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AEROSPACE SUPPLEMENT
INTRODUCTION: GETTING TO THE FUTURE INTACT
October 2020 | www.machinery.co.uk | MachineryMagazine | @MachineryTweets
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leading position in sustainable aviation fuel technology
will allow the country to rapidly bounce back from Covid-
19. It is asking government to commit £500m to early
stage projects.
At ‘virtual’ Farnborough 2020, Rolls-Royce CTO Paul
Stein said SAFs were one of the biggest games in town
and that “beyond 600-1,000 miles, most next-gen
technologies run out of steam”.
So perhaps the shove that SAF requires has been
given, and it is surely the easiest solution, because
electric technology is nowhere near ready for larger
aircraft and, were it so, would require a complete change
of eet – that’s 25,000+ units globally for commercial
passenger/transport aircraft – taking years.
But electric aviation is considered more sexy than just
pouring something different in the tank (not quite that
straightforward, obviously), so that’s the area from where
much media noise emanates. An initial point to ponder
here is that typical lithium-ion batteries in use today have
a maximum energy density of around 1,000,000 joules of
energy per kilogram. Higher densities are envisaged, but
compare this with 43 million joules per kilogram for
aviation fuel. But with that out of the way, let’s take stock
of recent news (you can reread our October list of electric
ight initiatives here: www.is.gd/numofi ).
Sustainable Aviation, apart from a request for SAF
support, is also asking for government to work with
industry to develop aircraft and engine technology R&D
capabilities, ensuring the UK is among the rst in the
world to develop hybrid and electric aircraft. Rolls-Royce,
however, has cancelled its E-Fan X project, which also
involved Airbus. Says RR CTO Stein: “We will be going
through a short period of re-planning due to this decision
to cancel the project to make sure we properly capture
all the lessons, knowledge and associated intellectual
property.” But he adds: “That work – one of a whole host
of projects we are actively involved in – will ensure that
we remain a pioneer of electri cation, ready to power the
more sustainable aircraft of the future.” Indeed, the
company recently announced that it had completed the
testing of ground-breaking technology that will power the
world’s fastest all-electric plane ( www.is.gd/ijazem ).
Boeing isn’t too noisy on the electric front, but in
September 2019, it and Safran made a joint investment
in Electric Power Systems (EPS), a producer of lightweight
energy storage products for aerospace and other
markets. This move will help EPS produce aviation-grade
energy storage systems “at an unprecedented scale”.
An electric regional plan ready and waiting is Israeli
company Eviation’s Alice. Heralded in June of last year,
it is a nine-passenger (plus two-crew), 240-knot speed,
540-nautical mile range aircraft. Flights will be available
in the US and EU markets rst, its website says. There is
no recent news of its progress, though.
News of a development from MagniX (which also
supplies the engine for Alice, in fact) talks about the
maiden ight of “the largest ever all-electric aeroplane”,
which made its maiden ight in June this year. The plane
is a 40-foot-long retro tted Cessna that spent half an
hour in the air. MagniX claims such planes could be
commercially viable within ve years, cont’d, p34
Above:
Electric
Aviation
Group (EAG)
revealed a
new design
for a Hybrid
Electric
Regional
Aircraft
(HERA) in July
(p34)
Below: Israeli
fi rm Eviation’s
Alice electric
aircraft is
ready for
take-off
/www.machinery.co.uk
/numofi
/ijazem