Innovation for sustainable aviation in a global environment : proceedings of the sixth European Aeronautics Days, Madrid, 30 March-1 April 2011.
Date: 2012-08-28
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU research policy, aeronautical industry, air transport, aircraft, conference proceedings

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
Jointly organised by the  European  Commission and the Centre for the 
 Development  of  I ndustrial   Technology  in  Spain  (CDTI),  the   Aeronautics 
Days sixth edition – ‘AERODAYS 2011’ – was held on  30th – 31st March and 
1st April 2011 in the Palacio  Municipal de Congresos of Madrid. It brought 
 together  1400  delegates  –  policy  makers,  aero space   manufacturers, 
engineers,  researchers  and  customers  –  to  report  and  discuss  the 
 challenges  and  solutions  for   creating  greener,  safer,  secure  and 
 competitive   solutions  for  aeronautics  and  air  transport  in  Europe. 
 Highlights  included  ‘Flightpath 2050’, Europe’s vision for future aviation.

The  present  book,  published  by  the  European   Commission,  brings 
 together about 80 papers  selected by a Scientific Advisory Committee 
with  the   intention  to  make  broadly  known  the  main  themes  and  issues 
addressed on the  occasion of this Convention. 

Given  the  strategic  importance  of  the   latter,  these  post-conference 
proceedings   constitute  a   reference   document  providing  an   overview 
on  aeronautical   research   within   Europe  more  particularly  devoted  to 
 Commission  supported programmes and networks. 

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ISBN 978-1-61499-062-8 (print)
ISBN 978-1-61499-063-5 (online)

European Union:
ISBN 978-92-79-22968-8
KI-31-12-481-EN-C
doi: 10.2777/69176

Innovation for  
Sustainable Aviation  
in a Global Environment

Proceedings of the Sixth European 
Aeronautics Days
Madrid, 30th March to 1st April 2011

Edited by
Dietrich Knörzer
Joachim Szodruch

15752-Knorzer_V3.indd   1-3

19-06-12   15:09

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
INNOVATION FOR SUSTAINABLE AVIATION 
IN A GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT 

Inn

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 Aviat
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Proceeding
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April 2011 

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Edited by
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© 2012 European Union. 

The information and views set out in this book are those of the authors and do not necessarily 
reflect those of the European Commission. 

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or 
transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior written permission from the publisher. 

ISBN 978-1-61499-062-8 (print) 
ISBN 978-1-61499-063-5 (online) 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2012943288 

European Union: 
ISBN 978-92-79-22968-8 
Catalogue number KI-31-12-481-EN-C 
doi:10.2777/69176 

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PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS 

 
 
Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.

v

Preface 

The Sixth European Aeronautics Days 2011, organised by the Spanish research agency 
CDTI  and  supported  by  the  European  Commission,  took  place  in  the  Madrid  Palacio 
Municipal de Congresos from 30th March to 1st April 2011. It was the largest Aero-
days  conference  so  far  with  more  than  1400  participants  coming  from  45  countries, 
with an extensive exhibition area and numerous side-events of strategic importance to 
Europe’s aeronautical research and innovation. 

The Aerodays offered a great opportunity for aviation stakeholders at all levels to 
meet and discuss the latest advances in aeronautics and air transport, not only in Europe 
but  also  worldwide.  Representatives  from  industry,  research  centres,  universities  and 
politics  highly  appreciated  the  opportunity  to  receive  top-level  information  on  strate-
gies as well as on the advances of specific research programmes. The unique chance to 
meet and communicate across all branches and hierarchies opened up new partnerships 
and encouraged potential future collaboration. 

Furthermore,  the  Aerodays  offered  the  perfect  scenario  and  timing  to  present 

Europe’s Vision for Aviation, ‘Flightpath 2050’. 

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment 

The  conference  motto  is  clearly  directed  towards  the  future  challenges  of  aviation  as 
well as to the recent political strategies of the European Commission. The general mes-
sages from  the  Commission and  high  level  industrial  and  research  leaders provided a 
clear view on the way ahead in research and innovation. It also highlighted the impor-
tance of aeronautical research within the Framework Programme. 

Preparing the Future of Aviation 

On the basis of global development it is evident that only in a joint European effort can 
the future in aeronautics be mastered. Industrial needs and environmental goals require 
research and innovation efforts leading eventually to an economically viable and envi-
ronmentally  sustainable  air  transport  where  aircraft,  airports,  air  traffic  management 
and operation contribute to a balanced and overall optimised system. 

Aviation Technologies 

Excellent  overviews  and  insights  into  various  community  research  projects  were  pro-
vided.  The  very  good  progress  in  greening  of  the  air  transport  with  topics  in  flight 
physics-, noise and vibration-, propulsion- and climate research as well as solutions for 
alternative fuels were presented. Equally important contributors to future aviation goals 
are air traffic operations and certainly cost efficiency, including structures-, systems-, 
production- and maintenance technologies. 

 
 
 
vi

Within the section pioneering the air transport a high emphasis was placed on the 
longer-term view into the future of aeronautics and the innovative solutions with a high 
potential for fulfilling the goals of Europe’s ambitious vision. 

The  safety  and  security  sessions  provided  an  insight  into  the  overall  mandatory 
certification  aspects  of  novel  technologies  and  presented  important  developments  in 
securing the air transport system of the future. 

National and International Programmes 

The excellent results in Europe for building the future of aviation are not only based on 
programmes  of  the  European  Commission  but  are  a  common  achievement  together 
with the specific research programmes of the Member States. European institutions and 
national research establishments have also aligned their goals to the European vision. 
Complimentary  research  and  the  advances  in  forming  sustainable  European  networks 
supported  by  initiatives  of  the  European  Commission  have  resulted  in  outstanding 
achievements  and  an  engaged  and  powerful  workforce  in  industry,  research  and  aca-
demia. 

However, aeronautics is part of a global community and dependent on worldwide 

developments. Thus international cooperation is mandatory and strongly supported. 

Europe’s Vision ‘Flightpath 2050’ 

Europe’s Vision for Aviation ‘Flightpath 2050’, setting out a European vision for the 
future of aviation, emphasises where those working in aviation see the priorities for the 
relevant policy, research and innovation instruments. It is a high-level vision of Europe 
leading  with  an  aviation  industry  that  is  clean,  competitive,  safe  and  secure.  At  the 
Aerodays perspectives were shown how to implement this new Vision 2050 through a 
way forward to the new Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA). 

Post-Conference Proceedings 

After  almost  ten  years  of  European  research  within  the  6th  and  7th  Research  Frame-
work  Programmes  (2002–2006;  2007–2013)  and  in  view  of  the  coming  Framework 
Programme ‘Horizon 2020’ (2014–2020) the Commission decided to support the pub-
lication of this special issue of the Conference Proceedings of the Aerodays in Madrid. 
Assisted  by  the  Scientific  Advisory  Committee,  selected  papers  from  the  policy  and 
technical sessions were collected with the intention to provide the reader with a repre-
sentative picture of the main themes and issues addressed. 
The proceedings are divided into three main chapters: 
•  Policy and Strategy 
•  Aviation Technologies and Operations 
•  National and International Programmes 

Due to the strategic importance of this conference the proceedings constitute a ref-
erence document providing an overview on aeronautical research within Europe espe-
cially devoted to Commission supported programmes and networks. 

 
Scientific Advisory Committee 

A Scientific Advisory Committee was set up by the European Commission in order to 
provide  advice  on  the  scientific  and  technical  content  of  the  Aerodays  Conference  as 
well  as  evaluate  and  coordinate  the  final  content  of  these  proceedings.  Its  members 
were: 

vii

Fred Abbink 
Luis da Costa Campos 
Anders Gustafsson 
Jim Lawler 
José Martin Hernandez 
Fernando Monge Gómez 
Cesar Puentes 
Christian Pusch 
Dieter Schmitt 
Clyde Warsop 

Acknowledgements 

We wish to acknowledge our gratitude and thanks to the members of the Scientific Ad-
visory Committee and to the authors of the papers for their great effort and cooperation 
to  realise  these  Post-Conference  Proceedings.  We  would  also  like  to  thank  sincerely 
Jean-Pierre Sanfourche of the Council of European Aerospace Societies (CEAS), who 
acted as the co-ordinating editor for the whole book, and Ms Krisztina Simonne-Paldy 
of the Aeronautics team of DG Research & Innovation of the European Commission, 
who implemented all the editorial requirements. 

Joachim Szodruch 
Dietrich Knörzer 

Contacts: 
Dietrich Knörzer (dietrich.knoerzer@ec.europa.eu) 
Joachim Szodruch (Joachim.szodruch@dlr.de) 

ix

Forewords 

Aeronautics and air transport are key industries for Europe, in which public and private 
stakeholders provide world leadership and help to meet society’s needs by ensuring the 
sustainable  mobility  of  passengers  and  of  freight.  These  industries  help  to  generate 
wealth  and  economic  growth,  provide  highly  skilled  jobs  and  innovation  and  foster 
Europe’s knowledge economy through substantial R&D investments. 

If Europe is to maintain its economic strength in the future, it needs to evolve into 
a  true  Innovation  Union  where  knowledge  can  be  shared  freely  across  borders,  and 
where  synergies  between  research  and  industry  contribute  to  increasing  our  global 
competitiveness.  This  is  especially  true  for  the  air  transport  and  aeronautics  sectors, 
where their success is dependant on a high degree of research and innovation. 

Ten years ago the Vision for 2020 was developed for European aeronautics; it suc-
cessfully  gave  guidance  to  setting  priorities  for  research  and  technological  develop-
ments at European, national and industrial level. 

The time had come for a new Vision, which was presented at the Sixth European 
Aeronautics Days 2011. This conference brought together researchers, engineers, man-
agers and policy makers active in the field of aeronautics and air transport from all over 
Europe, and the world. 

Aerodays  2011  inspired  specialists  to  look  beyond  their  particular  field,  and  in-
spired generalists to take advantage of the presence of expertise in key aviation tech-
nologies.  Together  they  will  come  up  with  solutions  for  tackling  some  of  Europe’s 
most pressing challenges by creating a highly competitive aeronautics and air transport 
industry for Europe which is greener, safer and more secure. 

Máire Geoghegan-Quinn 
European Commissioner for 
Research, Innovation and Science 

Siim Kallas 
Vice-President of the European 
Commission and Commissioner for 
Transport 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
x

Air transport has transformed society over the past decades. (Economic and social ben-
efits have turned aeronautics into a strategic industry for the prosperity of Europe and 
have strengthened Europe’s position as a global player.) meaning unclear? 

Currently, the main challenges for Europe are to get a more secure, safer, and more 
efficient air transport system, sustainable from both an economical and environmental 
viewpoint. 

The Sixth Aeronautics Days 2011 presented the perfect framework to discuss how 
to meet these goals and how to emphasize the critical role that research and innovation 
has to play. It fostered cooperation amongst the main aeronautical stakeholders world-
wide and offered an outstanding occasion to present the new Vision 2050, a document 
which explained the guidelines to be followed by the industry. 

Spain,  as  one  of  the  main  actors  of  the  European  aeronautics  community  and  a 
proactive  member  of  the  European  Research  Area  was  delighted  to  have  hosted  this 
new edition of Aerodays. This event was aligned with the ongoing national and Euro-
pean  Union  innovation  strategies  that  focused  on  a  research-intensive  and  innovative 
sector: the aeronautics industry. 

