Two podcasts w/sustainable aviation leaders & much more (The Allplane Newsletter #114)

 

Two new podcast episodes

1 - Hydrogen aviation pioneer Val Miftakhov, founder of ZeroAvia, one of the most prominent players in this space, was on the podcast talking about the progress being made by his company in developing a hybrid hydrogen-powered powertrain and sharing some details about his fascinating entrepreneurial career as well!

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE HERE.

2- Electric aviation futurist and pilot, Morell Westermann came back to the podcast to talk about the new record setting flight he is preparing (he is one of the guys that set this electric flight record back in 2020!).

This time is going to be the largest electric flight formation ahead of the opening of aeroFriedrichshafen this coming April!

But we also talk a lot about the current state of the electric aviation industry in Europe and its expected future development. LISTEN TO THE EPISODE HERE.

 

Let’s see what happened in the world of aviation in the last few days

Sustainable Aviation News

Electric Aviation

Eviation got an order for 30 Alices from a Mexican startup airline. READ.

And Ampaire signed a letter of intent with a Brazilian carrier. READ.

Electra got an $85M contract from the US military to build an eSTOL aircraft. READ.

One of the segments of (civilian) air travel that can be transformed by electric eSTOL aircraft like the ones Electra is developing is that of regional air mobility. But how many underused airports are there?. It turns out the answer to this question is about 5,000 in the US alone!

Another Elektra, but this one with “k” and made in Germany, got an ultra-light certification for its solar-electric aircraft. READ.

Advanced Air Mobility

EVE secured to lines of credit from Brazil’s development bank, totalling over $90M. Cash burn is between $100-150M per year. They look great in renderings, but eVTOLs are very cash intensive ventures involving a significant amount of business risks! LINK.

Hydrogen Aviation

A German startup called Apus has raised some €40M from private investors (including from some successful software entrepreneurs) to develop aircraft powered by hydrogen fuel cell. READ.

Sort of old news by now, but I can not not mention them here: ZeroAvia’s Dornier conversion completed its first flight and Boeing and NASA are going to build an eco-demonstrator (partly funded with $425M from the US government) that aims to reduce emissions by 30% (vs. the current generaiton of single aisle aircraft).

Ryanair’s boss, Michael O’Leary, lambasted both hydrogen and electric aircraft. Article is paywalled but Paul Perera summarized what he said here.

Stuttgart airport, in south-west Germany, will have an hydrogen research center for aviation. The project is led by H2FLY, a German startup that, last year, was acquired by Joby Aviation. READ.

A twitter thread by Paul Eremenko (founder of Universal Hydrogen) about the need for hydrogen aircraft. FOLLOW.

Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)

RSB published its 33-page sustainability guidance report for airports. You can download it here.

The European Innovation Fund will support with €80M a SAF project in Scandinavia that in the future should be capable of covering 25% of SAS fuel needs. READ.

Emirates tested successfully one of its B777-300ER with one of its engines running with 100% SAF. READ.

BA has partnered with corporate travel management company Travel Places to offer SAF purchase options to its clients. READ.

Other sustainable aviation news

Clean Aviation, the EU’s programme to decarbonize aviation, has selected the first batch of projects eligible for funding. Second batch coming up in January. €1.8B up for grabs! Who are they?

If you wish to learn more about this programme, here’s a more detailed explanation on the site of Italian aerospace company Leonardo (which is one of the active participants of this initiative).

How Wizz Air used AI-assisted tools made by a company called StorkJet to optimize fuel consumption. READ.

Turkish private airline Pegasus has financed 10 Airbus A321neo aircraft with what it says is the first ever sustainability linked aircraft-secured term loan. What does this mean in practice? That the terms of the loan are going to depend on meeting certain KPIs linked to Pegasus sustainability and ESG practices. READ.

Huge scandal concerning the real value of carbon offsets pitched by some leading players in this space. “The analysis indicated about 94% of the credits the projects produced should not have been approved.” Ouch! READ IT HERE.

What else in aviation?

The last Boeing 747 was delivered to Atlas Air and I wrote this chronicle for CNN about the significance of this moment. READ.

A selection of my recent articles for AeroTime:

Norse Atlantic is using its “Viking” origins as a prop to promote its transatlantic flights with a series of fun videos. WATCH.

My Pegasus Airlines detailed flight review (A321 and B737-800). READ.

Airbus and Boeing being tempted (or hinted at) to set up a final assembly line in India. Given the numbers involved, the idea possibly has legs. READ.

La Livery has compiled this amazing report analyzing over 600 airline liveries! A jewel for anyone interested in airline branding.

The 2023 airline bankruptcy list is open, sadly with two prominent names in it already: FlyBe 2.0. and Flyr. READ.

Boom Supersonic has started to build its factory. See the video:

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