From 20 to 22 January 2026, the HERACLES, DEMETRA, PHARES and OSYRYS consortia held joint kick-off meetings, marking the official start of a five-year collaboration aimed at developing technologies for the next generation of Ultra-Efficient Regional Aircraft under the Clean Aviation initiative.

The OSYRYS consortium is led by Safran Electrical & Power and brings together 24 partners. The joint meetings marked the beginning of a coordinated programme to accelerate the maturation of key enabling technologies for future regional aircraft platforms.

The programme is positioned as an important contributor to the decarbonisation of regional aviation. The projects will receive €140 million in funding from Clean Aviation, the European Union’s aviation research and innovation programme, supported by more than €200 million in in-kind industry contributions.

Shared objective for hybrid-electric regional flight demonstration

The four projects share a common objective of achieving a hybrid-electric flight demonstration. The demonstration is intended to validate technologies contributing towards an overall target of 30% CO₂ reduction.

Each project forms part of an integrated aircraft concept:

• HERACLES, coordinated by ATR, defines the Ultra-Efficient Regional Aircraft concept.
  • DEMETRA, also coordinated by ATR, focuses on flight demonstration and validation of the concept.
  • PHARES, coordinated by Pratt & Whitney Canada, is focused on development of the hybrid-electric propulsion system.
  • OSYRYS, coordinated by Safran Electrical & Power, is responsible for electrical power generation and distribution, thermal management systems, and avionics solutions supporting energy management.

Electrical systems central to future regional aircraft architecture

Within the collaboration, OSYRYS is specifically tasked with developing the electrical and energy management backbone required for hybrid-electric regional aircraft operations. This includes power generation and distribution architecture, thermal management and avionics integration linked to energy control and optimisation.