Electric propulsion systems for aviation

Description

Problem

As most industries are reducing their emissions on the journey to net zero, aviation is projected to double its output between now and 2050. But aviation emissions are not evenly distributed. A disproportionate amount of emissions are generated by short haul, domestic and regional flights. These are some of the most polluting flights in service because they are so inefficient. By the time you take-off, you are landing again and they are typically operated using older generation turboprop aircraft.

In fact, all journeys below 500 miles distance together account for 20% of all aviation emissions.

Solution

Our mission is to electrify and decarbonise all flights up to 500 miles distance.

To achieve this vision, we are developing electric propulsion systems that will revolutionize how we power airplanes. These are complete systems that include electric motors, batteries and control electronics all in one package designed to be retrofitted into a range of existing aircraft. This will make flying over 40% cheaper and dramatically quieter, while removing nearly 200 million tonnes of CO2 in the process.

With a lot of support from Innovate UK, we have developed a unique battery pack design that is key to enabling electric flight. In a typical electric car, if anything goes wrong with your battery, you can stop at the side of the road and jump out. You don’t have that luxury when cruising at 30,000 feet in the air. Our patent pending battery modules are therefore not just incredibly lightweight but also extremely safe in order to meet and exceed all aviation safety standards. A recent IP audit has identified 17 unique inventions within the battery packs that we are now working on protecting together with our IP attorneys. With 2 UK patents already filed.

We are starting by electrifying the training aircraft market by retrofitting our electric propulsion systems into existing aircraft. These are typically 2-seat and 4-seat aircraft used for pilot training and recreational flying. We chose this as our beachhead market because this segment of aviation benefits heavily from very streamlined regulations. Making it quicker and cheaper for us to bring new products to market. It is also allowing us to prove the technology, gain user feedback and work closely with regulatory agencies before scaling our technology to larger and more heavily regulated aircraft categories.

Our first product is FLUX-75. An electric propulsion system designed for light training aircraft. We have successfully tested a functional prototype using our test bench, demonstrated our next-generation battery modules and work is now underway on our flying aircraft demonstrator. We are on track for the first test flight in August and we have already signed letters of intent with launch customers.

The same underlying technology that is powering FLUX-75 is incredibly scalable to larger aircraft. Our strategy is to use the general aviation market to prove the technology both commercially and in the eyes of regulatory agencies. Then scale it organically to larger and more heavily regulated aircraft categories - all the way to commercial flights operating on short-haul, domestic and regional routes.