A sustainable form of transport – inside and out

With­in the EU it is esti­mat­ed that the trans­port indus­try con­tributes around 25 per cent of total Green­house Gas­es Emis­sions.

This explains why there’s so much expec­ta­tion and excite­ment around the eVTOL industry’s poten­tial to reduce this num­ber and pro­vide a sus­tain­able and reli­able new form of trans­port.

While nobody is doubt­ing the urgency with which sus­tain­able change needs to take place, the avi­a­tion indus­try is supreme­ly com­plex and heav­i­ly reg­u­lat­ed. And this means change comes slow­ly.

Bring­ing sus­tain­able solu­tions to mar­ket

One sim­ple exam­ple is Sus­tain­able Air Fuel (SAF). The first flight using SAF took place in 2008 and the first use on a com­mer­cial air­line was 2011. Yet 12 years lat­er in 2023 less than 0.2 per­cent of com­mer­cial flights used SAF.

Air­craft need­ed adapt­ing, new sup­ply chains were required for deliv­er­ing SAF to air­ports, the fuel mix required need­ed onsid­er­a­tion, safe­ty issues had to be over­come. Reg­u­la­tion is right­ly strict in an indus­try like avi­a­tion to pro­tect the safe­ty of pas­sen­gers.

But reg­u­la­tion means change takes time. There’s clear­ly more to deliv­er­ing sus­tain­abil­i­ty than just the fuel used to pow­er the solu­tion.

Issues such as where the mate­ri­als to build vehi­cles are sourced, how far they need to trav­el, how they are recy­cled at end of life and a mul­ti­tude of oth­er issues will make up the life­long car­bon con­tri­bu­tion of eVTOLs.

Build­ing a sus­tain­able inte­ri­or

The wider avi­a­tion indus­try is cur­rent­ly look­ing at all its process­es to find ways to reduce its car­bon impact. One area of par­tic­u­lar inter­est is inside the cab­in.

Typ­i­cal­ly cab­in inte­ri­ors have been heav­i­ly reg­u­lat­ed and sub­ject to a com­plex maze of intel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty own­er­ship that can make inno­va­tion dif­fi­cult to achieve.

But there’s a groundswell of sup­port for the need to deliv­er more sus­tain­able solu­tions to the cab­in inte­ri­or.

Ini­tia­tives such as the Green Cab­in Alliance are crys­tallis­ing think­ing in this space, as are the devel­op­ment of stronger but lighter mate­ri­als that can be used in the cab­in. Less weight means less fuel burn too – which fur­ther reduces car­bon emis­sions – or in the case of eVTOLs improves dis­tance of trav­el.

The recent Red­Cab­in Trin­i­ty Award for sus­tain­able con­cepts high­light­ed some of the inno­va­tion tak­ing place in the indus­try.

The win­ner was Doy Design’s Ultra Slim low car­bon seat that weighs only 6.6kg per pas­sen­ger. Run­ners up includ­ed Diab Group Sus­tain­able Pan­el for the cab­in inte­ri­or and Expliseat’s TiSeat 2x.

Build­ing the inte­ri­or of the future

For eVTOL com­pa­nies the oppor­tu­ni­ty to build sus­tain­able solu­tions into the cab­in will be par­tic­u­lar­ly engag­ing as it will enhance the over­all mes­sage of deliv­er­ing low­er impact trav­el across the entire life cycle, so it’s encour­ag­ing to see the indus­try embrac­ing ini­tia­tives to reduce its impact.

eVTOL air­craft have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to deliv­er more sus­tain­able solu­tions inside and out — a con­cept the air­line indus­try is start­ing to embrace.

Main image cred­it: Super­nal