Monte To Purchase 100 FC Aircraft Drives From ZeroAvia
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on electrive.com.
This is the first paragraph.
ZeroAvia and Monte Aircraft Leasing will jointly market hydrogen-powered aircraft to regional operators. Under an agreement now signed between the companies, Monte will purchase up to 100 ZA600 hydrogen-electric powertrains from ZeroAvia to be installed on existing and new 5- to 20-seat aircraft.
Monte look to be an interesting company from their web site, which has this title.
Supporting The Transition Of The Regional Aviation Industry To Net Zero Carbon Emissions
The business model appears to be a well-proven and it is not that far removed from the one, colleagues and myself used to sell the project management system; Artemis.
In our case we took proven Hewlett-Packard computers and and other hardware, added our Artemis software and a custom-made desk and leased the systems to those who wanted to do project management, with as much support as our clients required. Customers just had to supply operators, printer paper and a thirteen amp socket.
Finance was obtained by various innovative methods, often through a bank manager, who was a bit of a rogue. But he was a rogue, who was on the side of the angels.
Later he became a firm friend of mine, before he sadly died within a few days of my wife.
Monte Aircraft Leasing’s model would appear to take a proven aircraft like a Cessna Caravan, Dornier 228 or Dash 8, replace the turboprop engines with a zero-carbon powerplant and then lease the aircraft. Often this will just be an additional lease to the existing operator.
The great advantage of this approach, is that the reengined aircraft does not need to be fully re-certified. It can fly under a Supplemental Type Certificate, which is described like this in Wikipedia.
A supplemental type certificate (STC) is a civil aviation authority-approved major modification or repair to an existing type certified aircraft, engine or propeller. As it adds to the existing type certificate, it is deemed “supplemental”. In the United States issuance of such certificates is under the purview of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Monte seem to have found a good way to make money from going net-zero.
The Anonymous Widower 
I wonder if it would be possible to retrofit a DC3 with a Hydrogen or Battery drive, making it a zero emission aircraft (especially for use in eco-sensitive zones like Canadian wildernesses).
There is a company called Basler who already offer DC3 with modern turboprop engines, so why not eco-drive.
Basler strip the airframe back to bare metal, removing all controls, repair the metalwork, replace pretty much any moving part that is replaceable as part of the process, and install modern avionics and autopilot, to make a nearly new aircraft.
And it is often said that he only replacement for a DC3/C47 is another one (the plane is very well optimised for the missions that it is often used for, with no modern equivalent that comes close and not enough market for any manufacturer to develop one). There was a Russian copy (the Li-2) but I don’t know if any of those still exist and also not popular in current political climate.
Comment by MilesT | June 11, 2022 |