Paris Air Show: soon carbon-free planes?

At the Paris Air Show, the wind still brings the scent of kerosene. Aviation is far from being decarbonized but she is working on it. “It’s amazing to see that most start-ups have been created for three yearsnotes Augustin de Romanet, CEO of Aéroports de Paris. Despite this youth, most of them already have demonstrators (…) all these new modes of propulsion which many said were illusory, are already in action“.

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Visitors can see some examples of these searches. Among them, an experimental aircraft equipped with electric batteries and six small propellers on the wings. “The plane is loaded with sensors. It’s hybrid propulsion. We kept the fuel oil propulsion which is the basic one and we added a high voltage electrical system with six motors”, explains Didier Siméon, head of the EcoPulse project, a partnership between manufacturers Daher, Airbus and Safran. “It’s two parallel systems. The main line of this project, it is the desire to reduce the footprint aviation carbon“, he continues.

Trials will begin soon. But we will have to wait a few more years before we may see production aircraft flying this way. The situation is the same for future hydrogen aircraft.

Business jets, the first zero-emission planes?

In addition to large groups, some of the 300 start-ups present at the show are showing encouraging initial results, but initially the aim will be to decarbonize small planes. The Beyond Aero start-up is developing an engine powered by a hydrogen fuel cell. “It’s a business jet to start with, it’s where the technologies are the most mature“, describes Eloa Guillotin, the co-founder.

“A business jet is ten times more emissions compared to an airliner. We are a small aircraft, six passengers, which is globally the European market“, she adds. The co-founder hopes to release a first aircraft before the end of the decade.

Until such progress is made, options for reducing aviation emissions are limited. There is the purchase of new, less fuel-consuming aircraft, eco-piloting which allows some savings and aviation biofuels, but which are not yet produced in sufficient quantities.