Liebherr to test electric environmental pack for narrowbody aircraft

Testing will soon be underway for an all electric air conditioning system for 150 seat narrowbody aircraft, that would replace the bleed air system currently in use. This could be a big change to aircraft, as bleed air systems have been known to allow fumes to enter the cabin, causing health effects in passengers and crew on the aircraft.

The Boeing 787 is currently the only commercial aircraft to use an electrically driven air circulation system, that includes the deicing system, and pressurization system. The systems use a 1.4MW system, which on smaller aircraft is uneconomical due to the weight of the system. Liebherr currently offers a 50kW generator, but a 150 seat aircraft requires more power than that. They're developing a 100kW system that will be installed on a demonstration aircraft in the near future.

www.flightglobal.com...

Bleed air systems are a pain, and leaks can lead to a lot of problems for passengers and crews due to some of the toxins that are in the engine. Long term exposure to them leads to neurological problems among other health issues. I'd love to see an all electric system in use on a large scale.

So now you I can safely keep my cool while the 2-day old infant in front of me is wailing and vomiting the entire flight?

High Five!

a reply to: parad0x122

Much better than waking up one day with massive brain damage due to the organic toxins that got pumped into the cabin through the bleed air system.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Absolutely. In all honesty though, I usually get pretty bad migraines when I fly. Could the bleed air system be one of the proponents for that? Or are they only harmful over the long term, because I don't fly too often.

a reply to: parad0x122

Oh, absolutely. There are some pretty nasty toxins that can be pumped into the cabin if there's a leak in the system, and not all leaks are easily detectable.

They affect different people different ways. Some people can fly for years and not notice anything, other people are in the cabin for 10 minutes and start feeling sick, or get bad headaches like you do.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Good to know! Informative and interesting, as always Zaph. SnF.

This is exactly what I'm talking about. There is no evidence right now of a bleed air leak, but flight crews are subjected to more of the toxins that an leak that the average passenger, and this may be a build up of those toxins, with a small bleed air leak on this plane.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
This is exactly what I'm talking about. There is no evidence right now of a bleed air leak, but flight crews are subjected to more of the toxins that an leak that the average passenger, and this may be a build up of those toxins, with a small bleed air leak on this plane.

i wonder if the 'toxins' happened to be certain tasty liquids ingested the previous evening.....