Planes powered by cows, floating luggage and battery-powered aircraft: Just some of the aviation ideas dreamt up by engineers of the future

• Five teams from across the world have been picked as finalists for Airbus’ Fly Your Ideas competition
• Other entries include shape-shifting noise reduction technology and planes powered by body heat
  
• The winning team will be picked on Friday and will win £25,500
• Airbus ran the competition to find eco-efficient ways to develop its planes

Planes powered by cow flatulence, luggage that floats on air and planes that harness passenger body heat could all one day be a possibility – if the engineers of tomorrow get their way. 

These are some of the shortlisted entries of the global Airbus’ Fly Your Ideas competition – created to find eco-efficient ways that aviators can develop their fleets of planes in the future.

Each team will now present its ideas to a panel of Airbus judges in Toulouse for a chance of winning £25,500 (€30,000). 

The body heat powering cabins idea was submitted by Team Embarker from Malaysia as part of the Airbus Fly Your Ideas competition. The team said that heat-sensitive material in cabin seats could be used to capture and store the energy from passengers. This energy could then be used to power the onboard electronics and reduce how much energy flights use

An artist’s impression of what Fly Your Ideas finalist, Team Levar from Brazil’s floating luggage hold could look like. The hold would be fitted with air jets, similar to those seen on air hockey tables. This would help airport workers slide luggage on and off planes more easily

The shortlisted entry from Team Levar in Brasil was floating luggage.

Using the principles of air hockey tables, the Brasillian entry involved retro-fitting a plane’s cargo hold with ‘super-light sliding sections’.

The sections would blow air that would make the cargo and luggage hover slightly off the ground.

This would help airport workers to quickly, easily and safely load and unload luggage. 

Team Levar claim the technology could help passengers get their bags 30 per cent faster.

The technology could also be fitted to the inside of planes to reduce the weight caused by the luggage in the hold, which in turn could reduce the amount of fuel used.

Team Levar claim that their floating luggage technology could help passengers get their bags 30% faster. It could also potentially be fitted to the inside of planes, to reduce the weight caused by the luggage in the hold, which in turn could reduce the amount of fuel used

Planes powered by cows, or more specifically, cow flatulence was submitted by Team CLiMA from Australia.

The plans would create a sustainable fuel that puts liquefied methane gas into ‘specially-created supercooled pods’ that sit next to the engines.

The team claim this solution could reduce CO2 emissions by 97 per cent.

Team Avas from India put forwarded the idea of a shape-shifting engine that would help reduce noise.

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