British researchers have taken the plunge and attempted to find a way of cutting airline fuel bills (and the environment). They say they can cut fuel emissions by up to a fifth by placing hundreds of thousands of tiny holes in the surface of the planes wing.

The small holes in the aircraft, they believe will dramatically reduce the mid-flight drag that causes high carbon emissions during flight. Half the drag a plane will experience will be from a skin fraction, anything that reduces this will reduce the amount of fuel used.

The researchers explained that the ‘bottle-top’ invention was made based on the Helmholtz resonance principle- the same one that applies to a bottletop where the air is compressed in to a cavity and increasing the pressure, forcing the air out to create an oscillation.

The team believe that this could cut the fuel costs by up to a fifth, which would save millions of carbon emissions being released into the air. If the invention proves to be successful the technology would also be applied to improve fuel efficiency for cars, trains and boats.