A spin-out from the University of Durham has received money to build a full-size prototype of its technology, which is aimed at the Formula One market.
A spin-out from the University of Durham has received money to build a full-size prototype of its technology, which is aimed at the Formula One market.
Durham Mag-Lev accepted a convertible loan of £60,000 from venture capital firm NorthStar Equity Investors (NSEI), which supplements a £75,000 government grant from the Grant for Research and Development scheme.
The company has developed a system which it claims eliminates the problem of interference from support struts during the testing of vehicles in wind tunnels, allowing such testing to generate more accurate data. It is the brainchild of Robert Muscroft following his PhD research at the University of Durham’s School of Engineering.
Richard Exley, head of the Proof of Concept Fund at NSEI, which invested in the company, says, ‘Formula One is an extremely lucrative and competitive arena and a market that we are confident that Durham Mag-Lev can infiltrate.’
The project team includes academics from the Universities of Durham and Cambridge and subcontracting partners Aircraft & Commercial Tools and Durham Precision Engineering.