Welcome to the first part of our short series on cool startups, SMEs, and initiatives we found at Innovation Zero!
These quick clips with interesting companies offer fascinating windows into how climate startups pitch themselves, the challenges they face, and what they are planning to do next.
Instead of one podcast episode, we wanted to test out a Substack-only series covering each in a bit of extra detail. If you like this format, let us know! Alright, let’s get on to the first company, which is basically making and flying electric planes…
Founded in 2018, Flimax attempts to revolutionise and decarbonise air travel and air-cargo markets through the creation of battery and hydrogen-powered aircraft. Based at Duxford Airfield near Cambridge (which is pretty historic), we caught up with Tony Bishop, the aeronautical engineer who founded the company, at Innovation Zero, where Flimax was up for a “most promising solution” award in the transport and logistics category. You can check out their latest news here.
We wanted to speak with Flimax because airline carbon emissions are a big deal. Aviation makes up 2% of energy related CO2 emissions and despite travel restrictions continues to grow rapidly. The key solution, Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) are a huge bucket with severe limitations in scale.
It's smart to take advantage of the battery revolution for planes, so why aren’t more people doing it? Well, listen to our chat with Tony to find out.
Transcript:
Nate: All right. We've found Tony out here on the Innovation Zero balcony. Tony, what's your company in brief, and what brings you to Innovation Zero today?
Tony: Well, we're an electric aircraft company. The big revolution in aviation is going to follow the big revolution that's already happening on the ground. We plan to be at the leading edge of that, starting with small airplanes, which you could do with today's batteries, but eventually more or less everything.
Nate: So electric planes are possible? Because people always ask me: what are we going to do about sustainable aviation fuels? How am I going to visit my family in the future? You think that electric planes are possible?
Tony: Oh, they're not only possible, they exist for training aircraft. Right now we can do – right now with today's batteries – a six seater which goes 400 km, which is getting quite useful. And as batteries improve by about 7% per year, work that out. By 2050 we'll be doing two and a half thousand kilometers, at least 100 passengers, so that covers all of sub regional and regional aircraft. For long range, we'll be using sustainable aviation fuels, so-called for a long time, but they only save about half the carbon. We save it all.
Nate: So what type of flying would your company help displace? Is this like short flights that like a hobbyist might use, or would this be more for island hopping? Help me understand.
Tony: Well, several. We have originally targeted the ‘flightseeing’ market because it's big, it's growing, and there's nothing designed for it. You either sit in a very noisy helicopter or sit behind a pilot, look at the back of his head through a small scratched window. We can provide a panoramic view, whisper quiet, half the operating costs. So that's a very good market to start.
Then we go straight on to our taxi, flying from more or less every small airfield in the world and there are tens of thousands of them. So we can do cross country journeys at taxi like, well, even car like prices. And then we'll move on to cargo, half a tonne initially and growing over time. And then as we get on to a 12 passenger version, we'll be going subregional and flying at least 1000, then on to 24 passengers and above. So our aim is to keep doubling up every few years.
Nate: What's the biggest challenge with designing an electric aircraft? Is it the weight? Is it the materials? Is it just designing an aircraft in general?
Tony: Well, it's no use trying to retrofit an existing aircraft, it just doesn't work. The battery is heavy, so you design around that, completely re-optimize the aircraft. So it's very lightweight, carbon fiber, extremely streamlined. But we can reconfigure it in lots of ways. The motors are small and light, so we can put them where we like. So in our case, right at the back, where they create the least noise.
We do have to carry a lot of battery around, which means a bigger wing than usual, and the whole aircraft is somewhat heavier, but it works, and it's so simple in a conventional aircraft, rather like modern electric cars, they'll hardly have a maintenance schedule to them. They're so simple to operate, but very few moving parts.
Nate: Could I go fly in one of these planes right now?
Tony: You can go and fly in a two seater right now and do circuit training, which I'm about to do. I'm doing my electric aircraft conversion from a conventional aircraft. We're a few years away. We're raising funds at the moment to do the initial development work.
Nate: Is that why you're at Innovation Zero? What brings you here today?
Tony: Money? No, haha, we are talking to various investors and grant funders and so on. We've been doing this for a few months now, and we know it'll take time, especially in the current climate, but we've got such a strong case, I'm sure we'll get there in the end.
Nate: That's awesome. Thanks, Tony, for speaking with us. I can't wait to fly an electric plane someday.
Tony: Go look up Fly About Aviation. He's on our advisory board. And you can learn to fly an electric plane right now.
Nate: Well, we also have this podcast for young people looking to career transition. So, pilots, you can fly electric today, or start to.
Tony: Indeed. Yep, it's there. Okay.
Nate: Wow. Fascinating. Thanks, Tony. That's awesome.
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