Much more than COP26 (Allplane Newsletter #66)
COP26 has taken center stage and, of course, there are some aviation related topics being discussed, however, won’t delve much into it, since this summit is quite broad in scope and has been widely reported in most generalist media.
Will focus here instead on a number of announcements that have been timed to coincide with it.
Wright Electric has revealed more details of their 100-pax electric aircraft, which will use initially a retrofitted BAe-146 airframe. You can check it on this site. In any case, we are planning to get more stuff on this ambitious project very shortly. Watch this space!
Embraer presented a family of sustainable turboprops, called Energia. It is made of four different concepts, each powered by a different propulsion technology.
Energia Hybrid, with hybrid electric propulsion, 9 seats, expected 2030
Energia Electric, fully electric, 9 seats, expected 2035
Energia H2 Fuel Cell, hydrogen-electric propulsion, 19 seats, exp. 2035
Energia H2 Gas Turbine, hydrogen/JetA propulsion, 30-50 seats, Exp. 2040
At first glance the timeframe and aircraft types involved do not seem particularly groundbreaking when comparing to some other projects out there, but perhaps they are more realistic? Also importantly, they come with the backing of a major OEM.
Picture: Embraer Energia
ZeroAvia keeps building the hydrogen-powered flight ecosystem. Air cargo operator ASL Aviation will provide an old ATR-72 to use as a test aircraft. At the same time, the startup will also work with Hindustan Aeronautics to fit the firm’s ZA600 hydrogen-electric powertrain into Dornier 228 aircraft. Apparently there is a production line for this type of aircraft in India, designation Hindustan-228. The Indian aerospace firm will help get an STC for the retrofits.
Talking about startups…Airbus is revamping its startup accelerator arm, whose mission is to identify and scale up startup companies with promising aviation technologies. The entity responsible for this task will be called Airbus Scale and will be headed by Christian Lindener. It expects to produce some three unicorns a year. Ambitious.
Schiphol airport, in The Netherlands, is using an airline charges revamp. Changes are mostly due to the need to account for the effects of Covid, but a number of sustainability incentives will be introduced as well, in order to favour those aircraft types that have a lower carbon and noise footprint (“Using the noisiest and most polluting planes will soon cost airlines five times more than using the quietest and least polluting ones”) Wow!. Airlines filling with sustainable aviation fuel will get also some financial advantages.
Finnish energy company Neste, a leader in sustainable aviation fuel (see our podcast episode with Jonathan Wood, the firm’s VP for Renewable Aviation) has launched Neste MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel, a programme to facilitate the voluntary purchase of SAF by corporations whose staff do a lot of travel
Iberia conducted the first flight with domestically produced sustainable aviation fuel. The Madrid-Bilbao flight on an Airbus A320neo used SAF produced in Spain by Petronor.
SAS has partnered with Shell, American SAF producer LanzaJet and Swedish energy company Vattenfall to develop synthetic jet fuel production in Sweden using the Alcohol to Jet technology
Airbus Helicopters have performed what is apparently the first helicopter flight ever powered 100% by SAF, in this case made from cooking oil. The unblended fuel powered one of the H225 engines. Just as planes, helicopters are certified to fly with a 50% upper bound of SAF in the fuel mix.
SkyDrive, the Japanese “flying car”, has started its certification process in Japan.
How will vertiports look like? Ferrovial, a Spanish infrastructure construction and management firm has put together this video. Ferrovial partly owns and manages several major airports in the UK (including London Heathrow) and plans to build a network of vertiports throughput the British Isles.