Aura Aero signs EASA pre-application services contract

Aura Aero, designer and developer of the ERA (Electric Regional Aircraft), has reached another milestone towards its clean-sheet, 19-seat all-electric aircraft with the signing of a PAC (Pre-Application Services Contract) with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). This contract will help set the frame by which EASA will later certify the ERA aircraft. EASA defines the PAC as a service offered ‘to external stakeholders interested in receiving technical advice services prior to or outside of an actual certification process’. Under this specific PAC, the ‘introduction of a product with embodied innovative or disruptive technologies,’ Aura Aero will also help the authority ‘draft the generic elements to set the foundations of the future formal product certification basis,’ notes the manufacturer. Additionally, Aura Aero has launched the first large calls for tender for various work packages (including fuselage design, airframe engineering services, turbogenerator, primary flight control system actuators and inceptors). It hopes to have the first elements of the initial flight test aircraft manufactured as soon as 2025.