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Pioneering integrated life cycle management of aircraft
More than 6,000 aircraft are due to reach end of life over the next 20 years and the question of how to deal with these old aircraft in a way that keeps our environmental footprint minimal cannot be avoided.
Airbus tackles this major environmental issue with an innovative project to experiment state-of-the-art procedures in deconstructing and recycling the vast majority of valuable materials and components, eliminating any potential hazards that could adversely affect environment or public safety.
The project is called 
PAMELA (standing for Process for Advanced Management of End-of-Life Aircraft) and is located at Tarbes airport, in southwestern France. The purpose is to establish a benchmark for environmental best practices for recycling and re-using 85 to 95% of an aircraft.
All the practicalities of dismantling, recycling and re-using are being tested on an old A300 that started to be taken apart in February 2006. Completion of the whole process is scheduled by year end.
PAMELA is also about learning how to design aircraft that will be easy to dismantle. As such, it will contribute to setting new standards in sustainable management of aircraft, paving the way for other initiatives to follow. “We want to create a centre of excellence from which knowledge can be further disseminated,” explains Bruno Costes, Airbus Director Environmental Affairs, Industrial Coordination.
PAMELA is part of the European Commission’s LIFE programme. Under Airbus’s leadership, the project brings together SITA France, EADS Sogerma Services, EADS Innovation Works and the Préfecture des Hautes Pyrénées. Aircraft knowledge is thus combined with the long-standing expertise of SITA France in sorting and processing waste.
“The engineers in our design offices already do take into account the environmental parameters right from the early stages of the design process, thanks to an effective Environment Management System,” says Costes.
The lessons learned will be used in the early design of the next generation of aircraft to facilitate end-of-life management. “Working with experts in recycling enables us to incorporate even more eco-friendly parts in the design of our aircraft, thereby improving the whole environmental performance over the entire aircraft lifecycle,” concludes Costes.
Dismantling and deconstruction of the A300 is well underway. Initially, the preliminary decommissioning phase involves draining the aircraft of dangerous fluids and decontamination. This is important for making the process safe and environmentally friendly. Disassembling and dismantling the various parts (engines, pylons, landing gear, avionic boxes, flight controls, batteries and hydraulic pumps) can then be performed.
All of these parts are transferred to a dedicated building for material separation. Aluminium alloys, steel, copper, titanium and other metals are sorted into separate containers for processing through appropriate dedicated circuits. Plastics are handled similarly. While there are few composites in this type of aircraft, research is currently being conducted to further develop treatments for these materials and to promote innovative ways of recycling them.
