ZeroAvia Wins Two Additional UK Government Grants to Enable Clean Aviation
January 27, 2021
UKRI’s Future Flight Challenge funds two major programmes to move low-carbon aviation a step closer to reality
London, UK – January 27, 2021 – ZeroAvia, the leading innovator in decarbonizing aviation, today announces that the company has been awarded funding through two grants as part of the UK Government’s Future Flight Challenge, set up to encourage greener ways to fly.
The funding covers two separate programmes featuring different consortia partners – Project HEART and Project SATE – through which ZeroAvia will lead work worth a combined total of £1.2M ($1.7M).
In Project HEART (Hydrogen-Electric and Automated Regional Transportation), a £3.7m programme in total, ZeroAvia will develop enabling systems for zero-emissions aviation: green-hydrogen infrastructure at airports, maintenance regimes for hydrogen-electric aircraft, and demonstrate flight capabilities on routes of its airline partner Loganair. Full details relating to the partners and programme elements of Project HEART can be found here.
Project SATE (Sustainable Aviation Test Environment) is a £3.7m programme which aims to set up a Sustainable Aviation Test Environment on Orkney. ZeroAvia will conduct flight testing in support of the Highlands and Islands Airports’ (HIAL) ambition to set up Kirkwall airport as the UK's first operational, low-carbon aviation test centre. Full details can be found here.
Both Future Flight Projects will deliver clean aviation and follow a £12.3m UK Government grant for ZeroAvia’s HyFlyer II project to develop a certifiable hydrogen-electric powertrain that can power airframes carrying up to 19 passengers. Its predecessor, HyFlyer I, has already delivered a world first flight of a six-seat hydrogen-electric aircraft at Cranfield in September of last year.
Val Miftakhov, founder and CEO of ZeroAvia, said:
“Thanks to the support and encouragement of the Government and the hard work of our team, we are delivering world leading innovation in hydrogen fuel cell technology for zero emission flight. In addition to our core R&D as part of the HyFlyer I and II programmes, participation in projects HEART and SATE support key strategic initiatives for ZeroAvia and will show hydrogen-electric to be both the most practical route to zero emission aviation from an engineering standpoint, and the most commercially appealing also.”
Gary Cutts, Future Flight Challenge Director, said:
“At this challenging time for the international aviation industry, it is a great testament to the UK’s drive and ambition that we had such a strong response to the first funded Future Flight competition. The breadth, quality and creativity of the bids has been exceptional and the economic and social benefits offered are significant.”
About ZeroAvia:
ZeroAvia is a leader in zero-emission aviation, focused on hydrogen-electric aviation solutions to address a variety of markets, initially targeting 500-mile range in 10-20 seat aircraft used for commercial passenger transport, package delivery, agriculture, and more. Based in London and California, ZeroAvia has already secured experimental certificates for its two prototype aircraft across the US and the UK regulatory environments, passed significant flight test milestones, and is on track for commercial operations in 2023. The company’s expanding UK operations are partially supported by the grants from UK’s Aerospace Technology Institute and Innovate UK, and ZeroAvia is part of the UK Government’s Jet Zero Council. For more, please visit ZeroAvia.com, follow @ZeroAvia on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
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