Solvay is partnering with Italian UAM company Novotech and will provide access to its range of thermoset, thermoplastic composites and adhesive materials as well as dedicated technical support to develop the structure of their hybrid Seagull water landing aircraft second prototype due to fly late 2021.

Novotech selected Solvay's aerospace qualified and NCAMP registered MTM® 45-1 and CYCOM® 5320-1 resin systems. These two products have an aerospace pedigree system with a large publicly available dataset, process flexibility and product forms required to enable rapid adoption and time to market.

"Solvay is proud to support Novotech with our qualified aerospace technologies as they make inroads in the urban air mobility field, developing novel aircraft that will contribute to a sustainable future for mobility" said Gerald Perrin, program director for Solvay's composite materials unit.

"The Seagull is the first two seater aircraft featuring carbon fibre composite components manufactured via Automated Fibre Placement (AFP) rather than via manual processes. The introduction of such advanced automated production processes represents a first step towards the development of scalable products for a viable UAM environment" said Leonardo Lecce, CEO of Novotech.

The composite intensive Seagull is a hybrid aircraft, boasting an automatic folding wing system, capable of both landing and taking off from lakes and sea thanks to its trimaran hull configuration, thus enabling a low cost air-maritime mobility system.

Novotech is already working on its next program: a fully electric eVTOL (electric vertical take off and landing) aircraft and Solvay will be a key partner in the selection of enabling composite and adhesive materials. This next aircraft will be able to carry four passengers, have a cruise speed of 150 to 180 km/hr and a range of 200 to 400 km.

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is an emerging market that will revolutionise the transportation and aviation industry. These innovative platforms, hybrid or fully electric, will accelerate the transition to sustainable, on demand, passenger and cargo air transit. The benefits of UAM encompass delivery of essential services to remote rural locations to decongesting large metropolitan cities across the globe.