The business aviation produces more carbon dioxide than Africa. The European Union plans to double the number of aircrafts by 2020. Can the earth’s atmosphere handle a growing number of carbon dioxide-emitting planes in the upper atmospheric strata forever? Can we keep on putting more planes in the sky without them eventually all flying into each other? The 21st century’s main challenge is to bring about reduction of greenhouse gases. Ecologists are accusing commercial aviation of being a danger for the planet, while the aviation industry is only responsible for 2% of global carbon dioxide emission, but is well aware that it will have to do better.

Given the political stakes at play and the ecological obligations entailed, commercial aviation is looking for the answer in a field that has always served it well: scientific and technological innovation. Decline or regression is out of the question. Therefore, those who are inventing the eco-friendly aviation of the next 50 years are actively researching the most interesting solutions on two levels: on the one hand, airlines are striving to economize wherever they can in the here and now; on the other, research laboratories are inventing a more distant and very different future. The film meets the players in an incredible transformation that will ultimately change everything about air travel.