Initiatives in the Aerospace Business

In recent years, reduction of CO₂ emissions has become a major environmental issue on a global basis, and this also encompasses aircraft. At the same time, electrification has garnered attention as a way to reduce environmental burdens. The Aerospace Company is active as a Steering Committee member of the Electrification Challenge for Aircraft (ECLAIR) Consortium, spearheaded by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), a national research and development agency. The Company has also formulated a future vision for the electrification of aircraft and created a technology roadmap with the goal of developing electrification technology that will drastically reduce environmental burdens, such as CO₂ emissions. Also, with the “Roadmap toward Air Mobility Revolution” announced by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in December 2018, Japan is increasing its momentum for a major advancement toward the development of flying cars. However, it is necessary to generate rules, including a great deal of legislation, to ensure traffic safety in the sky. SUBARU is proposing a public and private-sector conference to consider how to create these rules.
Drones are also seeing a remarkable rise in use recently. By request of the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), a national research and development agency, SUBARU is working to further improve safety for these and other aircraft. As part of this work, we succeeded in a flight demonstration for our technology that allows unmanned aircraft to automatically avoid danger, even in times of emergency. The test was conducted off the coast of Mikawa Bay in 2019, with cooperation from four other organizations, Aichi Prefecture, Toyokawa City, and Tahara City.
Also, in September 2021 we successfully carried out the world’s first autonomous collision avoidance test using a 10 kg class small unmanned aircraft at a relative speed of 200 km/h. This achievement is helping to promote the establishment of ISO international standards for unmanned aircraft.
Going forward, SUBARU will continue working on initiatives to ensure the safety of airspaces and to reduce its environmental burden.