Boeing CEO: Promises about clean aviation fuel outpace technology
WASHINGTON — Expectations for quick decarbonization of aviation are unrealistic and create pressure to invest in unproven technologies instead of mass production of sustainable aviation fuel, which will have an immediate benefit, said Boeing CEO David Calhoun.
Speaking last week at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce aerospace event here, the Boeing (NYSE: BA) chief questioned the speed at which governments and stakeholders are promising change when little biofuels infrastructure exists and alternative propulsion systems are still over the horizon.
“My fear is pace. A lot of potential technologies, hydrogen, including green hydrogen, get talked about, want to get funded and then lead to policy choices that try to accelerate all of that at a very fast pace: ‘You’ll be green by 2035. Every next airplane has to be hydrogen.’
“You confuse policymakers in the process,” he said. Boeing is working to meet the industry goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Calhoun said the aviation sector has set an ambitious target considering it only represents 2.4% of global CO2 emissions. The company released its annual sustainability report last summer.
Boeing, which invested $450 million last January in electric vertical takeoff and landing air taxi developer Wisk, is not aggressively pursuing hydrogen power. Rival Airbus, by contrast, has said it believes it can produce a hydrogen-powered aircraft by 2035, although it could be 2040 before regulators certify it, according to analysts.
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