FIA 2026: Sora Aviation and Toray Advanced Composites sign MoU at Farnborough International Airshow

Sora Avi­a­tion today announce the sign­ing of a Mem­o­ran­dum of Under­stand­ing (MoU) with Toray Advanced Com­pos­ites focused on the sup­ply of advanced com­pos­ite mate­r­i­al solu­tions for the S‑1, a first-of-its-kind, 30-seat elec­tric Ver­ti­cal Take-Off and Land­ing (eVTOL) air­craft, designed in the UK.

The agree­ment was signed at the Farn­bor­ough Inter­na­tion­al Air­show (FIA) at the Toray Chalet, under­scor­ing the impor­tance of the UK’s pre­mier aero­space exhi­bi­tion as a cat­a­lyst for indus­tri­al col­lab­o­ra­tion and inno­va­tion. The frame­work reflects a shared com­mit­ment to long-term coop­er­a­tion, engi­neer­ing excel­lence and strength­en­ing the UK’s advanced aero­space man­u­fac­tur­ing ecosys­tem.

Under the MoU, Toray Advanced Com­pos­ites and Sora Avi­a­tion will work togeth­er to inte­grate advanced car­bon fibre com­pos­ite mate­ri­als through­out the S‑1 air­frame and pro­pro­tor blades. These mate­ri­als will be utilised in both pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary struc­tures, where min­imis­ing weight while max­imis­ing strength, dura­bil­i­ty and fatigue resis­tance is crit­i­cal. Their appli­ca­tion will con­tribute to improved air­craft per­for­mance, increased ener­gy effi­cien­cy and long-term oper­a­tional reli­a­bil­i­ty.

“Work­ing togeth­er with Sora Avi­a­tion reflects Toray Advanced Com­pos­ites’ ongo­ing com­mit­ment to enabling inno­va­tion with­in the eVTOL sec­tor through advanced com­pos­ite mate­r­i­al solu­tions,” said Dr Stu­art Mor­ris, Busi­ness Growth Leader – Aero­space at Toray Advanced Com­pos­ites.

“We are proud to sup­port the S‑1 pro­gramme and col­lab­o­rate with Sora Avi­a­tion on the devel­op­ment of this pio­neer­ing air­craft,” Dr Mor­ris added. “By com­bin­ing Toray’s exper­tise in advanced mate­ri­als with Sora’s inno­v­a­tive approach to air­craft design, we are help­ing to accel­er­ate the deliv­ery of a next-gen­er­a­tion aero­space plat­form. Togeth­er, we are demon­strat­ing how inno­va­tion in mate­ri­als, man­u­fac­tur­ing and engi­neer­ing can shape the future of low­er-emis­sion air mobil­i­ty.”

The S‑1 is a ‘clean-sheet’ design, opti­mised for high capac­i­ty on routes that typ­i­fy dom­i­nant pro­ject­ed use cas­es. Its sim­ple, ful­ly elec­tric design promis­es a safe, zero-emis­sion and afford­able alter­na­tive to today’s con­gest­ed cities. The col­lab­o­ra­tion between Sora Avi­a­tion and Toray Advanced Com­pos­ites sup­ports cer­ti­fi­ca­tion com­pli­ance, indus­tri­al­i­sa­tion readi­ness, and long term main­tain­abil­i­ty.

“The S‑1 is a UK air­craft pro­gramme built on strong indus­tri­al part­ner­ships,” said Mal­colm Fos­ter, Chief Tech­ni­cal Offi­cer at Sora Avi­a­tion. “Work­ing with Toray Advanced Com­pos­ites allows us to com­bine advanced mate­ri­als exper­tise with indus­tri­al reli­a­bil­i­ty, sup­port­ing our ambi­tion to deliv­er a high­ly effi­cient and sus­tain­able air­craft for oper­a­tors world­wide.”

“Long term trust based indus­tri­al rela­tion­ships are essen­tial for the suc­cess of com­plex aero­space pro­grammes,” added Furqan Afzal, Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer at Sora Avi­a­tion. “Work­ing togeth­er with Toray Advanced Com­pos­ites pro­vides a strong foun­da­tion for both pro­to­typ­ing and series pro­duc­tion of the S‑1.”

This joint agree­ment under­scores the shared ambi­tion of Sora Avi­a­tion and Toray Advanced Com­pos­ites to strength­en UK aero­space capa­bil­i­ties and con­tribute to a future for advanced air mobil­i­ty that is safe, sus­tain­able and avail­able to all.