Dale Vince’s Net Zero Airline in Disarray After Sacking Almost Entire Workforce
Dale Vince’s dream of running the world’s first all-electric airline is in tatters after almost the entire workforce was sacked. The Telegraphhas the story.
Ecojet, which is owned by Dale Vince, the founder of renewable energy firm Ecotricity, made 11 employees redundant earlier this year – having previously had a team of 13.
The airline, which had claimed it was on course to become the “flag carrier for green Britain”, has sought to slash costs after delaying its planned launch until next year. Ecojet had previously hoped to start operations this summer.
It comes as Mr Vince is struggling to raise £20 million to kickstart the airline and secure a crucial air operator’s certificate from the UK Civil Aviation Authority.
Ecojet, which is majority-owned by Ecotricity, said it had delayed its launch as it navigates a “tough investment market.”
The airline aims to offer flights from Edinburgh to locations such as Southampton, using turboprop aircraft refitted with hydrogen-electric engines built in Scotland by ZeroAvia, which would emit only water as a by-product.
It plans to establish a fleet of 20-seat Twin Otter planes, to be followed by larger 70-seat ATR 72s from Airbus and Italian partner Leonardo.
Ecojet said last year that it had begun hiring pilots and crew, while also signing a deal for up to 50 nine-seater flying taxis from ARC Aerosystems.
Is it possible to create a system of giving people like this wally a “certificate of signalled virtue” that they can hang on their living-room walls? That way they won’t waste our time and theirs with their fantasies of perfection.
Indeed.
Physics doesn’t care about your feelings.
Physics doesn’t care about your ego.
Physics doesn’t lend itself to anybody’s delusions.
Thank God for physics.
Physics is the ultimate subject of study. Without Physics we would all still be living in mud huts. Small wonder China is prioritising Physics, Chemistry, Engineering & maths in its education system.
It doesn’t rely on batteries, it uses hydrogen fuel cells.
Crosby
7 months ago
He illustrates the grotesque power of extreme wealth in the hands of an elite, whose guilt at their nauseating resources causes them to support mad socialist causes at the expense of the common sense and disenfranchised majority.
Correct, not a jet. It is also incorrectly described as a turboprop, probably because the Twin Otter (on which the airframe is based) is a turboprop aircraft. However, the ZeroAvia power train combines hydrogen fuel with oxygen from the air (thereby giving off water) to generate electricity, which in turn drives electric engines attached to the props.
Which conveniently ignores how the hydrogen fuel is made in the first place – which is almost always by electrolysis, the electricity for which could come from any source including a coal fired power station…
All that so-called green transport does is divert the production of combustion products from the moving vehicle to a stationary source. This process is inherently inefficient; it makes for good virtue-signalling, but is otherwise pointless
Not forgetting the vehicle itself will also have been made using fossil fuels.
Everything is connected to everything else, right the way down to getting the materials out of the ground to make the machines to get the materials out of the ground in the first place, ad infinitum.
To pretend that we can somehow break the circle using ‘green energy’ seems unlikely…
Vegetable oil or olive oil probably and margarine too. Can’t think why nobody has thought of it before. Castor oil is used in classic motorcyle engines and I do admit putting a bit in your lawnmower tank does make for a wonderful smell while mowing.
Matt Dalby
7 months ago
If he ever manages to set up his airline it’ll be interesting to see what accounting tricks he uses to “show” it’s carbon neutral. As far as I know there aren’t yet any plants in the UK producing hydrogen at scale via electrolysis so where’s the hydrogen going to come from? If it is produced in the UK via electrolysis he’d have to show that the plant producing it only uses renewable electricity that the grid can’t handle and would otherwise be wasted. If it runs continuously then a lot of the time it’ll be taking electricity from the grid that has to be replaced with gas fired generation.
Maybe he sacked most of his staff because they kept telling him it isn’t possible to have a genuinely net zero airline and he only wants to employ people who share his delusions.
