Abstract
Research Overview
Aircraft propulsion technology is a mature field. It is especially supposed to
be stubborn in sticking to proven technology till it becomes impractical to
ignore the next trend. The aircraft industry is schizophrenic. On the general
aviation front, most of the small aircraft that are flying use technology from
the 1960s for propulsion. As it is a small market in relation to the airline
market, there is very little technology innovation that happens in this
sector. It is serviced by small start-ups and entrepreneurs rather than by
large companies. The major engine suppliers in this sector are Lycoming of
Pennysylvania and Teledyne Continental Motors of Alabama and while both have
sturdy engines to offer to the market, both are still not customer responsive
the way players in other sectors are.
The jet engine market on the other hand, lives on new technology. With a large
number of aircraft crisscrossing the world every single day, technology
advances that can result in significant fuel consumption decreases or just
maintenance reduction are immediately snapped up by the market. The next
generation of engines will enable planes to cross thousands of miles faster
than the current generation. The wired world with its focus on eliminating
geography still needs to send hundreds of executives all over the world for
its mergers, acquisitions and other business deals. With the spread of
outsourcing, executives are often in countries half a globe from their
employees. The need for face time drives this sector.
Advances in aircraft technology have traditionally followed the advances in
propulsion technology. And because propulsion technology itself is the primary
enabler, a look at where it is heading also gives us insights into where the
aircraft market is heading. Barely a hundred years after man's first powered
flight, man can casually fly at three times the speed of sound in powered
flight. In terms of sheer achievement, this change is unparalleled. And
driving it are the numerous evolutionary and revolutionary changes in power
plant technology. Aircraft power plants are primarily of two types--piston
engines and reaction engines. Piston engines are cousins of automotive engines
and the two fields regularly borrow advances from each other. So it is not
surprising to see what happens today in the automotive field show up tomorrow
in the aeronautical field and vice versa. Piston engines are mature
technologies with over a hundred years of advancements behind them. And while
most of the development is still evolutionary, once in a while, something
revolutionary does come along and change the perception of a mature
technology. One good example here would be the entry of Solar powered aircraft
into a market that has primarily run on gasoline. This research service
touches on some of the technologies that could change the sector.
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