February 2021

NEWS n www.drivesncontrols.com February 2021 9 THE UK-BASED specialist electric motor manufacturer Aeristech is expanding and creating up to 60 jobs after being awarded £2.75m of Government funding as part of the $49.7m UK-US HyFlyer II project which aims to deliver the world’s first 19-seat hydrogen-electric powered aircraft by 2023. Aeristech is planning to expand its aerospace activities, including developing technologies such as power-dense electric motors and controls for hydrogen fuel-cell compressors. The company is investing in an advanced facility in the West Midlands and, over the next four years, expects create up to 60 skilled roles in areas such as power electronics and drive engineering. The HighFlyer II project, led by the US-UK sustainable aviation developer ZeroAvia – and including the European Marine Energy Centre and Aeristech as partners – aims to produce the world’s first certifiable hydrogen-electric powertrain for aircraft with up to 19 seats by 2023, making zero- emission flights a reality for distances of up to 500 miles (926km). The 600kW powertrain is designed to be installed in any suitable airframe and could be commercialised as soon as 2023 using a combination of well- established technologies. The UK Government is backing the project with funding worth £12.3m via the Department for Business Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) and Innovate UK. This funding is being matched by the project partners . ZeroAvia has also secured $21.4m of new funding from investors including Amazon and Shell, taking its total new funding to $37.7m, and the total funding since it was founded to $49.7m. ZeroAvia has also formed a partnership with British Airways to explore how hydrogen-powered aircraft could play a role in sustainable flying. With the help of an earlier ATI grant, ZeroAvia achieved the world’s first flight of a commercial-grade hydrogen-electric aircraft last September at its UK base in Cranfield, using a smaller version of its hydrogen fuel cell powertrain in a six-seater plane. It now hopes to perform initial test flights at Cranfield using the new powertrain, before making a 250–300 nautical mile (463-555km) demonstration flight from an airfield in Orkney later this year. Orkney is the base of the HighFlyer II project partner, the European Marine Energy Centre (Emec), which will provide the hydrogen fuelling systems for the test flights. By 2026, ZeroAvia hopes to be flying aircraft with up to 80 seats over distances of more than 500 miles (926km) and, by 2030, it expects to be powering aircraft capable of carrying more than 100 passengers on 1,000- mile (1,852km) flights. As well as being emission-free, these aircraft will also be quieter, with much lower fuel and maintenance costs than piston-engined aircarft. “Our most recent milestone achievements are closing the gap for the airline industry to begin its transition away from fossil fuels,” says ZeroAvia’s founder and CEO, Val Miftakhov. “In fact, over ten forward-looking airlines are now gearing up to implement our powertrains when they are ready in 2023. Both aviation and the financial markets are waking up to the idea that hydrogen is the only meaningful path towards large- scale, zero-emission commercial flight. Powering a 100-seat plane on hydrogen is not out of the question.” Aeristech – founded in 2006 to develop electrification technologies for automotive supercharger systems – will supply the 25kW fuel cell compressor technology for the 19-seat demonstration aircraft. It says that the HyFlyer II project is the first in a stream of upcoming partnerships that, it predicts, will help some of the aerospace sector’s biggest names to advance their sustainable activities. Aeristech says that its technologies already allow it to produce the world’s fastest accelerating and most power-dense permanent magnet variable-speed electric motors. These high-speed motors are aimed at applications where high efficiencies, power densities and speeds are required. The company recently moved to new headquarters in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, with laboratories, pilot production facilities and four test cells for motor and turbo-machine commissioning, validation and durability testing. Last year, Aeristech received a Queen’s Innovation Award for its electric motor system designs. UK motor firm expands as part of $50m fuel-cell aircraft project Jon Howard has been appointed general manager of Elmo Motion Control Europe, in addition to his position as managing director of Elmo’s UK subsidiary. In his new role, he will be responsible for business development, sales and application support for Elmo across the EU. The Israeli company has subsidiaries in Germany, Italy and Switzerland. Howard was managing director of Heason Technology from 2012 to 2018, following five years as general manager. RS Components has appointed Emma Botfield as regional managing director for the UK and Ireland. She will report to her predecessor, PeteMalpas , who is now RS’EMEA president. Botfield, who joined RS in 2014 as director of sales and customer operations, will be responsible for leading and accelerating performance within the UK and Ireland, as well as defining and implementing the strategic direction and growth strategy for the region. Before RS, Botfield worked at BT Global Services. Andy Hodgson has taken on the role of president of the Manufacturing Technologies Association (MTA) for a two-year term. Hodgson, who is the strategic lead for digitalisation at Siemens, takes over the office from Marcus Burton . He has played an active role in the MTA for many years as a board member and has served as the technical committee chairman for the past two years, stepping down to take on this new role. The UK motor-maker Aeristech will build and supply compressor pumps for the HighFlyer II fuel-cell-powered plane The HighFlyer II project will build on the experience gained from the world’s first commercial-grade hydrogen-electric aircraft which took off from a UK airfield in September 2020