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VoltAero claims world’s first electric-hybrid aircraft flight with 100% sustainable fuel

VoltAero has flown the pro­pri­etary elec­tric-hybrid pow­er­train for its Cas­sio S test­bed aero­plane with 100% sus­tain­able fuel pro­vid­ed by Total­En­er­gies.

Con­duct­ed from VoltAero’s devel­op­ment facil­i­ty at Roy­an, France, the ‘mile­stone flight’ utilised the hybrid powertrain’s elec­tric mode and its inter­nal com­bus­tion engine fuelled by Total­En­er­gies’ Excel­li­um Rac­ing 100, made from bioethanol pro­duced from waste that orig­i­nates in French vine­yards.

“Based on ini­tial results, we cal­cu­lat­ed a CO2 reduc­tion of approx­i­mate­ly 80 per­cent while oper­at­ing the Cas­sio pow­er­train in its elec­tric-hybrid mode,” said Jean Bot­ti, VoltAero’s CEO and Chief Tech­nol­o­gy Offi­cer. “It under­scores the oppor­tu­ni­ty for pro­duc­tion Cas­sio air­craft to replace stan­dard Avgas 100 high-octane fuel for avi­a­tion pis­ton engines.”

Excel­li­um Rac­ing 100 fuel has been used since 2022 in cer­tain auto­mo­bile com­pe­ti­tions, includ­ing the 24-Hour Le Mans endurance race, and is made from wine­mak­ing waste to allow a reduc­tion in CO2 emis­sions of at least 65% over its entire life cycle when com­pared to the fos­sil fuel equiv­a­lent.

Total­En­er­gies Avi­a­tion pres­i­dent Joël Navaron explained: “This flight demon­strates our desire to con­tin­ue our research and devel­op­ment efforts to offer an alter­na­tive to avi­a­tion gaso­line con­tain­ing lead to meet the chal­lenges of avi­a­tion decar­bon­i­sa­tion.”

Cas­sio air­craft will utilise an elec­tric motor in the aft fuse­lage-mount­ed hybrid propul­sion unit for all-elec­tric pow­er dur­ing taxi, take­off, pri­ma­ry flight if the dis­tance trav­elled is less than 150 km, and land­ing. The inter­nal com­bus­tion engine extends range, and serves as a back­up in the event of a prob­lem with the elec­tric propul­sion for fail-safe func­tion­al­i­ty.

VoltAero’s first pro­duc­tion air­craft will be the Cas­sio 330, with a four/­five-seat inte­ri­or con­fig­u­ra­tion and oper­at­ing on a com­bined elec­tric-hybrid propul­sion pow­er of 330 kilo­watts.

It is to be fol­lowed by the six-seat Cas­sio 480 with a com­bined elec­tric-hybrid propul­sion pow­er of 480 kilo­watts, and the Cas­sio 600 – sized at a 10/12-seat capac­i­ty with elec­tric-hybrid propul­sion pow­er of 600 kilo­watts.

Excel­li­um Rac­ing 100 is cer­ti­fied as a 100% sus­tain­able prod­uct accord­ing to the mass bal­ance sys­tem applied by a vol­un­tary cer­ti­fi­ca­tion organ­i­sa­tion approved by the Euro­pean Union.

In June, VoltAero select­ed Avi­dyne to devel­op avion­ics for the Cas­sio 330, which includes cus­tomised soft­ware specif­i­cal­ly tai­lored for elec­tric-hybrid oper­a­tions.

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Jason Pritchard

Jason Pritchard is the Editor of eVTOL Insights. He holds a BA from Leicester's De Montfort University and has worked in Journalism and Public Relations for more than a decade. Outside of work, Jason enjoys playing and watching football and golf. He also has a keen interest in Ancient Egypt.

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