The Engineer

C2I 2023 Aerospace & Defence Winner: Retroflight Alpha (Future Flight Landing and Infrastructure - FFLP2)

In-Depth

The burgeoning market for electrified flight requires fast-charging facilities that will not overwhelm the electricity grid.

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Category: Aerospace & Defence

Headline Sponsor: STFC

Project: Retroflight Alpha (Future Flight Landing and Infrastructure - FFLP2)

Partners: Petalite, Custom Interconnect Limited, Oxfordshire County Council, Midlands Aerospace Alliance, Vanti, ARC Aero Systems

The winners of the Aerospace category in the 2024 C2I awards epitomize everything that is positive and achievable when working in a collaborative team.

Based in Aston, Birmingham, Petalite is a scale-up that has developed a new form of electric vehicle charger that aims to disrupt the full bridge charger market with its patented SDC device.

According to company founder and CEO Leigh Purnell, current charging facilities are sold as a product into infrastructure with a two-to-five-year warranty. The economic case for these first-generation facilities is weak given the installation, maintenance and operational life of them.

Petalite’s SDC solution brings modularity and scalability to charging, and that includes recharging the electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft that are set to criss-cross our skies in the near future.

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C2I 2023
C2I