The FUTURE of PUSHBACK is ELECTRIC! Without a pushback truck! Explained by CAPTAIN JOE

dear friends and followers welcome back to my channel and to a very interesting video about the future of the pushback truck or in other words the end of the pushback truck because looking at this video this plane is effortlessly moving out of its gate position but the question is how let's take a sneak peek into the future of airplane ground movements and let's get started over 20 92 grand splendid 31 left for departure left on bravo and hold straight at julia today's video is brought to you by wheel tug making airplanes faster on the ground we've all been there you've gotten comfortable in your seat the flight attendant closes the door getting completed and seconds later you hear an announcement by the captain sorry ladies and gentlemen we're experiencing some delays as no push-back tractor is currently available for now we can only wait for one to arrive an aviation enthusiast and might stand up and shout why don't you perform the power back procedure by which the pilot uses reverse thrust to push himself out of the gate position this procedure though got banned at nearly every airport as it is too loud potentially damages the engines and is far too dangerous for ground crews being hit by accelerated debris well pushing it back by hand is also an option but yet again dangerous and i highly doubt that airports have the manpower to perform this procedure for every plane but there is hope on the horizon how about putting an electric motor into the nose wheel powerful enough to drive the plane backwards and forwards i'm sure many of you might have had that thought before in 2018 i went to the farnborough air show in the uk and i came across this interesting stand the stand was huge and there was a model boeing 737 taxiing around the apron now at a second glance i realized that the engine intakes were covered and the nose wheel was flashing okay the stand had my attention and next to the mock-up apron was a partial boeing 757 cockpit with which the pilot seemed to control or shall i say drive the model airplane around the taxi lines by this point i had to know what this was all about let me introduce you to wheel tug essentially what wheel tuck has done is fit two small electric motors within the wheel rim of the nose wheel now the motors are powered by the apu which is the small turbine in the tail that ordinarily provides the power to start the main engines and run the air conditioning packs while on ground these motors are powerful enough to drive the plane backwards out of the gate position now within the cockpit is a small control panel mounted next to the throttle stand allowing the pilots to activate the wheel tuck system now as the pilot presses the reverse button the motors get powered and drive the plane backwards so just enjoy this video as this 737 smoothly pushes itself out of the gate position i mean look at it that's amazing they even put covers into the engines to showcase that they aren't running and assisting the turn and the maneuver you see here is called the twirl as it is performing 180 degree turn only shifting to one side by the width of the landing gear what is really cool about this though is that the airplane with the wheel tug is so maneuverable that it can do this turn while still in the gate area leaving the taxiway clear and exclusively for other moving aircraft now this can do a lot to solve the kind of ground congestions that clogs airports all around the world and please be advised this video is in real time speed meaning the entire turn only takes 45 seconds today it often takes five minutes or more to push back the aircraft and detach the tug and then have the aircraft ready to taxi forward under engine power now back to the wheelchair control column upwards of the reverse push button you have this little thumb wheel with which the pilot can control the forward speed of the motor meaning you not can only reverse but also taxi forward with the wheel tuck system why that's an absolute revolution you'll see in a minute so as the pilot moves the thumb wheel forward the motor switches into forward gear and the thumb wheel can be set to a desired position freeing the pilot's hands for other tasks you now may ask how do you steer it and slow it down again now for the steering and braking part nothing really changes the pilot still uses the steering tiller to rotate the nose wheel accordingly as they did in the conventional way to slow down the aircraft the pilot applies brake pressure at the tip of the rudder pedals wheel tug is primarily designed to operate in and around the gate area saving both the time it takes for very complicated push-back routines as well as the uncertainty that airlines need to budget for when things don't go quite right so here's a list without wheel tug and here's a list with wheel tug and as you see a much shorter list or let's say less people involved because wheeltuk is designed mostly to save time at the gate the system does not go as fast as aircraft could taxi it runs at up to eight miles per hour but the engines need to warm up before takeoff in any case so the engines will be used for high speed taxi while wheeltuk helps speed up operations near the gate but the more interesting question is why does time even matter now the short answer is that if time was not important there would be no air travel we could just use donkeys or pogo sticks the biggest single competitive advantage that low-cost carriers like southwest ryanair and indigo have is that they are faster at delivering passengers to