Cristina Garmendia 
Minister for Science and Innovation 
of Spain (2008–2011) 

 
 
 
Contents 

Preface 

Joachim Szodruch and Dietrich Knörzer 

Forewords 

Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, Siim Kallas and Cristina Garmendia 

PART ONE: POLICY AND STRATEGY 

INNOVATION FOR SUSTAINABLE AVIATION IN A GLOBAL  
ENVIRONMENT 

Aerodays 2011 – Policy Messages from High-Level Personalities 

Keynote Address by Cristina Garmendia Mendizábal 

Minister of Science and Innovation of the Government of Spain 

Keynote Address by Siim Kallas 

Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Transport 

Keynote Lecture on Preparing the Future of Aviation – A Joint Effort of Europe  

Máire Geoghegan-Quinn 
European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science 

Inauguration Speech by Eva Piera 

Regional Government of Madrid 

Inauguration Speech by Rudolf Strohmeier 

DG Research & Innovation of the European Commission 

Inauguration Speech by Antonio Vázquez 
International Airlines Group IAG 

Special Lecture on “EU Vision 2050 – The Time Is Now”  
by Thomas Enders, Airbus 

Member of the High-Level Group on Aviation Research 

Speech by Johann-Dietrich Wörner, DLR 

Member of the High-Level Group on Aviation Research 

Speech by Giuseppe Orsi, AgustaWestland  

Member of the High-Level Group on Aviation Research 

Intervention by Domingo Ureña-Raso 

Aerospace and Defence Industries Association of Europe ASD 

Sustainable Air Transport 

Airports – Suitable and Sustainable Gateways to the Globalized World 

Michael Kerkloh, Airport Munich 
Member of the High-Level Group on Aviation Research 

xi

v 

ix 

3 

6 

9 

13 

16 

19 

22 

26 

29 

32 

35 

 
 
 
xii

The Future of Air Traffic Management 

Patrick Ky, SESAR Joint Undertaking 
Member of the High-Level Group on Aviation Research 

The Future of Aviation – A Joint European Effort 

Rafael Gallego, Indra 

PREPARING THE FUTURE OF AVIATION: A JOINT EFFORT OF EUROPE 

Preparing the Future of Aviation – Three Thoughts 

Jean-Paul Herteman, SAFRAN  
Member of the High-Level Group on Aviation Research 

The Future of Aeronautics, a European Perspective 

Charles Champion, Airbus 

Tackling the Environmental Challenges to Aeronautics 

Eric Dautriat, Clean Sky 

Flightpath 2050: Europe’s Vision for Aeronautics 
Axel Krein and Gareth Williams, Airbus 

PART TWO: AVIATION TECHNOLOGIES AND OPERATIONS 

THE CLEAN SKY JTI 

Clean Sky: Bringing Sustainable Air Transport Closer 

Eric Dautriat 

GREENING THE AIR TRANSPORT 

Flight Physics 

39 

42 

45 

48 

55 

63 

75 

Aerodynamic Technologies for More Effective, Environmentally Friendly Air 
Transport System: The KATnet Strategy 

Adel Abbas, Geza Schrauf and Eusebio Valero 

NODESIM–CFD: Non-Deterministic Simulation for CFD Based Design 
Methodologies 

Charles Hirsch 

Morphing High Lift Structures: Smart Leading Edge Device and Smart Single 
Slotted Flap 

Hans Peter Monner and Johannes Riemenschneider 

Flow Control by Plasmas in the PLASMAERO Project 

Daniel Caruana 

Future Fast Methods for Loads Calculations: The ‘FFAST’ Project 

Dorian Jones and Ann Gaitonde 

Climate and Alternative Fuels for Aviation 

Aviation Industry Roadmap to Sustainability 

Thomas Rötger 

82 

89 

94 

103 

110 

116 

 
 
REACT4C – Climate Optimised Flight Planning 

Sigrun Matthes 

SWAFEA: A European Study on the Feasibility and Impact of the Introduction 
of Alternative Fuels in Aviation 

Philippe Novelli 

Noise Reduction 

European Aviation Noise Research Network (X-NOISE) 

Dominique Collin 

Validation and Improvement of Airframe Noise Prediction Tools 

Christophe Schram and Lilla Koloszár 

Propulsion 

Structure of the Combustion in a Trapped Vortex Combustor 

Joseph Burguburu, Gilles Cabot, Michel Cazalens and Bruno Renou 

TIMECOP-AE: Towards Innovative Methods for Combustion Predictions in 
Aero-Engines 

Thomas Lederlin 

Towards Flutter-Free Turbomachinery Blades 
Damian M. Vogt and Torsten H. Fransson 

Validation of Radical Engine Architecture Systems: The “DREAM” Research 
Project 

David Bone 

xiii

122 

129 

138 

144 

150 

156 

161 

168 

Main Achievements of VITAL (enVIronmenTALly Friendly Aero Engine) 

184 

Marius Goutines 

SECURING THE AIR TRANSPORT 

CRISIS: Multi-Trainee, Multi-Organisation, Multi-Level Critical Incident 
Management Training and Simulation System 

B.L. William Wong 

Behavourial Science Modelling of Security in Airports: BEMOSA 

Alan Kirschenbaum 

SOFIA: Flight Automation as a Safe Countermeasure for Potentially Hostile 
Aircraft 

Juan-Alberto Herrería García and Jorge Bueno Gómez 

190 

197 

201 

SAFETY 

Weather Hazards for Aeronautics – How to Best Respond to This Challenge? 

223 

Fabien Dezitter 

Crosswind Reduced Separations for Departure Operations 

Lennaert J.P. Speijker on behalf of the CREDOS consortium 

229 

Techniques and Tools for Model-Based Analysis of Pilot-Cockpit Interaction 

235 

Andreas Lüdtke and Denis Javaux 

 
xiv

SUPRA – Simulation of Upset Recovery in Aviation 

239 

Eric Groen and Lars Fucke 

“ALICIA”: All Conditions Operations and Innovative Cockpit Infrastructure 

246 

Linda Napoletano and Daniel Dreyer 

DELICAT – Demonstration of Lidar Based Clear Air Turbulence Detection 

253 

Hervé Barny 

AIR TRAFFIC OPERATIONS 

Improving Turnaround Predictability: TITAN – Developing a New Concept 
of Operations for the Aircraft Turnaround 

259 

Laura Serrano Martín, Sara M. Luis Nuñez, Ana C. Sáez Sánchez and 
Sebastian Kellner 

SWIM-SUIT: The Baseline for the System Wide Information Management 

277 

Giuliano D’Auria, Dario Di Crescenzo and Antonio Strano 

Contract-Based Air Transportation System (CATS) – A New Way of Managing 
4D Trajectories 

Christoph Rihacek 

Managing Complexity 
David Pérez 

COST EFFICIENCY 

Manufacturing Techniques for Engine Components 

Advanced Flexible Automation Cell 
Philip Webb and Seemal Asif 

ACCENT: Adaptive Control of Manufacturing Processes for a New Generation 
of Jet Engine Components 
Ignacio Fernandez 

Structures and Materials 

The European Project “Aircraft Integrated Structural Health Assessment II” – 
Detection of Corrosive and Hydraulic Liquids by Gauges Based on the Collapse 
of Percolation Conductivity 

Helge Pfeiffer and Martine Wevers 

MAAXIMUS – Delivering Innovation 

Jocelyn Gaudin and Ralf Herrmann 

Improved Material Exploitation of Composite Airframe Structures by Accurate 
Simulation of Collapse – The “COCOMAT” Project 

Richard Degenhardt 

DOTNAC – Development and Optimization of THz NDT on Aeronautics 
Composite Multi-Layered Structures 

Marijke Vandewal 

Modular Joints for Composite Aircraft Components 

Llorenç Llopart Prieto 

284 

292 

296 

302 

307 

315 

320 

327 

334 

 
Structural Health Monitoring Systems in Airbus Military 

Javier Gómez-Escalonilla, Jorge Cabrejas and Jose I. Armijo 

Systems and Equipment 

LTCC: A Packaging Technology Suitable for High Density Integration and 
High Temperature Applications 

Conor Slater 

Towards the More Electrical Aircraft 

Etienne Foch 

Transmission in Aircraft on Unique Path WirEs 

Sébastien Kim 

PIONEERING THE AIR TRANSPORT 

xv

340 

345 

353 

359 

A Technical Vision of Sustainable Commercial Air Transportation in 2030 

366 

Alan H. Epstein 

CREATE – A European Initiative for Stimulating Ideas and Incubating 
Upstream Research Projects in Air Transport 

Romain Müller, Patricia Pelfrène, Adriaan de Graaff, Dieter Schmitt, 
Gernot Stenz, Guy Gadiot, Gerben Klein Lebbink, Chris Burton, 
Surinder Kooner, John Kimber, Trevor Truman and Peter Phleps 

Small Aircraft Transport as a New Component of the European Air Transport 
System 

Krzysztof Piwek 

Novel Tiltrotor Concepts – An Overview of the “NICETRIP” Project 

Alessandro Stabellini 

Future High Altitude High Speed Transport Concepts 

Johan Steelant 

Opening the Airspace for UAVs – ASTRAEA Progress Report 

Nigel Mills 

The Greening of Aerostructures – Challenges Ahead 

Miguel Á. Castillo Acero 

ENFICA-FC: Design and Flight Tests of a Fuel Cell Powered Aircraft 

Giulio Romeo, Fabio Borello and Gabriel Correa 

PART THREE: NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMMES 

370 

376 

383 

386 

394 

399 

406 

EUROPEAN RESEARCH AREA 

National RTD Support for European Aeronautics 

“CORAC”: The Concerted Approach of French National Council for Civil 
Aviation 

415 

Patrice Desvallées 

 
 
xvi

The German National Aeronautics RTD Programme 

Franz-Josef Mathy 

The UK National Aeronautics Technology Strategy 

Ray Kingcombe 

RTD Support for Aeronautics in Spain – CDTI 

Juan Carlos Cortés Pulido 

Austrian R&D Strategy and Initiatives for the Aeronautics Sector 

Elisabeth Ossberger 

Sweden – Aeronautics RTD Programme and Research Agenda 

Gunnar Hult and Vilgot Claesson 

European Networks 

IFAR – International Forum for Aviation Research 
Joachim Szodruch and Richard Degenhardt 

Coordination of Aeronautics Interest in the EU Member States 

Javier Romero and Roland Gurály 

GARTEUR – Long Term R&T Collaboration in Europe 

Gunnar Hult and Björn Jonsson 

EASN – The European Academia Association 

Spiros Pantelakis 

Support Initiatives 

The French Competitiveness Clusters in a European Context: Getting Together 
Research LABs, Large Industry and SMEs 
Thilo Schönfeld and Katja Schöntag 

Trends in Educational Activities and Tools for Aeronautics – The Example 
of the von Karman Institute 
Herman Deconinck 

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION 

Russian Aeronautics Research Programmes 

Liudmila Rostovtseva 

Latin America – EU: Experience and Potential for Cooperation in Aeronautics 
and Air Transport Research 

João Pedro Taborda and Jean-Paul Domergue 

Acronyms 

Subject Index 

Author Index 

418 

422 

426 

429 

432 

437 

442 

447 

451 

455 

460 

466 

470 

477 

483 

487 

 
Introduction to Part One 
Policy and Strategy 

This part provides the political messages delivered during the Aeronautics Days 2011 
by  senior  representatives  of  the  European  Commission,  Spain  and  the  Region  of 
Madrid  addressing  the  key  issues  for  research  and  innovation  for  Europe  and  its 
aviation. It also collects the views of several of Europe’s biggest aviation stakeholders 
represented  by  their  leaders, underlining  their  companies’  perspectives  for  innovation 
and technologies for aeronautics industry, airlines, airport and research providers. 

On  the  initiative  of  the  European  Commission  a  High-Level  Group  on  Aviation 
Research  representing  the  key  stakeholders  had  developed  the  joint  European  Vision 
for Aviation ‘Flightpath 2050’. Many plenary speakers, amongst them several members 
of this High-Level Group, addressed the goals of Europe’s new Vision from their pers-
pectives. 

Part  One  is  structured  around  two  main  categories  of  contributions:  those  which 
are oriented towards the necessity of innovation for a sustainable aviation in a global 
environment, and those dealing with the joint effort to be conducted in Europe with a 
view to preparing the future. 

 
 
Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-3

3

Keynote Address by  
Cristina Garmendia Mendizábal  

Cristina GARMENDIA MENDIZÁBAL 
Minister of Science and Innovation of the Government of Spain 
(Between 14/04/2008 and 22/12/2011) 

Abstract.  Strong  Spain’s  commitment  to  the  Aeronautics  sector:  financial  re-
sources  for  innovation,  public  procurement,  internationalisation  of  innovative 
activities,  cooperation  among  public  administrations,  incorporation  of  innovative 
talent into national aeronautics companies. 

Keywords. Science, technology, innovation 

It  is  my  great  pleasure  to  welcome  you  to  the  Sixth  European  Aeronautics  Days, 
“Aerodays 2011”. As you know, this Conference is an event organised by the European 
Commission and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. First of all, I would 
like to take this opportunity to thank the European Commission DG Research and In-
novation for organizing this Conference jointly with our Ministry. I would also like to 
express my gratitude to all of you – especially to the Sponsors and Collaborators – for 
honouring us and being part of this meeting to discuss and to understand the key role of 
“Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment”. 

On a day like this on which Aerodays 2011 is taking place, more than thirteen mil-
lion [1] people will be flying on airplanes all over the world – nearly four million of 
them in the European Union. Many of these flights will use major airports. In Europe, 
for  example,  London,  Paris,  Frankfurt  and  Madrid  will  have  the  greatest  passenger 
traffic  [2].  The  rest  of  the  flights  will  go  to  many  other  destinations,  up  to  a  total  of 
200,000 take-offs and landings worldwide, before the day is over. 

