UK: “East Anglia a Potential Hub for AAM”

East Anglia is aim­ing to be the heart of Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty (AAM) for the UK, reports www.edp24.co.uk. In fact, the east­ern region wants to become the coun­try’s first Avi­a­tion Devel­op­ment Zone (ADZ). 

EDP writes, “The zone would see the area lead the way in devel­op­ing futur­is­tic flight tech­nolo­gies such as small elec­tric air­craft and drones, using sys­tems known as Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty.” 

Adding, “And while fly­ing taxis might sound like some­thing out of The Jet­sons, many believe that tak­ing one could be as nor­mal as flag­ging a cab with­in a decade — though per­haps a touch more expen­sive.” 

Nor­wich-based pri­vate char­ter air­line Sax­on Air, Nor­wich Air­port and Nor­folk and Suf­folk Coun­ty Coun­cils have joined forces to back the plans for this Zone. 

Recent­ly, the UK Labour gov­ern­ment out­lined its ambi­tion for the UK to have “the most advanced avi­a­tion tech­nol­o­gy ecosys­tem in the world” announc­ing UKP20 mil­lion in fund­ing.

UK Gov­ern­ment “to Fund over UKP20 Mil­lion for British Drone and eVTOL Indus­tries”

This will help to expand the use of drones for emer­gency ser­vices and fly pas­sen­gers in elec­tric air taxis from as soon as 2028, sub­ject to the usu­al reg­u­la­to­ry red tape.

Sax­on Air is one such UK avi­a­tion com­pa­ny who has been tri­alling elec­tric air­craft in the region. The firm uses sus­tain­able avi­a­tion fuel pro­duced through renew­able feed­stocks such as waste oils and agri­cul­tur­al residues.

The area is also a hive of com­mer­cial drone activ­i­ty, with com­pa­nies like Hex­Cam, based at Felthor­pe Air­field, offer­ing a range of aer­i­al ser­vices to the ener­gy, con­struc­tion and prop­er­ty sec­tors since 2011.

Sax­on Air heli­copter receiv­ing Sus­tain­able Avi­a­tion Fuel — (Cred­it Sax­on Air) and Elec­tric Pip­istrel Velis (Image NEBOair)

Alex Durand, Saxon’s CEO, com­ment­ed, “The East of Eng­land already sup­ports avi­a­tion inno­va­tion by tak­ing a UK lead in the devel­op­ment of elec­tric air­craft and com­mer­cial drones. The poten­tial for unlock­ing fur­ther growth through bet­ter con­nec­tiv­i­ty, based on emerg­ing clean avi­a­tion inno­va­tion, is a once in a gen­er­a­tion oppor­tu­ni­ty.”

He con­tin­ued, “We have the air­space, inno­va­tors and avi­a­tion exper­tise to lead the way in advanc­ing the lat­est clean, eco-friend­ly avi­a­tion tech­nolo­gies. The strat­e­gy we’re announc­ing can offer rur­al com­mu­ni­ties bet­ter con­nec­tiv­i­ty, unlock new skills and raise aspi­ra­tions by show­cas­ing inno­va­tion and oppor­tu­ni­ties.”

The com­pa­ny hoped to show­case the UK’s first cer­ti­fied elec­tric air­craft, Bun­gay-based firm NEBOair’s Pip­istrel Velis, last year. It planned to fly the two-seater air­craft — one of only 10 in the UK — from Nor­wich to Oxford, but was unable to do so due to its range lim­i­ta­tions and the lack of recharg­ing stops on the way. 

Durand explained, “We could­n’t do the trip because of the range gaps in the air­fields.” The failed flight high­light­ed a crit­i­cal issue. The cur­rent infra­struc­ture for elec­tric avi­a­tion in the UK is far from ready.

He con­tin­ued, “How­ev­er, we are enter­ing a new gold­en age of flight cen­tred around elec­tric air­craft, so the required infra­struc­ture will improve.”

Paul Hui­jts being shown a Sax­on Air Air­craft (Cred­it: Sax­on Air)

The ADZ plans were unveiled dur­ing a vis­it to East Anglia by the Dutch ambas­sador to the UK, Paul Hui­jts. The Nether­lands is the biggest trad­ing part­ner for Nor­folk and Suf­folk and it is hoped his recent vis­it can help to unlock Dutch invest­ment across the region.

The ambas­sador’s two-day vis­it began at Felixs­towe Port in Suf­folk and fea­tured tours of Sax­on Air at Nor­wich Air­port and Nor­wich Research Park, before con­clud­ing at the city’s Sains­bury Cen­tre.

Hui­jts remarked, ”East Anglia and the Dutch have many his­tor­i­cal con­nec­tions. Those ties res­onate today from Nor­wich Air­port flights to Schiphol and shared exper­tise and col­lab­o­ra­tion in areas such as agri­cul­ture and health.”

Chris Starkie, Direc­tor of Growth and Invest­ment at Nor­folk Coun­ty Coun­cil, said, “Avi­a­tion East rep­re­sents a bold new vision for the region, lever­ag­ing the pow­er to cre­ate faster, green­er and more acces­si­ble con­nec­tiv­i­ty solu­tions. At the heart of this ini­tia­tive is the cre­ation of the Inno­va­tion Hub at Nor­wich Air­port, a cen­tral devel­op­ment zone ded­i­cat­ed to the advance­ment of sus­tain­able avi­a­tion tech­nolo­gies.” 

He added, “This will sup­port new plat­form oper­a­tors and ensure that the region becomes a lead­ing force in the next gen­er­a­tion of air trav­el.”

Ban­bury in Oxford­shire is already a grow­ing hub for UK drone devel­op­ment and eVTOLs. Close by, for exam­ple, is the home of Skyfly and its fixed-wing Axe air­craft which allows it to either take off ver­ti­cal­ly or land on a run­way.

 Vir­gin Atlantic, Joby Avi­a­tion Part­ner­ship and Lon­don Hub Net­work fea­tur­ing Nor­wich (Cred­it: Joby)

Mean­while, Bris­tol-based Ver­ti­cal Aero­space is the largest of the eVTOLs present­ly being devel­oped in the UK, while Vir­gin Atlantic and U.S‑based Joby Avi­a­tion recent­ly announced a part­ner­ship to offer short-range jour­neys across the UK via a fly­ing taxi ser­vice, hope­ful­ly with­in the next three years. Flights will be sold for up to four pas­sen­gers at speeds of 200 mph from hubs at Heathrow and Man­ches­ter Air­port.

In the future, cus­tomers may be able to trav­el from Nor­wich as part of the Lon­don Hub net­work, but the time­line for the roll-out, as well as pric­ing, remains unclear.

There­fore, it is quite fea­si­ble for the UK to cre­ate var­i­ous green avi­a­tion hubs around the coun­try in the future, includ­ing East Anglia.

News Source: https://www.edp24.co.uk/

(Top image: Alex Durand — Cred­it: Sax­on­Air)

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