Toulouse. This company is working on a regional transport aircraft without CO2 emissions
Through Anthony Assemat
Published on
Almost 100 years after the pioneers of Aéropostale, the Toulouse start-up Aura Aero would like to follow their path by focusing on electric civil aviation, with the project of commissioning a regional transport aircraft without CO2 emissions in 2026.
“Electric aviation is the future of aviation”
The company is based, as Climbing flight technologies, Toulouse’s new mobility nugget of the future, on the Francazal site, south of the Pink City. “It has not been so long since manufacturers have been interested in electric aircraft and very few people in the world have taken up the subject head on”; explains Jérémy Caussade, president and one of the three founders of Aura Aero (with Fabien Raison and Wilfried Dufaud), who admits to closely following the model of Tesla, pioneer of the electric car. “Electric aviation is the future of aviation, starting with light and regional aviation. It’s a big challenge. Rather than talking, our job is to act and respond with action to environmental threats ”.
![Fabien Raison, Wildried Dufaud and Jérémy Caussade, the three co-founders of Aura Aero.](https://static.actu.fr/uploads/2021/11/aura-aero-co-fondateurs-wilfried-dufaud-fabien-raison-jeremy-caussade.jpg)
With Airbus alumni
Founded in 2018 by former Airbus members, Aura Aero now has around 80 employees and develop an aerobatic plane, R integral, not far from the test tubes of the Californian transport company Hyperloop.
All in a place steeped in history since the building, of the Daydé-Jeumont type, built in 1937, hosted the first air base of the French army. Integral R is one of the many models that the company intends to develop. A first model which has a very classic thermal engine, and which made its first test flight in July 2020, while France had its eyes riveted on the health situation. “This first model has a thermal engine because the markets demand solutions mature quickly. On the other hand, Integral R is virtuous because we use circular economy in the way we design our components to build the aircraft, ”explains Fabien Raison, Director of Operations.
![In the heart of the factory, with a lot of modeling work.](https://static.actu.fr/uploads/2021/11/20211103-163746.jpg)
The device will then be available as an electric motor (with lithium batteries), the model Integral E, for a first flight in 2022 and deliveries from 2023. Note that for the machining of wood parts and panels, Aura Aero has made a subsidiary of Air Menuiserie, located in Bernay (Eure), in Normandy, specialist in wood and wood-carbon aerostructures.
Reduce environmental impact
The industry is concentrating, therefore, for the moment, on small planes, from single-seater to regional aircraft from a few dozen locations.
In this context, Aura Aero is also working on a 19-seater regional electric transport aircraft project, baptized ERA, such as Electrical Regional Aircraft. Engineers are currently perfecting the design of the prototype on a computer: an elongated fuselage, and elongated wings on the roof of the aircraft with six propellers. “Upon entry into service, we will be able to cover a distance of close to 400 km”, specifies the group.
Objective: cover a distance of 400 km
The ERA model, adapted for medical transport, should end CO2 emissions on flights of less than 400 km and reduce them by 80 to 64% on longer journeys. Development costs are estimated at “several hundred million euros”. And the first flight is not expected before the end of 2024 with commissioning expected in 2026.
![The machined parts of a company specializing in wooden aerostructures, Air Menuiserie, based in Bernay (Eure), in Normandy.](https://static.actu.fr/uploads/2021/11/20211103-162655.jpg)
An order for 200 aircraft
In the meantime, the first customers arrive, such as Midi-Pyrénées Voltige or in the region of Châteauroux (Indre). And the first substantial orders are also there. On October 19, 2021, the Irish company Amadeo signed a letter of intent to the purchase of 200 ERA electric planes of the Toulouse start-up, which also wants to stay on Francazal and plans to create a new manufacturing plant.
![The Integral R is one of the models worked by the Toulouse company Aura Aero, located in Francazal, south of Toulouse.](https://static.actu.fr/uploads/2021/11/20211103-164436.jpg)
A partnership with AKKA Technologies
And in May 2021, Aura Aero signed a partnership for the Integral E and ERA models. with Akka Technologies. The latter is an engineering and technology consulting group. Its engineers’ mission is to “contribute to the development of several technological bricks which constitute the basis of the future ERA, as well as to the development and integration of the BMS (Battery Management System), critical equipment of any electric aircraft, on the aircraft. Integral E ”, details the group.
Enough to impose a little more Aura Aero in the aeronautical landscape of the future.
The Minister of Transport visits Francazal
The clean plane and the transport of the future are sectors closely followed by the government six months before the presidential election. Monday, November 22, 2021, the Minister of Transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, will be traveling to Toulouse and more specifically in the Francazal area.
In the afternoon, he will visit the Aura Aéro company. The high voltage training aircraft will be presented to him, before a flight demonstration and a visit to the workshops. The Minister will also visit the “new Toulouse nugget”, Ascendance Flight Technologies, as well as Easy Mile, which is working on self-driving cars.
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