Eco-design Software

          The impact of an aircraft on the environment is generally considered as directly linked to its intensity of operation. A more global and accurate approach to evaluate this impact must take also into consideration the total aircraft life cycle. The product life cycle can be split within three distinctive phases: aircraft design & production, aircraft use & maintenance, aircraft withdrawal. For each phase, there is a need to limit the quantity of natural resources like material, energy, water to use harmless materials and find non-polluting substitutes and finally to design an aircraft in a global perspective that addresses its dismanting and recycling.

                       The result from the life cycle assessment of the metro in Oslo should be considered to understand the meaning of the development of an industrial product with an environmental perspective. Looking at the overall life cycle impact on green-house effect quantified in ton of Co2 equivalent of the metro train, one can see the expected dominance of the phases.

                      The most critical phase regarding greenhouse effect is the product use, mainly due to the energy consumption. However, it is very important to note that the other phases are not negligible at all. Compared with other industries such as automotive, the aeronautic industry is late in considering the global life cycle design approach but it is now necessary to spend significant efforts to prepare the future.

• The air transport impact on environment can be considered as being small compared to the automative impact but it is continuously growing.
• Aeronautics is quite a young industry and the issue of the aircraft withdrawal is really emerging today.

                       The number of aircraft is use globally is continuing to grow. In Europe some 6,000 planes will reach the end of their flying days over the next 20 years. Therefore the necessity to develop profitable disposal techniques is essential and the impact on the environment is of major concern. A plane is made up of 60 percent aluminium, 15 percent steel and 10 percent precious metals such as titanium. The biggest problem is the recycling procedure, because the profit margins are too small to make the process profitable, especially for plastic material. A legal framework and a precisely mapped dismanting procedure is the best solution.