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Does flying cost the Earth?
Can technology help make planes greener?
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Open rotor engines
Source: easyJet
- Emission cuts
- 25%
- Time scale
- 8 years
- Cost
- 4/5
- Effort
- Quite hard
- Passenger popularity
- 1/5
Today's engines are located under the wing and inside a bulky housing. An open-rotor engine would allow high-speed propellers to slice through the air and create more thrust for the same amount of fuel. This would make planes more energy efficient. But moving the engines would require major aircraft redesign. Flying would not be as quiet as in a new jet aircraft and long-haul flights would take longer.