Southwest Airlines announced recently that it is launching a prototype "green plane," a Boeing 737 tweaked to include environmentally responsible materials and cut down on fuel use. It's a nice idea, but is it an honest effort or just greenwashing?
Our favorite feature on the green plane is the InterfaceFLOR carpet, a 100% recyclable carpet installed in replaceable sections. So if one piece of the carpet gets grungy, it can be replaced without having to rip up the whole thing. At the end of the product's life, InterfaceFLOR takes it back and recycles it into new carpeting.
Beyond that, Southwest's green tweaks seem to be geared towards reducing the plane's weight. The seat covers weigh two pounds less than standard covers, the canvas life vests are one pound lighter, and the foam fill behind seats is lighter than traditional fill. Overall, the changes add up to a weight reduction of five pounds per seat, and that means serious fuel savings.
Southwest's green plane isn't a huge deal on the scale of, say, a biofuel or natural gas-powered flight, but the airline's initiative could still cut down on fuel costs. Of course, that all depends on whether the green plane ends up as a media stunt or a prototype for future Southwest flights.
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Recent Comments | 3 Total
October 23, 2009 at 3:11pm by Jensen Gelfond
How is this a smaller deal than a biofuel/LNG flight when this innovation could be used on every airliner in the world, while the others are by their nature small samples or experiments? This is the present, the other stuff is (at the very best) the future.
October 27, 2009 at 10:27am by Jason DePerro
Planes have been engineered by frugal countries for years to run on more 'natural' fuels than traditional jet fuel. The Bio Jet, a converted L-29, which is an old Czech military plane."The Czechoslovakian-made aircraft is rated to fly on a variety of fuels including heating oil, making it the preferred platform for testing biodiesel in jet engines." With that in mind I don't see how carpet squares and a natural gas flight are a big step forward. This was being done for years out of frugality and necessity by countries without the means to use expensive aircraft fuel.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/10/worlds_first_100_percent_biodies...
October 27, 2009 at 10:30am by Jason DePerro
Planes have been engineered by frugal countries for years to run on more 'natural' fuels than traditional jet fuel. The Bio Jet, a converted L-29, which is an old Czech military plane."The Czechoslovakian-made aircraft is rated to fly on a variety of fuels including heating oil, making it the preferred platform for testing biodiesel in jet engines." With that in mind I don't see how carpet squares and a natural gas flight are a big step forward. This was being done for years out of frugality and necessity by countries without the means to use expensive aircraft fuel.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/10/worlds_first_100_percent_biodies...