Reducing aviation's environmental impact through large aircraft for short ranges

More than 90% of high-trac scheduled ights are less than 1,500 nautical miles; however, the majority of aircraft used on these routes have design ranges considerably longer than 1,500 nm. We show that the impact of civil aviation on climate change can be reduced by using large aircraft designed specically for the majority of ights | Large Aircraft for Short Ranges (LASR). The reduction in greenhouse gas emissions per passenger kilometer achieved by LASR aircraft is approximately 5% with respect to narrow body aircraft and 13% with respect to wide body aircraft. The LASR approach achieves this by a reduction in the operational empty weight aorded by a reduction in the maximum take-o weight.

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