What to do with a pretty good idea or technical solution, but you can’t use it yourself for all sorts of reasons? Try to find some other party that is interested to invest in it and sell it on! In a nutshell, that’s one of the ideas behind Airbus Scale, a new innovation unit that the OEM announced last week. Airbus Scale seeks new home for unused ideas. Innovation is key to the Airbus DNA since the start of the company. Last year, self-financed research & development (R&D) expenses were €2.9 billion, in 2019 even €3.4 billion. But Airbus also looks at initiatives and ideas outside the company. In 2015, it created Airbus BizLab, which helped to accelerate over ninety start-ups, over seventy internal projects, and seven spinouts from Toulouse, Hamburg, Madrid, and Bangalore. One of the ideas now used in reality is NavBlue, which develops airline operations software. Other innovations are studied in Silicon Valley at Acubed, which particularly looks at artificial intelligence, autonomous flight as is tested on the A350, data analytics, or digital communications. Another innovation center is the Airbus China Innovation Center (ACIC) in Shenzhen, which has a role in developing robotics and automation in the final assembly of aircraft. ACIC is also deeply involved in connectivity and new sensor and operation technologies that have or may find their way into an Airbus cabin. Airbus UpNext is studying cryogenic and superconducting technologies as part of the Ascend project, which could have a future in electric or hybrid-electric propulsion systems. Airbus Scale builds on the foundations of BizLab, which was established in 2015. (Airbus) Airbus Scale will be led by Chris Lindener, vice president of Innovation & Company Building and Global Head of Airbus Scale since July. He was previously head of BizLab. Lindener has created Airbus Scale as the new innovation unit, that will build on the experience learned at BizLab and other innovation activities. “What we are looking at is corporate innovation and company building. What we are going to do is look around, identify internal assets which are going to be already mature concepts. Where before we were looking for ideas, now we are looking more at stuff that is already more mature internally”, Lindener explains to AirInsight. Only a few ideas make it into the product line “Of a lot of things that we produce internally and innovations that we create, only a few make it into the product line. We thought that’s a bit of a shame because ideas could be pretty good externally. So I and my team will be identifying assets that we haven’t used but that have a viable future externally and then launch it to the market and try to get external investors in order to create spinoffs.” The idea is to grow Airbus Scale into a co-funded, profitable, fully-fledged business. Unused ideas or projects that might be a candidate for this might find a new home elsewhere in commercial aviation, space, or defense. “But if it attracts interest from any external industry, then why not. There is no limit.” This opens up possibilities to share ideas with for example the automotive industry. Another aspect of Airbus Scale is startup engagement. “We are not going to do what we did in the past when we just had external startups that we accelerated. This time, the difference is that we are going to source startups that support Airbus in what we are doing and will cooperate with them and leverage their technology service to advance our projects. The advantage for them is that they will be doing business with Airbus but we won’t be investing in them”, Lindener explains. Airbus Scale should benefit zero-emission projects Working this way could help Airbus develop new ideas and technologies quicker than doing it on its own, especially as Airbus seeks innovation for its zero-emission ambitions. “For new tech that is really very new, we are aware that there are startups that do specialize in the technologies that we are going to need or look into to help us with the zero-emission plans.” This is not restricted to just the development of the hydrogen airliner under the ZEROe-project, which Airbus announced in September 2019 and is progressing well since then. “We are talking about everything that could get us there. Not just the hydrogen, but also everything we are doing on electrification, cryogenics or even sustainable aviation fuels, new materials for the aircraft themselves, artificial intelligence.” While selling ideas and projects could recoup some of the R&D spendings that Airbus has done, Airbus Scale is not supposed to become a cash cow for the airframer. It will start low profile. “We will decide on a case by case what we will spin out. We will probably spin out one project next year and after that maybe two or three. That depends on how it builds up in the next year.”
