And in more electric news...

Earlier in the year this blog carried news that Air Napier had ordered the 35 of the Maeve 01 44-seat electric powered aircraft... https://3rdlevelnz.blogspot.com/2023/06/air-napier-going-electric.html

Maeve Aerospace has now changed tack and is going hybrid and the aircraft is becoming an 80-seater. A company media release states...

Maeve Aerospace presents a sustainable 80-seater, with jet performance and turbo-prop efficiency European aircraft developer Maeve Aerospace is introducing a new, hybrid-electric 80-seater aircraft and announces its expansion to Oberpfaffenhofen Airport (Munich) to accelerate work on the program. The aircraft is designed to support the future of the regional aviation market, delivering a decarbonized, low energy solution with regional jet performance and turbo-prop economics.

Game-changing combination

The challenge in decarbonizing aviation is energy and cost-efficiency, to ensure adoption by the aviation industry. That is why Maeve is developing the M80, a hybrid-electric aircraft with 800 NM (1482 km) of range, 40% higher energy efficiency and no impact on infrastructure. Maeve has optimized the aircraft concept, to attain best-in-class specifications with regards to passenger capacity, range, lead time and energy needed for implementation.

The Maeve M80 offers the performance of a jet and the efficiency of a turboprop, a game-changing combination. The M80 is a clean sheet design with a newly integrated hybrid propulsion system resulting in significant reduction of mission energy and fuel consumption. This makes the M80 the perfect replacement of both the regional jets and turboprops.

Martin Nuesseler, CTO of Maeve Aerospace: “To my knowledge, there are currently no alternatives in development that are equally sustainable, cost effective, and match the operational needs of airlines and airports. If there are, I would applaud them, because we need more of these realistic solutions to become sustainable”.

Designing cutting edge aircraft

The unique aircraft performance is the result of an aerodynamically optimized clean sheet design and integrated new hybrid propulsion technology. The benefit of taking advantage of an altitude optimized thermal process in combination with electric hybridisation offers the significant energy reduction of the M80. To realize this, Maeve has a robust integrated product development plan in place towards Entry-In-Service in 2031, based on the experience and lessons learned from several aircraft programs, and their industrial ramp-up.

Expansion to Germany

Such a clean-sheet aircraft design requires the best team in the industry and a fast ramp-up of the organization, which is why several aviation experts have joined Maeve in this next development phase. These experts will be based at Maeve’s new location at Oberpfaffenhofen Airport near Munich. Oberpfaffenhofen is a breeding ground for innovation and home to many aviation companies.

About Maeve

Maeve Aerospace is a European innovator in the development of sustainable and economic aircraft design. The company was founded in 2021 with the vision to create sustainable aviation for millions of travelers. Being on a mission to reduce more than 50 MT of CO2 before 2040, Maeve has the strategy of launching a globally competitive aircraft family that has game-changing energy efficiency and technology that is suitable for current airport infrastructure.

The company has offices in Delft, the Netherlands and Oberpfaffenhofen Airport at Munich, Germany. The engineering team of Maeve is staffed with highly qualified and experienced aviation industry professionals and is led by its CTO, Mr. Martin Nuesseler.

Maeve is supported by private investors, the Government of the Netherlands and the European Investment Council (EIC)

One wonders if Air Napier will still be interested