Company intro: The company owns and operates a fleet of nearly 20 aircraft, providing services to a range of private and public sector clients and offering expertise in areas as diverse as aerial surveillance and survey, passenger and cargo ad hoc and long-term charter, temporary and permanent aircraft modifications and project work.
Company turnover: £ 8.2m
Technological advance: The advance sought by the company was the development of an alternative means of dispersing detergents onto oil spills that was not aircraft specific and did not require an aircraft to be permanently adapted, thus reducing the need for aircraft to stand idle pending a demand for its use which may never arise.
Technological uncertainties included: Up to 20 tonnes of detergent is required to be dispersed in a single application. Therefore, for sufficient coverage, the aircraft is required to fly at close to its stall speed, meaning even a small change in flight angle could have potentially catastrophic consequences. As such, with the aircraft no longer being specifically designed for this purpose, the company investigated the inherent characteristics of the aircraft, and how they could be modelled and altered in order to achieve the desired flight performance.
This aircraft investigation was undertaken in conjunction with the development of the required detergent dispersion system. Previous systems of this manner were designed to work with propeller powered engines, dispersing detergent at approximately 160 knots, however with the new design utilising jet aircraft the system would need to be able to disperse detergent at a speed in the range 190-220 knots, meaning a more powerful and more efficient system than previously employed required developing.
Value of claim: £ 390,233 tax credit