London's Science Museum asks: can flying ever be green?

It's been a while since we've been to London's Science Museum -- we recall playing with moon rocks and looking into space shuttles as small children, and being dragged past old machines from centuries past by our parents. But today the museum is launching a far more topical exhibit on aviation's environmental impact.

From today until November of this year, visitors will be able to ooh and ahh at models of cool new aircrafts that scientists are designing to make air travel more eco-friendly. Think futuristic plane concepts (such as the one pictured above), lightweight technology and advanced engines, not to mention green fuels in the exhibit titled, 'Does Flying Cost the Earth?'

Our appetites have already been whetted here at SmartPlanet when we looked at electric planes a couple of weeks ago. The folks at the Science Museum point out that Britons are flying more than ever -- four out of five of us do it, they say. But it's been getting a bad rap of late, with cheap flights pushing aviations' carbon emissions to 6.5 per cent of the UK's carbon footprint in 2005.

"The aviation industry is often in the media spotlight as a contributor of emissions that cause climate change," says Holly Cave, content developer for museum's Antenna gallery, where the exhibit will show its face. She says that the whole point is to answer questions about the real environmental impact aviation has on climate change -- and to look at what scientists are doing and what passengers can do to help.

Maybe we're just eco freaks, but that sounds way more interesting than looking at a pile of old typewriters.

The 'Eco Jet' on display at the Science Museum

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