Construction of Transportation Means - Decreasing Fuel Consumption and Exhaust Gas Emissions in Transportation - page 44

plastics

disadvantages
- negative climate balance by the
production
- difficult abolishment at recycling
- high cost of production
- no protection against lightning in
the vehicle body, airplane fuselage
and ship hull (no Faraday cage)
- ductile and lack of flexibility

advantages

- small thickness
- small specific weight
- application of new joining
techniques, like gluting
- high quality of chemical and
thermal resistance
- improved physical properties

Fig. 3.7 Advantages and disadvantages of plastics

• Narrow body airplanes; and
• Wide body airplanes.

Furthermore, there are several special purposed and individually constructed
airplanes in military as well as in civilian aviation [ 31 ].

3.2.3.1 Small Airplanes

Small airliners usually offer optimal fuel saving economy. In this type of airplanes
the fuselage is very narrow. There are from two to four seats in a row. The cabin
provides seals for 10 and 80 passengers. The cruising altitude is 7,000-8,000 m
(22,951-26,230 ft), and the range is up to 1,500 km (810 nmi) [ 32 ].
Airplanes with modern turboprop engines have the lowest Specific Fuel Con-
sumption (SFC). In the future, contra rotating rotors can further improve SFC.
However, there are two main problems for a wide ranged application of small
turboprop airplanes:
• They are flying at low altitudes and useing very congested air spaces; and
• The noise emission level of turboprop engines is high, especially that of contra
rotating propellers.

Improving these features and fulfilling requirements needs further intensive
development in the near future.

3.2.3.2 Narrow Body Airplanes

Narrow body or single aisle airplanes usually fly middle distances at altitudes of
12,000 m (39,344 ft). They have a maximum of six seats in the cabin in a row.
New

narrow body airplanes using turboprop engines with contra rotating