Airbus to Decarbonize Pilot Training with AURA AERO

PARIS, France - This year, a primary driver of numerous agreements at the Paris Airshow has been climate change. Major aerospace companies such as Airbus, and Embraer have entered numerous agreements to develop renewable aviation technologies. Now, another aerospace company is partnering with an Airbus subsidiary to "jointly approach decarbonisation for pilot training". 

On the fourth day of the Paris Airshow, Airbus Flight Academy Europe, a wholly owned subsidiary of Airbus, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with AURA AERO to collaborate on the development of a fully electric pilot trainer aircraft. 

In this MoU, AURA AERO brings its expertise of building fully electric aircraft designs to the table while the Airbus Flight Academy Europe comes with Airbus engineers and a vast pool of resources. The goal of this agreement is to build a fully electric, two-seat pilot trainer aircraft, "ideally suited for initial stages of pilot training." 

Integral E 

The name of the aircraft that AURA AERO and Airbus Flight Academy Europe are planning to develop is "Integral E". According to the press release announcing the agreement, an airfield equipped with superchargers (similar to those of an electric car, but for an aircraft), will be able to re-charge the "Integral E" within 20 to 30 minutes. This short duration of charging time will then give the aircraft the ability to fly for one hour before needing to recharge. 

"Our target at Airbus Flight Academy is to operate a low-carbon aircraft fleet by 2030...We are excited to collaborate with AURA AERO in this field and are convinced that, by combining our expertise, we can meet the ambition of decarbonising to the current pilot-training approach. INTEGRAL E could become the first step to a broader partnership." states Airbus Flight Academy Europe CEO Jean Longobardi. 

"Our technical and commercial teams are very happy and honoured to have been chosen by Airbus to support the decarbonisation of their training activities. Pilot training will be an area where we expect early adoption of zero-emission approach, starting with two-seater aircraft. By partnering with AFAE [Airbus Flight Academy Europe], we will develop a new type of electrically-powered training to benefit all pilots in the future, whatever the aircraft they are flying." states Jérémy Caussade, CEO and co-founder of AURA AERO shortly after signing the MoU with AFAE. 

While flying an electric trainer aircraft might seem like an easy task, it is in fact quite hard. 

Unlike a small hydrogen-powered trainer aircraft, which will most likely weigh less than current fossil fuel powered aircraft due to the small amount of hydrogen fuel needed to power them, an electric aircraft will weigh more due to heavy lithium-ion batteries. Unlike hydrogen fuel, which has a relatively high energy to density potential (relatively small amount of fuel equates to high amount of energy), electric lithium-ion batteries do not. 

Lithium-ion batteries are also heavy, which does not matter when a company is building an electric car, but when building an aircraft, a company would like to make the aircraft as light and aerodynamic as possible. A large, heavy lithium-ion battery only supplying an hour of airtime is not ideal especially considering the excess stress the weight of the battery puts on an aircraft's airframe. This will require a larger, more robust wing resulting in a larger overall aircraft. 

Whether or not AURA AERO and Airbus Flight Academy Europe will solve this problem remains to be seen, but despite this, the future is looking hopeful for zero-emission aviation.