Airtanker

Equitix are proud investors in AirTanker, who deliver essential flexible capabilities to the Royal Air Force and the civil leasing market. AirTanker are innovators, and continuously seek ways to make improvements to support a more sustainable future. They support the RAF’s mission of becoming NetZero by 2040, and a special test flight this week marks a significant step forward towards this important milestone.

On Wednesday, the Voyager aircraft carried out a 90-minute flight replicating a typical Air Transport operation to demonstrate the potential operational use of 100% sustainable fuel (made from waste products, such as cooking oil or feedstocks and has the potential to reduce carbon emissions associated with flights by up to 80%).

This flight marks three world-first achievements; the first time 100% SAF has been used to operate a flight within the UK, the first 100% SAF flight for an Airbus A330, and the first 100% SAF flight on a military wide-bodied aircraft.

To achieve this capability, AirTanker led and coordinated a trial programme, hosting and bringing together the collaborative efforts of an expert trials team which included Airbus, Rolls-Royce and RAF test pilots and engineers from No. 206 Squadron. Over the past few months, AirTanker have also been assessing a variety of sustainability options in addition to these important SAF trials to ensure the longevity and effectiveness of what it can achieve in the long term.

Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston said: “Climate change is a transnational challenge that threatens our resilience, our security and our collective prosperity. That is why I have set the RAF the ambitious challenge of becoming the world’s first net-zero Air Force by 2040. The way we power our aircraft will be key to meeting that challenge and the RAF is already thinking about how we will operate beyond fossil fuels.”

Achal Bhuwania, Equitix CIO said: “We are proud to be supporting the innovative, hard work AirTanker undertakes to ensure it provides solutions to delivering sustainable, long-term critical services for the nation, and we are equally proud to support the RAF in its important mission to achieve NetZero by 2040”

Congratulations to the teams at RAF, Airbus, Rolls-Royce and AirTanker.

#criticalservices #sustainability #netzero #innovation