THE EVOLUTION OF TRANSPORTATION | the dynamics of life
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hen in 2008 the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA) asked aca-
demic and aviation industry experts to visu-
alize the passenger planes of the future,
leaders in aviation answered the challenge.
Looking to the year 2030 and beyond, several teams of
engineers and designers, including those at companies
that currently fly high-capacity, high-speed jet ex-
presses, produced concepts to meet goals set by NASA
for energy efficiency, environmental quality, noise reduc-
tion, performance, and operational technology. In the
years since then, those goals have spurred the efforts
of aviation companies to implement advances all along
the way.
In a critically important innovation, for example, the
Boeing 787 Dreamliner now has a type of cabin venti-
lation system that uses dedicated electrical compres-
sors to bring clean air from outside to the cabin and
flight deck of the aircraft, rather than using so-called
“bleed air” from the compression compartments of the
engines, which can be polluted by engine oil. Conven-
tional aircraft ventilation systems have for decades used
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