And the most surprising fact is that these figures will triple in less than 40 years, as 
air  traffic  in  Brazil,  Russia,  India  and  China  reaches  the  levels  that  are  now  usual  in 
Europe and the USA. 

With the current figures on the table and, especially, with these prospects for the 
future, no one can question the strategic nature of the aeronautics sector. A sector that, 
today, is generating in Europe more than 400,000 direct jobs – 35,000 in Spain – and a 
turnover of over 100 billion Euros per year. 

But, above all, it is a sector on which we all depend much more than we imagine, 
until  situations  such  as  the  eruption  in  2010  of  the  Icelandic  volcano  Eyjafjallajökull 
become a drastic reminder. 

This dependence on air transport – common to all advanced societies and econo-
mies – constitutes an opportunity for the aeronautics industry but also poses new chal-
lenges, such as optimising logistics operations, reducing environmental impact, energy 
saving and developing safer and more efficient technologies. 

4

I. Policy and Strategy – Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment

All these challenges can only be addressed through ever greater effort in Research 
and Development activities. An innovative effort that has been – if I may say so – part 
of the “DNA” of the aeronautics industry from the outset. 

In Spain, for instance, the industry’s R&D activities mobilize resources amounting 
to nearly 15% of the sector’s turnover, and employ nearly 6,000 researchers and tech-
nologists.  Public  administrations,  with  their  threefold  role  of  regulators,  procurers  of 
goods and services, and promoters of R&D, have great responsibility in boosting this 
sector and, most especially, in its technological development. 

That  is  why  the  Government  of  Spain,  and  in  particular  the  Ministry  of  Science 
and Innovation, considers that events like the one we are having the opportunity to host 
are of the greatest interest. 

Bearing in mind the current and future significance of air transport, two attitudes 
are possible: that of those who wish to lead, and that of those who prefer to follow the 
leader. 

Neither  Europe  nor  Spain  can  settle  for  being  mere  consumers  of  aeronautical 
technology.  We  can  and  we  must  participate,  and,  whenever  possible,  play  a  leading 
role  in  the  successive  innovations  that  will  revolutionize  this  sector  in  forthcoming 
years, and the appropriate public policies can help us take on that European leadership. 
We must also pay very close attention to the needs of an industry that will increas-
ingly  have  to  take  decisions  regarding  where  to  make  future  investments.  We  must 
continue working  to  consolidate  Europe  as a  preferential  location  for  aeronautical  re-
search on a worldwide scale, and also to attract to our lands the other production activi-
ties in the sector’s value chain, which are a source of stable, quality jobs. 

In Spain we are certainly convinced that this is the way forward, and we consider 
the aeronautical sector a great ally, a strength, in transforming our economy and, now 
that we are addressing our recovery, in consolidating a more sustainable growth pattern, 
one that is more based on activities with high added value, such as those of our aero-
nautical sector, which is among the greatest in Europe and which has continued grow-
ing in terms of employment and turnover despite the crisis. 

We know that the challenge is complex, but innovation has already taken pride of 
place on the Spanish political agenda, and we have been working intensely in the last 
three  years  to  replicate  in  other  sectors  the  technological  leadership  we  have  already 
achieved in some niches of the aeronautical sector, and in the field of renewable energy, 
to name just two examples. 

Spain has, on other occasions, met equally difficult challenges. In the field of sci-
ence,  for  example,  our  country  has  risen,  in  less  than  three  decades,  from  a  modest 
position  on  the  world  ranking  –  number  30  –  to  become  one  of  the  top  ten  countries 
producing  science.  Only  yesterday  we  read  a  report  by  the  Royal  Society  placing  us, 
for  the  first  time,  ahead  of  Russia  in  volume  of  scientific  production,  and  ahead  of 
Australia and Switzerland in the quality of our science. We have achieved this by in-
creasing  the  number  of  researchers  by  36%  since  2004,  and  by  doubling  the  public 
budget  we  dedicate  to  research.  This  commitment  has  been  supported  by  the  private 
sector, with increased budgets for R&D, which have been for several consecutive years 
among the highest in the OECD. 

And to transform all this scientific potential into economic development, we have, 
in recent months, promoted two major reforms in the field of science, technology and 
innovation.  A  new  Law,  which  has  received  unanimous  parliamentary  support  in  the 
Congress  of  Deputies  [3],  and  a  National  Innovation  Strategy  which,  due  to  its  ap-
proach, is a first in Europe, involves the entire Government, and focuses on five lines 

C. Garmendia Mendizábal / Keynote Address of the Government of Spain

5

of action: A financial environment favouring innovation; promotion of innovation from 
the  standpoint of  public  procurement;  internationalisation  of  innovative activities;  co-
operation  among  public  administrations  and,  finally,  employment,  with  different  ac-
tions aimed at accelerating the incorporation of innovative talent into Spanish compa-
nies. 

The National Innovation Strategy will lead to important strengthening of the aero-
nautics sector. We wish to support, with all the instruments available, a sector that has 
been  able  to  grow  in  employment  and  turnover  during  2009  –  a  year  marked  by  the 
economic crisis – and which can now be a significant lever for recovery: because of its 
direct  impact  on our  economy,  of  course,  but  also because of  its  capacity  to  success-
fully transfer its technology to other industries, thus increasing their competitiveness. 

In Spain we have interesting experiences in this respect. For example, the applica-
tion of composites originally designed for aeronautical applications to other means of 
transport and to renewable energies; the application of air communications equipment 
to railway use; and the use in the bio-health sector of certain sensors developed by our 
aerospace industry. 

To conclude, I would like to once more insist on Spain’s commitment to the sector, 
as  well  as  on  our  great  satisfaction  at  hosting  this  sixth  edition  of  Aeronautics  Days, 
which is being attended by more than 1,400 professionals from companies, universities 
and  research  centres  in  over  45  countries,  to  whom  I  reiterate  my  warmest  welcome 
and my gratitude for their participation. 

References 

[1]  ACI World Airport Traffic Report, 2009. 
[2]  Madrid ranks fourth in the EU and eleventh in the world in passenger numbers (ACI World Airport Traf-

fic Report 2009). 

[3]  The Science, Technology and Innovation Act has been published in the Official Spanish Gazette (Boletín 
Oficial del Estado) on 2 June 2001, after receiving nearly unanimous definitive approval in the Congress 
of Deputies on 31 May 2011. 

6

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-6

Keynote Address by Siim Kallas 

Siim KALLAS 
Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Transport 

Abstract.  The  European  Commission  has  launched  a  demanding  innovation 
process in air transport and aeronautics in Europe. It has to complete what it has 
been  started  and  to  look  beyond  immediate  concerns  and  to  build  further  on  its 
commitments. The report ‘Flightpath 2050 – Europe’s Vision for Aviation’ was in-
troduced,  a  basic  document  which  has  been  established  by  a  group  of  high-level 
representatives from the European aviation industry. The new White Paper ‘Trans-
port Road Map’ was also presented. Technology and innovation are key-solutions 
for the future. 

Keywords. Flighpath 2050, transport road map, SESAR/NextGen partnership 

I am delighted to be here with you today and I thank Ms Cristina Garmendia and the 
Ministry for Science and Innovation and its agency CDTI for organising this important 
conference with the European Commission. The presence of so many participants from 
all stakeholder groups, policy makers as well as industry representatives and research-
ers, shows that we are at an important crossroads. 

Aviation has had a decade of ups and downs, but overall it has been a tremendous 
success  story  for  Europe.  This  would  not  have  been  possible  without  the  sector’s 
splendid ability and readiness to adapt to a changing environment, to innovate, and to 
take risks. 

But  we  are  not  yet  where  we  need  to  be.  We  still  have  to  achieve  our  ambitious 
2020  targets  and  the  longer  term  future  will  bring  even  more  demanding  challenges. 
We need to be prepared. More importantly, we in Europe need to be ready to lead the 
change. 

Firstly, we need to complete what we have started. We have launched a demanding 
innovation process in air transport and aeronautics in Europe and we need to deliver. 
This conference offers you a comprehensive snapshot on the ongoing research activi-
ties and their achievements so far, and I am pleased to see so much interest also from 
representatives outside the European Union. As they say, we vote with our feet! I take 
this as a positive signal that we are on the right track. 

Secondly, it is time to look beyond immediate concerns and to build further on our 
commitments. 2050 looks far away but in the time scales of innovation, development 
and deployment, this is tomorrow. And we have a serious issue to address. Air traffic 
management still operates today with technologies which were developed in the middle 
of the last century, and unsurprisingly we face a lot of congestion and delay as a creak-
ing system tries to accommodate ever rising demand. Meanwhile, we are now investing 
in the aircraft which will be flying well into the 2030s and longer – but we face more 
and more uncertainty about whether we will have sufficient conventional fuel to supply 
all  transport  needs.  Aviation  also  needs  to  reduce  its  impact  on  climate  change,  of 

S. Kallas / Keynote Address of the European Commission

7

course. New markets are emerging with new competitors as well as potential partners. 
Safety and security remain top on the agenda. 

That’s why we need a new vision of how to address these many challenges. 
Earlier this week, on Monday, the Commission published its new Transport Road 
Map  for  the  European  Transport  Policy,  and  you  will  find  aviation  prominently  in-
cluded. 

Today I bring you the new European vision 2050 from the industrial, research and 
innovation  perspective.  The  report  “Flightpath  2050  –  Europe’s  Vision  for  Aviation” 
has been established by a group of high-level representatives from the European avia-
tion  industry  which  I  invited,  together  with  my  colleague  Maire  Geoghegan-Quinn, 
Commissioner for Research and Innovation, to look at the long term needs for aviation. 
Why is this so important? I am sure I don’t need to tell you. But aviation counts. It 
brings together a diverse aeronautics industry and supply chain of strategic importance, 
a marriage of large and small enterprises across Europe and beyond. And transport is 
vital not just to our personal mobility and freedom, it is central to our entire economy. 
Transport  –  and  air  transport  –  is  not  just  a  business:  it  must  deliver  for  citizens  and 
business. 

To illustrate with an example: the Single European Sky and SESAR. 
SESAR, the Single European Sky air traffic management research programme, of 
course  is  the  European  public-private  partnership  to  prepare  the  modernisation  of  the 
air traffic management infrastructure. The SESAR Joint Undertaking manages this well 
organised programme for research, development and validation, involving many of you. 
However, we cannot rest there. We need to go one important step further. We need to 
implement and deploy. We need to get the successful developments to the market. This 
is one of my core priorities. 

It is not just the lessons we must draw from last year’s ash cloud crisis, from the 
snow  of  last  winter.  We  have  to  tackle  the  constant  grind  of  daily  aviation  delays, 
which  everyone  in  Europe  has  to  endure.  This  defines  how  passengers,  how  our  citi-
zens, our voters will measure our success. And of course, it is the fuel savings, the ad-
ditional  transport  services,  the  overall  costs  (and  by  the  way,  the  additional  emission 
reductions), which will be the proof of the pudding for service providers. 

We have a clear commitment of Member States at the political  level to this vital 
project. The Single European Sky integrates regulation, performance targets, technolo-
gy, the human factor and infrastructure. By 2014 we will realise savings of more than 
one billion Euros, and CO2 emissions will be reduced by 500,000 tons a year starting 
2012. 

But let me also highlight the role of stakeholders in this context. You are the ones 
who will make it happen. You are the ones to benefit, but – it is also true – you will 
also carry much of the risks. So it is doubly useful to hear your views at this conference. 
Let me not bypass the essential international dimension. We have just signed the 
EU-US  Memorandum  of  Cooperation  on  civil  aviation  research.  At  the  moment  we 
have  the  opportunity  together  with  the  United  States  to  show  the  world  what  a  good 
SESAR-NextGen partnership can deliver. Interoperability is the watch-word – and this 
is not just a technical term. For airlines it means paying or saving millions, if not bil-
lions of Euros, and setting high quality global standards will provide new market op-
portunities for our industries. 

There  are  also  other  programmes  to  complete:  for  example  the  Clean  Sky  Joint 
Technology Initiative which is an important element in our efforts to reduce CO2 emis-
sions. And of course the massive ongoing efforts in other research projects and initia-

8

I. Policy and Strategy – Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment

tives from the Framework Programme which will be presented during the three days of 
this conference. 

In addition, we also need to be prepared for the unexpected, look beyond our ongo-
ing  programmes  and  be  open  for  innovation,  also  from  other  sectors  such  as  energy, 
information and communication technologies or materials. 

The  Vision  2050  describes  the  main  challenges  for  aeronautics  and  aviation.  It 
sketches a scenario of the future and it proposes concrete goals for European industry 
and technology performance which will need considerable efforts in research and de-
velopment. 

