Essay Sample on Contemporary Issues in Aviation

Introduction

In the aviation industry, there are contemporary issues aimed at moderating activities. One of them is the concerns about environmental conservation. It is one of the vital undertaking aimed at reducing the risk of environmental degradation and pollution from the emitted gases, water, worn out assets, and even the fumes. They can cause both the noise, air, water, land, and outer atmospheric pollutions which can have adverse effects on the existence of the human race, animal, and plant species now and into posterity. One of the key players in the environmental conservation in the aviation industry are the aircraft manufacturers, an example being the Boeing aircraft manufacturing company. Its activities are much distributed worldwide such that they have the potential of inducing significant alterations to the state of the environment, hence actively participating through researches and technological advances and applications to minimize the impacts of their activities on the environment. Brought out in the subsequent paragraphs are how the aircraft manufacturer has actively gotten involved in matters environmental conservation, with an example of past practical undertakings, technological innovations, and current researches to reduce its adverse impacts on the environment.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

First, Boeing company is actively getting engaged in the technological researches aimed at producing aircraft which are more inclined to environmental conservation from their operations. In this case, it can be seen from the evident production of its newest planes, one of which is the 737 MAX and the Dreamliner (MACHINING INNOVATIONS CONFERENCE, & DENKENA, B. 2013. P12). The aircraft save fuel by a margin of 70% than their previous versions (Dumez 2017. P14). In this case, it will mean that they will consume less fuel in their operations, which reduces the need to rely more on petroleum products extracted from their reserves under the ground. The extraction of such reduced amounts of petroleum will result in environmental conservation where fewer wastes are released from their refining factories. Further, the new models of airplanes are 90% quieter than their previous counterparts, which reduces noise pollution, a vital component of the safe and conducive environment (YAN 2012. P2).

Moreover, the technological advancement aimed at producing more environmentally friendly aircraft by the Boeing company has managed to reap some level of success. In this case, such technological progress has reduced the impact of aircraft emissions on the ozone layer which is vital for the conducive human and animal survival on the earth's surface. The newly designed and manufactured 737 MAX and the 787 Dreamliner has cut down the emission of greenhouse gases by a margin of 29%. In this way, the atmospheric conditions will have the effects of pollutants from the aircraft reduced in such a way that the global increase of atmospheric temperatures, global warming, will be kept at bay. It is even though there is an increase in the production and deliveries of aircraft by the company by a margin of 71%, which could have otherwise increased greenhouse gas emissions by the same rate. The company has also recorded a reduced discharge of solid wastes, energy use, water usage, as well as hazardous wastes into the land reducing instances of pollution. Hence, the company can be seen to be actively engaged in the activities focused on minimizing impacts on the environment.

There are also the initiatives by the Boeing pump more and more research for the production of advanced and cleaner technologies. Through Horizon X which is the Pathfinder organization aimed at uncovering and accelerating potentially transformative products in the aerospace industry, Boeing is focused at the production of alternative propulsion aircraft as well as advanced batteries which are environmentally friendly. Also, there is the production of chemical alternatives, biofuel, and hybrid electric propulsions for much-protected welfare of environment (Saylor, S.E. and Dailey, J.K., 2010. P20).

Further, the environmental consciousness of Boing company has made it put in place measures and practices aimed at conforming with the internationally accepted standards, which have been tested and proved to be fit for the safety of the environment. They help to enhance the activities of the company by reducing its impacts on the environment. Such is evident where there are the ISO 14001 standards conformity measures in the company. They are the standards put in place to reduce waste and pollution as well as improving the efficiency of energy and its recycling rates. In the pursuit of the satisfaction and achievement of the above goals, Boeing company expanded the certification of ISO 14001 environmental standards to its various manufacturing facilities spread across the world. It ensures that the products of Boeing company ranging from the solar cells, satellites, military aircraft, and super-efficient airplanes which are manufactured in such facilities conform to the set standards relating to environmental management. In this way, the environmental impacts in terms of pollution from such facilities are reduced to the desired levels protracted in the international standards.

There is also the Lean+ program undertaken by Boeing manufacturing company. It involves a set of practices and principles aimed at reducing the impacts of the company activities on the environment (Malone, R., Friedland, B., Herrold, J et al. 2016. P34). Its key components involve the conserving resources, minimizing wastes, as well as increasing the efficiency of its operations. The program is run across the company activities to embed environmental thinking to its continuous improvement activities. Also, the company has managed to share its Lean+ set of activities and program with its suppliers which helps make their operations more environmentally friendly, hence reducing the impact of their activities on the environment, since they will take part in such activities as waste reduction and management. Thus, through the effective cooperation of Boeing company and its associates in implementing the activities streamlined at satisfying Lean+, there results from the relentless elimination and prevention of waste accumulation on the environment from their activities which has brought about quite impressive results.

