In the message His Royal Highness said, “As we emerge from this crisis, the need to decarbonise flight must remain at the top of the agenda. While many are calling for net zero flight by 2050, I would like to challenge you all to think about halving that time frame to 2035.”
To achieve this target, he said “we must acknowledge that the decarbonisation of flight is technically possible. However, more focus is required if it is to be achieved in the necessary time scale.”
In January, The Prince of Wales launched the National Centre for Propulsion and Power at the University of Cambridge’s Whittle Laboratory. The Centre, which is due to open in 2023 will bring together researchers from across UK Universities with industry partners such as Rolls Royce, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Siemens and Dyson to accelerate the development of low-carbon technologies for the propulsion and power sectors.
In his address, The Prince said: “In partnership with Rolls-Royce and funded by the UK Aerospace Technology Institute the Whittle Laboratory also demonstrated its ability to reduce the time taken to develop technologies by a factor of between 10 and 100, speeding up innovation and testing from months into days. This again proves that it is again possible to accelerate our efforts through resourcefulness and the right mindset. It is only through this type of radical change with industry, government and academia working together that we will have a chance of overcoming the climate and biodiversity challenge.”
Image: Hydrogen turbofan aircraft
Credit: Airbus
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge