Ricardo TaxiBot Concept To Cut Airplane Fuel Consumption

Airplane travelers in Israel will have the opportunity to see from now on a new appearance on airports' runways. In an attempt to help airline companies reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, automotive supplier and manufacturer Ricardo announced it has developed a new pilot-controlled towing vehicle, to be used by the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).

The concept TaxiBot requires no modifications to the aircraft, taxiways or runways. It is intended to eliminate, as much as possible, the use of the aircrafts' engines while taxiing and ultimately reduce fuel consumption and emissions,

This simple vehicle will allow, according to a study conducted by IAI and Airbus, for significant improvements to both the environment's well being and the state of airports/airlines finances. Taxiing at airports will cost $7 billion by the end 2012, while CO2 emission levels will stand at about 18 million tons.

Ricardo and IAI have been working on the TaxiBot for the last 15 months and now have signed a Memorandum of Agreement with international ground support equipment provider TLD, to see the project throug its next stages. Additionally, an agreement with Airbus has also been signed.

"The success of the TaxiBot project is an excellent demonstration of Ricardo's strategy of related market sector diversification, taking leading edge automotive technologies and development processes and applying them to the needs of related neighboring industries," Dave Shemmans, Ricardo CEO said in a release.

"We are extremely pleased to have been able to play such a central role in the development of this innovative concept, which could dramatically reduce the CO2 emissions of commercial aviation while improving air quality and reducing noise pollution in the vicinity of the world's major airports."