Most weeks someone asks us the same question: why would a Formula 1 engineering company start building jet engines? The honest answer is that it never felt like a leap. It felt like the obvious thing to do with what we already knew.
What Formula 1 teaches you
Formula 1 is an unusual place to learn engineering. The rules change every year and the race calendar does not move. A part that is two weeks late is a part that does not race. You learn to design something, prove it, make it and fit it, often inside a few weeks, and then do it all again with whatever the last one taught you.
You also learn to be honest about weight. Every gram gets argued over. Every bracket, every fastener and every layer of carbon has to earn its place on the car.
And you learn that a simulation is only worth something if you test the real part afterwards and believe what the test tells you, even when it is not what you hoped for.
The gap we saw
Small jet engines power target drones, long-endurance uncrewed aircraft and a growing number of new platforms. The number of airframes being designed has grown quickly. The supply of engines to put in them has not kept up.
Most small engines are still built the traditional way, from a long list of machined parts with long lead times, and the designs change slowly. When we looked at that, we recognised the problem. It is a product that needs to be lighter, quicker to build and quicker to improve. That is the work we had been doing for racing teams for years.
The engine industry has a supply problem. We have spent our careers solving problems that look a lot like it.
Why we started with combustion
The hardest part of a small gas turbine to get right is the combustor. It has to burn fuel cleanly and steadily across the whole operating range, survive very high temperatures and still be light and compact.
We design our combustion systems specifically for 3D printing, which gives us design freedom that conventional manufacturing cannot. It also means a design change can go from the screen to the test stand in weeks rather than months.
Simulate, print, test
Our day-to-day work runs as one loop. We simulate a design in detail, print it, and test it on our own equipment in Bicester. The results go straight back into the next design. The loop keeps getting shorter, and every turn of it makes the next engine better.
It is the same way we worked in Formula 1: one team, and nobody waiting on anybody else to find out whether an idea works.
Where the AIR300 fits
The AIR300 is the first engine to come out of that loop. It is a small turbojet with a 3D-printed combustor, designed for uncrewed aircraft and built and tested here in Bicester. We will share more about it soon. If you would like the full details now, you can request the datasheet.
Still the same team
We have not stopped doing the engineering work that started the company. We still take on client projects across motorsport, aerospace, automotive and more, from a single analysis to a full programme. Our engine work and our client work share the same engineering approach, and each makes the other better.
What comes next
We will use this page to share what we are working on: engine development, our combustion research, and the engineering we are allowed to talk about. If you are developing an aircraft that needs propulsion, or you have a problem that needs the kind of engineering we do, get in touch. We would like to hear about it.
Alex AdamouCo-Founder and Director of R&D, Aira Technology
