USM upcycling is also a growing market, although it mostly consists of novelty projects.

The internet holds plenty of stories of how people live in converted planes, of which perhaps the project with the most potential is the case of a new property in Malibu being entirely made out of a Boeing 747 – some 4,500,000 pieces acquired for a price of just 50,000 dollars.

This year’s MRO Europe provided another novel use of USM – a plane courtesy of VAS Aero Services in the US that was used to build a “manufacturing playground for children”. As Hughes explains:

“Recently, we donated a cockpit to a local school so that kids could be entertained by the interior of a plane.

Green fuel transition could dictate progress

But as big a part as the aviation supply chain is playing in making air travel more sustainable, it needs aviation to speed up its transition to green fuel, asserts Dr Michael Winters, Principal Fellow Advanced Technology at Pratt & Whitney:

“We are all investing deeply in technology and working with governments and universities through public-private partnerships to bring forth new technologies that will enable ever-increasing levels of efficiency, whilst reducing the fuel burn of the fleet.”

Key to this, according to Dr Winters, will be the use of the gas turbine engine.

“The gas turbine engine, when enhanced with hybrid electric, becomes an optimised cyber-physical machine and, even without batteries, brings value and greater fuel efficiency to the fleet by as much as 5 percent on a large single aisle and as much as 30 percent for a regional turboprop. They will burn sustainable aviation fuels when they become available en masse, as well as hydrogen when it's available on the flight line.”

It is a green future that governance needs to buy into, according to Vallejo:

“The capacity installed for producing sustainable aviation fuel is not enough at present. Government action is needed.”

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