There are also the efforts made by the Boeing manufacturing company which are aimed at effectively recycling any wastes from its operations, hence reducing the dumping to the environment while ensuring that some of the dumped wastes have been treated accordingly to mitigate their effects on the environment. The company is also working on recycling the materials used in its operations, services, and products, which include the composites and metals, for higher value industrial uses whenever applicable. Other everyday materials such as packaging and paper are reduced and recycled. Other waste reduction opportunities are also continuously being identified, including the work processes which hardly require the use of paper (Li, B., Duan, R., Li, J., Huang, Y et al. 2016. P32). In this way, the use of papers extracted from trees reduces, while also the non-biodegradable paper usages harmful to the environment are reduced to the required minimum. A case can be seen where Boeing company, in the year 2008, elevated its recycling of solid wastes rate to a margin of 64% from 54% recorded in the previous year (Schafer, A.W. and Waitz, I.A., 2014. P18). Also, there were increased specialized recycling programs aimed at improving the awareness of employees while also improving usability. Also, the company copiers and printers in different stations across the world make use of paper which contains 30% contents which have been recycled from the consumers (Vian, J.L., Saad, E.W. and Bieniawski, S.R., Boeing Co, 2011. P42). Moreover, recycling activities go further beyond the operations of the company. In the year 2008, Boeing company together with its supplier, Alenia Aeronautica, announced that Boeing manufacturing company was helping in support of the establishment of the first composite recycling facility in Italy. The facility was expected to be recycling an average of 1,100 tons of the composite scrap metals and materials each year (Saylor, S.E. and Dailey, J.K., 2010. P18). Included in the recycled contents are the used aircraft parts and the manufacturing materials. Such a move showed that Boeing manufacturing company is committed to reducing the environmental impacts of its activities in terms of pollution.

Further, Boeing manufacturing company helped in bringing together eleven different companies under the aerospace industry. They were to then cumulatively called the Aircraft Fleet Recycling Association (Ning, P., Lai, R., Huff, D. et al.2010. p16). It is an entity which is focused on waste recycling research while coming up and providing all the necessary tools for the aircraft owners to use in the repair of faulty aircraft items, materials, and parts. In this way, there shall be the improvement of the management practices for older aircraft while also adopting the progressive reuse of aerospace products for the safety of the environment, hence reducing the impact of their activities on the environment. The association has managed to more than 6,000 commercial air crafts and more than 1,000 military aircraft, thus seen to be functional for environmental protection (Vian, J.L., Saad, E.W. and Bieniawski, 2011. P14).

References

Challoner, A.D., Howard, H.G. and Liu, J.Y., 2014, May. Boeing disc resonator gyroscope. In 2014 IEEE/ION Position, Location and Navigation Symposium-PLANS 2014 (pp. 504-514). IEEEDumez, H. and Jeunemaitre, A., 2017. 5. Firms' political strategies in a new public/private environment: the Boeing case. Power, Policy, and Profit: Corporate Engagement in Politics and Governance, p.100.Bottom of Form

Li, B., Duan, R., Li, J., Huang, Y., Yin, H., Lin, C.H., Wei, D., Shen, X., Liu, J. and Chen, Q., 2016. Experimental studies of thermal environment and contaminant transport in a commercial aircraft cabin with gaspers on. Indoor air, 26(5), pp.806-819.

MACHINING INNOVATIONS CONFERENCE, & DENKENA, B. (2013). New production technologies in the aerospace industry: proceedings of the 4th Machining Innovations Conference, Hannover, September 2013. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=642235.

Malone, R., Friedland, B., Herrold, J., and Fogarty, D., 2016, July. Insights from large scale model-based systems engineering at Boeing. In INCOSE International Symposium(Vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 542-555).

Ning, P., Lai, R., Huff, D., Wang, F., Ngo, K.D., Immanuel, V.D. and Karimi, K.J., 2010. SiC wirebond multichip phase-leg module packaging design and testing for harsh environment. IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 25(1), pp.16-23.

Nolan, R.L., 2012. Ubiquitous IT: The case of the Boeing 787 and implications for strategic IT research. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 21(2), pp.91-102.Bottom of Form

Saylor, S.E. and Dailey, J.K., 2010, December. Advanced logistics analysis capabilities environment. In Proceedings of the 2010 Winter Simulation Conference (pp. 2138-2149). IEEE.

Schafer, A.W. and Waitz, I.A., 2014. Air transportation and the environment. Transport Policy, 34, pp.1-4.

Vian, J.L., Saad, E.W. and Bieniawski, S.R., Boeing Co, 2011. Virtual environment systems and methods. U.S. Patent 8,068,983.

YAN, L., & MA, Z. (2012). Intelligent Multimedia Databases and Information Retrieval: Advancing Applications and Technologies. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10509245