Opinion: What Aviation Can Learn From Washington Apples

What do aviation and apples have in common? Washington state is by far the No. 1 producer of apples in the U.S. If we peel this back a bit and examine how this came to be, we may find some interesting parallels with the current efforts related to enabling and driving sustainable aviation.

Washington leading in apple production is not an accident. It is the result of a complex mix of economics, scientific research, government policy and no small amount of marketing (“An Apple a Day...” was a deliberate marketing slogan). With these efforts and a great deal of focus, Washington far surpassed the well-established eastern states in production of apples.

In the 19th century, New York state led the country in apple production because of the market access provided by the Erie Canal and other factors. Just prior to the Civil War, there was a major push by the U.S. government to promote agriculture and the land-grant colleges were created. These provided the start of organized scientific research focused on agriculture on a large scale. In the late 19th century, other federal regulations were created to assist farmers in the industrialization of farming and to level the playing field against large players such as railroads.

Railroads, themselves, were instrumental in the development of Washington’s apple industry. The railroad industry’s objective was not apples, but rather the settlement and development of new lands in which they had an interest—not to mention the creation of more demand for rail shipping and travel in the West. To make this happen, the industry actively invested in parts of eastern Washington, a dry area with fertile soil and a major river with water for irrigation. The industry actively and astutely invested to create, build and maintain irrigation infrastructure. It also teamed with local municipalities to encourage citizens to move to the area and try their hand at apple farming.

That trend created an impetus to convert these family farmers into a cadre of professionals, and they needed much help. The U.S. Department of Agriculture was there to provide guidance based on the latest research. Moreover, the Washington apple orchards—mostly small family endeavors—had to cooperate while competing. They all had to protect the “brand” of Washington apples, which were more expensive to grow and ship to market than eastern apples. Their quality had to be far superior and their packaging supportive of long-distance shipping. Moreover, while fungal and insect issues were less prevalent than other areas, the actions or lack of actions of a single orchard could impact their neighbors, so cooperation was crucial.

Collectively, these efforts paid off. Washington apple production went from under 300,000 bushels in 1889 to over 21 million bushels in 1919. Today, 10-12 billion apples are harvested in Washington state each year, comprising approximately 70% of the apples produced in the U.S.

In short, there was a societal and business imperative in which multiple industrial, federal, civic, scientific and social concerns aligned together to create this hugely successful industry. It is not a huge leap to see the parallels with efforts to make aviation more sustainable today.

Aviation has made amazing progress in fuel efficiency and noise reduction. Now nearly every aviation industry player has a sustainability focus of some type.

Moreover, there are major new developments in the research and prototype stages, which promise to make step-change progress. These fall into four major areas: aircraft equipment, propulsion, operations and fuels/energy carriers. Each of these has numerous individual “levers”—some mature, some in progress and some still very aspirational.

Several of the major shifts will require enormous investment and accompanying infrastructure, with large-scale deployment years or decades away. Obviously, the lowest hanging fruit (no pun intended) is in the operations area, with digitalization providing numerous efficiency and sustainability benefits today as well as ample room for near-term growth and expansion.

For the most part, these initiatives are being pursued in a non-concerted manner, with significant variation in directional focus and level of effort across the globe. As with the Washington apple industry example, we will likely need an analogous type of concerted effort that connects public sentiment, government policy and infrastructure investment, and which also supports profitability throughout the value chain.

What happens in the larger transport industry and beyond will very much drive how this plays out. Looking at the two largest levers, sustainable aviation fuel and the possible versions of hydrogen-fueled propulsion, the aviation industry is not alone in how this will unfold. Use of biofuels and hydrogen in other industries will impact the rate of scale-up, research spending, supply chain development and public sentiment.

Each lever is asynchronous with the others in terms of their maturity, costs, complexity, efficacy and availability timelines. Moreover, there must be some winners and losers in this evolution. The market will ultimately sort this all out, but it seems naive to assume this will all somehow “self-assemble” in the shortest timeline with the maximum benefit. What is required will be a true balancing act, with the creation of policies and practices that can work at a global level and provide the needed “lift” to drive progress while also respecting the aviation industry’s need for profitability.

This requires utilizing the enhanced leverage of academic research by industry. It also means a more nuanced look at what is truly competitive and what should be pursued cooperatively and collectively.

There is so much great work happening today and so much opportunity to make a huge shift in our industry that it is tempting to be optimistic. However, it will take the same kind of alignment of interests and opportunity as we saw in the apple industry example, but with a vastly larger scale and stakes in a much more complex world. We are at a unique industry inflection point that we are all a part of, whether we realize it or not. Through action or lack of it, we are all shaping the “brand” and the future of aviation every day.

John Maggiore is principal consultant with Meridian Insights in Seattle, where he provides digital transformation advisory services to aerospace customers. He is also a visiting professor at Cranfield University in the UK.