Descrizione del progetto
Nuovo aereo elettrico più ecologico di un’automobile
Con il suo primo aeromobile, l’Hamilton aEro 1, il team di Dufour Aerospace ha acquisito esperienza pratica nella progettazione, nella costruzione e nel funzionamento di velivoli elettrici pilotati. Con il finanziamento di aEro da parte dell’UE, Dufour sta lavorando al suo prossimo progetto, aEro 2. Questo nuovo aereo decollerà e atterrerà verticalmente come un elicottero grazie alla sua progettazione collaudata ad ala a inclinazione variabile, raggiungendo velocità fino a 320 km/h, come un normale aereo. La combinazione di propulsione elettrica ed eliche di grandi dimensioni garantirà un profilo di rumore molto più silenzioso rispetto agli elicotteri e agli aerei convenzionali. aEro 2 offrirà un trasporto aereo veloce allo stesso costo per chilometro di un’automobile ma con un impatto ambientale inferiore.
Obiettivo
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.
Campo scientifico
- humanitieshistory and archaeologyhistory
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesenvironmental sciencespollution
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringvehicle engineeringaerospace engineeringaircraftrotorcraft
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuels
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Invito a presentare proposte
Vedi altri progetti per questo bandoBando secondario
H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-1
Meccanismo di finanziamento
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinatore
3930 VISP
Svizzera
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