A concept for turning matter from a single type of plant into a high performance composite material for use in aircraft cabins has won a University of Queensland team first prize in the inaugural Airbus Fly Your Ideas challenge.

It is an idea which minimises the use of energy from fossil carbon releasing fuels in the production of aircraft parts, and could even eliminate their release depending on the power sources employed in its manufacture.

The first aircraft were made of ‘bio-composites’, wood, glue and cloth, more than a century before the term was devised to describe ways of reducing industrial sources of carbon emissions.

Laminates of strong flexible woods like spruce where crucial to many of combat aircraft of World War II.

But the use of fast growing castor plants caught the judges attention because it takes fossil carbon release evasion in aviation into new sources and applications.

Further details are found in the Airbus statement below.

A team of students from the University of Queensland (Australia) won the inaugural Airbus “Fly Your Ideas” challenge at the Paris-Le Bourget Air Show. The “COz” team won for its project into the use of the castor plant to develop the first ever single plant-based high performance composite materials for aircraft cabin components. The goal is to reduce dependency on non renewable sources and improve end of life disposal thus contributing to a reduction of aviation carbon footprint. They conducted a comprehensive feasibility analysis entailing fibre production and testing, demonstrating very encouraging mechanical and environmental properties.

The multinational “COz” team comprises team leader, Michael Heitzmann (27), of Swiss origin and Alex Ng (25), originally from Hong Kong, both PhD students in Mechanical Engineering, and third team member, Benjamin Lindenberger (26), from Germany, an Aerospace Engineering student who is undertaking his University of Stuttgart diploma thesis at the University of Queensland.

“We wanted to demonstrate that composite materials made entirely with Castor plant fibre can reduce the aircraft carbon footprint and enhance environmental protection. We are extremely proud to have convinced the jury with our project and we hope it will have a future in aviation.” said Michael Heitzmann, Coz team leader.

The students were congratulated at the ceremony, at Le Bourget, by Tom Enders, President and Chief Executive Officer of Airbus, who awarded the €30,000 prize to the winning team. The second place team from National University of Singapore, “Solaire Voyager”, received a prize of €15,000 for its proposal to use solar cell technology integrating photovoltaic cells aboard aircraft to generate electricity.

More than 2,350 students from 82 countries around the world entered the competition, which started nine months ago. The students’ objective was to come up with innovative and eco efficient ideas to shape the future of aviation, and deliver a further reduction in the industry’s impact on the environment. The competition was also designed to attract more young people to this crucial industry.

The other three finalists were (by team name alphabetical order):

- “Big Bang Team” from Universidad Politécnica de Valencia in Spain for its windowless cabin proposal for a new eco-efficient aircraft design.

- “Kometa Brno” from Brno University of Technology in the Czech Republic whose team developed a project on aircraft taxiway movements using electro-motors.

Airbus invests €2 billion annually on R&D, more than seven per cent of its annual turnover. The company plans to hire some 300 engineers worldwide this year.