Today, we are watching history in the making as Air India becomes the first airline in the world to use TaxiBot. A Taxibot is nothing but a robot-used aircraft tractor for taxiing an aircraft from parking bay to runway and vice versa.
It is a pilot-controlled semi-robotic aircraft tractor and it has been used on an Airbus A320, leaving the country proud. This tractor was developed by Israel Aerospace Industries, in partnership with a French company. It is another milestone for airlines as it a giant step towards a cleaner environment.
Taxibot has been successfully used on Air India flight carrying passengers from Delhi to Mumbai to the runway for take-off. The benefits of Taxibot are that it saves 85 per cent of the fuel the plane would normally use at that time.
In addition, the Taxibot is also expected to help cut down on CO2 emissions – up to 800 kilograms are emitted for every 15 minutes. The most important thing is, it can also help reduce noise pollution by as much as 60 per cent.
In early 2019, Air India became the third domestic carrier to complete Taxibot trials (on Boeing 737-800). The other two were SpiceJet and Jet Airways. Now, a total of 40 Taxibots will be deployed at airports across the county.