I’m guessing that they couldn’t find anybody at the CAA to sign off all the rules that would have to be waived to grant an AOC to carry fare-paying passengers. Like survivability in a non-catastrophic accident but with leaking H2. This is not a quango decision. There’s a real person’s name on the Cert.
Yes! Speaking of flags, here’s a bit of cheerful news from a commenter on Scottish Patriot Leo Kearse’s latest video:
“What people in Liverpool are now doing is dumping their old fridge freezers and washing machines on the street and painting a Red Cross on them and the council take them away extremely quickly” 🙂
Leo Kearse actually found an old clip from “Minder” that foresaw the flag situation today. If you don’t have time to watch the whole video, start at about 17:30 minutes in to see the wonderful Arthur Daley refusing to take down his Union Jack.
The flag is classic virtue signalling. If he really wanted to help Palestinians he’d put his hand in his pocket to do so. It’s been reported that 300 Gazan children are being flown to the UK to be treated on the NHS, with his fortune Vince could pay for at least a few hundred more to be flown here and treated privately. The same applies to all these groups waving flags on stage and in some cases making vile statements such as “death to the IDF”, they could donate whatever they received for their appearance to actually help people in Gaza. (I’m not for one second suggesting that Israel is with holding aid but in any war civilians suffer). Obviously the virtue signallers aren’t going to do this because flag waving is free actually helping people costs money.
Yes, the one in the picture. The developer is Zeroavia and their web site has pictures of the aircraft flying and also of the engine running on a test rig. They are independent of Vince as far as I can see, and seem like a serious operation.
Much as I detest Vince, the engine and its associated technology are an interesting development, if only they would stop tagging Eco onto anything that is not mainstream.
However liquid hydrogen was used directly as a propellant in many big rockets, but although it is more efficient Wiki has this to say about it
“Why don’t rockets use hydrogen fuel? Because hydrogen is a pain in the ass. You need more complicated cryogenics to liquefy it, and lots of insulation to keep it liquid long enough to use it. It leaks out of everything, and embrittles metals it comes in contact with, it’s not very dense so you need bigger tanks and bigger pumps, etc to get the same power.” It is used in a different way in fuel cells, but it is still stored and carried as liquid hydrogen.
“… delayed its launch as it navigates a “tough investment market.”
Translation: investors know these green boondoggles are financially unviable without massive subsidy with money plundered from the taxpayers, and regulation which distorts the free market to ensure above market prices can be extracted.
This is why the BEV market is tanking with automakers running out, and nobody wants contracts to build and run new wind installations, not enough taxpayer money being offered in bribes.
I would imagine that the risks of this new form of aircraft propoulsion are a bit rich for many potential investors. We mustn’t forget that it’s only a few European countries who are so keen on green virture signalling at the expense of existing proven aviation technology and infrastructure
Gezza England
7 months ago
Nothing using hydrogen as a fuel is ever going to be more than a niche product as the gas is so expensive to produce and very awkward to store. The German muppets built a hydrogen train line in N Germany that now has a very sparse service as they cannot get enough hydrogen as most planned plants have been dropped on viability grounds.
Greenslime
7 months ago
Note that he is cloaking the ownership in his company’s money. No (real) risk for him here. Ecotricity getting lots of upfront and hidden support from Bacon Sandwich Muncher so, in truth, we’re the ones spaffing the dosh on his ego-trip.
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What a wally he is!
Did we give him money, and if so, can we have it back..?
Our money isn’t gifted to the likes of Vince, it’s stolen from us.
His entire fortune is based on subsidies received. So, yes, we gave him money… lots of it as he’s apparently managed to skim £100m off the top?
He has over the years about £140 million in subsidies for his other “green” activities.
Yes, probably, and, No, certainly!
🤣 🤣 🤣 What next, chocolate fireguards? (Fair-Trade, obvs…)
An airline with a dozen employees?
