"
I support the plane, but the plane that pollutes less, is lighter, hybrid, electric, hydrogen
".
Carole Delga, president of the Occitanie region, birthplace of Airbus, thus sums up her desire to support the aeronautics industry, in particular SMEs, while it is going through the most serious crisis in its history, due to the epidemic of Covid-19.
This, while taking its full part in the work on the zero emission aircraft.
Develop demonstrators
To this end, Carole Delga announced on Tuesday, from the ST Composites site, the launch of a call for expressions of interest for the development of a green aircraft dedicated to general aviation.
An initiative taken in partnership with Aerospace Valley, the competitiveness cluster created in 2005, dedicated to aeronautics, space and on-board systems, and installed "straddling" the Occitanie and New Aquitaine regions.
The process will be launched in January 2021, ideas and technological projects will then be selected in March in order to launch a call for projects which will lead, in the summer of 2021, to the launch of concrete demonstrator projects.
These projects will be co-financed by the region, which is putting 10 million euros on the table for this first upstream work.
Read also: The Toulouse region taken in reverse by the aeronautics crisis
The objective is to tap into the skills of the regional aeronautical ecosystem - 1,100 aerospace companies of all sizes;
110,000 jobs in Occitania, cradle of Airbus -, by integrating SMEs and very small businesses with advanced skills and by developing technological bricks useful for the development of zero-emission devices.
"
The acceleration of the roadmap towards the carbon-free aircraft from 2035, instead of 2050, opens the door to new means of transport at the regional level with 19-seat planes, all electric, with a radius of 'action of 300 to 400 km
,' explains Yann Barbaux, president of Aerospace Valley.
These planes will participate in opening up the territories and in economic development.
Coordinated action with other regions and Gifas
Occitanie is not going alone in this project.
"
We are working on the technologies of the future, in a coordinated and complementary manner with the New Aquitaine and Île-de-France regions but also the Gifas (Group of French aeronautical and space industries) as well as the Council for civil aeronautical research within the framework of a national reflection
”, specifies Carole Delga who represents, within Gifas, the aeronautical industry of the French regions.
There is no question of wasting public money by financing works that would duplicate those of other regions.
Europe, with France, has in fact set itself the objective of taking the world leadership in carbon-free aviation by being the first to put a hydrogen-powered aircraft into service in 2035. But behind Airbus and the larger planes, more with 100 seats, it is possible to offer new zero-emission air vehicles, adapted to more local routes.
The potential market is huge, since the fleet of general aviation aircraft, from two-seater training aircraft to business jets (17,000 worldwide), has some 445,000 aircraft in service worldwide, including 135,000 in Europe.
Techno-campus on green hydrogen
In the region, around ten players have already been identified as having the capacity to build a complete aircraft such as Daher, manufacturer of aircraft in the TBM range, or the young Toulouse manufacturer Aura Aéro, created in August 2018, which has developed the Integral R, the first two-seater aerobatic aircraft.
And some 25 providers of solutions to ensure the energy transition towards a small green plane.
As part of these projects, the Occitanie region and its partners will also rely on the “hydrogen” techno-campus which will be established in 2024 at the Francazal base, near Toulouse.
Initiated by the region, this techno-campus will be "
the largest center in Europe for research, testing and technological innovation dedicated to green hydrogen, in partnership with the CNRS, the University of Toulouse, the ONERA, research laboratories but also major groups such as Safran, Airbus and other industrial partners
”.
