AJOT
28 October 2024
In the United States, an airplane taking off from an airport needs to move itself from the terminal gate to its assigned takeoff runway. But that doesn’t have to be the case. At some airports in India, and soon in Amsterdam, a remote-controlled tug tows planes to and from runways without the plane expending expensive and powerful jet fuel just to move a few hundred feet on the ground.
That could also happen for the first time in this country at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), where the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is working with Delta Airlines to gain federal approval to test a semi-autonomous plane tug that would be connected to a narrow-body Boeing or Airbus plane and remotely controlled by the plane’s pilot. For several months, the Port Authority and Delta have trained staff to use a TaxiBot, short for taxiing robot, to help reduce the use of jet fuel and its accompanying carbon emissions to pull planes to and from runways.
Read on: At JFK, preparations under way for ‘super plane tug’ | AJOT.COM
