At Frankfurt Airport three TaxiBots are used for taxiing aircraft from the boarding gate to the takeoff runway, each fitted with a redundant diesel electric drive system from Siemens. The TaxiBots are paying their way. Every towing process reduces kerosene consumption by up to a ton, aircraft engine maintenance intervals have been lengthened and noise pollution at the airport has been significantly reduced. The TaxiBot Narrow Body used for single aisle aircraft, for instance, is only half as noisy as the Airbus A320 or the Boeing 737.
Generally speaking, aircraft taxi to their take-off position under the power of their own turbines. The use of aircraft turbines to cover this short distance is not only uneconomical but also consumes a large quantity of kerosene and produces a lot of carbon dioxide. Another drawback is the risk that foreign objects could be sucked into the engines and cause damage.
TaxiBot (Taxiing Robot) is an international cooperation between Siemens and clients TLD (France), IAI (Israel) and Lufthansa LEOS. It has culminated in the first aircraft tractor capable of aircraft pushback and taxiing from the boarding gate to the take-off position under the control of the pilot, without the need for major modifications to the aircraft. A Narrow Body TaxiBot has an intrinsicweight of around 25 tons and a traction force of around 104 kN, allowing it to tow an aircraft weighing around 100 tons. The Wide Body version provides a traction force of 260 kN and is capable of towing weights of up to 600 tons. The names Narrow Body and Wide Body refer to the aircraft type being towed. Narrow body aircraft are those with only one aisle (such as the A32 and Boeing 7370) and wide body aircraft are those with two aisles (A380 and 747-400). The first pilot series vehicle has been successfully operated on a trial basis by Lufthansa Leos at Frankfurt Airport. The project is supported by the German Government as part of its Electromobility Lighthouse project.
During towing, the aircraft’s engines can remain switched off, substantially reducing kerosene consumption for each taxiing process and allowing engine maintenance intervals to be extended. A TaxiBot Narrow Body currently saves around 150 kilograms of kerosene, while a TaxiBot Wide Body for two aisle aircraft saves as much as a ton. The greater the number of engines and the longer the distance and time for each TaxiBot mission, the greater the saving. With 12 missions completed every day, this adds up to considerable savings over a year.
Siemens is contributing the drive train for this project with its Integrated Drive Systems (IDS). This encompasses generators, traction motors, ELFA2 converters and wheel modules as well as the relevant electronic systems, including software. The TaxiBot Wide Body series with an output of around one megawatt is due to make its début at the end of June at the test airport in Chateauroux, France.
The innovative TaxiBot tractor engages the nose wheel of the aircraft at the boarding gate, and the tractor driver uses the conventional pushback method to reverse the aircraft from the gate to the taxiway. The pilot then takes over control of taxiing the aircraft from the gate to the runway for takeoff. During this process, the TaxiBot behaves in a similar way to an automatic vehicle; if the pilot releases the brake, the TaxiBot begins a controlled acceleration process.
Unless the aircraft is braked, the tractor accelerates to a maximum speed specified by the airport authorities of no more than 43 km/h. The tractor remains attached to the aircraft for the entire taxiway until undocking shortly before reaching the takeoff runway.
After undocking, the driver returns the TaxiBot for its next mission. In case of changes of direction on the taxiway, the captain steers the aircraft’s nose wheel to the required direction in the customary way and brakes with the main undercarriage. The braking motion of the aircaft is detected by the sensors and implemented in the vehicle within fractions of a second.
For more information contact Keshin Govender, Siemens Southern Africa, +27 (0)11 652 2412, [email protected], www.siemens.co.za
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