Richard Collins: Could fish and geese teach us how to save on plane fuel?

Engineers have been looking at how close to each other planes might have to fly to make slipstream fuel savings

Two fins are better than one: fish synchronise tail fins to save energy

By ‘shielding' or ‘sucking in’ behind other riders, cyclists in the Tour de France peloton take advantage of the slipstreams other competitors generate.

Likewise, according to the aircraft manufacturer Airbus, significant energy savings could be had by flying planes in tandem, rather than on their own. Aircraft create turbulence. A tailgating plane can exploit the vortices from one ahead of it. ‘Wake energy retrieval’ would reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.