Boeing e JetBlue investem em empreendimento de aeronaves elétricas
A startup enterprise based in the Seattle area has drawn funding from Boeing and JetBlue Airways to study and develop hybrid-electric regional airplanes that would fly between 10 and 50 passengers as far as 700 miles. Zunum Aero plans to have the airplane ready for service some time early next decade, not a bit too soon for a segment of the airline industry already in the midst of contraction due to escalating costs and regulatory impediments.
Zunum thinks the airplanes can help rejuvenate a network of 5,000 underused regional and general aviation airports in the U.S., while offering what it calls a fast, flexible and affordable alternative to highways and high-speed rail. The Kirkland, Washington-based company characterizes its plan to “democratize” air travel by lowering operating costs to the point that would allow for 40- to 80-percent lower airfares. Meanwhile, door-to-door travel times would shrink by 40 percent on busy corridors and by as much as 80 percent on less trafficked ones.
“The shift of the industry to large aircraft and long ranges driven by gas turbines has concentrated almost all air traffic to just two percent of our airports, creating a massive transport gap over regional distances where there is no high-speed alternative,” said Zunum Aero CEO and founder Ashish Kumar. “As a result, door-to-door times for most journeys are no better than they were 50 years ago. Hybrid propulsion is an industry-changing solution, enabling midsize aircraft on regional routes to have better cost efficiencies than airliners.”
From an environmental perspective, the hybrid-electric vehicles would initially cut community noise by 75 percent and emissions by 80 percent. Eventually, as battery densities improve, the company believes it could produce airplanes that generate no greenhouse gas emissions.
Now three years into development, Zunum Aero has attracted a multidisciplinary team of experts in aircraft engines and electric vehicle disciplines, including leaders of two flying electric vehicle programs and the leader of a NASA-funded program on drives for electric airliners.
Along with backing by Boeing through its Boeing HorizonX “innovation cell” and JetBlue Technology Ventures, Zunum has formed a long-term partnership with the Center of Power Optimization of Electro-Thermal Systems, an NSF Engineering Research Center at the University of Illinois. Separately, the team has engaged with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration since 2014 on certification standards for electric aircraft. The company said it expects the FAA to develop the first set of standards for electric aircraft next year.
Fonte: Ain Online 05/04/2017
