Innovative airplane ground handling system for green operations

The aim of this work is to develop a new concept of taxiing, in order to reduce the pollution in terms of noise and gas emission and to introduce a higher level of safety during ground operations. In the area close to the airport gates, the airplane ground handlings are currently performed through the airplane engines, which have the task of providing the trust necessary to move the airplane to the runway. Pollutant emissions and the noise level near the gates, however, could be drastically reduced by introducing an innovative autonomous tractor called CHAT (Clean Hydrogen Autonomous Tractor), developed from the standard pushback tractor. The ground operations could be basically modified by extending the time in which the airplane engines are idle and the airplane is towed by the tractors powered by renewable energy.