Description du projet
Un nouvel avion électrique plus écologique qu’une voiture
L’équipe de Dufour Aerospace a acquis une bonne expérience pratique dans la conception, la construction et l’exploitation d’aéronefs électriques habités lors de la fabrication de son premier avion, l’Hamilton aEro 1. Grâce au financement européen d’aEro, Dufour travaille aujourd'hui sur son prochain projet: aEro 2. Grâce à sa conception éprouvée à voilure basculante, ce nouvel engin décollera et atterrira verticalement comme un hélicoptère, et sera capable d'atteindre une vitesse de vol de 320 km/h, équivalente à celle d'un avion classique. La combinaison de la propulsion électrique et de grandes hélices lui assurera un profil sonore beaucoup plus silencieux que les hélicoptères et les avions conventionnels. aEro 2 offrira une solution de transport aérien rapide pour un coût kilométrique identique à celui d'une voiture mais avec un impact environnemental inférieur.
Objectif
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.
Champ scientifique
- humanitieshistory and archaeologyhistory
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesenvironmental sciencespollution
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringvehicle engineeringaerospace engineeringaircraftrotorcraft
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuels
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinateur
3930 VISP
Suisse
L’entreprise s’est définie comme une PME (petite et moyenne entreprise) au moment de la signature de la convention de subvention.