The purpose and scope of this book is to set the record straight on commercial aviation s effect on the environment and, in doing so, clear up the host of misconceptions that paint the commercial aviation industry as environment vandals. We have not attempted to take a position on the climate change debate other that to quote from what we believe to be the leading authority the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Nonetheless, we have also highlighted criticism of the IPCC reporting to policymakers. However, we have attempted to explain the climate change phenomenon because it has become clear to us that few in the wider community understand its dynamics. The book starts with a look back at commercial aviation s impressive record and then examines the key technology and operational drivers today, before we cast our view forward to the next 50 years. We also detail aviation s critical role in the world economy and, of course, the issue of climate change itself. The commercial aviation industry has been focused on reducing fuel burn and thus emissions of aircraft since man first flew. It is a very simple economic dynamic. Not only does fuel cost money, every pound of fuel is a pound of payload that the airline cannot carry, which also costs money. To suggest, as some have, that fuel economy is not a major driver of the industry, or that airlines have only become interested in the environment since fuel prices leapt, is farcical. As we will see, airlines have relentlessly pushed manufacturers for more and more capability either in range or payload and a major factor in both is reducing fuel burn. We will show how the industry was focused on environmental issues 40 years before climate change became an issue in the wider media. Print advertising as far back as 1957 touted noise issues, while the first fuel economy advertisement that we could find dates back to November 1975 32 years ago! Fuel economy is absolutely critical in commercial aviation. When in 1958 the Douglas DC-8 showed up a 5% shortfall in specific fuel consumption in test flights, the Douglas Aircraft Company lost orders from operators such as Northwest Airlines, while Pan American World Airways sold off its fleet and ordered more 707s. The greatest name in commercial aviation at the time was in tatters and it was later forced into a merger with McDonnell Aircraft Company in 1967. Boeing s 707 soared. While focusing on the industry s many successes, we also discuss its failures such as the supersonic transport race, which was driven to a large extent by national prestige and a 1960s can do attitude. Throughout the book, we have relied mainly on university studies and government agency reports to ensure an impartial perspective. We have certainly sourced manufacturers and airline data but that has typically been to verify third party work. We do not for one minute suggest that the aviation industry is like a field of sunflowers hardly. It pollutes as does every other human activity but it is an industry leader in cutting environmental impact. Regrettably, the debate surrounding commercial aviation s impact on the environment has in some quarters become hysterical with scant regard for the facts. Where we have challenged and found serious errors in environmental reports, we have sent our findings to the authors of those reports for comment and those comments have been included. We regret in some cases that despite constant pressure, some authors of reports we have challenged have failed to respond. We have tried wherever possible to keep our explanations as easy-to-read as possible and we have used break-outs for more technical issues. But in an industry which is at the cutting edge of technology, that is a challenge in itself. We sinecerly hope you enjoy.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
Never, in recent history has an industry been so maligned and the public so misled by so much falsehood and distortion it that almost beggars belief. So say the authors of a new book on aviation s effect on the environment, which reveals disturbing omissions and errors in many highly respected environmental reports. Plane Simple Truth authors are led by Australian Aviation contributor Geoffrey Thomas, who takes the reader on a fascinating journey of discovery that shows that the aviation industry has been focused on reducing fuel burn and thus CO2 for decades well before global warming became popularist. The book is well summed up by lead paragraphs into the summary Chapter 18 where the authors state: There is, in our view, so much misinformation about aviation s true effect on climate change and the industry s supposed lack of efforts to curb emissions that when the truth does eventually emerge, it is barely recognizable. The flying public is being made to feel guilty about flying and the aviation industry has become defensive and apologetic. The public s perception is driven by 30 second TV news grabs or mischievous headlines or worse, apocalyptic magazine covers, such as The New Statesman (April 3 2006) which showed a 747 spewing out black clouds with the headline proclaiming: The growth of flying will propel us into a future of melting ice caps, spreading deserts and collapsing ecosystems. Thomas told Australian Aviation that he had been profoundly disturbed by the lack of understanding of the issues, not only amongst the general public but also airline management. I attended an environmental briefing of one manufacturer in Singapore recently and the theme was the same throughout with the executive stating that the company was now doing this or now doing that. But they have always done those things, but he simply didn t know as he was new to the industry. Backing that up Plane Simple Truth takes the reader right back to the mid 1950s when Douglas Aircraft Company was struggling with noise suppression of the DC-8 s engines. And the authors have even found Lockheed advertisements from 1975 touting the fuel efficiency of the Lockheed Tristar 33 years ago! But without doubt the key chapter in the book is Chapter 5 Clarifying the Reports, where Thomas, through nine months of painstaking research, has