London Is Most Exposed City in World to Air Pollution from Aviation, Study Finds. I Had a Plan for That.

Alas, the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry--Robert Burns

According to a Guardian UK article a couple of weeks ago, ‘Six airports put UK capital ahead of Tokyo and Dubai, with Heathrow second-worst global airport for climate impact.’

That kinda caught my eye because I held a provisional patent for a solution to that problem back in 2015. A “Provisional Patent,” declares that you can represent your idea to others with a 12-month patent-pending protection, within which time you must file a nonprovisional patent application in order to secure permanent patent rights.

Anyone who flies knows where most airport pollution occurs, by running jet engines to and from gates

My scheme basically did two things by computer: pre-spinning the landing gear prior to touchdown and shifting electric power to that gear for the long ride to and from the assigned landing gate. Thus, two advantages will be accomplished, one having to do with pollution and the other with maintenance costs.

First, by pre-spinning the landing gear, that disarming jolt at touchdown is smoothed, and tire wear greatly reduced. Currently, and mostly because of tire wear at landings, aircraft tires require replacement every 10-15 landings. A single tire, depending upon the class of aircraft can cost up to $25,000 so, with a Boeing 777 having 14 wheels and the Airbus A380 having 22, each tire-change is a $350-$550,000 expense. Additionally, there’s downtime to be paid for such changes, as commercial planes, both passenger and freight, only make money when in service. Pre-spin could allow at least four times as many landings and takeoffs between changes.

Second, shutting down engines at the end of landings and not restarting them until proper warmup just before takeoff would have a remarkable effect on Heathrow’s 1,300 average daily landings and takeoffs. As for battery recharges, those occur at every landing under braking and takeoff under engine power.

Just an idea that desperately needed a commercial partner to develop a nonprovisional patent within 12 months—or expire

As an ordinary writer, living in a modest flat in Prague and well past my earning years, the required tests and specifications for such short-term needs were well past my abilities to produce. Hence, I reached out to others who had such abilities…and then the fun began.

Tesla was an obvious choice, as were both Boeing and Airbus, plus I had a contact at Honeywell’s Aircraft Division in Brno, just an hour and a half drive from Prague. Naively (really, at my age?), I thought Elon Musk would jump at such an opportunity, having boasted his environmental sensitivities to the world. Obviously, one would think that Boeing, Airbus and Honeywell would have a healthy financial interest. My reward was far more academic than financial.

I won’t bore you with the impossibility of making contact…

…much less arranging an interview. No response at all to be had from Tesla, Boeing or Airbus, no matter that I sent a proposal package to every corporate official and board-member I could find. Finally, a grudging ‘come down and talk to us’ arrived from Honeywell, where I was told it was a ten-year push to get anything authorized in the aircraft industry and they had no interest.

Apparently, all cards were not on the table

(Wikipedia) “In 2013, a Safran/Honeywell joint venture demonstrated an Airbus A320 taxiing with engine covers at the Paris Air Show, but Honeywell left by 2016. In 2017, Airbus authorized marketing the system on the A320, but left the program in 2019. By 2022, Safran was designing an integrated, lighter system as original equipment for new programs.”

Honeywell, rather than saying they had already looked in to such a system two years previously and discarded it, had quite apparently ignored the pre-spin that made the entire patent a monetary gamechanger, to say nothing of an environmental solution to their primary media complaint.

Fair enough, although in my heart I find it unfair in the extreme. Thus far, I have been unable to find pre-spin included in any airline electric landing gear configuration.

But so it goes, in the ‘isn’t-this-a-great-invention?’ business

Corporations these days are terrified of co-patents with outsiders, even though I made it clear in my presentations that I would allow the final patent to be held entirely in their own name. As to financial participation, I asked only to be fairly and modestly compensated—their terms pre-accepted, if not exactly pre-spun.

No takers. No interest. No admission that such research was already underway

Just another day on the Idea Farms, hoeing the weeds in inventive private minds around the world, where the sun comes up with great regularity and often disappears all too quickly.

Pity, that. Such a waste.