United Airlines continues its push toward supersonic flight with an investment in a San Francisco startup developing electrification technology for aircraft engines.
United Airlines Ventures, the Chicago-based carrier’s venture capital arm, invested in Astro Mechanica, which is developing a hybrid electric architecture to create a more versatile engine that uses electric motors. Unlike using batteries for electric power, which creates weight challenges for aircraft, Astro Mechanica relies on a turbogenerator that creates electricity.
“Astro Mechanica is developing an adaptive-engine concept for strategic military and commercial applications, addressing the challenging yet worthwhile pursuit of supersonic flight,” says Mukul Hariharan, an aerospace engineer and pilot by training who is managing partner at United Airlines Ventures.
Astro Mechanica is the fifth investment this year for United’s 11-member venture capital unit.
“We think it’s a great investment,” Hariharan says. “It’s a novel technology, leveraging electrification to reconfigure a jet engine.”
The company says its technology will result in the world’s first supersonic aircraft that has transpacific capability.
Hariharan calls United Airlines Ventures the company’s “crystal ball for the future of air travel” but stresses it takes a return-focused “investment first” approach to corporate venture capital.
The airline sees opportunity in supersonic travel. In 2021, United said it would order 15 supersonic aircraft from startup Boom Technology, with hopes of launching service in 2029. A modern-day Concorde promises the tantalizing prospect of three-and-a-half-hour trips to London from Newark, N.J., and six-hour trips to Tokyo from San Francisco.
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