been able to expose a series of major errors in key environmental reports that have been used many times to back up alarmist headlines and influence politicians. Thomas sent all the findings from the key reports to the various authors, most of whom responded admitting the errors. The book prints all the responses, which make for fascinating reading. The book also noted that aviation s impact on countries economic well being is underplayed and even dismissed. Plane Simple Truth looks at all aspects of the environmental debate and is critical of the industry s lack of focus in getting its message across and also of the supersonic debacle. It walks the reader both through history and into the future with many fascinating and exciting developments that will slash fuel burn and thus emissions even further. The book is fully referenced with an index and while highly technical it is easy to understand and magnificently illustrated. Highly recommended. - Australian Aviation --editor@ausaviation.com.au
About the Author
Geoffrey Thomas is the Senior Editor of the airline management journal Air Transport World. Geoffrey was previously SE-Asian Contributing Editor for Aviation Week and Space Technology. In all, he has won 16 international and Australasian awards. Geoffrey s achievements include: Royal Aeronautical Society (RAS) Aerospace Journalist of the Year (2002- Systems and Technology) RAS Aerospace Journalist of the Year (2003 Systems and Technology) RAS Aerospace Journalist of the Year (2005 Systems and Technology) Short-listed RAS Aerospace Journalist of the Year (2006 Business), (2007 Breaking News & Safety), (2008 Best Business) Australasian Aviation Journalist (AAJ) of the Year 2001 AAJ of the Year 2002 Runner up AAJ of the Year 2003 Best Feature AAJ of the Year 2002 Best Technical Story AAJ of the Year 2003 Best Technical Story AAJ of the year 2004 Best Breaking News Story AAJ of the Year 2006 Short listed AAJ of the Year 2005, 2006, 2007 Geoffrey is a regular commentator on Australian TV and radio and has been published widely in Australia. Geoffrey has co-written seven books with his partner Christine and has delivered guest lectures at the University of Southern California and Curtin University in Western Australia. Guy Norris is a Senior Editor with Aviation Week and Space Technology and was formerly US west coast editor with Flight International. Guy s achievements include: US Air & Space Writers Association award winner, 1993 Royal Aeronautical Society (RAS) Aerospace Journalist of the Year (1997- Technology) RAS Aerospace Journalist of the Year (2004 - Propulsion) RAS Aerospace Journalist of the Year (2005 - Regional Aircraft) RAS Boeing Decade of Excellence finalist 1999/2003 RAS Aerospace Journalist of the Year (2005 - Regional Aircraft) RAS Airbus Decade of Excellence 2006 RAS Aerospace Journalist of the Year (2007 - Breaking News) Guy has appeared in numerous aviation television documentaries and has authored several aerospace educational projects, including the interactive Aviation Knowledge Adventure CD-ROM and the aerospace section of the Encyclopedia of Science in Action published by McMillan. Guy has authored 16 books, including three with Geoffrey and Christine. Christine Forbes Smith (B.A. (Social Sciences) and B. App. Sci.) has been published in WA Business News and was previously published in The West Australian travel pages focusing on consumer issues as well as destinations. Christine has co-authored with Geoffrey - her partner -seven books on aviation and travel. Christine s specialty is interpreting highly technical copy and putting it into a form that everyone can readily comprehend. Steve Creedy has been a journalist for more than 27 years and began covering aviation in the United States in 1992 as assistant business editor for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He joined Australia s national daily, The Australian, in 1997 and became the newspaper s aviation writer/editor in 1998. He has developed The Australian s Friday aviation pages five in all into the most authoritative in the industry. He has won a number of awards for his work and was the 2004 National Aviation Press Club aviation journalist of the year award winner and has been President of the National Aviation Press Club since 2006. Rachel Pepper is a graphic artist for West Australian Newspapers. Rachel has a passion for aviation originating from the special times spent with her father aircraft spotting in Ireland s Dublin Airport from the age of three. Rachel laments with a smile that instead of playing with dolls she was thumbing through Flight magazines.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Ardent supporters of airliner manufacturers' environmental efforts,
This review is from: Plane Simple Truth (Paperback)
There's plenty of good data on commercial airliner manufacturers' efforts to reduce adverse environmental effects. These include reduction of fuel consumption, which manufacturers have always striven to reduce, noise reduction, which the US government has forced on manufacturers for the past 40 years or so(since the introduction of FAR Part 36), and atmospheric pollution. Certainly the manufacturers (and airlines who operate the airplanes) are doing just about everything that is economically feasible, but the authors are such ardent cheerleaders that the book looks like a public relations effort on the part of the manufacturers.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Valuable book in the important debate over greenhouse gases and aviations contribution to it,
This review is from: Plane Simple Truth (Paperback)
In the TV show House, M.D., a premise that protagonist Dr. Greg House holds dear is that people are liars and stupid. Real life is often not far from House's observation. At the general public level, people are often misled by their lack of common sense, their deficiency in understanding statistics and basic science, and therefore fall victim to the lies of the myriad charlatans that claim to have something that fixes everything. A piece I wrote on that issue, New York News Radio - The voice of bad science, details that.
