Since coming together for our first-ever conference in May, SATE and its partners have been kept busy attending events and conferences across the length and breadth of the country, advancing the agenda for aviation’s green future.  

The SATE team enjoyed a busy start to the summer, joining the Innovate UK stand at Innovation Zero in May to promote SATE, including presentations from partners Loganair and Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV).

We’ve been working closely with Windracers on its 90-day trial on Orkney, coordinating use cases to help demonstrate the opportunities and impacts. The ULTRA will fly between Eday, North Ronaldsay and Westray. Use cases include Streamline Shipping, the Westray Bakehouse, and members of the community. More on that in the next update.

Our engagement work has also continued over the past few months, meeting with the Department for Transport’s deputy head of engagement for Scotland, Rory Wilkinson, to introduce him to the work underway across the Highlands and Islands to create a more sustainable future for aviation. While continuing our work on the Jet Zero Council, we also met with the Carbon Neutral Islands project manager Cal Lowey to discuss future opportunities for collaboration.

SATE enjoyed some great coverage in Flight Global magazine and was shortlisted for a Scottish Transport Award in the Excellence in Technology & Innovation category, and a National Transport Award in the category ‘Digital and Technology Excellence in Transport’, rounding off what has been an incredibly exciting (and busy!) period for the project team.

Cranfield Aerospace

Cranfield Aerospace has been kept busy attending a series of events so far this summer. Speaking at the Hydrogen Energy Association Annual Conference, Jenny Kavanagh highlighted the various sources of hydrogen that the aviation industry will demand, as well as the projected quantities.  They also spoke at Revolution Aero, discussing their ambitions, challenges, strategies, the technology and the infrastructure & hydrogen supply on a panel discussion alongside ZeroAvia.

Flare Bright

Flare Bright’s Robotic Development Lead, Matthew Starkey, attended the European Navigation Conference in Noordwijk, presenting a paper on their software-enhanced inertial navigation system, which allows for autonomous platforms to continue their mission within GPS-Denied/Disrupted environments.

HITRANS / HAV

HITRANS and HAV announced that a memorandum of understanding has been signed between the organisations, advancing the business case for the deployment of Airlander 10 vehicles in the region. HITRANS have secured six early-production slots of the aircraft, which will be rolled out across the highlands and islands. Read the announcement news story by clicking here.

Loganair

As well as recently celebrating carrying 1.5 million passengers through Glasgow Airport, Loganair attended the PA Consulting, industry and Scottish Government conference in Edinburgh in April. The team also attended and spoke at the Sustainable Aviation Futures Conference in Amsterdam, where head of sustainability, Andy Logan, mentioned SATE and the ambition of the programme.  

Coming up…

Farnborough Air Show blog

Watch this space to hear what the SATE team and our partners got up to at Farnborough Air Show! We’re compiling all partner content and will share soon.

Orkney Aviation Festival

Thursday 12 – Saturday 14 September

The Orkney Aviation Festival is to showcase the past, current and future of aviation in Orkney. SATE is getting a big footprint at this year’s festival to showcase the future of aviation within Orkney and beyond. SATE is set to exhibit on Thursday 12 September plus hold an evening presentation session. More details will be announced soon.