their destination they do this by making the ground operations more efficient an airline executive once said the quicker you are in the air the quicker you get where you are going airplanes are built to fly so when they're not flying they're not making any money and the low-cost carriers spend more time of their day flying because they work hard to spend less time on the ground which explains why they are usually making more profits by removing the pushback truck and all the complexity at least five minutes can be saved each and every flight by using what is known in the industry as the electric taxing or e-taxi also keep in mind the other benefits such as saving fuel and quite a lot of ground emissions much quieter operation as only the apu is running during taxi order reduction in engine damage hence maintenance costs did you know that most of the engine wear is due to ground orbs every time the pilot applies so-called breakaway thrust to get the plane moving and up to taxi speed tiny bits of debris gets sucked into the engine damaging the fan blades and the turbine all of this can be reduced by taxing electrically now here's another great maneuver i'd like to show you imagine you've just landed you started the apu and you turn off the engines once the required cooldown time has passed then you activate the wheel tuck system and drive electrically to your gate now if the airport is equipped with two jet bridges at your parking position the twist maneuver comes to play you park the 737 sideways to the terminal building now as the engines are already shut down the jet bridges and ground crews can immediately attach to the plane the two bridges will allow passengers to get off and on much faster and avoid bottlenecks and we've all been stuck in long queues to get on or off an airplane once boarding is completed which will take much less time the plane just sort of twists out of the gate position onto the taxiway as it will taxi without the engines of jet power terminal buildings and ground crews aren't subject to the powerful jet wash making it a much safer smoother and shorter turnaround i'm still amazed how quiet and effortlessly these pilots just taxi out of the gate it seems so easy okay let's look at some commonly asked questions how heavy is the wheeltuck system in total the entire system adds approximately 200 kilograms including the powered wheels but the fuel savings alone by not using the engines as much on the ground can compensate for this fuel savings will also reduce emissions making wheeltuck a way to help make commercial aircraft more sustainable again what are the main components now the 737 will be fitted with two new titanium wheels each of which contains an electric motor within the wheel rim some minor strengthening components must be added to the nose wheel landing gear how does it work mechanically within the rim sits an electric motor and a clutch allowing the wheel to spin freely when wheel tuck is not being used for instance for the take-off roll and landing in the unlikely event of a system failure the pilots then just revert to the conventional pushback and tax procedures how did a pilot see whilst reversing out of the gate using the wheel tuck system now optional the plane can be fitted with the wheel tug vision system which comes with a camera mount on the belly of the fuselage including four cameras and viewing angles that are projected onto the pilot's electronic flight bag within the cockpit how long does it take to install now installing wheeltuck is estimated to take two overnights now since airplanes have to go through longer maintenance checks every year the installation can also be done during these longer ground times how high are material and installation costs now the entire system is provided on a lease basis that is very similar to the power by the hour or power by cycle that's the same way many airlines lease components like the tires and engines which planes can be fitted with the wheeltuck system now the first version for the boeing 737 is expected to be in service next summer the airbus a320 is expected to follow now a lot of airlines have shown great interest in the system over 2 000 delivery positions have been reserved by the airlines on five continents i've seen a lot of innovations within the airline industry over the past 15 years and i have to say this one stands out by a long shot in terms of time and fuel saving as i said before planes are built to fly and it's always been a hassle dealing with them on ground wheeltuk just gives that plane that independence to cut down the time spent on ground and whilst it does it even saves the environment by reducing the emissions in my opinion this will be the way planes move around at airports in the nearby future that's it for today i hope you enjoyed this video about an incredible innovation please check out the wheeltalk website at www.realtalk.com for more information here's your checklist for today subscribe to my channel check activate the notification bell check follow my instagram account check perform a touch and go at my website check and don't forget a good pilot is always learning wishing you all the best [Music] you

Channel: Captain Joe

Views: 447,980

Keywords: Electric Pushback, E-Taxi, Future of pushback, Wheeltug, Captain Joe, Captain Joe flying, taxi, pushback, plane pushback, airport apron, gate position, nosewheel, Wheeltug pushback, powerback procedure, jet engine pushback, no pushback, Boeing 737, Airbus A320, Ryanair, Southwest, Indigo, tech

Id: 2BZbHAJQ70s

Length: 11min 56sec (716 seconds)

Published: Sat May 08 2021