FINN reports from Europe’s biggest business aviation event, EBACE, where environmental concerns and sustainability were at the heart of the show.
A coalition of aircraft manufacturers, fuel suppliers and business aviation operators came together at EBACE to make the case for the industry to prove how easy it is to use biofuels and work toward reducing carbon emissions.
The FINN team even hitched a lift on the Cessna Citation Latitude midsize jet, fuelled with sustainable jet fuel.
The new generation
At the show, the 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) has launched a virtual space for testing new technologies. His electric air taxi that has already flown in Dubai will be demonstrating in Singapore soon
In the innovation zone, a new hybrid aircraft was launched by MAEAM. With 19 seats the BKOYA can fly 3000km and like the AKOYA from its sister company Lisa Airplanes, it can land on snow, water and 350m grass runways.
Other electric revolutionaries on display included Pegasus’s in-development eight-passenger hybrid-electric business jet and Ehang’s two-passenger air taxi.vThe Ehang 184 has already flown in China and could enter air taxi service in Dubai next year in the first-to-market race against Volocopter in Singapore.
On show
Plenty of the airframe programmes are coming to market too, as a busy static line showed.
Embraer’s Praetor 600 received triple certification from the FAA, EASA and Brazil’s ANAC, and its smaller sister the Praetor 500 is due to do the same later in the year
The latest variant of the super-fast turboprop, the TBM940, received its EASA approvals at the show. The company has already scooped up 25 orders.
Also not to be missed was a very different Cessna Latitude in the hi-vis livery of Babcock Scandinavian Air Ambulance for aeromedical operations in Norway. This is the first custom OEM interior solution for medevac missions on the Citation platform.
In recent show reports, we have talked about the importance of lighting. Bombardier’s new Soleil lighting system for its new Global 7500 cabin can be set to suit the owner’s circadian rhythm and individual demands.
