Neil Cloughley is the founder and managing director of Faradair, the UK’s leading hybrid aviation programme. Neil has a broad background in the aviation industry ranging from aircraft re-marketing and aircraft leasing to starting his own aircraft consultancy business, which found him working with the world’s major airlines, OEMs and trailblazing companies like Virgin Galactic. Neil’s father developed one of the most advanced unmanned aerial vehicles of the early 1990s, and had a flying prototype before the General Atomics MQ-1 Predator entered service in 1995. 
Unfortunately, as a result of being slightly ahead of its time, and due to a lack of funds and unfortunate timing, ASVEC UK had to close its doors.
Neil is now stepping into his father’s footsteps and building the bio-electric hybrid aircraft (BEHA) drawing from many of the lessons he learned from his father. The BEHA is a six-passenger aircraft with a hybrid gas and electric propulsion system, and is to be used for regional travel of around 200 miles. The BEHA has an unconventional design with a triple-staggered wing, an all-composite airframe and a ducted propeller. These design decisions reflect the three key specifications that need to be met to make regional inter-city flight a reality: minimising noise, emissions and operational costs. In this conversation, Neil and I talk about
- the engineering behind BEHA
- the challenging economics of new aviation businesses
- his long-term vision for a regional Uber-like taxi service in the sky
- and much, much more
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This episode of the Aerospace Engineering Podcast is sponsored by SAMPE North America. SAMPE is a global professional society that has been providing educational opportunities on advanced materials for more than 70 years. SAMPE’s network of engineers is a key facilitator for the advancement of aerospace engineering by enabling information exchange and synergies between aerospace companies. To find out how SAMPE can help you learn more about advanced materials and processes, consider attending the SAMPE 2018 Technical Conference and Expo in Long Beach, California.
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Selected Links from the Episode
- Faradair and the BEHA
- Neil’s vision of an UBER in the sky
- The Journey of an Aerospace Startup — Royal Aeronautical Society lecture
- Profile of Neil Cloughley
- Faradair partnership with Swansea University
- ProDrive’s partnership with Faradair
