Follow the latest coverage, related explainers and connected technology stories.
Google and Cathay Pacific have begun an expanded trial using artificial intelligence to adjust aircraft altitudes and avoid areas where long-lived contrails form. Google says more than 80 test flights achieved an estimated 40% reduction in the warming impact of these contrails, while verification continues of whether the approach can be applied on a broader operational scale.
Google is collaborating with the UK government and aviation-sector partners to trial routing a limited number of flights away from areas where strongly warming contrails form over the North Atlantic. The Operation Blue Skies trial aims to test reducing aviation’s climate impact across an entire oceanic air corridor.