How do you make a plane more fuel eficient?

Question

Could you reduce the weight of the plane and how would you do it?

Answer 1

Throw out the complaining passengers.

Answer 2

Burn less of your fuel supply.

That could be achieved by doing various things such as, reducing drag, weight... etc.

Answer 3

lean off the engines. the engine will run hot but your prolly just renting the plane or its part of some share system anyway right? Youll prolly wreck the engine somehow but man have you seen the price of petrol lately?! sheesh!!

seriously though go flying naked!!

Answer 4

Jet engines are incredibly more efficient now than they were as little as 15 years ago, burning probably 15-25% less fuel and delivering more thrust.

One of the best ways to improve fuel efficiency is improved aerodynamics and weight. The less drag and weight, the less power needed to overcome them. Engineers constantly "tweak" the designs of modern aircraft to improve aerodynamic efficiency. New composite designs lessen the weight while improving the strength of many airframe components.

And of course, the greater number of passengers you can carry in an efficient manner will improve the overall ratio of fuel/passenger mile. Lastly, the more efficient the routing with fewer delays and less time waiting for takeoff would save quite a bit of fuel.

Answer 5

fuel cell energy it would run on hydrogen and the only biproduct would be water

you would also be helping the environment from lowering pollutants in the air

Answer 6

Advanced material can be developed and used, replacing classic aluminium alloys with aluminium-lithium, or using carbon fiber composites. Eventually, carbon nanotubes--which essentially are advanced version of carbon fiber--would be put to use when someone can figure how to make them cheaply enough.

Amorph metal alloys ("metallic glass") also show promising properties in increasing strength to weight ratio.

Larger engines are inherently more efficient than smaller ones, hence making aircraft larger will make them more economical (as long as they are full, evidently); further, there are items that do not grow when the plane gets bigger, like the radar and the avionics suite, so larger plane have a smaller % of their mass devoted to some systems.

Replacing conventional mechanical hydraulic control systems with fly by wire, replacing pressurized air anti-icing with electrical heating systems, will also translate to a reduction of weight or a lessening on the power demand.

A major improvement in operational costs would be a reduction of the rigidity of flying corridors; in crowded areas, going from here to there often means going from here, flying over there, and there before getting to destination, i.e. not direct routes.

Crowded airports also mean aircraft wating in line to take off, and sometime, turning around in a holding pattern while waiting for a slot to open to land. All this extra time on the ground with engines running, or in flight going nowere, uses fuel, and extra fuel that is not used to fly straight is extra weight.

Changing the overall design of aircraft, going to span loader and lifting body for instance, may bring interesting gains, by combining better aerodynamics with possibly improved structural efficiency; the issue here is less technical than perceptual. Would passenger accept to fly in an aircraft without  windows? (A panel with windows is a lot heavier than a similarly strong section of airframe that does not have any). If passengers will refuse flying in them, insiting on windows, then airlines will not buy the planes, and if the airlines will not buy them, the airframer will not design, build, flight test and certify them.

Airlines are also active in trying to improve the bottom line: they invest in the design of lighter food cart, for instance.

Of course, if passengers keep getting heavier, not much may be gained in the end...

Answer 7

You can reduce drag, both parasitic and induced.

Parasite drag is the type of drag that would be caused say, having a parachute behind your aircraft. This is usually already dealt with by the aircraft manufacturer.

Induced drag is drag caused by lift. While flying, positive angle of attack is required to produce enough lift to carry the aircraft. Since the lift is not pointed directly straight up, some of it will attempt to drag the airplane.

Induced drag is decreased as speed increases, as a lower angle of attack is required to maintain lift.

Reducing weight will reduce load factors and increase lift, also increasing fuel economny.

Winglets reduce induced drag by preventing high pressure air flowing around the wing to the low pressure area above the wing, which would decrease lift.

Flying at a slower speed normally results in higher fuel economy, however, flying too slowly actually increases drag, as induced drag is inversed of parasite drag.

This means that as you fly slower, there's less parasite drag, but more induced drag and vice versa.

Answer 8

well you could reduce the weight but the best and most practical is to just slow down, we as travelers want to get to our destinations very fast but at a price we use alot of fuel, if the airplanes slowdown inflight then thay use less fule saving the airlines $$$$

Answer 9

Professional experts with much more knowledge and experience than anyone here have been working on those problems for 60 years, and have done about all that can be done.

About the only thing left to do is to reduce speed a few percent, which the airlines are doing now.  There are a few speed mods being added to airliners:  more aerodynamically efficient radio antennas, gap seals, and the like.  Hopefully that will help.

All these things take time and cost money.  But they are coming.