The Dubai Air Show, vegan helicopters & more (Allplane Newsletter #67)
Widerøe, a Norwegian regional airline that has taken a very proactive, committed stance towards electric flight, has signed an agreement with EVE, Embraer’s eVTOL arm, to develop some, so far unspecified, air mobility solutions in Scandinavia.
The relationship between Widerøe and Embraer is not new, the Norwegian airline was already the launch customer of the Embraer E2 family of jets. You can find here the chronicle of the last leg of the delivery flight of the first one of the type, between Aberdeen, Scotland, and Bergen, Norway.
As a side note, Widerøe is involved in quite a few initiatives in the field of flight electrification and sustainability, including the project to launch domestic electric flights before the end of this decade.
Widerøe’s electrification project will rely on Tecnam P-Volt aircraft and it is, precisely, the Italian plane maker that has just announced a programme to facilitate the transition of its existing customers to the new P-Volt electric over the coming years. The press release includes some interesting practical information about how the P-Volt compares to its “conventionally-powered” equivalent, the P2012.
We will soon publish a podcast dealing with all these matters. Watch this space!
It is becoming increasingly difficult to track everything that goes on in sustainable aviation, so reports such as this one by ICAO’s Global Coalition partners come quite handy. This document presente different technologies and approaches to aviation decarbonization presented at the 2021 ICAO Stocktaking event.
Similarly, TIACA, the International Air Cargo Association, has published the air cargo sustainability road map (it has less specific detail about specific companies and programmes, though), you can find all 44 pages of it here.
Airbus demonstrated, on a coordinated two-aircraft formation flight across the Atlantic, how it’s possible to reduce fuel consumption by having an aircraft trailing another one very closely, on its wake. This is something that birds do, apparently. Airbus, which named the experiment “fello’fly”, claims that, if scaled, this technique could lower fuel consumption between 5 and 10%. Here’s explained in detail.
There may still be some efficiency gains to squeeze from conventional fuel-powered engines to make flight more sustainable. GE is partnering with NASA to find out.
The shuttle to the isles of Scilly may become one of the first to see regular electric flights with Britten-Norman aircraft. Interestingly electric flight test areas are located at the opposite ends of the British Isles!
Pipistrel will supply motors and batteries for Airflow’s electric aircraft. Airflow is a graduate of Sustainable Aero Lab accelerator.
Flapper, an operator providing regional and local air services in Brazil, will purchase 20 units of magniX electric propulsion systems, in order to fit them in its fleet of Cessna Caravans. As a side note, Flapper is also cooperating with EVE in the field of eVTOLs.
One area of aviation that has already embraced electric flight for real is flight training schools. The new Green Flight academy, based in Northern Sweden, has 10 Pipistrel electric planes on order. The area where it’s based is also home to battery maker Northvolt and the epicentre of several initiatives to electrify regional aviation.
Here’s an optimistic take on aviation decarbonization. See the whole thread here.
Let’s have a look at the sustainable aviation fuel market:
Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) producer Velocys has announced an offtake agreement with Southwest Airlines. The airline will purchase, at a fixed price, 575M gallons of SAF over a period of 15 years. This adds to another 192M gallons over a period of 10 years commitment by IAG (a non-biding Memorandum of Understanding for now). The two airlines combined will take 100% of production of Velocys new plant in Mississippi, which makes SAF from wood and paper residues.
Neste is going to supply €60M worth of SAF to DHL. The logistics company will reduce its emissions in 70,000 tons with this move.
For more on Neste, check out this recent podcast with its VP Renewable Aviation, Jonathan Wood.
Some hydrogen-related stuff:
Milan Malpensa airport will have infrastructure to produce and distribute green hydrogen, but it seems that it will mostly for ground vehicles! Wondering whether it wouldn’t be easier to electrify those...
Fortescue Future Industries is going to supply green hydrogen to Universal Hydrogen. You can find out more about this Australia-based firm on this very visual website. As per Universal Hydrogen and its hydrogen capsules concept, we have done a whole podcast episode about it!
Another company working on hydrogen-powered aviation, H3 Dynamics Holdings, has just closed a $26M Series B funding round.
And eVTOLs:
Munich international airport has partnered with London-based Urban-air Port to develop facilities for eVTOLs and new air mobility vehicles. This touches upon an important aspect of eVTOL operations, that of their integration with conventional air mobility (aka airliners), something we talked about on our most recent podcast, with Hovecon founders Chris Fernando and Basil Yap.
Hyundai has renamed its eVTOL division, that is from now on going to be called Supernal. It seems this is part of an effort to give this part of the business a more distinct profile. In this CNN article I explore how different car makers are taking positions in the eVTOL (aka “flying car”) market
Lilium will move some of its testing activity to Spain
What’s the difference between an eVTOL and a helicopter? Archer wants you to know
Are the valuations and hype that eVTOLs attract justified? In this two-part analysis series, Michael Barnard makes the case for the “no” (Part 1) (Part 2), while pointing out that other approaches to electric flight, such as Heart Aerospace and Electron Aviation may have a much stronger business case.
What else in “traditional” aviation?
This is Dubai Air Show’s week, an event that, at the time of writing these lines is still under way…some headlines from the show:
Airbus had a pretty good show, with 408 orders, including a huge 255-strong A321neo order from Indigo Partners. This order, which includes quite a few XLRs, will then be allocated them to the different airlines of the group (Wizz Air, Frontier, JetSmart and Volaris). Here is the announcement.
Airbus also announced the first customers for the A350F, the freighter version of the popular wide-body aircraft, from Air Lease Corporation, with whom the European manufacturer will set up a “Sustainability Fund” (not much more is known about this initiative at the moment).
Airbus Helicopters announced that it had designed a “vegan interior” for a VIP helicopter, at the request of one specific customer.
Not Dubai, but another interesting destination…
Azores Airlines has announced it will launch direct flights from the Portuguese island of Madeira to the US (once weekly to JFK). Btw, Madeira is an amazing tourist destination!