Originally Posted by
GlenQuagmire
You could save a bit of fuel and a lot of localised pollution if you used towbots to take aircraft from the gate and towed them almost to the hold point so that they minimised taxiing and waiting about with the engines running. Nice autonomous towbots ensuring you only have three minutes from startup to takeoff. Heahrow would love it!
Wasn’t that trialled somewhere in Germany? Not auto bots, but towing to the holding point. It would only really work with towbarless tugs, otherwise there would be too much faffing about at the holding point. Also the tugs would need a separate route back to the apron, since I don’t think they would be able to pass alongside aircraft on a normal width taxiway?
A system called Wheel Tug has also been invented; electric traction motors in the nose wheels, powered by the APU.