Take the opportunity to help a polluting industry make some eco-changes. Airbus is launching an international competition called Fly Your Ideas for student teams worldwide to come up with innovative ideas to shape the future of aviation and help to enhance the sector's eco-efficiency. The contest objective is “…to create more value with less impact on the environment”.
The competition is open to college and university students from around the world, studying a degree, Masters or PhD in any academic discipline, from engineering to marketing, business to science and philosophy to design. Proposals can look at a wide range of topics including new materials, products and/or processes as well as aircraft performance, manufacturing, organisational and operational performance.
A top prize of €30,000 ($37,800 US) is offered to the team whose idea demonstrates the greatest potential for improvement. The teams will advance through different competitive and challenging rounds, concluding with a live final at the Le Bourget Airshow in June 2009. "The Fly Your Ideas competition gives students the opportunity to work with Airbus. Together we can share fresh and innovative ideas and thus shape the future of aviation", said Tom Enders, President and CEO of Airbus.
An Aviation and Global Climate Change study, from the UK-based Friends of the Earth, found air travel to be the world’s fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions. Their study indicates the world’s 16,000 commercial jet aircraft generate more than 600 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) each year. Perhaps most shocking is that ‘…aviation generates nearly as much CO2 annually as that from all human activities in Africa’.
Any improvements to the airline industry would be a significant contribution to reducing greenhouse gases. There are also the options of refusing to use airline transport, utilizing carbon offsets (although not a significant solution) when flying, and if you absolutely must fly, remember to pack lightly, travel in economy and try to only fly in the daytime.
Visit: http://www.airbus-fyi.com/
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