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Toulouse is rather a one company town. Airbus and its massive aviation footprint dominate France’s fourth largest city. While prospects for growth have been smashed by Covid-19, the sprawling conglomerate does have other business lines - not least in shipping, where Airseas, a spin-off, is gaining more and more attention from shipowners for its revolutionary automated power kite solutions. "Shipping’s path to decarbonisation will be difficult and unpredictable. However, wind technology presents owners with a solution that is stable and reliable and cuts through the debate on at yet unproven future low carbon fuels, carbon taxes, carbon capture and offsetting approaches," says Vincent Bernatets, founder and CEO of Airseas. Bernatets says the success of Airseas is in no small part down to being able to draw on the knowledge and expertise from Airbus. Wind technology cuts through the debate on as yet unproven future low carbon fuels, carbon tax, carbon capture and offsetting approaches "In one of the few occasions the aviation and shipping sector have collaborated, we have been able to marry this wealth of avionic technological, digital and software knowledge with naval architecture expertise; driving an innovation exchange between these two sectors," Bernatets says. Airseas deployed avionics technology to develop the automation software that is crucial to work its smart sail kite product, Seawing, an automated kite to help tow commercial vessels. Last year, Japanese owner Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (K Line) signed up for 50 Seawings, the single largest order for wind propulsion technology in the modern history of merchant shipping. The first Seawings on K Line ships will start operating next year on voyages from Japan to Australia. Koji Tsumuraya from K Line’s Advanced Technology Group commented at the time of sealing the deal that the Airseas kite system is the most promising wind propulsion because of its enhanced traction power resulting from the flight control technology used in the system. The giant kite system finds itself up against hard sails and rotor vents as the three main forms of wind propulsion under development around the world today. "One of the big challenges for the application of wind for use on commercial vessels has been encouraging an attitude that embraces change in the industry," Bernatets says. He reckons future wind solutions will need to meet a handful of key criteria including safe and reliable operation, easy use by the crew, and seamless retrofit capability in order to help change attitudes." Fulfilling these criteria is going to present a significant challenge for the innovators in this rapidly emerging sector. An approach that can help is by translating technology from other sectors, which is exactly what Airseas aims to do by taking inspiration from the advanced technology in the aviation industry. A key upcoming milestone for the company is the launch and first use of a Seawing in November this year on the 21,000 dwt roro Ville de Bordeaux (pictured), which is jointly owned by Louis Dreyfus and Leif Höegh. "We aim to prove the industry that wind in is a viable solution for eco-friendly shipping and a crucial step on the path to decarbonisation. We are also motivated by promoting the fact that learning from other industries can hugely benefit supporting innovation in our sector," Bernatets concludes.

Why wind works

An interview with the founder of Airbus’s revolutionary kite system

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