I would like to invite you to read the Vision 2050 and the Transport Road Map, our 
new White Paper, carefully. They set the frame for the next steps to take. I invite you to 
work together to make it a reality. 

Technology and innovation are key to the solutions for the future. The expectations 

are high and whatever we do or do not do, our actions will have a long lasting impact. 

I am pleased that the Aerodays 2011 will again show that our strength lies in our 

combined efforts and our ability to connect with partners across the globe. 

I  look  forward  to  hearing  a  detailed  account  of  your  deliberations  over  the  next 
three  days,  and  I  hope  you  all  benefit  from  enjoyable,  interesting  and  lively  discus-
sions! 

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-9

9

Keynote Lecture on Preparing the Future  
of Aviation – A Joint Effort of Europe 

Máire GEOGHEGAN-QUINN 
European Commissioner for Research and Innovation 

Abstract. Europe needs to keep its place in the skies to keep its place in Europe. 
Two parallel objectives are presented in ‘Flightpath 2050’: the first in maintaining 
global leadership, the second is serving society’s needs. They are closely intercon-
nected because this is only by serving society’s needs that we will be able to keep 
a position at the forefront of the global economy. A new instrument has been pro-
posed  to  bring  together  all  the  relevant  EU  instruments:  the  ‘Common  Strategic 
Framework for Research and Innovation Funding’. This will allow put in place tru-
ly crosscutting strategies covering the whole innovation system, from research to 
technical developments, to demonstration and market uptake. 

Keywords.  Flightpath  2050,  innovation  emergency,  innovation  union,  Europe 
2020 strategy, common strategic framework for research and innovation 

I  am  delighted  to  speak  to  you  today  at  the  sixth  European  Aeronautics  Days.  The 
theme  for  this  year  is  “Innovation  for  sustainable  aviation  in  a  global  environment”. 
The  subject  is  well  chosen,  since  Innovation  is  at  the  very  top  of  Europe’s  political 
agenda, and aviation has always been about innovation. 

Since I became the European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, 
I  have  met  many  of  the  leading  representatives  of  Europe’s  aviation  industries.  I  am 
convinced that the constant advances made in European aviation are often the result of 
the kinds of ideas and practices that we need to implement more widely in Europe – so 
that the European Union will become a world-leading hotspot for research and innova-
tion. 

At  the  heart  of  the  Europe  2020  Strategy  adopted  last  year  by  the  EU  Member 
States  is  the  conviction  that  we  need  to  innovate  to  get  Europe  back  on  the  path  to 
growth and jobs. And if the European economy is to take off again, we need everyone 
on  board,  everyone  participating,  Member  States,  the  EU  institutions,  policy-makers, 
business-actors, the public sector, and of course researchers and scientists. 

And besides the economic rationale, we need more innovation to tackle the major 
societal  challenges  faced  by  Europe,  such  as  sustainable  mobility,  climate  change, 
energy security or our ageing population. 

The Innovation Union Flagship launched last October is our response to Europe’s 
“Innovation  emergency”.  It  contains  a  programme  of  bold  and  necessary  actions  and 
policies to transform Europe into an “Innovation Union”. 

The Flagship underlines an idea that the aviation industries have long put in prac-
tice: that we need constant innovation to capitalise on new opportunities and tackle new 
challenges. 

10

I. Policy and Strategy – Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment

Sustainable aviation has a key role to play in addressing several of these challenges. 
First of all, we need aviation to keep our economy moving. We have seen very clearly 
the  immediate  economic  effects  of  air  traffic  disruption  caused  by  the  volcanic  ash 
cloud  over  northern  Europe  last  spring  and  of  the  adverse  winter  conditions  a  few 
months ago. 

Secondly, aviation industries have a key role to play in addressing the environmen-
tal, energy and resource challenges that we face. Aviation makes the world smaller. It 
brings people together, it enriches our outlook. But with that also comes the responsi-
bility to minimise aviation’s impact on the planet and on people. 

The aviation sector is crucial for Europe: you provide 400,000 jobs, many of them 
highly  skilled;  you  invest  at  least  12%  of  your  turnover  in  R&D;  and  about  60%  of 
your  production  is  exported  outside  of  our  continent.  Passenger  traffic  is  growing  by 
some  4  to  5%  per  year  and  Eurocontrol  expects  that  by  2030  air  transport  in  Europe 
will almost have doubled compared to today. 

That’s a lot, but the growth of passenger traffic is even higher in other regions of 
the world! That is why we need Europe to take a competitive position to provide air-
craft and aeronautics services not only for our own market, but worldwide. Europe is 
already a world leader, but we need to constantly innovate to secure our position and to 
do even better. 

Europe needs to keep its place in the skies to keep its place in the world. 
So it is vitally important to meet the Innovation Union goal of completing the Eu-
ropean  Research  Area  by  2014.  This  will  create  major  opportunities  for  closer  cross-
border co-operation and cross-fertilisation of ideas and knowledge between researchers, 
universities, research centres and industry that are currently being lost because of ob-
stacles to the movement of ideas and people. 

But of course we should not stop there. A global industry such as aviation needs a 
global outlook – and I think I have already heard some Russian and Chinese in the cor-
ridors.  The  Innovation  Union  Flagship  recognises  the  benefits  of  working  better  with 
our international partners. This means access to our R&D programmes, while ensuring 
comparable  conditions  abroad.  This  also  means  adopting  a  common  EU  front  where 
needed to protect our interests. 

While  we  are  thinking  in  terms  of  at  least  ten  years  into  the  future  with  Europe 
2020, the aviation industry is used to thinking in the longer term. With such long life 
cycles in aviation, what we are dreaming about today may only take to the skies in 20 
or 30 years time. In that sense, the report “Flightpath 2050 – Europe’s Vision for Avia-
tion” that has been launched during Aerodays 2011 is not about an abstract future. We 
–  researchers,  industrialists  and  policy  makers  –  are  quite  literally  forming  the  future 
today. 

Two parallel objectives are presented in Flightpath 2050: the first is ‘maintaining 
global  leadership’,  the  second  is  ‘serving  society’s  needs’.  To  me,  these  are  closely 
interconnected. Only by serving society’s needs will we be able to keep a position at 
the forefront of the global economy. And again, this is in tune with the overall goals of 
Innovation Union. 

Flightpath 2050 is an excellent policy document. It is the result of a great deal of 
much-appreciated hard work and – quite literally – of “blue sky” thinking. But this is 
just  the  beginning,  we  need  to  turn  the  vision  into  reality  through  excellent  Research 
and  Development  and  cutting  edge  innovation.  The  challenges  and  the  opportunities 
are immense, and I hope you are as keen as I am to get down to work. 

M. Geoghegan-Quinn / Preparing the Future of Aviation – A Joint Effort of Europe

11

It will be essential to have the whole European aviation sector involved. The Stra-
tegic Research Agenda that the ACARE Technology Platform has prepared on the ba-
sis of the previous Vision 2020 has already become an important reference document. 
Now is the time to build on the success of ACARE and develop a new strategic road-
map for aviation research, development and innovation. 

The  real  worth  of  having  such  a  roadmap  is  that  public  and  private  funding  pro-

grammes all across Europe can build on it when establishing their own priorities. 

And we will have the greatest chance of success if it has been drafted with the full 
participation  of  all  the  relevant  European  stakeholders.  Not  just  those  working  in  the 
private sector, but also those involved in Member States and at the level of the Euro-
pean Commission. Not only because a broad consensus will help to realise the Vision, 
but  also  because  the  research  roadmap  will  benefit  from  involving  as  many  different 
expert views as possible. 

It is clear that we can only achieve real progress by joining national forces together. 
This does not mean just joining forces across borders, but also across the sector. That 
includes  the  full  participation  of  operational  areas  like  airlines  and  airports,  since  for 
the general public these are the real interface, the most important points of contact with 
aviation and aeronautics. 

It is probably true to say that most passengers will not be particularly aware of the 
technical attributes of their aeroplane. For most people, flying is all about their expe-
rience at the airport, the service offered by their airline, and how secure and comforta-
ble they feel in the aircraft. 

While I am committed to developing a new research, development and innovation 
agenda  for  aviation,  we  have  already  done  much  to  support  aviation  research  at  the 
European level. The outcomes of this research are making a significant contribution to 
our Innovation Union goals. I would like to give just a couple of examples of the added 
value of aviation research at the European level. 

European funding is helping to build collaborative links in the industry: an exam-
ple  is  the  ALCAS  (Advanced  Low  Cost  Aircraft  Structures)  project  which  brings  to-
gether 59 highly specialised research institutions and enterprises from a wide range of 
technological backgrounds. They are working together to reduce the weight, and thus 
the fuel consumption, of aircraft. It is the bundling of their expertise that makes it poss-
ible  to  think  about  ways  of  using  composite  materials  throughout  the  whole  aircraft, 
where each component poses its own particular challenges. 

As  the  Innovation  Union  emphasises,  by  encouraging  new  ways  of  working  to-
gether,  we  really  can  arrive  at  out-of-the-box  ideas,  and  true  innovation.  In  the  TIM-
PAN (Technologies to ImProve Airframe Noise) project on noise reduction, an out-of-
the-box idea came from a Romanian SME participant that was not part of the big, es-
tablished organisations. It proved to be the most promising idea of all, eventually lead-
ing to a joint patent with Airbus. 

The European Union is committed to supporting aviation research. Under the 7th 
Framework Programme, the European Commission has already invested over 500 mil-
lion  Euros  in  more  than  200  different  research  projects.  We  have  also  committed 
1.5 billion Euros for the Single European Sky (SESAR) and Clean Sky initiatives. 

Since the aviation industry is one of the Framework Programme’s most important 
customers, I expect you, therefore, to make an active contribution to the public consul-
tation on the follow up to the current 7th Framework Programme, which will come into 
force in 2014. 

12

I. Policy and Strategy – Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment

European research funding is currently spread across too many small programmes 
and  different  instruments,  sometimes  with  insufficient  scale  and  scope  to  make  real 
breakthroughs in a visible way – especially in large scale, expensive technologies such 
as aeronautics. Getting better value for money also means cutting red-tape, so that EU-
funded scientists can spend more time in the lab. We cannot attract the most brilliant 
scientists and most innovative companies with an incoherent set of funding instruments, 
with complex and bureaucratic rules. 

So,  I  have  proposed  a  new  instrument  –  a  Common  Strategic  Framework  for  re-
search and innovation – to bring together all of the relevant EU instruments. This will 
allow  us  to  put  in  place  truly  crosscutting  strategies  that  cover  the  whole  innovation 
system, from research to technological development, to demonstration and market up-
take. It will help ensure that excellence remains the byword for European research. 

I recently published a Green Paper to launch a public consultation on key questions 
for this Common Strategic Framework. I encourage all of you to take part in this debate. 
Your views will be crucial for the Commission in developing its legislative proposal on 
the Common Strategic Framework by the end of this year. 

I  truly  hope  that  Flightpath  2050  will  motivate  us  and  push  us  all  to  achieve  by 
2050 the challenging and ambitious objectives that have been set out. These will bene-
fit not just the aviation sector, but also millions of people whose lives are enriched each 
and every day by the freedom of travel. I am personally committed to help Europe meet 
these goals through the proposed Common Strategic Framework for research and inno-
vation funding. 

Together, we can make Europe’s Vision for Aviation a reality. 
And  together, we  can  make air  transport ready for  the  future –  a future in which 
aviation and aeronautics continue to prove that, as far as European innovation is con-
cerned, the sky really is the limit! 

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-13

13

Inauguration Speech by Eva Piera 

Eva PIERA 
Vice Minister of Economic Affairs of the Regional Government of Madrid 

Abstract. Madrid: a regional actor of the European Aeronautics Community. 

Keywords. Madrid, Nereus Network 

Introduction 

Madrid is one of the main regional actors of the European aeronautics community and 
a proactive member of the European Research Area. Aeronautics and air transport are 
key  industries  for  Europe,  in  which,  public  and  private  stakeholders  provide  world 
leadership and help to meet society’s needs in terms of sustainable mobility of passen-
gers and freight. But what’s very important as well, these industries are key drivers in 
Europe to generate wealth and economic growth, to provide highly skilled jobs and to 
support innovation system with substantial R&D investments. 

As  appears  in  the  Europe  2020  Strategy1,  if  Europe  is  able  to  maintain  its  eco-
nomic  strength  in  the  future,  it  needs  to  evolve  into  a  true  Innovation  Union  where 
knowledge can be shared freely across borders, and where synergies between research 
and industry, contribute to increase our global competitiveness. And this is especially 
true for the air transport and aerospace sectors. 

