On a mission to make air travel sustainable
Female aerospace engineer is building ‘green’ aircraft engine
With an immense passion for aviation, care for the environment, experience of flying, and powered by a PhD degree, a woman Pakistani scientist is on a mission to save the planet by transforming the aviation industry.
Dr Sarah Qureshi, considered a trailblazer for women in Pakistan, is developing the world’s first contrail-free aircraft engine to reduce aviation induced global warming and make air travel environmentally safe. She aims to solve a problem no one is addressing. The airplane emissions and aviation industry’s role to tackle it became a discussion at climate change meetings in 2019 after the young climate activist, Greta Thunberg, decided to sail across the Atlantic rather than fly.
“The climate challenge for aviation in the atmosphere is huge and the industry is aware of the problem. At Aero Engine Craft, we are devoted to offering a solution to save the planet by reducing aviation’s climate impact due to contrails,” said Qureshi in an interview with Gulf News.
Invention: How does a contrail-free aircraft engine work?
Dr Qureshi believes her invention can reduce the impact of aircraft pollution due to contrails, which we hardly notice. “You see that white thin streak that jets leave across the sky? Those are artificial clouds called contrails (condensation trails),” produced by aircraft engine exhaust”, she explained.
The climate impact of contrails or ice clouds that can trap heat inside the atmosphere has remained neglected even though studies suggest that contrail clouds have contributed more to warming the atmosphere than all of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted by aircraft. The scientific community believes that contribution of contrails is five times high than that of CO2.
This is where Dr Qureshi’s contrail-free engine can help address the potential effects and make air travel sustainable. “Our invention is a turbomachinery, which can be fitted onto an engine to separate out the water vapour of the exhaust emissions and contain it on the aircraft to be released before landing to reduce global warming,” benefitting both the environment and the aviation industry in the long run.
From aviation enthusiast to aerospace engineer
“Aviation has been a passion for me since I was a child as I grew up in a family of scientists and engineers,” she said. By the time she completed her A levels, she had her eyes set firmly on life goals.
The Islamabad-born engineer completed her bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the college of electrical and mechanical engineering of National University of Science and Technology (NUST) as the only female student in her class.
She then pursued a master’s in Aerospace Dynamics and a PhD in Aerospace Propulsion, both from Cranfield
University, UK. In between the academic endeavours abroad, she worked for over five years in Pakistan’s manufacturing and automotive industries. She also conducts aviation programmes and lessons for children.
Making of an aerospace company in Pakistan
She decided to move back home to establish Pakistan’s first private commercial aerospace company, Aero Engine Craft, together with her father, Masood Latif Qureshi, in 2018.
Dr Qureshi developed the engineering model and simulated the design of the engine in Pakistan as part of her PhD research project.
The company received seed money on equity funding from Karandaaz Pakistan that supports women-led startups and some help from National Incubation Center at LUMS.
Can the invention revolutionise Pakistan’s aviation industry?
“If we can build it locally and become self-sufficient in this technology, Pakistan would become one of the very few countries in the world that develop aircraft engines,” Dr Qureshi said.