Sustainable Aviation Test Environment (SATE) 1 & 2

SATE 2

Project overview:

Led by Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd (HIAL), SATE 2 will build on phase one which created the UK’s first low-carbon aviation test centre embedded at a commercial airport. The initial project saw the opening of dedicated hangar facilities and office space for technology developers as well as facilitating a number of demonstration flights of novel aviation technologies.
SATE 2 aims to expand on the success that has already been delivered and develop a UK centre of excellence for sustainable regional aviation.
The project will match innovative aviation technologies with practical use cases in the Highlands and Islands, allowing technology partners to test in a real-world environment, taking them closer to offering sustainable innovation options for commercial use. Identified use cases include:

• Scheduled airline routes;
• Offshore energy services;
• National Health Service activities;
• Island / remote region deliveries;
• Environmental survey and inspection.

In addition, SATE 2 aims to establish an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) hub-and-spoke delivery network, and will conduct demonstration flights of technologies including a hydrogen-electric regional aircraft and a drone flight from Scotland to Norway.

EMEC’S role

EMEC will support the hydrogen-electric flight trials in the project by supplying green hydrogen and the use of a bespoke hydrogen refuelling system compatible with an airport environment.

Partners:

• HIAL (lead partner)
• Arcadis Consulting Limited
• Connected Places Catapult
• EMEC
• Flare Bright Ltd
• The Highlands and Islands Transport Partnership (HITRANS)
• Loganair
• University of Highlands and Islands (UHI)
• Windracers Limited
• Zeroavia
• Highlands & Islands Enterprise (HIE)
• Orkney Islands Council

News:

July 18: Funding boost for sustainable aviation testing in Orkney

Funder:

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has awarded the second phase of the SATE project £8.9 million funding as part of the Future Flight Challenge competition

SATE 1

Kirkwall Airport set to be the location for a Sustainable Aviation Test Environment (Courtesy of SATE)

Project overview:

The SATE project project will create the UK’s first operationally-based, low-carbon aviation test centre at Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (HIAL)’s Kirkwall Airport in the Orkney Islands.

The project will trial a host of exciting aviation technologies including low-carbon aircraft that utilise electric, hydrogen or synthetic fuel to replace conventional fossil fuels.
It will also trial UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), e.g. drones, and demonstrate how they can be used to meet the needs of real-life use cases e.g. on-demand medical supplies directly to hospitals and health centres.

SATE will also look at how to implement zero-carbon airport infrastructure using green energy sources, as well as digital networking and the development of resilient communications. The socio-economic impact of new technologies and services in the region, and the skills and training needed to support them, will be assessed.

SATE provides the blueprint for net zero regional aviation, placing the UK at the forefront of the transition to low carbon aviation. The project will provide an important step towards delivering HIAL’s ambitions to decarbonise operations by 2040.

Why Kirkwall Airport in Orkney?

As an exemplar early-adopter of other low-carbon technologies, Orkney is an ideal ‘living laboratory’ for testing aviation and aerospace technology. Kirkwall Airport is well suited as a test environment location due to the variety of short routes it offers acting as a hub connecting Orkney’s island communities through its inter-island flight service.

SATE project consortium:

Led by HIAL, the SATE project brings together a consortium of aviation industry specialists, local Orkney and Caithness businesses, public sector bodies and academia:

Technology partners

To find out more about the SATE technology partners and the aviation technologies to be demonstrated, click on the links below;

Ampaire (electric powered aircraft)

Flarebright (drone)
Loganair (Sustainable Aviation Fuels)
Windracers (UAV)

ZeroAvia (hydrogen-electric aircraft)

EMEC’s role

During the project, EMEC will support Kirkwall airport infrastructure development with ground support equipment for the flight trials and will investigate the future energy infrastructure requirements for the airport. As a test site, EMEC provides a template for the type of activity and the business model of the project proposed within SATE and EMEC will investigate viable long-term business models for a sustainable aviation test centre.

Project news:

• October 2021: Royal Mail trial delivering mail to North Ronaldsay community by drone via SATE project
• August 2021: Ampaire demonstrates first hybrid electric aircraft in Scotland
• January 2021: Orkney to become Sustainable Aviation Test Environment

Funder:

The project was awarded £3.7 million  from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund as part of the Future Flight Challenge