Unmanned Homeland Defense Interceptor; Not your parents’ free market: why we need policy to reduce aviation emissions

My STS issue is not related to my technical issue, but my STS issue is sociotechnical. My problem frame for my STS issue is that climate change is rapidly affecting the world for the worse, and aviation emissions are contributing to this problem. This problem has a social side that I study by examining the effects of policy on controlling emissions, while its technical side comes from the technology necessary to be able to control emissions, without disrupting the entire aviation industry. My technical problem is that long range enemy bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles can directly attack the United States with little warning, but that the capability to defend against these threats is expensive.

The technical issue I investigated was the high cost of designing and building military aircraft. Homeland defense is one of the main goals of the military, especially in the face of intercontinental ballistic missile strikes, and enemy long range bombers. Interceptor aircraft are developed to protect against threats like these by reacting quickly to threats. Protecting the entire United States requires many aircraft, and the current aircrafts that the air force uses as interceptors cost upwards of 100 million dollars, which is too expensive to purchase in bulk. To study this problem, we are designing an interceptor aircraft for only 25 million dollars. We use Solidworks to design the structures of the airplane. We use Matlab to design our weight estimates and propulsion systems as well as simulate our aircraft’s capabilities to ensure that it meets the design specifications. We found that designing aircraft that are cheap and useful is very difficult, even with modern materials. We also found that 25 million dollars per plane is likely not possible, but if the cost requirements are relaxed to around 30-40 million dollars per plane, it becomes significantly more feasible.

The STS issue I investigated was the relationship between policy and sustainable technologies, specifically in the aviation sector. To investigate this issue, I use the Theory of Planned Behavior, which is a sociological theory that aims to predict human behavior based on their personal attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. I use this theory to analyze the effects of sustainability policy and justify why it is effective. I then discuss the technological side of this issue and review the state of sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs). I finish by discussing current policy and the effects I anticipate from that policy based on the Theory of Planned Behavior. I found that SAFs are ready to be implemented, and that regulations would be effective in getting airline companies to implement aviation fuels. I also found that many countries are creating policies to incentivize the use of SAFs, but that the United States in particular is not making policy around SAFs and likely will not in the near future.

In my STS thesis, I was successful in showing that the economy, profit motive, and international tensions must be pushed aside to bring aviation emissions down to zero. I proved that policy solutions were effective in making the car industry cleaner, and extended that to the aviation industry because both problems center around replacing a fuel source. For future researchers, further investigation into leapfrog technologies in developing areas would be useful because, as we are seeing with China, as countries develop, their emissions spike before they start implementing green technologies. Additionally, research into improving public opinion of sustainable technologies would be useful because governments and their policy goals are generally a reflection of their constituents values. In our technical thesis, we were unsuccessful at creating an aircraft that cost less than 25 million dollars, but we were successful in creating an aircraft that theoretically fulfilled the other requirements. Future research in this would likely be going into preliminary and critical design phases that would focus on more refined analysis tools, potentially with wind tunnel tests and further testing of the propulsion system.

These two theses were a very big undertaking and would have not been possible without the students and professors who helped me. I would like to thank my STS professor, Caitlyn Wylie for her help with my STS thesis, and everyone who peer reviewed my paper. I also thank my aerospace design capstone group for their hard work on the Homeland Defense Interceptor. I would also like to thank Chris Goyne, Craig Nickol, and Thomas Ward for their advice and guidance throughout our technical research.

School of Engineering and Applied Science

Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering

Technical Advisor: Thomas Ward

STS Advisor: Caitlin Wylie

Technical Team Members: Agha Mohammad Ali, Savannah Hafer, Reid Smith, William Couch, Evan Hahn, Eric Fryer, Matthew Shin, Nora Wilkerson,