The Allplane Podcast #32 - with Neil Cloughley, founder of Faradair

Neil Cloughley has been in the aviation business from a very very early age. His father was a pioneer of UAV technology already in the 1980s and Neil followed in his footsteps working in a number of aeronautical businesses.

Since 2014 Neil has been leading Faradair, a startup which he named after renowned British scientist Michael Faraday, in the development of a 18-seater hybrid-electric STOL aircraft, called “BEHA” (Bio Electric Hybrid Aircraft).

This project is innovative not just in its choice of structural solution, with a triple box staggered wing, but also in its business model, since Faradair does not plan to be just an OEM. Once the BEHA goes into production, Neil expects Faradair to operate a fleet of hundreds of them, leasing and renting them on demand all over the world.

neil cloughley faradair.jpg

Check today’s episode out for a fascinating conversation with a true aviation visionary, someone that lives and breathes aviation 24/7:

Download this episode from:

Apple Podcasts / iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts or Stitcher

Things we talk about in this episode:

  • Neil’s early connection to the aerospace industry

  • The need for a new type of regional air mobility

  • Faradair’s aircraft concept

  • The BEHA aircraft STOL capabilities

  • Funding and the further development of the project

  • The business model that Neil has in mind for the BEHA

Resources:

Faradair’s website

A 2017 presentation by Neil Cloughley at the Royal Aeronautical Society, some details of the project may have changed but the essence remains the same

Faradair BEHA rendering.jpg

The ducted fan engine working principles that Neil talks about

The Royal Navy’s Queen Elizabeth-class carriers that Neil mentions

Faradair is based at Duxford airfield, next to the aerial branch of the Imperial War Museum

Michael Faraday, the British scientists that Faradair is named after

Podcast Music: Five Armies by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3762-five-armies
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Interview Transcript (coming soon!)

(please note that, although we strive to make it as close as possible to the original recording, the transcript may not be 100% accurate)

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