The airlines Volotea and Air Nostrum, together with the developer Dante Aeronautical, recently announced the proposal for a 100% electric aircraft they are working on, based on four key objectives: to reduce emissions; to create 100% electric aircraft; to promote sustainable regional aviation; and to provide innovative solutions for the sector.
The artificial intelligence company, DataBeaco, and the engineering and technological innovation company in the aeronautics sector, CT Ingenieros, have also joined the project. Other Public Research Organizations (OPI) such as the Foundation for Research and Development in Transport and Energy and the Specialized Research Center for Energy Storage are also participating.
The consortium’s plan is focused on carrying out the conversion of short and medium range commercial aircrafts, retrofitted for 9 and 19 passengers; and the design of the hybrid regional airplane DAX19, for 19 passengers.
The proposal consists of developing an all-electric power plant, including the engine and propulsion system, powered by a hybrid system of batteries and hydrogen cells, which have a technology called PEM -Proton Exchange Membrane- that converts the energy content of hydrogen into electricity.
The batteries would be used at times when peak power is required, such as during take-offs and ascents. The cells chosen for development allow high levels of discharge.
According to the developers, electric motors have a great advantage over internal combustion engines in terms of energy efficiency, which will be greater than 90% in the first case and less than 40% in the second.
Carlos Muñoz, founder and CEO of Volotea, assured that «it makes a lot of sense for Volotea to support this project, as it is completely in line with our goal of connecting underserved cities and doing so in a more sustainable way.»
For his part, the president of Air Nostrum, Carlos Bartomeu, pointed out that «the results endorse Air Nostrum’s collaborations with technology startups and universities on the road to efficiency and improved passenger service» and added that «it was clear that Air Nostrum, as a regional airline of reference, had things to contribute to a project as exciting as this one, especially in an area such as sustainability in which we have been working for many years.»
«For Dante Aeronautical, extending the consortium signed with other innovative technology firms can only reinforce our plan to develop 100% electric aviation, revolutionizing the concepts of today’s aviation and pushing us towards a more sustainable and cleaner transport,» said Miguel Madinabeitia. He also stressed that this project «perfectly complements with our efforts in other parts of the world, such as the initiative we have underway in Australia for the electrification of seaplanes».
The consortium says it is facing the technological challenge of demonstrating the feasibility of replacing the power plant of existing commercial aircraft with an electric one. Test flights for the Retrofit 9 are scheduled for 2023 and the developers expect to receive certification in 2024. During that year they would begin flight testing of the Retrofit 19 model to target certification in 2025. As for the certification of the DAX19 concept aircraft, the consortium plans its execution between 2028 and 2030.
This initiative is in addition to those we have been reporting on in our Sustainable Aviation section, in which airlines, manufacturers, suppliers and other players in the aviation industry have been working to reduce the sector’s environmental impact in the future.
