2) Birth

Unfortunately, not all planes are quite as dashing as me. Enter the Boeing 747 Dreamlifter, or what I like to call, ‘the mothership’. Its sole purpose in life: to transport parts required to assemble the B787 Dreamliner, Boeing’s most fuel-efficient long-range aircraft. Since I can’t remember my birth, I will explain how my baby (the B787) comes into existence.

Boeing 747 Dreamlifter, or what I like to call 'the mothership' because of it's pivotal role in the birth of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner (Source: Wikipedia)

British Airways Boeing 787 Dreamliner

Aeroplanes like me are traditionally made from aluminium. Refining aluminium from its ore, bauxite, is very energy intensive: first bauxite is mined in Brazil (the main supplier for US aluminium), associated with deforestation, habitat loss and local pollution; then huge amounts of electricity (typically produced by fossil-fuel combustion) are required to filter-out the aluminium. However, only 20% of the 787 is made from aluminium with over 50% coming from composite materials including carbon fibre. Although the production of carbon fibre isn’t as environmentally-damaging, the difficulty recycling it means much of it ends up in landfill sites. Nevertheless, 3D printing could reduce raw material wastage by 95% during manufacturing in the future.

B787 life cycle assessment (Source: Design Life-cycle)

But the story doesn’t end there. Whilst I was built at Boeing’s Everett factory, Boeing outsourced manufacturing for most of the 787’s parts, for example: the forward fuselage and wings come from Japan; the centre fuselage from Italy; the wing-tips from Korea; and the landing-gear from France. Before the 787 is even born, transporting and assembling its parts using the Dreamlifter emits twice as much carbon dioxide (CO2) as the manufacturing of aluminium planes like me.

Outsourcing of B787 parts (Source: Business Insider)

Nevertheless, a lifecycle analysis of an Airbus 320 found that 99% of its environmental impact resulted from its day-to-day operations, predominantly whilst burning kerosene (jet fuel); manufacturing produced the same amount of CO2 as 6.5 days of operations. Even with the 787’s globalised manufacturing process, it’s estimated that several long-haul flights will make-up for the additional emissions produced during this initial stage. Once in service, the 787’s greater fuel efficiency and reduced CO2 emissions help reduce its overall environmental impact (but more on that later).

So the lesson for today: whilst the birth of an aircraft is environmentally damaging, it is negligible compared to the operational life of that plane.