A Dream Journey On Board Boeing 787 Dreamliner…But Few Questions Remain…

Extra-long wings give a distinct look

  Excited indeed, waiting at the brand new sprawling Kolkata airport terminal following a grossly mismanaged check-in and security procedure (it seemed, the plush international get up failed to change the age-old unprofessional mindset of the Air India ground staff), our wait for the dream Pankhiraj got extended by another hour.
  A smiling ground crew was courteous enough to let us know that Netaji Subhas Chandra (NSC) Bose International Airport - a crucial cog as far as air-connectivity with the East Asian countries, let alone the neglected north-east states, are concerned - was not being able to facilitate landing of the giant Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft hovering the Kolkata sky due to lack of space, and more surprisingly, water on the runway...!!!
  Even before stepping into the Dreamliner, one of the six planes inducted by the state carrier in the recent past and now operating in a few chosen sectors, we were left wondering how such an important international airport can afford to leave water stranded on its runway even hours after it had rained actually. The bigger question was, whether the Indian airports with their poor infrastructure are at all ready for smooth functioning of such huge aircrafts.

  Nevertheless, the time came.
  Leaving us awestruck inside the glass-windowed departure lounge, the dream aircraft, considered to be one of the most environment friendly in the world, descended over the City of Joy. The fat-bellied flying machine with a wingspan of 60.34 meters (according to the passenger booklet), longer than the cabin itself, had a predominant presence in the Kolkata airport and covered a space usually occupied by three smaller aircrafts together. At first glance, it was almost impossible to ignore the imposing impact.

  Minutes later, as the gate for boarding opened and we started approaching the great belly and stepped into the sprawling cabin, it was hard to miss the difference. The ears, otherwise used to the distinct mechanical noise of the aircraft engines at the time of boarding, waited eagerly but in vain. It was much quieter this time. In fact, 787 Dreamliners are armed with a range of technologies that produce much lesser noise and thus reduce noise pollution considerably. The latest technologies used ensure that the aircraft’s sound exceeding 85 decibels, which is a bit louder than a busy street intersection, never go beyond the periphery of the airports.

  

On board, we were greeted by the crew with some soothing music in the background. As we occupied seats, the green features of the double-aisle (needless to say, in the economy class) aircraft started unveiling themselves one by one. Bigger windows allow natural light to become an integral part of passengers’ experience making them switch off the artificial reading lights, leading to energy conservation. The electronic dimming system allows passengers to regulate the window tint as needed, anything between fully transparent and completely dimmed. The electrochromic window system also requires lesser maintenance.
  The focus on green technology was quite evident in the interior lighting of the aircraft as well. Thanks to dynamic LED (Light Emitting Diode) lightings, heat generated inside the cabin is much lesser than the amount of heat produced by the filamented lightings used in most of the other aircrafts, and six different versions of lightings create calming effect on the passengers.

  Now, it was time to soar high and we had an incredibly smooth take off despite quite turbulent monsoon weather under a laden sky.
  As the giant flying machine tore into the overcast sky with landscapes and human habitations fast disappearing beneath the dense clouds, we had no dearth of food and entertainment (every seat is equipped with a personalised television set on which you can watch films, listen to songs or even can get indulged in gaming with a remote control) on air.
  However, the Captain in charge did not forget to remind us that 787 Dreamliners that have a maximum speed of 587 miles per hour consumes lesser fuel, thanks to improved aerodynamics, and thus have fewer emission records. It’s important for environment. Rapidly growing aircraft emission has become a matter of concern as it affects the atmosphere’s ozone layer that filters out harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays and other radiations before the sunlight reaches the earth. Some international communities are even planning to impose tax on aircraft emissions. In India also, the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has decided to set up an environment task force to monitor and check aircraft emissions.

  It was indeed turbulent both in Kolkata as well as over Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport in New Delhi (weather condition in between was not good either). However, thanks to the Smoother Ride Technology (SRT), which senses turbulence and commands wing control surfaces accordingly, the bad weather outside could never really made us panic (even as two quite turbulent flights, another Kolkata-New Delhi trip and a bit longer New Delhi-Coimbatore flight, were fresh in my mind). Then what? It was an undisturbed movie time for me (and for many others, I’m sure).

  Not only while flying, the Dreamliner aircrafts contribute to environment even at the manufacturing stage and remain environment friendly at the end of their service life as well. The aircraft body is primarily made of specially designed carbon fibre composite material. Therefore, the manufacturing process produces lesser scrap metals and waste in comparison to other conventional aircrafts. Besides, all parts of the flying machine can be recycled, and this very feature ensures that the planes do not end up as a lump of metal contaminating environment in more than one ways (which is the case for many discarded aircrafts and ships).

  Two hours down the line, the National Capital Region (NCR) welcomed us with quite a jerky touch-down amid steady drizzling. And it was time to be grounded again.
  We alighted from the state-of-the-art aircraft only to find the posh IGI Airport, named as the world's second best in the 25-40 million passengers category after Incheon International Airport in South Korea by Airport Council International just a couple of days back, was dealing with a semi-flood situation following heavy downpour.
  Time for reality check - do we have enough infrastructure...??? If yes, why every time it grounds us during crisis...!!!
  Or, maybe it was another reminder that environment, and not the human being, is the ultimate power, and so the latter must take care of and be considerate to the former. And yes, not only up in the sky but on the ground too. (The environmental catastrophe was yet to strike Uttarakhand at that time.)

