Greener Planes Are Taking Flight. That Could Change How We Travel

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The Wall Street Journal

Technology

4.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 9 June 2023

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Some of the world’s biggest aviation companies, including Boeing and Airbus, are working on the next generation of planes. One big goal? Making air travel greener by cutting its carbon footprint. So, they're ditching traditional jet fuel in favor of other options, like hydrogen fuel cells, electricity from batteries, and “sustainable aviation fuels." That could mean major changes in how we fly and how much we pay to get to our destinations. WSJ’s Danny Lewis talks with Boeing, Airbus and others about how this push to change how planes are powered could shape the future of flight. Further reading: The Most Valuable U.S. Power Company Is Making a Huge Bet on Hydrogen Electric Planes Could Soon Take Off, but They May Not Go Far Fossil-Fuel Veterans Find Next Act With Green Hydrogen United Airlines Creates Fund for Sustainable Aviation Fuel Airlines Push to Reduce Carbon Footprint With Greener Fuels Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Join the Wall Street Journal online October 12th for WSJ Pro Sustainable Business Forum
0:05.8	and take away practical advice on how to build a sustainability strategy that's right for your business.
0:11.5	From now until September 21st, you can save 25% on your ticket by registering at WSJ.com
0:18.8	slash Sustainable Business, no code required. That's WSJ.com slash Sustainable Business.
0:25.2	The Headquarters for Beta Technologies is a very fitting place for an airplane company.
0:34.2	The Vermont-based startup runs its operations out of a hangar at the Burlington International Airport.
0:39.2	That's where Beta has its offices and workshops. We are in our Research and Development Center
0:43.9	here at the Burlington Airport and we have a number of different airplanes in here.
0:48.2	I'm the one we're going to get. That's CEO Kyle Clark. As we walked through the hangar,
0:52.2	we passed at least 15 small aircraft they used for training and tinkering.
0:56.7	There was a Cessna Skyhawk, one of those little planes you see at tiny local airports,
1:01.6	and other classic models, like a J3 cub and a steerman by plane. But alongside them was a plane
1:07.4	built by Beta Technologies and it was a little different. It looks kind of like that Cessna crossed
1:14.9	with a helicopter. The cockpit is more bulbous than a typical plane with big glass windows so
1:20.4	the pilot can see what's below, as well as what's in front. And instead of one big rotor on
1:25.3	the top, it has four, one in each corner of the plane. So what you're looking at on the top of
1:31.2	the plane is four rotors that are each 12 and a half feet in diameter and they balance the plane
1:37.3	just like a quadcopter. And then in the back, there's that huge propeller with five blades on it.
1:43.1	That propels the plane forward. The Alia also has really long wings. Clark says the design is
1:50.0	inspired by Arctic turns. Small seabirds that migrate 25,000 miles each year between the Arctic
1:55.9	Circle and Antarctica. It's a 50 foot wingspan, which is pretty darn large for a 7,000 pound aircraft.
2:03.0	The Cessna we mentioned, the Alia's wingspan is about 14 feet longer, almost half the wingspan of a
	...

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