Professor Rob Miller, Director of the Whittle Lab at the University of Cambridge – and a key member of OCAVIA, the Oxford – Cambridge Arc’s Virtual Institute in Aviation – has led the launch of the Aviation Impact Accelerator (AIA), set to develop an interactive simulator to explore scenarios for achieving net zero flight.
The AIA is an international group of experts in aerospace, economics, policy, and climate science, assembled by the University of Cambridge, who are developing an interactive, open-source, whole system simulator that can map pathways and accelerate the journey to climate neutral aviation.
It was inspired by the work of the renowned Cambridge academic Professor Sir David MacKay. MacKay’s ground-breaking work on decarbonising the UK energy system remains the bedrock of the BEIS MacKay Carbon Calculator which allows the user to explore pathways to reduce the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions. Similarly, the AIA seeks to combine the use of simple units and a user-friendly interface with the technical rigour required to meet the tight constraints of air travel.
