Nasa innovations could cut carbon emissions and save airlines billions

Washington

NASA research aimed at cutting fuel consumption, pollution and noise from aeroplanes could pay off for the nation's airlines to the tune of more than US$250 billion, the agency said this week. Green technologies developed by the research project are expected to save billions of gallons of fuel if implemented, cutting carbon emissions and reducing air pollution in the process.

The research was conducted between 2009 and 2015 as a part of Nasa's Environmentally Responsible Aviation (ERA) project, which was designed with the purpose of developing and testing new technologies to reduce the impact of aviation on the environment. The overall goal, according to ERA project manager Fay Collier, was to come up with solutions that would improve noise, pollution and carbon output all at the same time, rather than sacrificing one area in order to improve another.