FINN Flashback: Can business aviation go green?
With EBACE cancelled this year due to COVID-19 restrictions, FINN takes a look back at last year’s show, which shone the spotlight on environmental concerns and sustainability.
A coalition of…
With EBACE cancelled this year due to COVID-19 restrictions, FINN takes a look back at last year’s show, which shone the spotlight on environmental concerns and sustainability.
A coalition of aircraft manufacturers, fuel suppliers and business aviation operators came together at the event to make the case to industry for carbon emission reduction by proving how easy biofuels were to use. The FINN team even hitched a lift on the Cessna Citation Latitude midsize jet, fuelled with sustainable jet fuel.
A new generation
Traditional industry players were making way for a new generation. Volocopter CEO, Florian Reuter, headlined the opening keynotes. He revealed that the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had launched a virtual space for testing new technologies and revealed his electric air taxi had already flown in Dubai.
In the innovation zone, a new hybrid aircraft was launched by MAEAM. With 19 seats the BKOYA can fly 3000km and like the AKOYA produced by its sister company Lisa Airplanes, it can land on snow, water and 350m grass runways.
Other electric revolutionaries on display at EBACE 2019 included Pegasus’s in-development eight-passenger hybrid-electric business jet and Ehang’s two-passenger air taxi. The Ehang 184 has already flown in China and could enter air taxi service in the first-to-market race against Volocopter in Singapore.
New to market
Plenty of airframe programmes were coming to market too. Embraer’s Praetor 600 received triple certification from the FAA, EASA and Brazil’s ANAC. The latest variant of the super-fast turboprop, the TBM940, received its EASA approvals at the show and the company had already scooped up 25 orders.
A very different Cessna Latitude was another not-to-be-missed highlight of the show in the hi-vis livery of Babcock Scandinavian Air Ambulance for aeromedical operations in Norway. The aircraft was the first custom OEM interior solution for medevac missions on the Citation platform. Bombardier showcased the Soleil lighting system for its new Global 7500 cabin can be set to suit the owner’s circadian rhythm and individual demands.
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