Future Flight & Green Aerospace Technologies Conclusions from Sustainable Aviation Futures EU Congress 2024
Chairing the stream “Future Flight & Green Aerospace Technologies” of Sustainable Aviation Futures 2024 has been an amazing opportunity for getting a glimpse of the winding road to decarbonising aviation ahead of us and how some very bright startups can contribute to accelerating the whole industry on this path.
The stream virtually touched all the different technologies and aspects that compose the vast landscape of aviation sustainability, spanning from aircraft design to SAF, from clean propulsion to contrails and everything in between.
One of the panel discussions, namely “Making Future Flight a reality: What are the key challenges to developing innovative, greener, and game-changing aerospace technologies?” set the scene for sharing some deep insight on key technical and non-technical issues related to sustainable aviation. The key takeout was that technology challenges can be won provided enough funding if made available and a shared will to develop and deploy sustainable technologies exists. However, for anything to move forward, the decisive support of regulating and certifying bodies is absolutely fundamental. The reason why this stakeholder has such a heavy make-or-break role is that the most crucial and financially challenging passage for every innovation roadmap is certification, and this can become an unsurmountable obstacle for young upstart ventures which do not possess the financial robustness of consolidated companies and corporates.
Another pivotal moment was the “Startup Technology Showcase: An overview of the latest sustainable technologies in the aviation industry.” This phase was framed as a pitching competition in which the ventures introduced their technology and solution, as well as how they plan to tackle the market and contribute to making aviation more sustainable.
This fast-paced contest saw five participants and graduates from Sustainable Aero Lab challenging each other in front of a panel of four judges plus the audience counting as a fifth judge, who assessed the competing startups on matters of innovation, maturity, scalability, potential impact, business case, commercial opportunity and pitch quality.
Each pitcher had five minutes to present, followed by another five for Q&A with judges and audience.
The startups which took part in the competition are some of those we are most keen on among all the outstanding ventures that have passed through our acceleration and mentoring program:
Eddytec, proposing an automated, non-destructive tool for structural health inspection of aircraft parts made of carbon fibre-reinforced plastics (CFRP) by an array of eddy current sensors for maintenance and production quality control. The solution allows detecting faults and damages like cracks and delamination, simplifying quality assurance and enabling a 90% reduction in measurement time compared to present-day visual and ultrasound inspections.
Flyvbird, deploying a low-cost, on-demand airline for sustainable regional air travel, which uses AI-based scheduling for maximum efficiency, sustainability and flexibility. The service is conceived ab-initio to be optimally adaptable and customer-centric while leveraging on lowemission airplanes.
Spark E-Fuels, offering integrated, modular, flexible, scalable production facilities for a decentralised end-to-end network supplying SAF cost-effectively and at scale. The venture aims to produce oil-like e-crude, upgraded into SAF through a co-refining process with established refineries. The vision is to address e-fuels’ main hurdles—high Capex and Opex as well as low availability—through a complete value chain design focused on location-tailored production.
Speeder Systems, developing an electric vehicle Combining VTOL and ground-effect flight to reach minimal operational costs. The vehicle is suitable for maritime cargo, offshore inspections, and SAR applications, boosting a 20-40% higher efficiency than uncrewed rotorcraft and 3x lower cost than conventional helicopters while reducing emissions by 60-99%.
Nexus Lab, offering an AI optimisation SaaS software aimed at reducing aviation’s glasshouse impact by 35% by predicting potential contrail formation and consequentially suggesting alternative routes. The long-term aim is to deploy a complete aircraft emission management platform connecting air navigation, weather forecasting, and earth observation.
We can honestly say that each contestant gave an amazing pitch, and they all made us proud. However, one was to be declared winner, and so it was, with Eddytec coming on top and scoring the first prize, which consisted of a copy of “Sustainability in the Air: Innovators Transforming Aviation for a Greener Future” by Dirk Singer and Shashank Nigam and a pass for an upcoming event by Sustainable Aviation Futures.
The overall discussion allowed drawing some general conclusions, new learning and a few confirmations.
In almost every case, the challenges sit at the crossroads between the three dimensions: technical, financial, and institutional. This implies that they can be won only when they are tackled on all three plans simultaneously. Facing one or two dimensions while neglecting the others will hardly bring success.
As usual in similar circumstances, the idea that there’s no silver bullet and that only a wide range of different technologies and technical bricks will get us there has been constantly surfacing.
It is so much about technologies as it is about a synergic ecosystem of large corporates, nimble startups, public funding, VC investors and—as mentioned—aviation safety agencies.
We still don’t know if the future will crown hydrogen or e-fuel as the essential zero-carbon fuel. What is clear, though, is that no matter what, every droplet counts.
LH2 and e-fuels are extremely scarce, costly, and energy-intensive, and they will so remain for the next 30 years.
That’s why advanced novel aircraft formulas and propulsion concepts, lighter materials, optimised aerostructures, and a wide range of enabling technologies all play critical roles.
When it comes to SAF, we all know that the demand is out there and can only grow. However, uncertainties still weigh on the perceived risks for aspiring investors and suppliers. These uncertainties have virtually nothing to do with the market but instead with a dysfunctional supply chain—in bad need of consolidation—and a clear understanding of what is and will be classified as “sustainable fuel.”
Startups in sustainable aviation struggle to get funded. Why is it that? Most of them offer clearly feasible technology and address solid business cases. Yet, funding remains elusive. In most cases, the extremely long and uncertain time for capital return is the scarecrow keeping investors at bay. So even patient capital, such as VC funds running on 10-year exits, won’t be at ease with these ventures. That’s why public funding (subsidies and grants), properly tuned for upstarts, is of the utmost importance. Especially relevant is that grants cover not only the low TRL basic research but also higher TRL product development, and so bridge the gap between technology development and technology implementation in a market-ready product.
Contrails are the major non-carbon greenhouse factor, potentially responsible for 2/3 of aviation’s contribution to global warming. As such, finding ways to reroute airplanes to prevent their formation is most urgent.
Mario Vesco
Venture Manager
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Sustainable Aero Lab
Conclusions:
A lot remains to be done in terms of R&D, infrastructure development, industrialisation, and regulatory frameworks.
The coming years will be as exciting as crucial for ensuring humanity will still be flying in 2050