Airbus’s multi-path approach to decarbonization took another new direction last week when the company said it is probing how superconductivity technology could make a difference. During its Sustainability Summit event in Toulouse, France, and Munich last week, the airframer announced that it has joined the European Laboratory for Particle Physics in a demonstrator program aimed at promoting the adoption of superconductivity and cryogenics in airborne electrical distribution systems.
The Switzerland-based laboratory, which operates under its French acronym, CERN, focuses most of its research on its subterranean Large Hadron Collider, which is the world’s largest and highest-energy particle collider. Its new project with Airbus is called the Superconductor for Aviation with Low Emissions (SCALE) and it will evaluate how superconductors could be deployed to achieve greater energy efficiency for future aircraft systems.
