IndiGo’s massive order dominates opening day of Paris Air Show 2023
Paris Air Show opened for business on Monday at Le Bourget airport
India dominated the headlines as soon as Paris Air Show opened for business on Monday as the largest airline, low-cost carrier IndiGo announced a firm order for 500 Airbus A320 family aircraft. It is the largest-ever single aircraft purchase by any airline with Airbus.
IndiGo currently operates over 300 aircraft and has previous orders totalling 480 aircraft which are yet to be delivered between today and the end of this decade. With this additional firm order of 500 aircraft for 2030-2035, IndiGo’s order-book has almost 1.000 aircraft yet to be delivered well into the next decade.
A variety of companies showcased their latest products and services at the air show.
Besides IndiGo order, a diverse range of companies unveiled their products and services at the air show today, marking the first day that the global aviation and aerospace industries have gathered for the world’s largest show after a gap of four years.
One of the unique announcements came from Venturi Group which presented its latest invention, the world’s deformable lunar wheel which will be fitted on to the lunar rover that Venturi is developing. The rover will be deposited on the Moon in 2026 by Space X’s Starship rocket and initially used to transport and deploy payloads.
Venturi says that by 2026, when the rover is put into service at the lunar south pole, where extreme temperatures (-90 to -230°C) prevail, the four wheels supporting the two-tonne vehicle, inclusive of the payload will warp in order to absorb ground irregularities as the FLEX travels at 20 km/h. The wheels will need to perform over at least 1,000 kilometres and resist strong radiation from the south pole.
Another significant development came from carbon transformation company Twelve and Governor of Washington State in the United States Jay Inslee who together announced plans to scale-up production of E-jet fuel, Twelve’s sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) made from CO2 and renewable energy, with a commercial-scale production facility in Moses Lake in Washington.
Twelve says its E-Jet fuel is produced using the company’s carbon transformation technology, which uses only renewable energy and water to transform CO2 into critical chemicals and materials conventionally made from fossil fuels. With up to 90 pc lower lifecycle emissions compared to conventional fossil-based fuels, E-Jet fuel is a drop-in synthetic fuel that works seamlessly with existing aircraft and faces no constraints on feedstock, offering the best viable long-term solution to address emissions in the aviation industry.
