Hello World. Sustainable Aero Lab.

On a positive note to this crazy year: I just cofounded a different project to all my previous ones: The Sustainable Aero Lab - http://sustainable.aero.

Many of you know that I am super proud and happy to be a mentor at the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) in Toronto, Oxford and recently Paris. CDL helps accelerate startups that want to build something massive. It does this in a totally different way than traditional accelerator programs: Bringing the best mentors into one room with a cohort of founders and have them work on short term objectives and iterate this process. The approach developed by the team around Ajay Agrawal is nothing short of brilliant, and I encourage anyone in the space to join one of the ten CDL locations either as a founder, a mentor, or a scientist. It would be great if we applied this approach to other industries that matter, particularly those that have an impact on climate. This sentiment was hammered home recently when I listened to a discussion with MIT professor Rebecca Henderson.

Aviation.

The greenhouse impact of aviation is much stronger than its share of carbon emissions suggests. In additon to carbon, there are the effects of NOx, contrails, soot at high altitudes etc. Michael Liebreich thinks that carbon emissions from aviation should be multiplied by 3 to estimate their real impact. And we all know that aviation will continue to grow again rapidly after COVID. And while there are more than 200 startups for electric aviation, batteries will need to improve 10x to make elecric flight viable. These numbers come from Bjoern Fehrm. Even with the current rate of battery innovation we can't wait that long.

Hydrogen.

2020 is the year where most of the aviation industry seems to agree that hydrogen will likely the way forward. Look at Zeroavia: CEO Val Miftakhov just raised 21 Million USD. Airbus have revealed their hydrogen strategy this year, Boeing seems to be a bit more cautious according to this document.

The energy density of hydrogen is very favourable by weight, not so much by volume. Hence development in hydrogen aviation will very much focus develpments to store hydrogen for flights.

Personally.

Personally, over the past couple of years, I have rediscovered a technical edge: As a mechanical engineer, I did my master thesis on fuel cells, and other studies on aircraft engines. I love working with technical founders. With more than 20 years of experience building startups, mostly in end consumer internet, I am convinced that the agile startup approach can be applied to large scale projects. Grounded in Europe, I reconnected with the aviation sector in Hamburg. Hamburg is the world’s third largest aviation centre: Most Airbus A 320 that you ever sat in were built here. I have found two people who helped me propel this along: Lukas Kaestner from Hamburg Aviation and Roland Gerhards who runs ZAL applied aviation research, a massive research centre here.

Putting it all together:

The Sustainable Aero Lab will will help transform aviation. We will mentor startups that have a positive impact on aviation with respect to climate change: We might fly with hydrogen in the future, or simply with a new generation of larger turbo prop planes which consume significantly less fuel than jets. 

Call for mentors, startups and scientists.

We will start with our first cohort of startups at the end of February 2021. 

We already have amazing mentors from aviation and venture capital and will add more investors and entrepreneurs over time.

At the same time we are looking for startups along the entire value chain of sustainable aviation: Please get in touch if you know of startups or projects that will make a dent in the universe of aviation.

Those familiar with the acceleration process will realize that there are many challenges: The niche is super narrow. The number of existing industry players is less than a hand full. Investment cycles are long. Evolution, not disruption, has helped the incredible improvements of safety in aviation. 

We are aware of the challenges, but we think that rapid innovation is possible in this space.

sustainable.aero