Are aerospace companies planning to develop more fuel-efficient engines?

Occasionally the industry will make a major advance in structures, such as the switch from fabric covering to stressed skin or the switch from stressed skin to composite.

More frequently the industry will make major advances in aerodynamics. They're more frequent but still not very common.

The most frequent and important advances come in power plant technology for reliability, efficiency, and power to weight ratios.

The engine companies drive the advance of aviation and they're always working on improvements.

The real problem is that we have become too used to the idea of cheap fuel and cheap air travel. It's been a long time since ticket prices actually covered the cost of a flight.

Aircraft technology constantly evolves, but airplanes last for so long, the airlines have no incentive to really purchase new planes. Northwest airlines is flying Douglas DC-9s that were built in the 1960's. They have a lot of them and they use them daily in passenger service. 40+ years of flying!

Meanwhile, the turboprop I fly, passengers cringe at because it has propellers. Our airplanes are half as old as those DC-9s. You'll see a lot more turboprops again with fuel prices the way they are. The new turboprops are faster and quieter then the old ones.

So yes, more efficient aircraft and engines are being developed. But they cost so much, the cash strapped airlines can't afford to buy them.

Jet engine design continues to evolve. The latest development is the geared turbofan. The 787 engines are a non-bleed air design to increase fuel efficiency. Fuel economy has always been important. The airline industry may see more fuel efficient turboprops being used for domestic flights on airlines that have been using nothing but jets for many years.

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The manufacturers of jet engines have developed continuously improving efficiency in their engines since the 1940s. Today's turbofan engines burn about one-third the fuel burned (per passenger-mile) by the old straight turbojet engines in the Boeing 707 of the 1960s.

So yes, they were already thinking about it, and it is constantly improving.

they say they are. But the anser is no. Why, our politicans and govt officals are to heavly invested into the Oil markets. Do You Know that we already have engines they run on HH2O? This is Water. A car or truck can run on HH20 1,000X further than anything else in the world. The government found this guy in Florida in USA, and paid him billions to design this for the Hum V's in Iraq and to keep this quiet from everyone else..... Im not kidding you, research HH20.

Yes - to economise operations and try to minimise the effect of rising costs of fuel. At the same time they are working on 'greener' engines with even more safety and reliability.

Do you know the efficiency of the engines vs. years?

If they want to stay in business they will.

They will do their best

yes they are....resently there was also an expo for them....