Ten  years  ago,  the  Vision  for  20202 was  developed  for  European  aeronautics;  it 
successfully  gave  guidance  to  setting  priorities  for  research  and  technological  devel-
opments  at  an  European,  national  and  industrial  level.  And  in  the  Madrid  Region  we 
used  these  general guidelines  to define our own  strategy, fully  aligned  and  integrated 
within those parameters. 

Now, we have the opportunity to adopt a new Vision, which will be presented at 
this  6th  European  Aeronautics  Days  20113.  A  unique  platform  that  bring  together  re-
searchers, engineers, managers and policy makers active in the field of aeronautics and 
air transport, both in Europe and worldwide. So it is a unique platform. 

1. A Bit of Madrid 

The Madrid Region forming just 1.6% of the Spanish territory represents almost 20% 
of the national economy, and the income level is 29% greater than the EU-27 average. 
Also  it  is  the  main  business,  financial  and  political  centre  of  Spain,  with  a  very  dy-
namic economy, that has reported an annual average growth of almost 2% in the 2005–
2009 period of time. 

Madrid’s economy is particularly focused on the services sector, which generates 
more than 80% of the regional GDP, but has an innovative industry as 2nd engine of 
the economy. 

14

I. Policy and Strategy – Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment

40% of all IT companies in Spain are based in Madrid [1], along with 19.3% of all 

biotech companies [2], and 57.7% of the Aerospace sector turnover [3]. 

The Madrid Region hosts 270,000 workers in high-technology manufacturing and 
knowledge-intensive technology services, being the 2nd region in Europe according to 
Eurostat in high-technology sectors employment [4]. 

Each year 35,000 students graduated from any of the 15 Madrid based universities, 

of which 34% are formed in technical and experimental science schools4. 

The Madrid Region is the national leader in terms of expenditure in R&D, which 
represents 2.06% of GDP, above European average. It is actually the headquarters for 
17 o the 19 Public Research Bodies which manage and execute main programs in the 
National  Research,  Development  and  Innovation  Plan.  But  what’s  important  as  well, 
28% of Spanish private expenditure on R&D is originated in Madrid. 

Likewise, the Madrid Region has a network of clusters that promote 12 sectors that 

are strategic for the region, among which Aerospace is one of the most important. 

2. Madrid Regional Actor of European Aeronautics Community 

As a regional administration, framed by the European and Spain’s political and admin-
istrative  context,  we  are  using  all  our  strengths  as  a  region  and  exploring  all  mecha-
nisms to support innovation and competitiveness of our aerospace sector. This has al-
lowed Madrid to be the most specialized region in high-technology industry, represent-
ing  almost  60%  of  the  Spain’s  aerospace  activity  (92%  in  the  case  of  Space)  and 
around 3% of the European aerospace activity. 

We  are  pushing  for  all  available  resorts  to  make  the  whole  industry  community 
work together: private companies, research centres, universities, public administration, 
regulatory authorities and the European Commission. This collaborative framework is 
key for the future of Aeronautics and Aviation System in Europe and in our region it’s 
represented by the Madrid Aerospace Cluster, one of the sponsors of Aerodays 2011. 

Besides, our region is a founding member in the Nereus Network, and our cluster 
is also founding member of the European Aerospace Clusters Partnership Association 
(EACP). 

It is important to point out that our region is one of the few regions in the world – 
and  even  countries-  that  can  create  an  aircraft,  from  the  design  phase  through  all  the 
valve chain: manufacturing, certification, commercialization and maintenance. 

Nowadays, there is a need to set new priorities for an extended timescale towards 
2050. We know that Aerospace is one of the most research-intensive sectors in Europe, 
and despite difficult times, more than 15% of its turnover is dedicated to Research & 
Development. 

The Madrid Region is aware about the importance of this sector and the drivers to 
be set will need to contribute to a new sustainable and economic model in our country. 
And for that purpose, other challenges will need to be met securing financing for key 
new programs and technologies, giving access to top educational and training programs 
and supporting the role of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the industry sector. 
For  the  industry  as  a whole, we know  that a  concentration on  core  competencies 
and  high  value-added  activities  will  be  key  success  factors.  In  this  sense,  one  of  the 
new leitmotivs for the future of the EU cohesion policy is the so-called “smart regional 
5. The specialization will take place along applications exploit-
specialization strategy” 

E. Piera / Inauguration Speech of the Regional Government of Madrid

15

ing  business  segments,  or  markets  that  require  adaptation  of  general  technologies  to 
specific user needs. 

The regions that are not leading in any technological sector will have to increase 

their intensity of investments in the knowledge-based economy. 

This smart regional specialization concept must be understood in three layers: 

• 

• 

• 

a policy of different sectors, an eco-system supporting innovation, growth and 
job creation; 
an integrated approach through which an innovation eco-system supports high 
growth potential enterprises, sectorial niches and accomplishing expectations 
of the society; 
a plan to provide higher added-value services to all regional stakeholders. 

And for these sense, we should never forget to support the development including 
start-ups  and  innovation,  recruit  new  industry,  talent  and  investors,  diversify  (prod-
uct/service or geographical) existing industry, upgrade mature industry which already 
exists, improve R&D and innovation infrastructures and networks and promote strong 
partnerships with and within regions. 

Finally, Madrid is trying to push each of those requirements and I want to express 
in this important industry appointment our commitment with the European Aerospace 
Sector. 

Endnotes 

1 This is the EU’s growth strategy for the coming decade. Concretely, the Union has set five ambitious 
objectives – on employment, innovation, education, social inclusion and climate/energy – to be reached by 
2020. Each Member State will adopt its own national targets in each of these areas. Concrete actions at EU 
and national levels will underpin the strategy. 

2 In 2000, the ‘European Vision for Aeronautics and Air Transport in 2020’ was launched to meet the 
needs of our society, while maintaining an European global leadership in aeronautics. Since 2000 the percep-
tion of our society regarding air Transport has changed a lot and in the  future ‘Towards 2050’, aviation is 
likely to face even more radical challenges. 

3 Aviation  Platform’s  support  for  “Vision  2050”,  a  long-term  strategy  for  research  and  innovation  in 
aviation is being developed by a group of European top-level representatives of the European aeronautics and 
aviation industry. They are working on a proposal for an ambitious research and innovation strategy to put 
Europe at the forefront of competitive, clean, safe and secure aviation by 2050, and  members of the High-
level Group on Aviation Research will present the “Vision 2050” at the Aeronautical Days 2011 in Madrid 
on 30 March to 1 April. 

4 INE: National Statistics Institute. 
5 Regional policy contributing to smart growth in Europe 2020. 

References 

[1]  Penetración Regional de nueva Economía, CEPREDE, 2010. 
[2]  Annual Report, ASEBIO, 2010. 
[3]  Memoria, TEDAE, 2010. 
[4]  Eurostat, 2009. 

                                                           
16

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-16

Inauguration Speech by Rudolf Strohmeier 

Rudolf STROHMEIER 
Deputy Director-General Research & Innovation, European Commission 

Abstract. Europe: the importance of the Aeronautics Sector, a common strategic 
framework in order to create a much higher impact and to simplify access, a new 
vision for aviation ‘Flightpath 2050’. 

Keywords. Europe, research, innovation 

Introduction 

As Bill Gates, former CEO of Microsoft once said: “The Wright Brothers created the 
single  greatest  cultural  force  since  the  invention  of  writing.  The  airplane  became  the 
first World Wide Web, bringing people, languages, ideas, and values together”. When I 
see this audience in front of me today, with people from all over Europe, but also from 
China, Ukraine, Russia, South Africa, and the United States, I can only agree. Aviation 
does bring people together and this is also what the European Commission is encourag-
ing with the Research Framework Programme of the European Union. 

On  behalf  of  the  European  Commission’s  Directorate  General  for  Research  and 
Innovation, I would like to warmly welcome you all to the Sixth European Aeronautics 
Days. 

It  is  a  true  honour  for  me  to  be  opening  such  a  major  international  event  which 
happens only once every five years and where the main European stakeholders of the 
aeronautics and air transport sector, both institutional and industrial are represented. 

My colleagues from the European Commission and the Spanish Centre for the De-
velopment  of  Industrial  Technology  (CDTI)  have  put  a  lot  of  effort  into  making  the 
Aerodays 2011 a success. I would like to sincerely thank all of them for making it pos-
sible to organise such a unique event. 

1. The Importance of the Aeronautics Sector 

Aviation – Aeronautics and Air Transport – is essential for Europe, not only for ensur-
ing the economic links within Europe and beyond but also as an industrial area of stra-
tegic  importance.  The  European  Aeronautics  sector  represents  more  than  400,000  in-
dustry jobs, invests 12% of its turnover in R&D and exports about 6% of its production. 
Europe’s  Air  transport  is  giving  directly  and  indirectly  jobs  to  about  4  million  and 
represents 800 million passengers transported per year with a growth rate of 4–5% per 
annum. 

We  experienced  recently  the  vital  importance  of  the  air  transport  system  for 
Europe  as  well  as  its  vulnerability  when,  almost  exactly  a  year  ago,  in  April  2010  a 
volcano erupted in Iceland. Millions of people were unable to fly, many of them were 
blocked  far  away  from  home  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  tourist  and  business  ar-

R. Strohmeier / Inauguration Speech of DG Research & Innovation of the European Commission

17

rangements were cancelled. The global supply chain of industry was severely affected. 
While  we  were  still  thinking  ‘never  again’,  similar  disruptions  hit  Europe  when  this 
winter heavy snow falls paralysed a number of major airports. 

These  events  clearly  demonstrated  that  air  transport needs  to  be  better  connected 
with other transport modes, but also that further coordination is needed in Europe. We 
need to work on this together and the European Commission is committed to do so. 

2. European Commission Contribution to Research 

We have been spending over Euros 1.5 billion on more than 300 research projects un-
der FP7, plus another 700 and 800 million Euros respectively to establishing a Single 
European Sky (SESAR) and financing the Clean Sky Joint Undertaking. 

Just looking at the Aerodays programme and the number of parallel sessions gives 

you a flavour of how rich and diverse EU research projects are. 

3. EU 2020 – Innovation Union 

I would like to inform you briefly how the Commission is currently preparing the fu-
ture of EU research. 

The topic of today’s opening ceremony ‘Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a 
Global Environment’ fits well into the Europe 2020 Strategy and in particular into its 
Flagship Initiative – Innovation Union. 

The Europe 2020 Strategy fixes the objectives of smart, sustainable and inclusive 
growth.  Seven  flagship  initiatives  have  been  launched  to  contribute  to  this  ambition. 
The ‘Innovation Union’ is one of them. It is a bold strategy which aims to put in place 
the conditions needed for research and innovation in Europe as well as mobilising ef-
forts on some of the key challenges. 

4. Green Paper Consultation 

Of course, the European Commission cannot achieve this Innovation Union alone. You 
all have to provide us with your valuable input and you have a unique opportunity. 

On 9th February 2011, the College of Commissioners adopted a Green Paper that 
launched  an  open  consultation  on  DG  RTD’s  proposals  for  a  “Common  Strategic 
Framework”. This consultation is open to stakeholders until 20 May 2011. The results 
of the consultation will feed into a major conference to be held in Brussels on 10 June. 
All of you are more than welcome to provide your views and contribute to the design 
of an improved EU research and innovation funding programme because the results of 
the  consultation  will  be  an  important  input  for  the  preparation  of  the  Commission’s 
legislative proposals by the end of 2011. 

5. Common Strategic Framework 

What  is  the  aim  of  this  Common  Strategic Framework?  The  idea  is  to  create  a  much 
higher impact and to simplify access. 

18

I. Policy and Strategy – Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment

It  should  allow  a  coherent  approach  to  strategic  priorities.  In  the  green  paper  we 

propose a focus on three strategic objectives: 
−  Tackling major societal challenges, 
− 
Increasing competitiveness, and 
−  Raising the levels of excellence in the research base. 

It should be designed to allow organisations and projects to move across the differ-

ent stages of the innovation cycle so that good ideas get to market. 

There should be more standardised rules across all parts of the Common Strategic 
Framework, so that participants do not have to learn a new set of rules each time they 
apply to a different programme. There should also be a common entry point and a ra-
tionalised  toolkit  of  funding  schemes,  which  removes  confusing  variations  between 
current instruments. 

6. Europe’s New Vision for Aviation ‘Flightpath 2050’ 

Regarding the aeronautics sector, a major contribution will be presented to you today: 
Europe’s new Vision for Aviation ‘Flightpath 2050’. I welcome this ambitious exercise 
and I am now looking forward to the next step, a new research roadmap that needs to 
be jointly developed with all aviation stakeholders. 

