HAW lecture in cooperation with DGLR, VDI, ZAL and RAeS

(Lecture in English)

The safe, responsible and at the same time economical recycling of commercial aircraft is one of the greatest challenges for the global aviation industry. Every year about 1000 airliners reach the end of their lives, which should not just be parked somewhere in the desert. A new aircraft dismantling industry is emerging. A lot is also happening in the recycling process.

Action at end-of-life: Decommissioning, careful disassembly and violent dismantling. After the aircraft has been dismantled, a distinction is made between reuse (recycling) or disposal, depending on the component or material in question.

For economic and ecological reasons, the aim is to achieve as high a percentage of reuse as possible (recycling rate). But

everything that cannot be reused must be disposed of. Landfill or incineration are two typical ways of disposal. 

 poster_2022_06_02_Aircraft_End-of-Life.pdf (457 KB)

RAeS lecture in cooperation with DGLR, VDI, ZAL and HAW Hamburg

Lecture in English

Contrail and cirrus that evolve from contrails represent the largest share of the climate impact from aviation, even larger than the contribution from CO2. In order to reduce this climate impact and the uncertainties related to it, the fundamental science of contrails and their impact on the atmosphere from a present and future aircraft fleet needs to be based on accurate and reliable airborne measurements.

Research at DLR has focused on the detection of contrails in a suite of measurement campaigns in the past decade. Different evolution stages of contrails from the first second behind the aircraft until they evolve into contrail cirrus have been measured with national and international partners like NASA and NRC. We present recent results on contrail properties measured with DLR’s unique research aircraft fleet. The observations are further used to guide model evaluation from the plume to the global scale.

While new carbon-free technologies like hydrogen powered engines now come into perspective, their impact on contrail formation is largely unknown. We will comment on the importance of airborne measurements of these new type of contrails, the challenges and potentials that come with it to frame a sustainable future air traffic. 

Biography

Dr. Tina Jurkat-Witschas is Project Leader of the DLR Research Group H2CONTRAIL and Prof. Dr. Christiane Voigt is Head of Department Cloud Physics at the DLR and Professor at the University of Mainz.

 poster_2022_06_09_ContrailDetection-2.pdf (318 KB)