Good at helping himself to tax payers’ dosh.
Nor so much at creating genuine wealth.
Typical labour supporter basically.
Never forget it was the Tories (Blue Socialists) that handed him most of his (our) wealth.
Hard to launch an airline when the planes don’t exist yet
“Details, details, don’t bother me with details…”
Is it possible to create a system of giving people like this wally a “certificate of signalled virtue” that they can hang on their living-room walls? That way they won’t waste our time and theirs with their fantasies of perfection.
Physics quickly caught up with that one, then.
Indeed.
Physics doesn’t care about your feelings.
Physics doesn’t care about your ego.
Physics doesn’t lend itself to anybody’s delusions.
Thank God for physics.
Physics is the ultimate subject of study. Without Physics we would all still be living in mud huts. Small wonder China is prioritising Physics, Chemistry, Engineering & maths in its education system.
Erm, physics doesn’t care about god either…
Otherwise, spot on!
Nor does economics or free markets.
Difficult to run engines off chip fat when there isn’t enough.
Think about ‘range anxiety’ when flying at 10,000 feet.
You’d have to call for a flatbed kerosene plane to carry you to the nearest charging airport.
“Here mate throw that over your side, ta. What happened? By god it’s heavy. What’s in it?”
It doesn’t rely on batteries, it uses hydrogen fuel cells.
He illustrates the grotesque power of extreme wealth in the hands of an elite, whose guilt at their nauseating resources causes them to support mad socialist causes at the expense of the common sense and disenfranchised majority.
Er, it’s not a jet, and never can be.
Correct, not a jet. It is also incorrectly described as a turboprop, probably because the Twin Otter (on which the airframe is based) is a turboprop aircraft. However, the ZeroAvia power train combines hydrogen fuel with oxygen from the air (thereby giving off water) to generate electricity, which in turn drives electric engines attached to the props.
Which conveniently ignores how the hydrogen fuel is made in the first place – which is almost always by electrolysis, the electricity for which could come from any source including a coal fired power station…
All that so-called green transport does is divert the production of combustion products from the moving vehicle to a stationary source. This process is inherently inefficient; it makes for good virtue-signalling, but is otherwise pointless
Not forgetting the vehicle itself will also have been made using fossil fuels.
Everything is connected to everything else, right the way down to getting the materials out of the ground to make the machines to get the materials out of the ground in the first place, ad infinitum.
To pretend that we can somehow break the circle using ‘green energy’ seems unlikely…
And I wonder what lubricants it will use. Will there be any mineral-based oils or greases?
Vegetable oil or olive oil probably and margarine too. Can’t think why nobody has thought of it before. Castor oil is used in classic motorcyle engines and I do admit putting a bit in your lawnmower tank does make for a wonderful smell while mowing.
If he ever manages to set up his airline it’ll be interesting to see what accounting tricks he uses to “show” it’s carbon neutral. As far as I know there aren’t yet any plants in the UK producing hydrogen at scale via electrolysis so where’s the hydrogen going to come from? If it is produced in the UK via electrolysis he’d have to show that the plant producing it only uses renewable electricity that the grid can’t handle and would otherwise be wasted. If it runs continuously then a lot of the time it’ll be taking electricity from the grid that has to be replaced with gas fired generation.
Maybe he sacked most of his staff because they kept telling him it isn’t possible to have a genuinely net zero airline and he only wants to employ people who share his delusions.
He’ll do the same as Drax and ascribe the carbon footprint to wherever it comes from, not where it’s used.
And carbon credits as well one presumes to ‘greenwash’ it?
I’m guessing that they couldn’t find anybody at the CAA to sign off all the rules that would have to be waived to grant an AOC to carry fare-paying passengers. Like survivability in a non-catastrophic accident but with leaking H2. This is not a quango decision. There’s a real person’s name on the Cert.
Talk about “one picture is worth a thousand words”. The flag, the conformist BLACK garb, and the grim Stalinist expression….
