Clean aviation cooling innovation advancement funded by ATI, with HyFlux and AMRC spearheading the project
In an exciting development for the aviation industry, HyFlux, a Swansea-based clean-tech company, is leading a £1.5 million project named SUPERCOOL. This initiative, which has garnered strong support from local and national stakeholders, including MP Sadik Ali Hassan, seeks to design, manufacture, and test a cryogenic cooling system essential for maintaining the optimum operating temperature for the motor and power electronics in hydrogen-electric aircraft.
The University of Sheffield's Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) is collaborating with HyFlux on this project. The AMRC will support the engineering validation and integration of the cooling system, while HyFlux will head up the project.
The Institute for Advanced Automotive Propulsion Systems (IAAPS), part of the University of Bath, will provide the test infrastructure to qualify the performance of the cooling system under realistic hydrogen conditions. The globally-recognised liquid hydrogen (LH2) test facility at IAAPS will be utilised to complete ground-based validation of the cryogenic cooling system.
TE Connectivity is lending its expertise to accelerate innovations and inspire groundbreaking designs for electric aircraft. The project's goal aligns with AIR's mission to bring electric aviation to everyday life, with the certification of the cooling system a key step in this mission.
The Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) Programme is funding £1.1 million towards the work, with the remaining amount financed by the lead partner. Brookhouse Aerospace has also invested over £500,000 in additional machinery to extend its engineering capabilities.
Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin is upgrading the Republic of Korea Air Force's F-16 Block 52 flight simulators to mirror the advanced capabilities of its modernised F-16 Viper (F-16V) aircraft.
In a separate development, the University of Sheffield is working on the development of cooling systems for hydrogen-electric aircraft in collaboration with HyFlux. This collaboration is part of a broader effort to enable lightweight, high-efficiency cooling required for superconducting motor operation in zero-emission propulsion systems.
Lastly, NCC has adopted Dassault Systèmes' 3DEXPERIENCE platform on the cloud and extended its use to other innovation centres. This move is expected to facilitate more efficient design, development, and testing processes for projects like SUPERCOOL.
The SUPERCOOL project promises to push the boundaries of hydrogen-electric aviation, paving the way for a greener, more sustainable future for air travel.
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