France’s government is pumping 15 billion euros ($16.9 billion) in rescue money into the pandemic-battered aerospace industry, in hopes of saving its hundreds of thousands of jobs and keeping plane maker Airbus and national airline Air France globally competitive.
In exchange for aid, companies will be required to invest more and faster in electric, hydrogen or other lower-emission aircraft, as France aims to make its aviation industry the “cleanest in the world.”

The Pipistrel eVTOL Concept was unveiled at the 2nd annual Uber Elevate Summit on May 8th, 2018 in Los Angeles, CA. Previously designed as a blended wing body (BWB), the new 801 eVTOL features 8 lift rotors mounted on a lifting surface inboard of the wing. The Pipistrel team also announced that an entire family of eVTOL’s was being developed for scalability and mission-tailored performance.

Since the beginning of 2020, 45 researchers from 20 DLR institutes have been working together on the Exploration of Electric Aircraft Concepts and Technologies (EXACT) project, which is developing new technological components for an environmentally friendly commercial aircraft.

On April 10, 2020, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) compiled guidelines for safe operation of drones driven by hydrogen fuel cells, taking into consideration the perspective of securing the safety of high pressure gas. This effort is expected to contribute to fully securing the safety of high pressure gas in companies’ advancing operations and dissemination of drones driven by hydrogen fuel cells.

Aviation connects and unites people. As people discovered the magic of flight, serving this fundamental need drove a steep growth in air travel. This increase led us to explore innovative technologies to ensure that future generations can enjoy flying as much as we do.

Flying is a growing component of greenhouse gas emissions, and one of the largest for many of us. Can we find a way to halve aviation emissions in the next 10-20 years that doesn’t involve a global pandemic rely on people volunteering to fly less? With planes on track to be 25% of global emissions by 2050, we need to make some big changes to how we fly. Is there a technical solution? Are we close to building low-emission planes?