UK offers £30M to aviation entrepreneurs

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In the early 18th C. the Royal Navy was facing a major issue in its quest to control the oceans: there was no reliable way to measure longitude (in other words, the location of a ship in the East-West axis).

The solution? Parliament passed an act that offered rewards of between £10k to £20k (apparently a quantity equivalent to US$1.5-2.5M in today’s money) for those coming up with advances in this field. John Harrison, a clockmaker is credited with having produced the most accurate device to this end, the marine chronometer.

Nowadays the transportation industry faces other type of challenges, but perhaps the story of the longitude rewards has served as inspiration for the Future Flight Challenge competition.

As the official site puts it, the quest now is for “integrated aviation systems and/or vehicle technologies that enable new classes of electric or autonomous air vehicles”.

So, Her majesty’s Government is now offering up to £30M (US$36.5M) in funding for projects that, quoting directly, “aim to develop and demonstrate integrated aviation systems that allow drones, urban aircraft or electric regional aircraft to fly in and out of airports, airspace, and rural and urban environments. “

This is part of the £125M allocated by the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund to the Future Flight Challenge initiative, both managed by Innovate UK, a public organization that aims to foster technological innovation in Britain.

The contest that is currently open is, actually, Phase 2 of a a 3-stage process (Phase 3 is expected to launch in the Winter of 2021).

Entrepreneurs and companies can apply to two different Strands of this programme:

  • Strand 1 targets “fast track” projects and is aimed at smaller firms, not necessarily from within the aerospace industry.

  • Strand 2 is for larger projects, mostly integrating different systems and technologies, and larger businesses are expected to apply

The deadline to apply is 1st July, so any entrepreneurs working on projects to disrupt aviation technology, better hurry up!

Future of Flight, Green AviationMiquelComment