It is based on the Vision  2020 for Europe’s aeronautics announced 10 years ago. 
With its ambitious goals it gave guidance for research and technological developments 
on European, national and industrial level. 

I trust that the Vision 2050 will be a new starting point for the aeronautics and air 
transport community to enabling the research and technologies to achieve the ambitious 
goals of the new common version. 

7. Conclusion 

When  walking  into  this  conference  centre  and  going  through  the  exhibition  stands, 
I could see that you have developed a lot of bright ideas and promising technologies. I 
prompt  you  to  visit  the  exhibition  and  to  follow  the  numerous  technology  sessions. 
I sincerely hope that you will profit from the occasion of these Aerodays to exchange 
ideas and learn from each other’s approaches and research projects. 

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-19

19

Inauguration Speech by Antonio Vázquez 

Antonio VÁZQUEZ 
President, International Airlines Group (IAG) and Iberia 

Abstract. The need for efficiency will lead to the coordination of different means 
of  transport;  environment  is  one  of  the  major  challenges  affecting  the  growth  of 
aviation  industry;  Air  Transport  will  only  be  able  to  meet  its  emission  reduction 
targets if sustainable alternative fuels are deployed. 

Keywords. Airlines, operating procedures, new fuels 

It is my honour to be here today sharing this tribune with such distinguished represen-
tatives from the European Commission, European Parliament, Member States, Spanish 
Ministry,  Regional  government  and  industry  &  research  aeronautical  institutions,  etc. 
We could never find, sitting all together, a better representation for and in the interest 
of this industry. 

Being the first airline speaker in this event, I presume I have also the responsibility 
and of course the need, to say what the expectations are from an airline perspective for 
the coming decades. 

It seems difficult to predict today what is going to happen in 2050, but something 
we are very sure of is that the need of mobility for people, likely to reach 9 billion by 
then,  will  still  be  there  and  aviation  will  be  the  only  viable  direct  way  of  connecting 
regions around the world. 

In the coming years air transport will face one of the most radical changes it has 
faced so far. In a few year time, yet unknown, production of fossil fuels will begin to 
decline and by 2050 new fuels will be feeding our engines. Similarly, automation will 
be  fully  developed  and  the role of  intelligent  systems  will  be paramount  in  air  traffic 
control increasing safety levels and flight efficiency. 

In my view, this need for efficiency will naturally lead to the coordination of dif-
ferent means of transport as a result of which the present model in which our hubs are 
fed solely by aircraft will evolve into large intercontinental hubs fed by short haul air-
craft and high speed trains. Alike, it will become common to have to transport groups 
in which surface and air transport are managed by the same corporation. 

Certainly, this is the ideal world, but the fact is that, although technical and scien-
tific progress can be traced linearly to human behaviour, this line might be quite unpre-
dictable in this case as we cannot ascertain today how societies will react when fossil 
fuels  become  scarce  whilst  the  now  emerging  economies  will  be  matured  and  highly 
energy dependent. 

Society and human behaviour has never changed as fast as now. Internet and satel-
lite  communications  have  played  the  role  to  broad  citizen  minds  who  are  now  more 
conscious  of  their  rights  than  ever  before  and  who  no  longer  accept  things  as  given. 
Airlines will no longer focus their strategies only in operations and customer care. We 
have started to look further to include in our folders also those social and human issues 
that will determine the new customer demands and concerns in the future. 

20

I. Policy and Strategy – Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment

Environmentally speaking, if we look back at 1991 when the first Aerodays sum-
mit took place, no one would ever think that environmental issues would be at stake as 
they currently are with ample discussions on the effects of human activities on global 
warming, laws limiting and penalizing those activities and large investments on Inno-
vation & Development to minimize our footprint on the environment. 

No doubt, environment is one of the major challenges affecting the growth of our 
industry, perhaps the biggest we have faced ever. The implications derived in searching 
that efficiency, affect every single area of this business. At this point we can raise our 
voices  and  proudly  declare  that  among  the  different  means  of  transport,  aviation  has 
been the most environmentally conscious. It has been the only one that, long before any 
other of our competitors were concerned by the environment, was obliged to seek effi-
ciency in terms of fuel consumption and comply with stringent noise curfews. 

Long  before  environment  was  an  issue,  our  industry  had  adopted  practices  and 
taken measures to mitigate aviation carbon and environmental footprint. And today we 
are committed to keep on along a track that contributes to the economic and social de-
velopment  of  our  world.  This  commitment  is  our  best  ally  because  from  now  on  no 
industry will have a future unless it is not environmentally sustainable. 

Aviation  is  responsible  for  a  very  small  part  of  man-made  carbon  emissions, 
roughly 2%. But the point is not if this share is low or not or if other modes of transport 
are less environmentally friendly, assuming our responsibility, aviation industry under-
stands that as long as we are part of the problem, we should also be part of the solution. 
For many years airlines, airports, air navigation service providers and manufactur-
ers  have  being  working  to  achieve  the  most  aggressive  climate  change  commitments 
never ever made by other industries. The sector has shown unprecedented support for a 
single vision to reduce emissions, setting targets that aim to improve by 1.5% our fuel 
efficiency  annually  from  2010  to  2020;  a  cap  on  net  carbon  emissions  from  2020 
through carbon neutral growth; and a 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050 com-
pared to 2005 levels. 

Huge investments will be needed to achieve this target. Just for European airlines, 
an investment of € 400 billion over the next 10 years will be needed to acquire 5,000 
new aircraft. 

We want to be a carbon free industry, and we have started to look ahead towards 
this objective. It is still a long way to cover but I think all the airlines have taken their 
responsibilities  seriously  by  delivering  already  tremendous  improvements  to  become 
efficient as soon as possible. 

And this concern obeys not just to our will to reduce to the minimum our carbon 
footprint, but also to the need to reduce our costs in a really difficult time for airlines. 
In a moment when our cost structures are affected more than ever by external factors, 
we are desperate to find all possible alternatives available to move forward and reach 
our targets keeping profitability in the most efficient way. 

We can play our part in this pathway and definitely that is what the airlines have 
been  trying  to  achieve  over  the  last  years.  The  environmental  protection  has  been  a 
constant feature in Iberia for many years and is singled out as one of our corporate pri-
orities: 

•  By renewing our fleet: As an average the new aircrafts that will be replacing 
older ones in the next two years, will reduce emissions by a 15% compared to 
the replaced aircraft. 

•  By adopting measures to reduce the weight of our aircraft. 

A. Vázquez / Inauguration Speech of the International Airlines Group IAG

21

•  By adjusting the cruise speed in long haul routes, and optimising the assign-
ment of fleets for different routes and fleet utilisation. Let me give you a brief 
example. According to our calculations, an Airbus A340/300 on the Madrid-
New York route flying at an average speed of 402 knots could save practically 
2 tonnes of CO2 on the flight by lowering its speed to 397 knots, while the dif-
ference in time of arrival would be no more than 5 minutes. 

•  By promoting the introduction of new energy-efficient navigation and opera-

ting procedures. 

But  airlines  alone  cannot  bring  us  to  the  greener  world  we  desire.  Additional 
measures from governments are needed to build that carbon free future we are all look-
ing  forward  to.  The  world’s  governments  must  now  take  up  the  challenge  by  putting 
forward  emission  saving  initiatives,  such  as  air  traffic  control  modernisation,  and 
adopting a truly global approach to aviation and climate change. Also a coherent inter-
modal  political  planning  at  airports  will  provide  a  win-win  situation  in  terms  of  sus-
tainability and efficiency. 

The current air traffic management system is inefficient and expensive in Europe. 
Although significant progress has been made, we are still far away from having an effi-
cient air transport system. To get the maximum efficiency we need: 

•  Political  will  as  a  way  of  cooperation  between  countries  and  Government 

commitment to move on the consolidation of the airspace. 

•  Public funding will be needed to ensure the deployment of the new technolo-
gies and systems. To give a clue, it is estimated that nearly € 30 billion will be 
needed for the next SESAR phase, the technological tool of the Single Euro-
pean Sky project. Without these investments, the Single European Sky could 
be left in mere theory. 

We need to find a common consensus in finding a workable global trading scheme 
for  aviation  emissions.  Unlike  emissions  from  automobile,  chemical  or  electricity  in-
dustries,  international  aviations  emissions  are  extraordinary  difficult  to  regulate.  Re-
gional  regulations  cannot  easily  be  designed  to  cover  an  aircraft  flying  and  crossing 
continents, countries and oceans away from its own regulating region. 

And that is the case of the cap and trade system designed by the European Union 
by which the airlines will have to face a bill of up to € 1.4 billion per year. No com-
plaints, the system, though it is probably an efficient way to cope aviation emissions, 
definitely better than taxes, could lead European airlines, if other third countries do not 
comply, into a complicated situation vis-à-vis our competitors from these regions. We 
support the development of an ambitious global solution on climate change and call the 
European Union, today present here through Mr Siim Kallas, to take a leadership role 
in agreeing in advance with third countries its implementation on the basis of consen-
sus. 

I cannot conclude my intervention, without referring to the alternative fuels and the 
recall that, air transport will only be able to meet its emissions-reduction targets if sus-
tainable  alternative  fuels  are  deployed.  Although  we  know  these  are  not  expected  to 
become  profitable  before  2020  and  this  only  if  15  billion  Euros  are  invested,  we  call 
the  Governments  to  establish  as  from  now  the  right  legal  and  fiscal  frameworks  to 
promote investment in low carbon sustainable alternative jet fuels. Without a real alter-
native  to  kerosene,  airlines  rely  in  bio-fuels  as  a  mean  of  sustainability  and  future 
growth. 

22

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-22

Special Lecture on “EU Vision 2050 –  
The Time Is Now” by Thomas Enders, Airbus 

Thomas ENDERS 
President and Chief Executive Officer of Airbus 
Member of the High-Level Group on Aviation Research 

Abstract. EU Vision 2050: the time is now. In 2050: 90% of European journeys 
will be completed in under 4 hours, flights will not be more than 1 minute late, Air 
Traffic  Management  will  handle  25  million  flights  per  year,  we’ll  have  reduced 
CO2  by  75%,  NOx  by  90%  and  noise  by  65%.  SESAR  must  be  correctly  imple-
mented. Bio-fuels development needs a carefully orchestrated collaboration, with 
clear reporting structures and clear responsibilities. Timing is everything. The suc-
cess of the Vision 2050 comes down to determination, investment and timing. 

Keywords. Bio-fuels, SESAR, NEXTGEN, timing 

Introduction: The Challenges 

We have just completed a global survey of 10,000 young people, who will be the pas-
sengers of 2050. Seventy percent of them expect: 

In greener aircraft; 

•  To fly more; 
• 
•  The choice of quality, speed or luxury; 
•  And – of course – with access to all their gadgets. 

The EU’s Vision 2050 matches this demand. It’s of an industry where: 

90% of European journeys will be completed in under four hours; 

• 
•  Flights will not be more than a minute late; 
•  Air Traffic Management will handle 25 million flights per year; 
•  And we’ll have reduced CO2 by 75%, NOx by 90% and noise by 65%. 

Perhaps the only thing more difficult than deciding what gadgets people will actually 
have by then, will be delivering that vision – particularly while demand for air traffic 
doubles every 15 years. 

By 2030 demand in North America, Western Europe and Japan will have grown by 

80%, but account for less than a third of all traffic. 

So how are we going to do that? 
•  With fuel running out; 
•  With much of the world’s airport infrastructure already at saturation; 
•  With punitive taxes limiting our ability to invest in solutions. 

And with all sorts of barriers to developing and sharing the talent needed to deliver 

them? 

T. Enders / “EU Vision 2050 – The Time Is Now”

23

This is what I should like to talk to you about this morning. 
Ladies  and  gentlemen,  Vice  President  Kallas,  Commissioner  Geoghegan-Quinn, 
thank you for involving us the development of the European Vision 2050. On behalf of 
everyone at Airbus, our customers and our suppliers, we look forward to being just as 
involved in delivering the solutions. 

I am also delighted that we can be part of Aerodays here in Madrid – just along the 
road from the Airbus Advanced Composite Centre in Illescas. We have 8,000 employ-
ees here in Spain and their expertise will be vital to delivering the Vision 2050. 

1. Solutions 

So what do some of those solutions look like and what actions must we take to deliver 
them? 

1.1. Air Traffic Management (ATM) 

As the world’s population will have increased by 50% by 2050, perhaps we should start 
with air traffic management. If Europe gets its act together SESAR has the potential: 

 To make life easier for air traffic controllers; 

• 
•  To cut flight times for airlines and give more autonomy to their crews; 
•  And to reduce fuel burn by over 10%, benefitting the environment as much as 

the airlines. 

