Project description
New electric plane greener than a car
The Dufour Aerospace team gained hands-on experience with the design, construction and operation of manned electric aircraft with its first plane - the Hamilton aEro 1 aircraft. With EU funding of aEro, Dufour is working on its next project – aEro 2. This new plane will take off and land vertically like a helicopter thanks to its proven tilt-wing design, cruising at speeds of up to 320 km/h like a regular plane. The combination of electric propulsion and large propellers will ensure a much quieter noise profile compared to conventional helicopters and planes. aEro 2 will offer fast air transportation at the same cost per kilometre as a car but with a lower environmental impact.
Objective
From both a cost & environmental standpoint, the future of aviation is electric. Although the traditional aircraft fuel still provides higher energy densities than the batteries, an electric-airplane movement has begun.
More than 50 companies have announced passenger carrying vertical take-off & landing (VTOL) projects & the sector has never received so much coverage from mainstream media. There is a global race to deliver aircraft that will be able to service the air transportation needs of modern congested cities.
Yet, most of this development is done from scratch, with little regard to the already proven technologies. Moreover, aviation history shows that disruption is extremely difficult (both technologically & from the certification point of view) & that the most adopted solutions are usually modern revisits of reliable designs. This is the approach we are taking with our novel aircraft.
aEro2 is built on the success of our aEro 1 electric conventional take off & landing aerobatic plane. The eVTOL aEro2 will use a modular hybrid-electric power system. Three key features differentiate it from the competition. It is:
- built on proven aircraft designs;
- reuses all electric propulsion already validated on our TRL 9 aEro 1;
- Can take off/land both as a conventional fixed-wing aircraft & as a rotor craft.
Uniquely among the VTOL manufacturers, we chose a more reliable strategy to bringing an electric aircraft to reality. We built & tested aEro 1—a fully electric conventional airplane using a retrofitted Silence Twister. We validated that all systems work as expected in 60+ hours of flight time. Now we are building aEro 2—the proper VTOL. aEro 2 is a 500kg 2-seater aircraft that can travel at 320km/h up to 800km, land and take off vertically and produces very low noise. We are planning to address 3 market segments in aerobatics, pilot training & finally urban air transportation, reaching €15m in revenues & 50 FTEs by 2023.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- humanities history and archaeology history
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences environmental sciences pollution
- engineering and technology mechanical engineering vehicle engineering aerospace engineering aircraft rotorcraft
- engineering and technology environmental engineering energy and fuels
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.2.3. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.3. - PRIORITY 'Societal challenges
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H2020-EU.2.1. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
3930 VISP
Switzerland
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.