The Technology Context – B101

Boeing 787 Dreamliner

Can the new Boeing 787 dreamliner really make a difference to the enviroment?

With the fight for a cleaner and healthier enviroment, there is also a rise in global air travel due to the intercommunal world we live in today. As technology gets better, so should the products and services we use in everyday life and this is no different in air travel.



The boeing 787 dreamliner is the newist plane to be devloped by the massive aeronatical company Boeing. It is said to produce 20% less CO2 admissions than all other similar size aircrafts e.g Airbus A330-330 and its noise footprint is 60% less than its other competitiors. This must be good considering that airtravel contributes to 3.5% of global warming. The reasons for these healthy looking figures is due to the design of the Dreamliner. One of the main features of the Dreamliner is the materials used to construct the plane. It doesn’t use the typical Alumminum normally used by planes. Infact 80% of the volume of the Dreamliner is made of composites(Carbon fiber reinforced plastics). In weight, the planes makeup is as shown:

• Carbon-fibre: 50%
• Alumminum: 20%
• Titanium: 15%
• Steel: 10%
• Other: 5%

Due to these properties the Dreamliner is significantly lighter and stronger than today conventional planes. Now the plane is lighter the engines dont have to generate as much thrust and power to lift the airplane into the sky and keep it in the air. There are infact 2 different engine types for the Dreamliner, the Royles Royce trent 1000 (RR have a exclusive engine contract of £646 million) and the General Electric GENX generating around 55,000 to 70,000 ibs of thrust. These are engines specifically designed for this new aircraft and with it they have brought new technological advancements that can achieve better engine efficency. For example the Trent 1000 has a High Pressure Turbine Blade and a ribed titanium fan case to insure better fuel burn. This means you can travel the same destinations as other aircrafts while using less fuel, this must be good considering the finite fossil fuels we use today.





The Dreamliner actually has 3 different versions of the plane which are specifically designed for different jobs. There models are the 787-3, 787-8 and 787-9. They all travel at 0.85 Mach, this is 561mph and slightly faster that previous Boeing 777:
- The 787-3 is the smallest around 57m in length and 52m in wingspan and has a capacity of 330 passengers(highest of all the models). This model is designed for short distances flights between 4,650km to 5,650km
- The 787-8 is the same length at 57m but has a larger wingspan at 60m. Its capacity is less at 230 passengers but this is due to the fact that its designed for long haul flights in the region of 14,200km to 15,200km.
- The final model 787-9 is the biggiest of them all. With a length of 63m and a wingspan of 60m it can have a maximum capacity of 290 passengers. It is designed for long distance flights like the 787-8 but a little bit further at 14,800km to 15,750km. This means it can cover 40% of the world circumference without having to refill.

The prices for these planes are between $146 million and $200 million and even though the prices seem to be expensive, 710 have been ordered and 107 are pending investment. The most popular model is the 787-8 with 572 ordered and due to the high intrest in this model, the 787-8 may soon become the accepted model for planes in the future. Though most plane companies are looking at much larger planes with a higher passenger capacity Boeing’s plan is to use smaller planes to travel long distances and therfore have a better fuel effiency. So efficent infact that boeing realised the statment saying: “Dreamliner consumes about one gallon of fuel per seat per 100 miles of travel. That’s less than a typical sedan and a half to a third the fuel consumption of an SUV.” With this mass number of eco-freindly airplanes ready to hit the sky's it seems like the pollution that today's airplanes cause, will decrease drastically due to the innovation of the Dreamliner.

The reason for writing about the dreamliner is that im intrested in the ever-growing world in technological advancements and I respect the time and effort that engineers have put into to design such a mastepiece off engineering. So many things are combined to make an aircraft and the fact that one of the main considerations of building this aircraft is our enviroment is very reasuring to me. With everything that I have researched and read I think that even though CO2 emissions arent being cut to zero, the improvements are significant and can slow down the problems with global warming. This plane is a project of Sustainable technology and anything that can help with our goal for a cleaner enviroment is a bonus and with the most efficient passenger plane about to be released then life looks brighter. For any further research into this plane i would want to ask a few more questions:

• The comparisons of effiency between the new Airbus A380 and the Boeing 787 Dreamliner?
• Future models and devlopments to improve fuel effiency even more?
• Research the overall CO2 emission of air travel to see if the Dreamliner has decreased the current value?


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