Today  SESAR  is  a  plan,  a  vision.  To  be  successful,  it  must  be  correctly  imple-
mented. That means it has to be performance driven and clearly separate the role of the 
industry driving it from the customers who will benefit from it. 

•  We need to replace procedures that have been around since before the jet age 

took hold; 

− 

Instead of just using technology to mimic existing systems we need new 
operational concepts that better integrate aircraft and infrastructure capa-
bilities. 

• 

In the meantime, we have to modify aircraft avionics within the next decade. 
Airbus  and  Boeing  are  already  working  on  this  –  for  both  SESAR  and 
NEXTGEN  in  the  US,  and  to  reduce  fuel  burn  by  over  10%,  benefitting  the 
environment as much as the airlines. 
−  But we need the same effort from the teams responsible for air navigation 

services and ground infrastructure. 

−  And we need significant investment from the government and federal au-

thorities. 
Implementing this ground technology goes beyond the financial means of 
the industry, but then, as it helps us to support more than 33 million jobs 
and almost 8% of GDP, so do the benefits. 
Investment needs to come from transport budgets, not the R&TD budgets. 

− 

− 

There’s still a lot to do on SESAR. But if done right and we learn the lessons, it 

will show just how effective such co-operation can be. 

24

I. Policy and Strategy – Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment

1.2. Biofuels 

We need to see more of this approach on alternative fuels if we are to combine local 
deliverables with global needs. 

• 

 On the one hand, the only way to secure enough biofuels for aviation is to use 
different  feedstock  in  different  regions,  with  processing  and  delivery  infra-
structure to match; 

•  But  on  the  other,  aviation  operates  to  global  certification  standards,  serving 

global customers and has a global environmental impact; 

•  And to reduce fuel burn by over 10%, benefitting the environment as much as 

the airlines. 

Airbus cannot take the lead on this: 
•  Producing jet fuel is beyond our core business and is not where we add most 

value; 
Instead of that we can serve as a catalyst and a technical advisor; 

• 
•  We aim to have at least one value chain project on each continent – like the 
new Spanish initiative we finalised this morning with Iberia and the Spanish 
Transport Ministry. 

If  we  want  to  achieve  a  global  solution,  based  on  local  resources,  then  we  need 
carefully orchestrated collaboration, with clear reporting structures and clear responsi-
bilities. 

1.3. Timing is Everything: A380 & A320 NEO 

The  other  thing  worth  noting  about  biofuels  is  that  they  represent  an  important  next 
step  in  the way  we  power  flight.  They  let us  deliver  benefits  in  terms  of  costs,  emis-
sions and availability until the entire industry is ready to make the massive leap to new 
power sources. 

And that’s trick for all of these goals – getting the timing right. Is it evolution or 

revolution? As the risk affects the entire industry, so must the benefits. 

To give you a couple of examples: 
•  Take the A380. Undoubtedly a complete game changer, complete with all the 

risks I just mentioned – and a few more as it turns out! 
−  For  airport  congestion  and  airlines  “right-sizing”  their  fleets  upwards  to 

cut costs, the timing was right for the A380. 

•  Also look at the A320neo. In just five years the A320neo will be cutting fuel 

burn and emissions by 15% and operating costs by 8%. 
−  Airlines can rack up the benefits while the game changer is developed. 
−  Engine manufacturers can recover billions spent on the technology to de-
liver  those  savings  and  then  reinvest  to  achieve  the  big  leap  we  are  all 
waiting for. 

−  So  if  you  want  maximum  benefit  for  minimum  change,  then  the  time  is 

definitely also right for neo. 

T. Enders / “EU Vision 2050 – The Time Is Now”

25

2. How to Reach the Objectives of Vision 2050? 

Clearly, the success of the Vision 2050 comes down to determination, investment and 
timing. 

•  We  know  that  people  want  to  fly  more,  with  more  choice  and  less  environ-

mental impact; 

•  We know that we want to achieve this while giving an increasing proportion 

of the world’s population access to the benefits that air travel brings; 

•  And we know that this industry can achieve a hell of a lot: 

− 

− 

In the last 40 years we have cut fuel burn and CO2 emissions by 70% and 
cut the real cost of travel by 60% - enabling ten times as many people to 
reap the benefits. 
In just the last decade demand for air transport has increased by 45%, but 
thanks to better operations and better aircraft, demand for jet fuel has in-
creased by just 3%. 

That success depends on our ability to find the best balance between different pri-
orities–  be  it  emissions,  fuel  burn,  noise  or  costs.  That  takes  lot  of  time,  money  and 
effort for work that will never see the light of day, but which is vital to identify the so-
lutions we need. 

So if we really do aspire to the Vision 2050 – then the time is now. 
•  We  need  investment.  We  need  to  leverage  technology.  And  we  need  to  stop 

squandering precious resources; 
•  Not in 5 years. Not in 10 years. Now. 

The  Vision  2050  is  a  wakeup  call  to  ensure  that  Europe  will  still  have  a  viable, 

competitive and sustainable aviation industry in the future. 

•  Airlines are upgrading to more efficient aircraft despite crazy margins, crazy 
fuel  prices  and  even  crazier  taxes  –  ETS  (Emissions  Trading  System)  alone 
could cost the airlines some $4billion within the next decade, but who would 
have thought that any of these so-called environmental taxes wouldn’t actually 
be invested in environmental solutions? 

•  Aircraft  manufacturers  and  suppliers  are  investing  billions  in  R&TD  –  some 
12% of our turnover – despite one of the toughest economic periods in history 
– and without the kind of bailouts we saw other industries getting “in the name 
of the environment”; 

•  Now the policy makers need to invest in unlocking and accelerating the tech-
nology, nurturing the necessary talent & removing the barriers to mobility that 
would let us deliver that vision. 

Whether Europe is really serious about this we will be able to see with SESAR. It 

is the litmus paper. And that litmus test, ladies and gentlemen has to be taken now. 

If we want to drive future technology, to protect the future of our planet and to de-

velop the future talent that we need to make it all possible, then it’s all in the timing. 

And the time to invest in the success of Vision 2050 is now. 

26

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-26

Speech by Johann-Dietrich Wörner, DLR 

Johann-Dietrich WÖRNER 
Chairman of the German Aerospace Centre – DLR 
Member of the High-Level Group on Aviation Research 

Abstract. The European challenges for aerospace are: global leadership and atten-
tion for societal needs; world class capabilities and facilities in research, test and 
validation  as  well  as  in  education;  clusters  and  networks;  technological  basis  for 
European products; European and national programmes in competition and coop-
eration. To achieve these goals it is necessary to jointly define European research 
and innovation strategies by all stakeholders and to implement them  in a coordi-
nated way covering the entire innovation chain from basic research via technology 
development  up  to  demonstration.  A  network  of  multi-disciplinary  technology 
clusters  should  be  created  based  on  collaboration  between  industry,  universities 
and research institutes. The DLR and DLR@UNI can be seen as a prototype of a 
new generation of links for research. 

Keywords.  DLR_Shool_Lab,  DLR_Graduate  programme,  DLR_innovation_ini-
tiative, DLR@UNI 

Today  our  global  world  faces  a  variety  of  challenges,  ranging  from  climatic  change, 
mobility,  communication,  energy  and  shortage  of  resources  to  conflicts  and  natural 
hazards.  For  the  European  aviation  the  future  challenges  consist  of  several  aspects 
based  on  the  increasing  demand  for  mobility  of  passengers  and  goods.  The  basic  de-
mand is immediately followed by needs, formulated on the understanding of our Earth 
and  its  vulnerability:  Aviation  has  to  be  sustainable  and  environmentally  friendly 
(emission, noise). In addition we have to take into account the dependency on mobility 
in  our  daily  demands  characteristics  such  as  efficiency,  weather  independence,  resi-
lience against crisis, safety and security. And all of these aspects are under the strong 
condition  of  raising  international  competition  (Brazil,  Canada,  China,  India,  Russia, 
etc.). 

Europe can face the broad variety of challenges successfully only when all stake-
holders in aeronautics and air transport act in a coordinated common way on technical, 
organisational  and  regulatory  level  based  on  a  broadly  accepted  common  European 
Vision. Thanks to Vice President Kallas and Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn the new 
European  Vision  for  Aviation  Flightpath  2050  had  been  developed  by  the  High  level 
Group  on  Aviation  Research  involving  representatives  from  the  aeronautics  and  air 
transport  community.  Flightpath  2050  covers  education,  research  and  technology  as 
well as development and innovation. 

The political statement of the vision asks for prioritizing research, test capabilities 
and education to maintain and develop the basis for success of Europe. The European 
challenges can be described so far by the following keywords: 
•  Global leadership and attention for societal needs; 
•  World  class  capabilities  and  facilities  in  research,  test  and  validation  and  in 

education; 

J.-D. Wörner / Speech of a Member of the High-Level Group on Aviation Research

27

•  Organisation in (regional) clusters and networks; 
•  Provision of the technological basis for European products; 
•  European and national programmes (competition and cooperation). 

As a consequence it is necessary to jointly define European research and innova-
tion strategies by all stakeholders, public and private. It is also necessary to implement 
all  respective  steps,  in  a  coordinated  way  covering  the  entire  innovation  chain  from 
basic research via technology development up to demonstration. 

The  success  of  European  products  must  be  based  on  a  sound  technological  basis 
delivered through research on communication technologies, atmospheric research, new 
materials, manufacturing technologies, product life cycle engineering, new propulsion 
technologies,  virtual  certification  and  more.  DLR,  as  one  of  the  main  European  re-
search stakeholders, intends to tackle all of these aspects by doing research from basic 
investigations to technology development. In addition we are eager to provide intellec-
tual free space for the researchers to allow and to initiate creativity for future ideas. 

In order to give synergy a sound basis the different research topics of DLR, namely 
aeronautics, space, transport, energy and security, realized within the other topics, are 
interlinked  by  the  matrix  structure  of  programmes  and  competencies,  DLR  owns  its 
own plane-fleet to be able to do research with and at the planes. To do research with the 
planes means to use them for instance to observe atmospheric aspects, to monitor con-
trails and wake turbulences. When the volcano Eyjafjalla erupted in 2010, it was one of 
DLR´s plane, the Falcon 20E, which measured the density of the plume and gave the 
information to cancel the flight ban. 

In  addition  to  research  performed  by  individual  research  stakeholders  Flightpath 
2050 asks for the identification, maintaining and continuous development of strategic 
European aerospace test, simulation and development facilities as well as the integra-
tion of ground and airborne validation and certification processes where appropriate. 

Educational aspects such as attraction of students to careers in aviation, matching 
of  courses  offered  by  European  universities  to  the  needs  of  the  aviation  industry,  its 
research  establishments  and  administrations  and  evolvement  according  to  changing 
needs  and  the establishment  of  lifelong  and  continuous  education  in  aviation  are  also 
part of Flightpath 2050. 

Finally we should create a network of multi-disciplinary technology clusters based 

on collaboration between industry, universities and research institutes. 

The national research organizations do have a long history on European approach 
in research following or even forerunning European industry, shown by the creation of 
common  infrastructure  like  DNW  (Deutsch-Niederländische  Windkanäle),  ETW  (Eu-
ropean  Trans-sonic  Windtunnel).  Concerning  mutual  organization  of  research  the  es-
tablishment  of  the  Association  of  European  Research  Establishments  in  Aeronautics 
(EREA, 1994) managing roughly 380M€ per year in institutional civil aviation research 
has  to  be  mentioned.  In  addition  to  that  a  number  of  bi-  and  multilateral  joint  pro-
grammes  have  been  set-up  such  as  DLR-ONERA  helicopter  programme,  ONERA-
DLR-Airbus Fixed Wing programme and DLR-NLR ATM-Research (AT-One). With 
the establishment of IFAR (International Forum for Aviation Research) a new interna-
tional dimension has been initiated. 

However we need to increase fundamental and revolutionary research in European 
aeronautic and air transport research and we need to educate appropriate work force for 
aviation. Further items in this respect are to enhance compatibility of European univer-

28

I. Policy and Strategy – Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment

sity education and research and to create more institutional links between universities / 
research entities and industry (national and European). 

The  DLR  model  DLR@UNI  can  be  seen  as  a  prototype  of  a  new  generation  of 
such links. DLR@UNI is not a strict rule but takes into account of the specificities of 
the  regional  cooperation  between  DLR  institutes  and  other  entities,  namely  technical 
universities. Cooperation in research, technology and teaching as well as joint activities 
in public relations, staff recruitment and development are central aspects. The well es-
tablished  DLR  instruments  DLR_School_Lab,  DLR_Graduate_Programme  and  the 
DLR-innovation-initiative are additional elements to support the joint efforts as asked 
for in the new vision. 

