It is not only the technology that is a challenge, the flying objects themselves are an issue: large-scale individual air traffic will be possible only with electric drones and air taxis. It will take longer before we see long-haul electric planes. This could be followed by regional flights of up to 1,200 kilometers. By 2025, they could take off from small landing sites, as they rise into the air vertically. Initially, electric drives will be used for multicopters that transport goods or passengers in cities. Many decades will pass before all flights are powered by electricity. Airbus CEO Tom Enders described electric flight as one of the “greatest industrial challenges of our time”. However, from a technical aspect, the evolution in aviation is not easy to implement. At present, takeoff and landing are particularly responsible for enormous noise pollution. By 2050, the noise emitted from airplanes is also due to fall by 60 percent. In other words: an airline that emits less than it is permitted to can sell the right to produce more emissions to another airline.
In the near future, emissions will also become expensive for airlines: the members of the IACO have agreed to compensate for their CO 2 emissions and buy emission units. The emissions not only have an impact on the environment, they also have an adverse effect on our health.īut the aviation industry has set itself ambitious targets: by 2050, CO 2 emissions should be reduced by approximately 75 percent. They also produce nitric oxide, water vapor, and fine particulates. However, CO 2 is not the only substance that aircraft emit. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has calculated that by 2040 this share could rise by a factor of four due to the increased number of flights. Until now, aviation has been responsible for about 2.4 percent of all CO2 emissions worldwide.