Next-gen aviation centre announced for Duxford Airfield

A major new centre for next-gen sustainable air transport is planned for Duxford Airfield: Duxford AvTech.

The plan comes from Imperial War Museums (IWM) and Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge. They say Duxford AvTech will be the UK’s new home for the research and development, prototype testing, certification and manufacture of new low and zero carbon aircraft technology.

Duxford AvTech is a 45,000 sqm development on land adjacent to the existing IWM site. It will be an aviation ‘innovation cluster’ focusing on low and zero carbon advanced air mobility (AAM) technologies.

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This includes the development of electric, hydrogen and hybrid powered aircraft, alternative power sources, new materials, and associated technologies and services to shape the next generation of air transport.

In addition, the University of Cambridge recently announced a new Whittle Laboratory to ‘operate at the boundary of new science and emerging technologies in zero carbon aviation’. That’s expected to open in early 2026.

Professor Rob Miller, a Fellow of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, and Director of the Whittle Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, said, “Achieving an aviation sector with no climate impact is one of society’s biggest challenges. Solving it will require a complex combination of technology, business and policy.

“Duxford AvTech and its close proximity to the research taking place at the Whittle Laboratory in Cambridge offers an exceptional opportunity to bring together the best minds and skills to meet these challenges.”

Duxford AvTech will be located on the west side of IWM Duxford, away from the historic centre of the site, on land owned by IWM and Gonville & Caius College. The existing museum and airfield site is not part of the new development and will continue to operate as normal.

IWM Duxford
Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge