Brazil launched yesterday, Tuesday, its main development center for the future of the national aeronautics industry, primarily electric and autonomous aircraft, at the São José dos Campos aerospace technology park.
The Engineering Research Center for Air Mobility of the Future will focus on three pillars: low-carbon aviation, autonomous systems, and advanced manufacturing, the government of the state of São Paulo (southeast), where the site is located, said in a statement.
It will operate at the Aeronautics Technological Institute (ITA), part of the Ministry of Defense, and will have a team of 100 scientists and a budget of R$48 million (about US$9.1 million).
One of its objectives, the official note remarked, will be to make Brazil a medium and long-term leader in autonomous and electric aviation in the next five years.
The technology center will include researchers from ITA, Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica (Embraer), the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the State University of Campinas, and the São Carlos School of Engineering of the University of São Paulo.