Aspire

[TheWestCoast]

Hello -

I was SLF on a UA SYD-SFO flight last week that was flown as part of the Asia and South Pacific Initative to Reduce Emissions (ASPIRE) - not much about it on the internet...

united.com - Press release detail (http://www.united.com/press/detail/0,6862,59961,00.html)

..to those in the know, in your opinion is this the way of the future or was the flight more PR than anything else?

From the perspective of UA Economy Plus, it was nice to be on an intercontinental flight with no hanging around on taxiways or circling anywhere.

[Capn Bloggs]

Aspire is a con by the spin doctors. So what if this one flight saved a few hundred kgs of fuel? It messed around countless other flights that were made to get out of it's way.

[Hartington]

Despite the OP being SLF on the flight this isn't really an SLF issue is it? I always though the SLF forum related to issues about the passenger experience. This relates to flight ops.

Now, I'm no pilot or controller and I accept that, right now, ASPIRE and various other initiatives (such as synthetic fuels) are little more than publicity froth. That said, even before the credit crunch and oil price spike the amount of fuel wasted in queues and stacks always amazed me. Having listened to a Canadian controller trying to get a UA777 (that I was on) to follow an AF (I think it was a 340) I can't help feeling that there has to be a way of maintaining separation and flying the most cost economical routes/altitudes that doesn't rely on humans the way it does at the moment. This idea of all following the same "roads" in the sky (be they airways or oceanic tracks) is simply an historical anachronism and tests like ASPIRE *may* lead us to a more efficient system.

[UniFoxOs]

Hartington - Despite the OP being SLF on the flight this isn't really an SLF issue is it? I always though the SLF forum related to issues about the passenger experience. This relates to flight ops.

OP - From the perspective of UA Economy Plus, it was nice to be on an intercontinental flight with no hanging around on taxiways or circling anywhere.

Sounds like passenger experience to me. I presume that if ASPIRE is hype it is intended to lure pax to those flights, making it a SLF issue??

Completely in agreement about economical flying though (and always hate queueing for take-off or landing slot, of course, there must be a more efficient way to do it).

Cheers
UFO

[Hartington]

Aspire is (as I understand it) a research program - I wouldn't expect the average SLF to understand (or even know about it) it even if an announcement was made on board. A few "spotters" might choose a flight because of it but, at the moment, I suspect it doesn't come anywhere on the radar of the average SLF. It's one of a number of programs aimed at making flight more efficient by offering direct routings at optimum altitudes and by providing optimum climb and decent profiles. I had the impression that the OP knew all this and was seeking a professional view even though he was "only" SLF on the flight. The fact that no other SLF has shown any interest in the post supports my view (YMMV).

But, in the end, only the OP can tell us what he was thinking so we'll have to disagree (and effectively, I'll have to disagree with the moderators as well!).

[raffele]

This is the Aspire website: ASPIRE-GREEN (http://www.aspire-green.com/)

Make of it what you will

Qantas are a part of the programme - I think it was formally launched with the first QF A380 flight to/from LA

[TheWestCoast]

In posting in R&N I was hoping to get a professional's take on the matter. On the flight we were told that airspace and taxiways were being cleared for us - which raises the question, we might have been saving gas and creating fewer emissions, but what was the likely impact on the aircraft I assume were forced out of our way? How would such a flight profile be applied to every other aircraft crossing the Pacific were the program to become more than experimental - i.e. is ASPIRE the future or was this for publicity?

Not sure the SLF board is the place to answer any of this, but who knows?.