Rolls-Royce has announced the start of three projects under the Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking (CAJU) at the company’s location in Dahlewitz near Berlin.
The CAJU is a European Union-backed public-private partnership that "represents the world’s most ambitious research and innovation agenda for a sustainable aviation sector that contributes to the EU Green Deal and the EU’s Industrial Strategy", according to Rolls-Royce, which listed Airbus, ATR, Dassault, Embraer, Fokker, Leonardo, Safran and around a dozen universities as partners in the projects.
CAJU is to be supported by €1.7 billion worth of public funding, while the private sector will deliver additional financial and in-kind contributions that exceed €2.4 billion, Rolls-Royce said.
The projects "will focus on novel hybrid electric and all-electric regional aircraft, innovative short and medium-range aircraft architectures with highly integrated, ultra-efficient thermal propulsion systems, and disruptive technologies enabling hydrogen-powered flight," said Axel Krein, executive director, Clean Aviation.
“We are proud to be amongst the founding members of the EU’s Clean Aviation initiative and to collectively drive forward research and development that will make sustainable aviation a reality," said Grazia Vittadini, chief technology officer with Rolls-Royce and the company's representative on the Clean Aviation Governing board.