United Kingdom: Faradair set to revolutionise regional air travel from new Duxford home By Paul Eden

Faradair chose Farnborough’s virtual airshow week to announce Imperial War Museum Duxford as the location of its new headquarters. The Museum’s long-held ambition to juxtapose modern industry with world-standard aviation heritage makes Faradair and its game-changing hybrid aircraft vision an ideal first partner.

Speaking to Faradair Founder & CEO Neil Cloughley, it’s also abundantly obvious why Duxford is Faradair’s spiritual home. We chatted alongside a Hurricane, that most British of fighting aeroplanes.

Neil Cloughley has spent years working to fund Faradair’s Bio-Electric Hybrid Aircraft (BEHA) M1H, determined throughout that if it could possibly remain British, then it ought to. Why?

“Because we’re good at it,” he says. “That’s the core reason. And we haven’t done it for a long time. We’ve become comfortable with having percentages of programmes, which may be very big, but we’ve proven throughout history that we’re very good at building whole aircraft.”

Speaking at Duxford late in July, Cloughley expected to ‘move in’ early in September. (He is doing just that this week). Beyond an initial presence comprising a couple of offices, one of them overlooking the magnificent airfield itself, Faradair plans to build a high-tech hangar on the site, combining the M1H final assembly line with public viewing access.

BEHA M1H

The latter is particularly important for Cloughley. “I came to Duxford as a child. Seeing the history inspired me just as it inspires future generations, so why not show them the fabulous heritage and the path to where we’re going? We can use that to drive interest in STEM subjects; wouldn’t it be great if a child came to the museum, discovered the history, glimpsed the future and thought ‘that’s a career path I want to follow’? The holy grail is then to see that young person coming to work for us, at Duxford, a decade, maybe 15 years later.”

Meanwhile, Faradair is looking to unusual aerodynamic solutions, advanced materials and hybrid-electric propulsion in its quest to produce a 5-tonne payload utility aircraft of extraordinary performance. A modern assembly facility, combined with SAF, intelligent carbon offsetting, and Faradair’s hybrid turbine-electric powerplant will ensure the M1H’s impeccable environmental credentials; yet there’s far more to the aircraft.

Among its residents, IWM Duxford boasts Classic Wings, a family-owned restoration specialist that also operates vintage de Havilland Dragon Rapide airliners. Faradair’s futuristic design could, in many ways, be the great grandson of de Havilland’s elegant biplane. In its heyday, the Dragon Rapide helped open up regional connectivity. Now the M1H is set to write the next chapter in that continuing story, providing operators with an efficient, sustainable platform with exactly the capacity and utility they require to build successful networks in an emerging, post-pandemic market shaped by environmental concerns and the needs of a COVID-aware travelling public.

A life-long, profoundly passionate aviation enthusiast, Paul E. Eden began writing about aircraft in 1996 and became a freelance aerospace writer and editor in 2003. He says his addiction began with a Matchbox Spitfire model kit and the Ladybird Book of Aircraft, around 1975. Since then, he has written for the Official RAF Annual Review and Salute publications, and currently edits and writes Executive and VIP Aviation International magazine. A regular contributor to a number of specialist publications, including Aerospace, the journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society, and airline, cargo and flight test magazines, he also blogs for Runway Girl Network.

His first book for Bloomsbury, The Official Illustrated History of RAF Search and Rescue, was published on 25th June 2020.

Blog: https://pauleeden.wordpress.com
http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/paul-e-eden/15/9a5/671
Twitter: @TwoDrones

BlueSky Business Aviation News | 3rd September 2020 | Issue #571

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