Australians travelling between small cities might catch an electrical aircraft in future, with the nation’s greatest regional airline confirming a major funding in an aviation startup.
Regional Express, finest referred to as Rex, on Friday mentioned it had secured a 20 per cent stake in Sydney agency Dovetail Electric Aviation.
The deal follows a strategic partnership between the businesses revealed in July final yr, and comes 4 months after Dovetail secured a $3 million federal authorities grant to fund the event of electrically powered planes.
Dovetail business operations supervisor Rachael Barritt informed AAP the partnership confirmed the aviation {industry} was severe about lowering its carbon emissions.
“It’s really exciting to see an Australian airline actually put their money where their mouth is in terms of sustainable aviation,” she mentioned.
“Electric aviation in Australia is an extremely difficult task and we are excited to work with Rex on this ambitious project.”
Ms Barritt mentioned the corporate plans to carry an illustration flight within the subsequent yr, and have its first battery-powered plane licensed inside three years.
While bigger airways had been investing in sustainable aviation gas to chop air air pollution, Ms Barritt mentioned the fee and provide of those fuels had been nonetheless in query.
“Sustainable aviation fuels sound great but there are a lot of issues with them at the moment,” she mentioned.
“When you go to electric you have a (cost) reduction of 40 per cent, and our electric propulsion system has a three times longer life than a current combustion engine.”
As a part of the deal, Rex has supplied Dovetail with a aircraft to retrofit and can present engineering assist and entry to testing amenities.
The regional airline operates a fleet of 61 Saab 340 turboprop planes that may very well be transformed from gas to electrical energy by Dovetail utilizing MagniX engines.
The firms estimated electrical planes may very well be as a lot as 40 per cent quieter than their turbine equivalents.
In January, Dovetail secured the $3m in funding from the federal government’s Cooperative Research Centres Projects program, with Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic commenting that electrical aviation may very well be a “game-changer” for regional transport.
Larger airways are taking a distinct strategy to chop air journey emissions, nonetheless.
Rex’s funding comes lower than a month after Qantas and Airbus revealed a $2m funding in a sustainable aviation gas refinery in Queensland.
The firms, at the side of the Queensland authorities, will fund a feasibility examine right into a facility that would produce 100 megalitres of biofuel annually from agricultural by-products reminiscent of sugarcane and feedstock.
Construction on the refinery is predicted to start in 2024.
Australia’s greatest airways, Qantas and Virgin, have made vital investments in sustainable aviation gas as a part of their efforts efforts to satisfy an industry-wide aim of net-zero emissions by 2050.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
