Heart, JetZero and others awarded FAA FAST grants

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by Yves Le Marquand
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FAA

The FAA has awarded Fueling Aviation’s Sustainable Transition (FAST) grants to a number of companies including Heart Aerospace, JetZero and Wright Electric. 

The FAA announced the award selections on today, allocating the full programme allotment of $291m across 36 projects. Made possible by 2022’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the FAST grant programme makes investments to accelerate production and use of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) and the development of low-emission aviation technologies to support 2050 climate goals.

Spread across 23 states, awardees are a diverse variety of established and startup fuel producers, fuel logistics and supply chain companies, state and local governments, airport authorities, universities, as well as established and startup engine, aircraft and component manufacturers. 

The breakdown of project types is as follows:

  • Seven SAF Tier 1 projects. These projects are conducting SAF supply chain studies to identify infrastructure needs.
  • 15 SAF Tier 2 projects. These projects are building infrastructure for SAF production, transportation, blending, and storage.
  • 13 Low-Emission Technology Category 1 projects. These projects are developing low-emission aviation technologies.
  • One Low-Emission Technology Category 2 project. This project is developing test capabilities to advance low-emission aviation technologies.

Heart Aerospace received a $4.12m grant for the development of a hybrid electric management and integration system to automate dynamic adjustments of parallel hybrid propulsion sources onboard its aircraft.

JetZero was awarded just over $8m primarily for development of lightweight composite structures capable of supporting a non-cylindrical pressure vessel at rates required to meet market demand. 

Wright Electric received just over $3.3m for development of a high temperature molten lithium sulfur battery which, once produced, could offer three times the capacity of an equivalent lithium ion battery.

ZeroAvia has been awarded about $4.2m build and test a suite of hydrogen fuel cell propulsion technologies including an inverter and a motor. 

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