This project develops a kinetic energy recovery system for a landing aircraft. Upon landing, a typical A320 aircraft contains approximately 100 MJ of kinetic energy which are dissipated in braking force in around 30 s. Following braking, the aircraft engines are throttled to 7% for taxiing to the gate. For an estimated taxi time of 20 minutes, preliminary calculations show that an A320 consumes approximately 228 kg in fuel during this period.

Once at the gate, the main engines are switched off. However, an auxiliary power unit (APU) is switched on to power the ground support systems during embarkation, therefore consuming further fuel and producing emissions at ground level. The ability to recover and store a portion of the energy of a landing aircraft may allow the aircraft to taxi in and out of the airport gates, without further fuel consumption, or provide ground support without the use of an Auxiliary Power Unit (APU). This produces fuel savings, reduces the number running hours consumed by key aircraft components such as the APU and the maintenance costs associated with it, and the emissions on the ground. KERS-Air is a collaboration between the Institute of Aerospace Technologies within the University of Malta and Medavia Ltd.