AeroMorning performed an interview with Bruno Darboux, Aerospace Valley President.

What is the role of Aerospace Valley today?

Bruno Darboux: The role of the Aerospace Valley cluster is to lead the Aeronautics and Space industries in the Greater Southwest of New Aquitaine and Occitania.

What does Aerospace Valley’s approach to the Green Aircraft consist of?

Bruno Darboux:   There is no single miracle technology. At the moment we are in a very broad exploration phase, but we already know that the green aircraft will be made  of several formulas : energy, propulsion and aircraft design formulas.

– The first of these formulas, which is fundamental, is to have the lightest aircraft possible with the best aerodynamic formulas and the best performance in order to have the most light aircraft possible.

This is the Holy Grail that every aircraft manufacturer must seek.

– Secondly, with regard to the implementation of propulsion techniques:

Electric propulsion is attractive, but it cannot be based solely on batteries, which are too heavy, so we need to work on hybridization formulas between electric power and other fuels, to achieve a hybrid electric propulsion system that has its place in the field of possibilities for the aviation of the future.

Another major asset: Sustainable Alternative Fuels (SAF).

This involves replacing fossil kerosene with other fuels bearing similar chemical formulations, which would make it possible to maintain current propulsion formulas.

We are perfectly in line with this approach.

The approach can be top-down or bottom-up.

The Aerospace Valley cluster is driving these two movements.

• On the one hand, the major groups are thinking about technological solutions for creating a low-carbon aircraft and ecosystem solutions to ensure that this low-carbon aircraft can be sourced from a global ecosystem.
• On the other hand, we are helping the major groups to accelerate their research activities by putting them in touch with suppliers of technological solutions that can help them, whether these technologies come from the aeronautical world or elsewhere.

– In the opposite direction, we are particularly interested in light aviation, where there are many innovations and entrepreneurs who want to bring new aircraft technologies to fruition in a very short timeframe.

For the cluster, it’s a question of building up an ecosystem that doesn’t exist today, or only very weakly. It’s a challenge that goes far beyond aviation and affects energy.

Finally, hydrogen technologies are very promising.

Hydrogen is a supposedly a green source of energy in the future. Putting hydrogen on board of aircraft implies a strong transformation of aerodynamic and propulsion formulas, but it is very promising in the time it will take to mature a complicated technology. Nevertheless, the key players in the sector are working on hydrogen, and we are helping this sector to make rapid progress on the subject.

The Green Aircraft will not be just a beautiful prototype, the Green Aircraft must be a commercial product that must be developed quickly, that must be industrialized, that must find a market and be economically efficient, in a competitive environment, since it is not just here in Occitania that people are working on the aircraft of the future: the Americans and the Chinese are progressing as well and we are a region of the world at the forefront at the moment, with serious competitors.

To achieve competitiveness for our next generation of aircraft, we must also transform our industrial systems and bring together our entire industry, through strong action on the digitalization of the aeronautical sector.

We must transform our factories: our aeronautical factories were designed for small series, whereas green air transport is set to develop.

We are moving towards longer production series, and we are looking for flexibility in production. A more digitalized and more automated factory should enable us to achieve this while maintaining our jobs in our region. This research must be done at all levels, through VSEs, ETIs and large groups. We are therefore taking action to help companies transform and digitalize. In particular, we are setting up a factory school next to the B612 in the Jacqueline Auriol Foundation building in Toulouse, which will serve as a kind of test bed for new technologies in the 4.0 connected factory for the mechanical engineering and aeronautics sectors in particular. We have a similar initiative in New Aquitaine with the Practice project.

AeroMorning: What are you doing for Defense, which is a sovereignty issue?

Bruno Darboux: Aeronautics and space are dual industries. We use the same technologies and the same product offerings to address two sectors: the civilian sector and the military sector. So we are driving an ecosystem that is essentially a dual ecosystem.  It is very well established as such in New Aquitaine, where we have players in the defense sector who are major contractors for the sector. In Occitania, we are a little more focused on the civilian sector, with Airbus as the main contractor, but we are looking to activate possible synergies and sources of growth  for players who are a little too anchored in the civilian sector. We’re helping them find new markets on the military side, and this is a good time to do so, since Dassault and Airbus Helicopters, for example, have won major export contracts.

Also for the space sector, defense is an expanding sector. The Air and Space Command, which is going to be based in Toulouse, is keen to innovate on the basis of technologies available in the region. This is an opportunity for our technological players in the region.

In order to help our members gain a foothold in more defense markets, we have formed partnerships.

To boost innovation in sectors that need it, concrete actions have been launched.  For example, we organized a “hackathon” on defence in the space sector, in partnership with the French Air and Space Command.   We also organized a defence day in Bordeaux with the Defense Innovation Agency (AID).

AeroMorning: How does Aerospace Valley work with the region’s universities and academic institutions?

Bruno Darboux: The Aerospace Valley cluster has a large industrial base, especially SMEs, but it also has a whole regional academic ecosystem that it activates so that innovations are transferred from the academic world to the industrial world.  The Aerospace Valley cluster acts regionally with the support of the New Aquitaine and Occitania regions, and also nationally by activating funding relays at the state level with the CORAC (French Civil Aeronautics Research Council) and the DGAC (French General Directorate of Civil Aviation), with the DGE (French General Directorate of Enterprises), and it also acts at the European level with subsidies from the EU through the Clean Aviation and Horizon Europe projects that are starting up.

AeroMorning: What actions is the cluster taking in terms of skills retention and acquisition?

Bruno Darboux: Our aeronautics and space sectors were hit hard by the Covid crisis, the air transport crisis, they are in the process of recovering from this crisis, and have significant growth prospects. Both in aeronautics and in space.

The key factor in this growth phase is the human factor. Having the right people, the right skills, to carry out projects and deliver products.

New products will require new skills because new technologies will be implemented. These skills are difficult to find because they are specialized skills in a tight market and recruitment in the sector has resumed. Our companies are having trouble recruiting at the moment.

One of the objectives of the Aerospace Valley cluster is therefore to ensure that the right training courses are implemented and that the right skills are brought to the market at all levels, engineers, technicians and operators.

The Aerospace Valley cluster wants to focus on these new skills to be able to implement hydrogen, electricity, alternative fuels, and all the mechanical disciplines that will make tomorrow’s aviation and space successful. Not to mention digital technology, which is everywhere. Nadia DIDELOT for AeroMorning