Airborne and Venturi Aviation announce partnership on lightweight composite structures for all-electric aircraft

Sustainable, electric aviation

Venturi Aviation, a Dutch company, developing the Echelon 01, and Airborne, leader in the automated and digital manufacturing of advanced composites, are proud to announce their partnership on lightweight composite structures for all-electric aircraft.

The Echelon 01, an all-electric commuter aircraft with a 44-seat capacity and 500 km range that matches the needs of regional airliners, is envisioned to be launched in 2028 and will be manufactured in volume production from 2029 onward. On Thursday 20^th of January 2021 their design was unveiled.  

Low capex factories for lightweight structures

To realize the Echelon 01, both companies recognize the crucial importance of light weighting to enable sufficient range for this battery-electric regional jet. At the same time, the manufacturing needs to be much more efficient and scalable than traditional aerospace manufacturing processes can deliver.

A mutual collaboration is explored with the objective to develop a digital and automated factory for composite lightweight structures which is much more flexible and dynamic and is based on on-demand manufacturing. New, low-capex manufacturing processes will be researched to avoid the investment in large and expensive infrastructure and instead create smaller, cheaper micro-factories.

Airborne and Venturi both look forward to exploring the possibilities of their cooperation and boosting the revolution to make aviation sustainable.

For more information on the Echelon 01, please look at www.venturi.aero