDemonstrator programme benefit the industry as a whole. Each test-bed aircraft conducts flights using sustainable aviation fuel, for example, which reduces life-cycle CO2 emissions by up to 75% depending on the source used to make it. These flights demonstrate the viability of biofuel and provide data for the industry.
A dedicated team of engineers and specialists work year-round on the ecoDemonstrator programme, which is housed within Boeing Commercial Airplanes’ Product Development organisation. This team is augmented by technologists throughout Boeing and the industry who use the test platform to advance innovation for aviation while enriching their professional experience.
Innovate, collaborate, accelerate
Based on testing opportunities, airlines, suppliers, academia and other industry stakeholders collaborated on specific flying test beds. These included a Next-Generation Boeing 737, 757, 777 Freighter, 777-200, 787-8 Dreamliner and an Embraer E170. The 2020 programme is testing four technologies on an Etihad 787-10 — the first time Boeing’s largest Dreamliner has been used as an ecoDemonstrator test platform.
Boeing and Etihad are working with NASA and Safran Landing Systems to conduct sound measurements on the aircraft and on the ground. These measurements validate community noise prediction processes and the sound reduction potential of a landing gear modified for quieter operations.
“The ecoDemonstrator programme was a follow-on from a number of different demonstrator programmes that we had performed over the years,” begins Boeing Commercial Airplanes’ vice-president and general manager of product development, Mike Sinnett. “My involvement started with the Quiet Technology Demonstrator programme which was a 777 aircraft we used to demonstrate and validate noise reduction technologies on an aircraft in a real flight environment. By 2006, I had leased a 777 to perform flight controls testing on future 787 flight control laws, and it was a way of really validating a real-life flight environment - concepts that we had for how an aircraft should be flown.
“We could quickly move from concept to reality in a way that forced the disciplines relating to anything having to do with flight safety, so it gets very real, very quickly when we’re aiming for an aircraft. We found that getting projects on aircraft was difficult because first, there is the project and then we have to sell the idea of investing in flying that product. We then have to find a flight vehicle and make it all work. It could become a very long and expensive process. We decided to target an aircraft at a period of time with the goal of improving sustainability and safety and then create the technologies that would fly on that asset.
Boeing flew its first ecoDemonstrator programme on a 737 in partnership with American Airlines, and an example of the technology that flew in that particular programme was the natural laminar flow winglet, which is now part of the MAX configuration.
“Having this aircraft draws a line in the sand which says on this date, for the next month, we’re going to fly this aircraft and we’ve got two years to develop a suite of technologies and point them at the aircraft. It turned out to be very important, and over the next eight years we continued to provide flight resources in the form of the ecoDemonstrators - often in partnership with airlines, government agencies and sometimes with other airframers.
“We were able to create successive windows of flight opportunities and target technologies to those opportunities. It enabled us to learn very quickly; we could make mistakes in the lab, learn from them and then advance that learning and get it on an aircraft - or we could retire the project without ever getting it on the aircraft - but it forced the discipline of a mature development of the process and all the safety aspects related to having an airworthy test and technology.
“Through collaboration we’ve advanced our own knowledge and accelerated products to production rapidly rather than taking a 5-6 year development cycle. Or, we could move a little bit more quickly as things matured. The goals have always been to improve our sustainability and safety and the efficiency of flight operations both in the air and on the ground. We now have a great example with the latest ecoDemonstrator which is a 787-10 with Etihad Airways - this is a great partnership.”
Good vibrations
Boeing Company’s, chief architect ecoDemonstrator flight demonstrator programme Douglas Christensen explains that what’s really interesting about the ecoDemonstrator programme is how Boeing planned the entire test programme ‘virtually’.
“As you can imagine in this current environment the pandemic has added some additional challenges but bringing together Etihad, NASA and Safran and industry partners from across the world to test the aircraft on time, execute the programme in a remote location - all done virtually - was one of the highlights that we really like to talk about.
“This programme was one of our most compressed programmes – it was 27 days of testing in total, where we had the aircraft from the start of installation of technologies to the end. It took significant coordination and collaboration across all the industry partners to make this happen, and I want to thank all our partners involved.”
Sinnett adds that when Boeing entered the pandemic crisis, its ability to quickly turn on UV protection devices helped to highlight the potential function of earlier ecoDemonstrator programmes.
“Prior to the pandemic, we had been working on a technology called ‘Clean Lav’ which is a way of using ultraviolet (UV) spectrum to disinfect a lavatory on an aircraft,” he concludes. “We flew it on one of the ecoDemonstrators and we were able to quickly advance this technology into a portable handheld UV wand designed to sanitise aircraft interiors.
“This is further evidence of using the ecoDemonstrator programme as a way of thinking down the line of any potential requirements – even before they are right upon us. Even in these difficult times, we continue to invest in sustainability and safety. We continue to think about the future and our teams are planning subsequent ecoDemonstrator programmes for the years to come.”
