Construction of Transportation Means - Decreasing Fuel Consumption and Exhaust Gas Emissions in Transportation - page 45

Table 3.8 Development of the international maritime fleet from 2005 to 2009 in 10 6 DWT

Ships Years

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

Tankers 368.4 387.7 411.0 439.3 463.3

Bulk goods 319.2 341.7 363.6 386.6 414.4

Container ships 99.2 1,117.7 128.2 144.6 161.9

General cargo 95.3 97.4 100.6 102.8 106.8

Passenger ships 5.9 5.9 6.1 6.2 6.4

Total 888.0 944.4 1009.55 1,079.55 1,152.8

propellers provide very low SFC. However, the field of civil application is cur-
rently limited narrow body airplanes do not use long distances. Through new
innovations, this situation could be changed in the future [ 33 ].

3.2.3.3 Wide Body Airplanes

Wide body airplanes normally have a cabin with a large diameter, provide twin
aisles, use turbofan engines, and fly middle or long distances. They are more fuel
efficient than narrow body single aisle airplanes with the same or similar turbofan
engines but do not reach the particularly low SFC of turboprop engine-driven
small airplanes with contra rotating propellers which have an extremely high
efficiency [ 34 ].
The newest and largest passenger airplanes (A380 and B787) use a very high
portion of glass fiber strengthened composite substances and sandwich construc-
tion to reduce the weight [ 35 , 36 ] Optimal aerodynamics, efficient main and
auxiliary engines, and modern electronic technology in Very Large Airplanes
(VLAs) save fuel and operating costs by up to 10-15% in comparison to mid-size
airplanes. In addition to the basic models, new freight and long-range types with a
shorter fuselage are in development.
Table 3.7 shows examples of recent airplane types.

3.3 Influence of Weight Reduction on Fuel Consumption

The consumption of fuel in airplanes depends on many factors, similar to other
types of transportation means. International Air Transport Association (IATA)
data show an exponential decrease of fuel consumption per passenger kilometer
[ 40 ]. There has been a 23% reduction on average over the last 30 years; see
Fig. 3.5 [ 41 ].
The fuel consumption rates of modern wide body airplanes are about 3.0-3.2 l
per passenger-kilometer per seat, i.e., 1.469-1.567 gal (US) or 1.223-1.304 gal
(UK) per passenger-nautic mile per seat.