GM Crops: A Path to be Treaded Cautiously

  Remember Rajnikanth’s science fiction film Robot, where an intelligent andro-humanoid machine-man, Chitti, went rogue to create ruckus and almost snatched heroine Sana (Aishwarya) from lover Dr Vaseegaran after falling love with her?
  Or Mary Shelley’s popular novel Frankenstein, where an unorthodox scientific experiment ended up creating a monster?

  Recently, something like has happened in the United States, but on really an unexpected note.
  A Genetically Modified (GM) variety of wheat, produced by multi-national agricultural bio-technology company Monsanato, has gone rogue and resisted an Oregon farmer’s effort to tame the strain - an incident that has already started disrupting American wheat export market as two major importing nations Japan and South Korea have partially scraped their wheat orders from the US. Even the weedicide formula by Monsanato has failed to kill the GM crop and now the unique case is being probed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

  Apart from impacting the US wheat export, the incident of rogue crop is throwing out a question that goes well beyond territorial limit of any single country.
  “GM Crop: A path to be or not to be taken?”

  The US, where most of the corn, soya and alfalfa crops are genetically modified but are used for feeding the livestock, is the pioneer in this field, but the transgenic crop technology provides with a lucrative option to the developing and lower-developing countries, including India, where ensuring food security for every member of a 1.27 million-and-growing population is a gigantic proposition. That situation worsens, and GM crops seem to be more promising an option, when an erratic monsoon makes the farmers (and, the governments also) dance to its tunes in every other year.
  However, India has judiciously adopted a cautious approach despite the great promise the GM crop technology flaunts - higher productivity, better weed and weather resistance power, and after all, a much smaller gestation period before harvesting.
  True, feeding the Indian population is a major challenge for the policymakers and there is dire need of some innovative pro-activism on their part to negotiate the evolving impacts of climate change on agricultural output, but any hasty decision to adopt GM crops for food production without delving deep into the pros and cons of its aftereffects can spoil the party altogether.
  We committed such a mistake years back, when Green Revolution was introduced in the country. The Green Revolution, which was aimed majorly at wheat and was confined to the northern India (mostly Punjab) by and large, helped the farmers harvest bumper crops and turned the country into a net exporter from a major importer, and thus had good impact on Indian economy. However, overuse of fertilizers and sometimes injudicious consumption of water led to degradation of soil quality and chemical run off contaminating ground water.
  GM crops may not have any directly visible impact on environment, but altering the natural genetic composition of the food crop species may affect human health - all those aspects should be looked into before allowing Indian farmers harvest GM crops, be it for livestock feeding or human consumption.

  In this regard, Professor Eric Seralini’s research report that was published in Chemical and Food Toxicology journal has shaken the world. During the research, the Caen University (France) professor fed a particular pedigree of rats with a particular variety of GM corn for two years in laboratory and the tiny animals developed ghastly cancerous tumours.

  One major factor that failed (yes failed, as claimed by many scientists as well as the pro-environment lobby) the Green Revolution that majorly took place during the 1960s and 1970s is still present very much in India - low literacy level of the farmers. Green Revolution helped a section of the farmers financially as they could enjoy record harvest, but the positive impacts in many cases eluded the poor farmers, including the illiterate and landless workers on the field, because it was difficult for them to adopt the high-yielding varieties (HYV) seeds with calculated use of fertilizers and water. That resulted in overuse, sometimes indiscriminate use, of chemical fertilizers leading to future degradation of agricultural base at many pockets in northern India.
  The fear is aplenty that regular consumption may lead to some serious health hazards, maybe some kind of genetic deformities or some new types of incurable diseases.

  But roses have never been hated for their thorns.
  Though dogged by problems and concerns, the GM crop technology presents us with the most promising answer to the global food security including in the developing and lower-developing nations where the goal of population stabilization is still a couple of decades away and acute hunger claims lives every now and then. From 1.6 billion in 1900, today the world population is more than 7 billion and the counting is projected to touch 8-billion-mark by the year 2025. GM crops, with its manifold advantages, are holding the promise of a hunger-free world.
  Genetic modification is a technology of future that can create a world just out of the science fiction books. Today we may have a reliable buffer stock of crops, but who knows that we don’t have to count upon the GM crop technology in near future when the impacts of climate change would be more prominent changing the heat and monsoon patterns, and thus affecting the agricultural output globally? Who can bet that on such an occasion the GM crop technology will not turn up as the saviour of mankind?
  Just like any other innovation, more research is required to ameliorate the even slightest tinge of doubt about the impacts of GM crops, be it on human health or the environment. And all the data must be made accessible to public making the information trickling down to the grass-root level.
  Probably, there is time yet before we see the dawn when the flash of promise will turn into a reality and GM crops would help the policymakers worldwide to get rid of at least one dangling question – Food Security for All.

  In India, though the final report by the Technical Expert Committee (TEC) appointed by the Supreme Court is still awaited, the committee in its interim report has advocated a 10-year moratorium on open field trials of genetically modified food crops until enough regulatory mechanisms and safety standards are put in place. Importantly, that recommendation has found support from 51 independent international scientists with expertise in genetic engineering and biosafety protocols.