Heathrow Airport has launched a grand innovation prize to encourage the development of electric-hybrid aircraft.
The transport hub is offering to waive landing fees for one year for the first such aircraft that is put into regular service in and out of Heathrow. That’s worth almost £1 million and it’s hoped that the incentive will encourage more airlines to consider switching to electric planes.
John Holland-Kaye, Heathrow Airport CEO, launched the prize at a Business Green summit this week, to coincide with the government’s Green GB week.
Aside from the fact that they’ll use fewer fossil fuels to operate, electric aircraft will be much quieter. Getting more operators to use electric-hybrid aircraft will also help Heathrow to meet the goals it outlined in its own sustainability strategy recently.
Mr Holland-Kaye stated: “Heathrow has long been a leader in sustainable aviation. We championed carbon neutral growth in aviation, which will come into effect in 2020. The next frontier is zero carbon flying.”
He added that he hopes this prize can make it a reality for the airport by 2030. With over 100 electric aircraft projects already underway around the world, there’s likely to be stiff competition among airlines to land this prize.
Business secretary Greg Clark announced this week that the government is making a new £60 million fund available to support innovation in four key areas to help tackle climate change.
The four research programmes in line for a share of the funding are UK climate resilience, clean air: analysis and solutions, constructing a digital environment and landscape decisions.
If you need support with an aerospace engineering project in the UK, contact us to find out more about our expertise.