An all-electric commuter plane and a small Airbus-backed hybrid are among aircraft programs being touted at the International Paris Air Show, as the industry tries to convince a skeptical public it can deliver on a pledge to halve carbon emissions by 2050.
Israeli start-up Eviation has wheeled out Alice, a battery-powered nine-seater due for its maiden flight later this year, while Airbus and suppliers Safran SA and Daher are showing a scale model of their planned EcoPulse, a similarly sized short-hopper that packs a fuel tank, as well as batteries.
The electric debuts come as European finance ministers are expected later this week to discuss ending aviation fuel tax exemptions to curb greenhouse emissions.
Photo: AFP
The spread of social media posts “flight-shaming” air travel has also jangled executives’ nerves and added pressure to electrify, following the auto industry’s lead.
However, unlike cars, electric planes must heft their power packs aloft — a reality that limits them to small aircraft on the shortest routes, as even their proponents concede.
“The impact of battery weight is an order of magnitude more severe for us,” said Stephane Cueille, Safran’s head of research, technology and innovation.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The EcoPulse’s engine drives a central propeller and a generator to recharge its batteries and power additional electric props spread along the wingspan, delivering 20 to 40 percent fuel savings on trips up to several hundred kilometers.
Whereas the French plane is still on the drawing board, Alice’s smooth contours can be seen on the tarmac at Le Bourget, north of Paris. Eviation is aiming for a first test-flight later this year and US certification by 2022.
On a single charge, Alice can fly 1,046km at 3048m with a cruising speed of 444kph.
Cape Air, a Massachusetts-based regional carrier, has taken an option to add a double-digit number of the US$4 million planes to its fleet, Eviation said at the show.
The aircraft, with a flattened profile and propellers at its wing tips, was designed as an electric plane from the ground up, Eviation founder and chief executive officer Omer Bar-Yohay said.
“It’s basically a huge battery with some plane painted on it,” he told reporters.
Among signs of growing interest from traditional players, engine maker Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC on Tuesday said it had bought the electric aerospace division of Germany’s Siemens AG — which is also one of the suppliers of motors to Alice.
Engineers see a bigger future for hybrids, which can combine lighter, downsized jet engines with an electric boost during take-off and climb, for a 30 percent fuel saving.
The additional thrusters or e-propellers also help stability, allowing a more streamlined airframe to reduce drag and consumption further.
“Then you’re starting to get to the kind of economics and sustainability that’s closer to a bus than it is to aviation historically,” United Technologies Corp chief technology officer Paul Eremenko said during a panel discussion.
UBS Group AG predicts demand for US$178 billion in green aviation technologies by 2040 as they become more mainstream.
“The consumer is probably going to demand an acceleration in this space,” said Celine Fornaro, the Swiss bank’s head of European industrials equity research. “It’s starting to be more present in everyone’s conscience.”
Airbus is also looking at hybrid-electric technology for future passenger aircraft generations, but few would bet on its readiness to power the 200-seaters expected to replace the workhorse A320 jet family in the 2030s.
Carbon emissions from commercial aviation account for about 2.5 percent of the global total, but are set to expand in step with emerging middle classes, especially in Asia.
To counter their effect, the industry is introducing the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation program, which requires airlines to fund cuts to atmospheric carbon dioxide elsewhere, offsetting their emissions growth, while awaiting hybrid planes and alternative fuels.
Reconciling airlines’ growth ambitions with their promised 50 percent carbon emissions cut from 2005 levels will be no easy task.
“We don’t know how that’s going to happen yet,” Boeing Co chief technology officer Greg Hyslop said.
Yet aerospace leaders are adamant that the answer cannot be fewer flights.
“We’ve got to make aviation grow and be sustainable,” Rolls-Royce chief technology officer Paul Stein said during the same panel. “Those who propose traveling less are heading for a darker place.”
Brussels-based lobby group Airlines for Europe said “taxing aviation is not a solution,” in a statement ahead of the EU ministerial meetings starting on Thursday in the Netherlands.
However, campaigners such as Greenpeace transport specialist Sarah Fayolle say taxation and other regulation is warranted by the urgent need to slash emissions.
“We’re facing a climate emergency that cannot wait for uncertain technological solutions that are decades away,” she said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”