Louis Blériot, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Marcel Dassault… France is a leading nation in aviation and continues to be so with innovations like that offered by Sylphaero and its 100% electric engine, including the co-founders, as well as the 3DExperienceLab expert, are the guests of a Jeunes Pousses podcast dedicated to the subject.
“ Flygskam »: this word of Swedish origin does not designate the name of a piece of furniture to assemble yourself, but the shame of taking a plane in the face of the harmful environmental effects of air transport. And it’s not so much because it represents 2.6% of broadcastsbroadcasts of CO2 that it worries, but rather by the prospects of a significant increase in traffic in the years to come. However, players in the sector did not wait for current challenges to evolve towards more ecologically virtuous models, since CO emissions2 per passenger have fallen by 50% over the last 30 years and the latest generation of planes and engines emit less CO2 per passenger and per kilometer than carcar occupied by one or two people.
Discover the interview with Sylphaero and Lisa Belkichane from 3DExperienceLab by clicking on the play button. © Futura
A new electrothermal engine
Many avenues are currently being explored, particularly to replace the use of fossil fuelsfossil fuelslike the biofuelsbiofuels. “ But the disadvantage is that they always pollute a little and above all, they are expensive and we cannot produce them in sufficiently large quantities today. », explains Damien Engemann, co-founder of Sylphaero, a deeptech start-up which is developing the first 100% electric aircraft jet engines.
“These are reactors in which we do not burn fuel, but we use electric arcs to heat the air”
“ We are developing a new type of electric motor, electrothermal in fact. These are reactors in which we do not burn fuel, but we use electric arcselectric arcs to heat theairair. These are very high power electric arcs which will heat the air to several thousand degrees Celsiusdegrees Celsius and make a plasma from it. And thus, this still makes it possible to generate thrust in the same way as a conventional reactor but without emitting CO2 », he explains.
Accelerate innovation with the 3DExperienceLab
The start-up Sylphaero was supported by the 3DExperienceLab from Dassault Systèmes. Within this structure whose ambition is to accelerate innovation in all industrial sectors, LisaLisa Belkhichane is delighted with this collaboration because “ the advantage of the technology offered by Sylphaero is that we actually have an electric motor with zero CO emissions2 which is innovative in the sense that it also makes it possible to increase the performance of the aircraft, and in this way we will also be able to imagine appsapps not only in civil, but also in space or in other types of propulsion applications “.
