Air India uses Taxibot on a A320 aircraft | Fusion - WeRIndia

Air India used a Taxibot on an A320 aircraft with passengers on board and became the world’s first to use it.

The Chairman and Managing Director of Air India claimed that the use of Taxibot on the Air India aircraft is the first such usage on any Airbus aircraft worldwide.

He said that it is a giant step towards a cleaner environment and is a proud achievement.

Taxibot is a semi-robotic aircraft tractor used for towing the aircraft from terminal to runway and vice versa.

A Taxibot eases the towing of an aircraft from the parking bay to the runway even though the engines are switched off.

It is connected to the nose wheel of the aircraft with which the pilot can move the plane to the runway without switching on its engines.

Since it can function without the need of engines, this would help save 85 per cent of the fuel and thereby reduce carbon dioxide emissions. It even can reduce noise pollution by 60 per cent.

It protects the engine from wear and tear as well.

Air India expects fuel saving would be around two to seven tons per flight and the decrease in carbon emissions would be between six and 21 tons.

Air India conducted Taxibot trials earlier in the beginning of this year and became the third domestic carrier to do this.

SpiceJet and Jet Airways are the other two carriers that finished the trials.

The trial that was conducted on a Boeing 737-800 flight was successful and its success created a way to utilize them on all Boeing flights in the country.

A total of 40 Taxibots will be deployed at airports throughout the county.

Image Credit:-  Photo by Daniel Eledut on Unsplash (Free for commercial use)

Image Reference: https://unsplash.com/photos/rOLCQ5xoz4Q