Description du projet
Les turbines électriques mettent les avions VTOL sur la bonne voie
Le ciel est la limite pour l’avenir des avions à décollage et atterrissage vertical (VTOL). Des progrès incroyables et remarquables sont en train d’être réalisés au-delà de leur utilisation longue de plusieurs décennies en tant qu’applications spéciales et militaires. Dans ce contexte, le projet Apollo, financé par l’UE, contribuera à mettre sur le marché une technologie de turbine électrique dotée d’une poussée statique pour le VTOL et d’une poussée dynamique pour le vol linéaire. Il s’agit de la première solution de soutien à l’industrialisation de la technologie VTOL. De plus, ces turbines électriques sont jusqu’à quatre fois plus performantes que les autres soufflantes électriques carénées. Cette innovation permet de concevoir de nouveaux drones VTOL beaucoup plus sûrs pouvant être utilisés dans des zones urbaines encombrées et au-dessus de sites industriels dangereux.
Objectif
For decades, vertical take-off and landing aircrafts (VTOL) have seen their use limited to special-purpose & military applications. By 2017, companies like Lilium Aviation and others started showcasing prototypes of electric “flying cars”. The key problem with these prototypes is that they require an efficient & reliable electric propulsion technology to be able to lift off their payload of 1-2 people. This propulsion technology must also support transition from VTOL to linear flight, otherwise its energy consumption will not allow any useful applications.
European Sustainable Propulsion brings to the market the first solution able to support the industrialization of VTOL development—an electric turbine technology with both static thrust for VTOL & dynamic thrust for linear flight.
Apollo electric turbines are 2-4x more efficient than other electric ducted fans, support tilt-free transition from VTOL to linear flight, are compact and are designed to enable scalable distributed electric propulsion. Our unique innovation enables design of novel, much safer VTOL drones for operation in congested urban areas & on dangerous industrial sites, allowing us to commercialize it to both to the current nascent market of passenger VTOL manufacturers, as well as to the upcoming heavy-duty VTOL market.
Our analysis shows the target markets for commercialization of Apollo of €13.75bn+ for passenger VTOLs and €690bn+ for heavy-duty drones in verticals such as oil & gas, construction, security & others.
In 2017 we were featured in Wired as a refreshingly realistic technology among other VTOL & drone-enabling technologies. Athena, the 1st generation of Apollo family turbines, are now under testing in FR, US & CA. Japanese Fire & Disaster Management Agency has just signed the purchase order for it.
By selling Apollo electric turbines to other VTOL drone manufacturers (short-term) & by building or own heavy-duty drones (long-term) we aim at €30m by 2022.
Champ scientifique
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsliquid fuels
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringcontrol systems
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringroboticsautonomous robotsdrones
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringvehicle engineeringaerospace engineeringaircraftrotorcraft
- social sciencessocial geographytransporttransport planningair traffic management
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinateur
60500 CHANTILLY
France
L’entreprise s’est définie comme une PME (petite et moyenne entreprise) au moment de la signature de la convention de subvention.