This will Shock you!

I read this in an article in the Economist the other day and whilst I knew the essence of the situation, I had no idea that the values involved were so massive:

"All told, the world’s airlines spend $7 billion-8 billion a year taxiing between passenger gates and the runway, says Yehoshua Eldar, who is in charge of business development at IAI."

That article then goes on to describe one possible solution to this massive waste of energy:

"The TaxiBot, though, uses just 20-30 litres of fuel for a typical trip. It also reduces the risk of debris being ingested by the engines and causing damage. Germany’s Lufthansa will trial the system at Frankfurt Airport from May 2013."

Look here and then take a look at this video on YouTube on the taxibot. Fascinating!

Duncan Williamson