One hundred and six years and 104 days ago, Orville Wright took off from Kitty Hawk, N.C., in the world’s first self-powered airplane. In the relatively short time since then, airplanes have completely transformed modern society. Many of you have just returned from spring break, going home or traveling to far exotic destinations. The ability to have adventures hundreds and even thousands of miles away, and then return in a week, is a luxury only afforded by the convenience and efficiency of air travel, which is truly remarkable. Commuting around the world has greatly accelerated globalization, expanded opportunities for innovation and broken down barriers between cultures, in a way that wouldn’t have been possible a hundred years ago. In the same way that Leland Stanford opened up the West Coast through the Union Pacific Railroad, airlines today are opening up the world. And so despite my frustrations with ticket modification fees, security lines at SFO and basically anything related to US Airways, the airlines are one of the most valuable industries to preserving and expanding modern society.

Having said that, airlines are a huge consumer of fuel and contribute tremendously to greenhouse emissions. Studies in 2009 stemming from a committee to address this issue estimated airline fuel consumption as 6.3 percent of total oil consumption, and contributing to 1.6 percent of total greenhouse emissions. And while airplanes in the past 40 years have become more efficient, rising fuel prices are placing a serious financial incentive on airlines to find ways to go farther using less fuel. Researchers are working on a variety of ways to address this problem.

One area of great research is into creating wings that fly using laminar flow, as opposed to turbulent flow. In a nutshell, when a wing is coarse or non-aerodynamic, air going over the wing will buffet and slow the wing down, while a smooth wing will cut through air like butter. Picture the wake created by a barge as opposed to a sailboat. Designing wings to fly in laminar flow is difficult, but the fuel savings can be enormous. The Boeing 787, a plane last that was first test-flown last December, has a design based largely around laminar flow and boasts a reduction of 20 percent in fuel consumption.

Another interesting idea developed out of Dr. Ilan Kroo’s lab at Stanford, involves flying planes in formation flight. Birds fly in iconic V-shaped patterns because drafting off birds ahead of them saves a considerable amount of energy in flight. The same is true for large airplanes. Dr. Kroo’s team demonstrated a potential 15-percent net fuel savings. This plan could be particularly effective for transoceanic flights. For instance, planes leaving San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego for Tokyo could meet up partway through the Pacific, and fly in formation for the remainder of the trip.

While the last two methods have focused on ways to reduce fuel consumption, they still don’t fix the problem of oil consumption entirely. Several designers are crafting airplanes running partially, or entirely, on solar energy. Solar Impulse is a one-person plane that runs entirely on solar power. The plane’s battery bank stores energy during the day and can run off batteries at night. A huge advantage of solar planes is that planes flying higher than clouds can always count on sunny days. Bertrand Piccard, one of the plane’s designers, is planning a transatlantic flight in 2012, and plans to circumnavigate the globe eventually.

While a fully solar plane would be great, mature solar technology for full passenger planes is probably several years off. Flying planes on biofuels could be a great solution in the intervening time. Companies like Solazyme are engineering algae to create biodiesel, which can then be combusted in a traditional diesel engine. Virgin Atlantic has already tested flights using biofuels. Algal refineries can be created anywhere, supplying virtually a limitless source of fuel, which may soon become economically more efficient than oil. It is important to note, however, that while algal-based biofuels may produce fewer greenhouse emissions than conventional fuels, they still create emissions. Another developing technology of using algae for power came from a study published earlier this month done in part by Prof. Fritz Prinz from Stanford’s Department of Material Science and Engineering. The team harnessed electricity directly from algal photosynthesis, essentially creating a living solar cell.

Flight is an inextricable component of modern society, a fact that will only become more pronounced over the coming decades as modern technology expands to all corners of the globe. And while flight is a tremendous gift, it currently comes at an enormous cost to our planet’s health. Greenhouse emissions from flight can only be alleviated by reducing passengers or making planes more efficient. While individuals can reduce their flights, demand will grow, so in the long run this will not solve any problems. Focusing on reducing, and eventually eliminating, non-renewable fuel consumption, will allow us to both travel and protect the planet for years to come.

Jack is looking forward to Spring Break 2030, where both you and your plane can soak up rays. Contact him at [email protected].