Despite the rainy start to day four of the Paris Air Show, there was still plenty of news throughout the day, including two big sustainability announcements from Airbus.
Airbus has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with LanzaJet to boost sustainable aviation fuel production. The MoU will help advance the building of SAF facilities, which will use LanzaJet’s Alcohol-to-Jet (ATJ) technology, and also aims to accelerate the certification and adoption of 100% drop-in SAF, which would allow existing aircraft to fly with no fossil fuel.
Electric flight
The company also announced its Airbus Flight Academy Europe has signed a MoU with AURA AERO, an aircraft manufacturer specialised in fully-electric designs, to jointly approach decarbonisation for pilot training by introducing electric-powered aircraft for commercial and military pilot formation.
“Our target at Airbus Flight Academy is to operate a low-carbon aircraft fleet by 2030,” said Airbus Flight Academy Europe CEO, Jean Longobardi. “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.”
Business deals
GE Aerospace received 90 orders from Riyadh Air and 17 orders from China Airlines for its GEnx-1B engines to power their Boeing 787 fleets. The GEnx-1B powers two out of every three 787 aircraft in service and provides a 1.4% fuel burn savings for the typical 787 mission compared to its competition. The added fuel savings enables more than 2 million fewer pounds of CO2 per aircraft annually.
China Eastern Airlines also announced an extended partnership with Thales and ACSS for avionics products for its 100 new A320neo aircraft, while Honeywell’s revealed its Aspire 350 satellite communications system has been selected by Dassault for its fleet of Falcon business aircraft.
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