While it is too broad to call the authors of Fuel efficiency of commercial aircraft: An overview of historical and future trends liars; their mediocre research created the scenario that far too many took their research as reality. Known as the Peeters report, after lead author P.M. Peeters, the authors of Plane Simple Truth refute the wide-spread belief that the fuel efficiency gains in the commercial aviation sector are erroneous, which is the principle theme of the Peeters report. The aviation industry is often an environmental pariah, with environmentalists crying foul at the industry. But it is only a pariah due to flawed data that negatively influences the public debate, and Plane Simple Truth attempts to set the record straight. Plane Simple Truth is an articulate and extremely well-written and researched rebuttal to the Peeters report, and other flawed studies. The Peeters report flies in the face of reality, in which gains in jet engine efficiency over the last 40 years have been astounding. Contrast those gains with the popular Cadillac Escalade and similar SUV's whose mileage per gallon is often measured in single digits, and whose efficiencies have gone in the opposite direction. The authors wrote Plane Simple Truth as they felt that never in recent history has an industry been so maligned and the public so misled by so much falsehood and distortion that is beyond belief. With the Peeters report and climate activists pointing the accusing finger at the aviation industry, Plane Simple Truth is their defense. The reality is that while the Detroit automakers were making huge gas guzzling SUV's well into 2008, companies such as Lockheed had fuel efficiency on their mind back to the 1970's. In fact, fuel efficiency has been a key factor in the aviation industry since the early days. This is based on simple economics and physics in that for every pound of fuel, is a pound of payload that the airline cannot carry, which also costs the airline money. It is seen that that fuel economy is indeed a major driver of the industry. The bottom line is that fuel economy is absolutely critical in commercial aviation. Witness the number of aviation bankruptcies in 2008 when fuel prices soured. Like a first-rate defense attorney, the book defends the industry against its charges. In every chapter, the authors show the errors, both intentional and those errors of omission, where incorrect reporting and research have negatively affected public opinion. While not a book about the history of jet engines; the book details the fascinating and phenomenal improvement into the efficiency of jet engines. But the underlying theme of the book is that of the environmental issues. The book details the fundamental errors in the Peters and other environmental reports that have been often taken as the unquestionable truth. Rather than analyzing the facts like the book authors have done, the media often creates sensationalist headlines with an emphasis on short sound bites, often at the cost of scientific fact. Not only do the authors refute the Peeters report, they show in detail how important aviation is to the global economy. In fact, the aviation industry is critical to everyone growing economy. The books 18 chapters cover the entire spectrum of jet emissions and their incredible development in detail. Current topics such as bio fuels and their promise, new engine technology, aerodynamic gains, green airlines and more are discussed. The book makes ample use of charts and photographs to illustrate its points. Plane Simple Truth is a fascinating book that exposes the myriad errors of the flawed environmental studies. It is also a fascinating look at the development and history of jet engines, and the amazing progress that has come about in the last few decades. Huge strides have been made that increase power by significant amounts, while simultaneously cutting emissions. In fact, there are less environmental issues to worry about in the future due to aviation, given the significant strides that are being made. The book makes many of its valuable points via the useful approach of letting charts and diagrams do the talking of often dry statistical facts. Be it fuel efficiency, less emissions and toxic gases and more, the book shows that misplaced myths and the smoke and mirror games that are often used by those with an agenda, all in the name of climate change, have negatively affected the public's view of aviation. We have seen that a single bad piece of research is enough to derail an entire industry and mislead the press and politicians. And while Greg House might be right that there are a lot of stupid liars out there; there are also plenty of smart ones also, like the authors of this book. Plane Simple Truth is an important book that has relevance to everyone, as there is no one that is not positively affected by the aviation industry. While the aviation industry still has a long way to go in other areas such as passenger satisfactions, lost luggage, air traffic control delays and much more, the engine makers have continually pushed the envelope in terms of fuel efficiency and environmental concerns, and they have done this for well over half a century. And this was long before the concept of a green environment was a cool topic. It was also done when jet fuel was still quite bargain basement priced. While the book's authors are intimately involved in the airline industry and clearly pro-airline, and the book's publisher is Aerospace Technical Publications; the authors let the facts speak for themselves. While greenhouse gases and their potential negative effects are part of the public and scientific debate, the ability of modern jet-engines to minimize those effects is clear and Plane Simple Truth details that and other facts. Plane Simple Truth is a valuable book in the important debate over greenhouse gases and aviations contribution to it, and the effect on the environment.
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