Yes! Speaking of flags, here’s a bit of cheerful news from a commenter on Scottish Patriot Leo Kearse’s latest video:
“What people in Liverpool are now doing is dumping their old fridge freezers and washing machines on the street and painting a Red Cross on them and the council take them away extremely quickly” 🙂
We’re seeing the balkanisation of Britain – sectarian conflict is already breaking out
Leo Kearse actually found an old clip from “Minder” that foresaw the flag situation today. If you don’t have time to watch the whole video, start at about 17:30 minutes in to see the wonderful Arthur Daley refusing to take down his Union Jack.
The flag is classic virtue signalling. If he really wanted to help Palestinians he’d put his hand in his pocket to do so. It’s been reported that 300 Gazan children are being flown to the UK to be treated on the NHS, with his fortune Vince could pay for at least a few hundred more to be flown here and treated privately. The same applies to all these groups waving flags on stage and in some cases making vile statements such as “death to the IDF”, they could donate whatever they received for their appearance to actually help people in Gaza. (I’m not for one second suggesting that Israel is with holding aid but in any war civilians suffer). Obviously the virtue signallers aren’t going to do this because flag waving is free actually helping people costs money.
It’s also much easier to be seen waving a flag then spending money.
That picture: flabby, deluded old man trying to look tough and masculine.
It’s good to know that human stupidity is as endless and never-ending as it always was.
Hydrogen electric engines? Has an aircraft ever flown with this type of engine? Fuel tanks full of liquid hydrogen. What could possibly go wrong?
Yes, the one in the picture. The developer is Zeroavia and their web site has pictures of the aircraft flying and also of the engine running on a test rig. They are independent of Vince as far as I can see, and seem like a serious operation.
Read their wiki entry. Jam today in the form of taxpayers subsidy money and jam tomorrow in the form of an even vaguely functional aircraft
The development company is run by Georgy Egorov, an ethnic Russian from Eastern Ukraine.
I think Ecojet needs a relaunch with a new name. I suggest Hindenburg
Icarus Air?
Flaming brilliant!
Surely these planes can be fuelled by the hot air and effluent emanating from Mr Vince
Much as I detest Vince, the engine and its associated technology are an interesting development, if only they would stop tagging Eco onto anything that is not mainstream.
However liquid hydrogen was used directly as a propellant in many big rockets, but although it is more efficient Wiki has this to say about it
“Why don’t rockets use hydrogen fuel?
Because hydrogen is a pain in the ass. You need more complicated cryogenics to liquefy it, and lots of insulation to keep it liquid long enough to use it. It leaks out of everything, and embrittles metals it comes in contact with, it’s not very dense so you need bigger tanks and bigger pumps, etc to get the same power.”
It is used in a different way in fuel cells, but it is still stored and carried as liquid hydrogen.
“… delayed its launch as it navigates a “tough investment market.”
Translation: investors know these green boondoggles are financially unviable without massive subsidy with money plundered from the taxpayers, and regulation which distorts the free market to ensure above market prices can be extracted.
This is why the BEV market is tanking with automakers running out, and nobody wants contracts to build and run new wind installations, not enough taxpayer money being offered in bribes.
I would imagine that the risks of this new form of aircraft propoulsion are a bit rich for many potential investors. We mustn’t forget that it’s only a few European countries who are so keen on green virture signalling at the expense of existing proven aviation technology and infrastructure
Nothing using hydrogen as a fuel is ever going to be more than a niche product as the gas is so expensive to produce and very awkward to store. The German muppets built a hydrogen train line in N Germany that now has a very sparse service as they cannot get enough hydrogen as most planned plants have been dropped on viability grounds.
Note that he is cloaking the ownership in his company’s money. No (real) risk for him here. Ecotricity getting lots of upfront and hidden support from Bacon Sandwich Muncher so, in truth, we’re the ones spaffing the dosh on his ego-trip.