To cut fuel costs in aircraft, Boeing and NASA have been looking toward geese for inspiration—or, more precisely, the V-shaped pattern preferred by migratory birds.
That's because so-called wake-surfing (think of bicycles or cars drafting behind others) is efficient—and it doesn't require newly designed aircraft to pull off, reports Bloomberg.
In fact, collision-avoidance technology already widely available in cockpits would be key. The problem is in the logistics: It's hard enough to sort out scheduling now, but to get the ideal number of commercial aircraft to share the same path in the sky for long enough to make the efficiency worth the effort would require serious problem solving. "Airlines can barely keep a schedule anyway," says one aerospace engineer. "I would argue that they can't."
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