Flightpath 2050 can be seen as a successful first step on European level. Now it is 
time  to  make  the  next  steps  to  realise  the  vision  and  to  reach  the  goals  by  concrete 
measures. The promotion of ACARE in order to prepare the first strategic research and 
innovation agenda for aviation is one of these steps. 

DLR  and  the  whole  research  community  organised  in  EREA,  PEGASUS  and 
EASN are ready to contribute to the new strategy process to finally realise a research 
and innovation friendly environment for Europe. 

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-29

29

Speech by Giuseppe Orsi, AgustaWestland 

Giuseppe ORSI 
Chief Executive Officer of AgustaWestland 
Member of the High-Level Group on Aviation Research 

Abstract. The considerations addressed in ‘Flightpath 2050’ are shared by the en-
tire  Rotorcraft  Community.  The  author’s  vision  is  this:  by  2050,  vertical  flight 
shall be a mode of flying of a significant percentage of future aircraft, a portion of 
the  continuum  of  flying  activity.  So,  leveraging  on  vertical  flight  state-of-the-art 
technology will mean to improve mobility within and across our countries. 

Keywords. Rotorcraft, vertical flight, helicopter 

I am very pleased to be here in Madrid, contributing to an important event like Aero-
days 2011, and to have the chance to share with the colleagues of the industry the op-
portunity  to  present  the  content  of  “Flightpath  2050”,  which  brings  to  all  European 
stakeholders a fresh Vision for Aviation towards 2050. 

We have taken in great consideration the expectations of the European Union’s In-
stitutions and citizen’s interests, in developing this Vision. We are certainly interested 
to progress our technology, so enhancing European industrial leadership. We have also 
acted on behalf of all stakeholders who look at us as those who can contribute to make 
everyone’s life better. I assure you this goal is common to all of us who have partici-
pated to the elaboration of the Vision. 

Most of the points have been touched by the other speakers. I am here to bring to 
your attention my personal considerations about the future of Aviation, and in particu-
lar in the field of rotary-wing and related technologies applied in the vertical flight field. 
Obviously  the  several  considerations  that  have  been  addressed  in  the  Vision,  like  the 
role and the specificities of this sector of Aviation, are shared by the entire Rotorcraft 
Community (industry, operators, end-users). 

Today  European  rotorcraft  industry  can  claim  for  global  leadership,  representing 
50% of the market – civil and military; it becomes 60% if we include Russian helicop-
ter  industry.  Furthermore,  European  companies  have  delivered  2/3  (two-third)  of  the 
total commercial helicopter fleets worldwide. Europe is ahead of United States. Stake-
holders  in  rotorcraft  field  are  well  aware  of  this,  but  these  figures  have  to  be  clearly 
stressed and communicated to public as well. This is a leadership based on clear strate-
gies,  industrial  excellence,  continuous  innovation,  human  resources  development  and 
tight link with research and academia. 

Looking ahead, towards 2050, we have to review and look beyond current rotor-
craft concepts, and refer to a more general Vertical Flight Capability. Full exploitation 
of  Vertical  Flight  is  one  of  the  major  opportunities  that  Aviation  has  to  add  an  addi-
tional degree of freedom in air transportation in a crowded world, and to make future 
intermodal mobility systems come true. In crowded areas we shall use the vertical axis 
in the lower space. 

30

I. Policy and Strategy – Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment

My vision is this: by 2050 vertical flight shall be a mode of flying of most part or 
at least of a significant percentage of future aircraft, a portion of the continuum of fly-
ing activity. The vertical take-off capability will move from military into civil aircraft. 
Future civil aircraft thus shall consider the optimisation of the amount of vertical flight 
vs.  horizontal  flight,  their  performance  and  flight  envelope  being  dependent  from  the 
application. In the crowded areas of the world the vertical dimension of mobility will 
become soon a need rather than a choice, and we shall be ready. 

With this respect, I shall vision a future in which the Vertical Take-off & Landing 
and the hovering capability will be available on machines that also have good forward 
speed, comparable to fixed wing speeds, and at the same level of comfort. Today, re-
search  in  this  area  is  already  in  progress  in  many  industries  that  are  working  on  new 
studies and architectures, flying prototypes, or developing new concepts of rotary-wing 
aircraft, advanced helicopter configurations, compound and tiltrotors. 

Advances  of  vehicles  are  expected  and  possible  in  several  areas  of  engineering, 
supporting  R&TD  research  to  introduce  breakthrough  technologies:  active  rotors,  ad-
vanced materials (metallic, polymeric, composite, smart), streamlined low-drag design, 
active/passive  systems  for  vibration  and  noise  control,  system  integration,  advanced 
avionics for flight & navigation, innovative propulsion solutions (more electric, hybrid 
configurations, alternative fuels), new enabling technologies, virtual simulation and full 
scale testing just to mention few of those areas. 

We have to improve also the way we will effectiveness will come from satellites 
based navigation. Hence, flexibility, point-to-point connections, precision take off and 
landing capability, in all-weather condition, from a network of widespread infrastruc-
tures of airports – but also heliports and vertiports – even in crowded areas, are all fun-
damentals to empower the role of rotorcraft. In this context, unmanned capability will 
also  be  important,  as  it  will  take  over  a  significant  part  of  the  routine  Vertical  Flight 
activities. 

Acquiring new markets, maintaining global industrial leadership, fostering techno-
logical progress is not enough, for this must occur as a part of a wider frame in which 
the development of the European Society is the fundamental driver. Therefore, Aero-
nautics  research  and  Aviation  development  shall  devote  attention  to  grow  and  to  ad-
dress  their  efforts  in  the  environment  and  sustainability  as  well  (emissions  and  proc-
esses through complete life cycle). Safety and security aspects will need direct invest-
ments, but they will also ask to be supported by strategic plans defined together with 
agencies and platforms that play relevant role in other areas (energy related issues, stra-
tegic transport policies, etc.) 

Ladies  and  gentlemen  if  aviation  is  an  invaluable  asset  for  Europe,  then  vertical 
flight is a tremendous tool and portion of this asset, for the European Aviation Indus-
try – where we are at the leading edge of innovation and leader in the world markets. 
And for us Europeans, leveraging on vertical flight state-of-the-art technology (noise, 
comfort,  speed,  range,  sustainability,  etc.)  will  mean  to  improve  mobility  within  and 
across our countries, whose competitiveness is already being threatened by congestion, 
and to have a profound impact on our communities by improving our standards of liv-
ing. 

The  members  of  the  High  Level  Group  and  of  the  Technical  Expert  Group  for 

Europe’s Vision “Flightpath 2050”. 

 
 
 
G. Orsi / Speech of a Member of the High-Level Group on Aviation Research

31

Table 1. List of HIGH LEVEL GROUP Members 

Name 

Marek Darecki 

Charles Edelstenne 

Tom Enders 
Emma Fernández 

Peter Hartman 

Jean-Paul Herteman 
Michael Kerkloh 
Ian King 
Patrick Ky 
Michel Mathieu 
Giuseppe Orsi 
Gerald Schotmann 

Colin Smith 
Johann-Dietrich Wörner 

Position / Organisation 
CEO Wytwórnia Sprzetu Komunikacyjnego 
PZL Rzeszow S.A. 
Chairman of the Board of Directors of Dassault Systèmes 
CEO Dassault Aviation 
CEO Airbus 
Director General for Innovation, Talent and Strategy 
INDRA SISTEMAS SA  
President and Chief Executive Officer 
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines 
Président du Directoire SAFRAN 
Vorsitzender der Geschäftsführung Flughafen München 
CEO BAE Systems plc. 
Executive Director SESAR Joint Undertaking 
Senior Vice-President Avionics Thales 
CEO AgustaWestland 
Chief Technology Officer and 
Executive Vice President Innovation/R&D 
SHELL 
CEO Rolls-Royce plc 
Vorsitzender des Vorstandes 
DLR Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt 

Table 2. List of TECHNICAL EXPERT GROUP Members 

Name 

Charlotte Andsager 
José Luis Angoso González 
Michele Arra 
Paul Bogers 
Vanessa Buhl 
Remy Denos 

Mike Farmery 
Bill Giles 
Robert Haligowski 
Rolf Henke 
Tiit Jurimae 

Axel Krein 
Michel Laroche 
Michiel Laumans 
Fionna McFadden 
Stefan Meier 
Uwe Möller 
Doris Schroecker 

Solly Side 
Bruno Stoufflet 
Luc Tytgat 

Simon Weeks 

Position / Organisation 

Rolls-Royce plc 
INDRA 
AgustaWestland – Innovation Projects Coordinator 
SHELL 
Flughafen München 
EC, DG Research 
Research Program Officer, Aeronautics 
SHELL 
BAE Systems plc. 
PZL Rzeszow S.A. 
DLR 
EC, DG Research 
Head of Unit, Aeronautics 
Airbus 
SAFRAN 
KLM 
SEASAR Joint Undertaking 
Flughafen München 
DLR 
EC, DG MOVE, Policy Officer, 
Research and Innovative Transport Systems 
Thales Avionics 
Dassault Aviation 
EC, DG Energy & Transport, Head of Unit, 
Single Sky & Modernisation of Air Traffic Control 
Rolls-Royce plc 

 
32

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-32

Intervention by Domingo Ureña-Raso 

Domingo UREÑA-RASO 
President, ASD (AeroSpace and Defence Industries Association of Europe) 
Airbus Military 

Abstract.  The  ASD  (AeroSpace  and  Defence  Industries  Association  of  Europe) 
represents the aerospace industry in Europe, which generates a turnover in excess 
of €100 billion and employs nearly a million highly-skilled European citizens. The 
ASD  encourages  European  policy  makers  to:  (i)  create  a  dedicated  funded  aero-
nautics  programme;  (ii)  ensure  the  stability  of  instruments  recently  deployed  in 
FP7, Private Public Partnerships and joint Technology Initiatives; (iii) support the 
development of SESAR. How to turn Vision 2050 into a reality? 

Keywords. ASD, industry, policymakers 

I  am  delighted  to  be  with  you  this  morning,  for  the  closing  session  of  the  Madrid  
Aerodays.  As  a  Spaniard  it  is  an  immense  joy  for  me  to  see  the  European  aerospace 
family gathered on my home soil, for what has truly been a landmark event. 

As  President  of  ASD,  the  association  which  represents  the  aerospace  industry  in 
Europe, it is for me both an honour and a huge responsibility to speak on behalf of such 
an  important  sector.  A  sector,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  which  generates  a  turnover  in 
excess of 100 billion Euro, and which employs nearly half a million highly-skilled Eu-
ropean  citizens.  I  would  like  to  start  by  expressing  my  gratitude  to  Commissioner 
Geoghegan-Quinn  for  the  initiative  she  took,  together  with  Vice-President  Kallas,  to 
convene a few months ago a High-Level Group on Aviation Research. We saw, on the 
first day, the result of the work done by this Group in the form of the report ‘Flightpath 
2050’, which outlines Europe’s vision for the future of aviation It is a remarkable doc-
ument  –  and  I  am  not  saying  this  only  to  be  nice  to  my  dear  colleague  Jean-Paul 
Herteman, who was directly involved in its preparation I truly believe Flightpath 2050 
is a remarkable document, in particular because it sets highly ambitious objectives for a 
Europe where, in 40 years’ time: 

•  Flights will not be more than a minute late; 
•  Air  Traffic  Management  will  be  able  to  handle  25  million  flights  per  year 

(compared to about 9 million today); 

•  And  we  will  have  reduced,  for  each  flight,  CO2  emissions  by  75%,  NOX 

emissions by 90% and noise by 65%. 

According to this vision, in 2050 Europe will also have proved able to preserve a 
strongly competitive aerospace industry – an industry which will have managed to re-
tain more than 40% of the global market, despite the fierce competition coming from 
both established and emerging rivals. Ambitious goals then – which is fine by us, since 
over the last century our industry has certainly had a fine record in achieving ambitious 
objectives (objectives that many called ‘impossible’ at the time when they were set). 

D. Ureña-Raso / Intervention of the Aerospace and Defence Industries Association of Europe ASD 33

So, needless to say, we are keen to turn Vision 2050 into a reality, but how do we 

go about it? 

For me, the answer is very simple: what is needed is substantial and sustained in-
vestment in technology and with that in mind, the next EU programme for research – 
the so-called Common Strategic Framework – will be a vital element in this effort. 

As we all know, aeronautics is strongly driven by innovation. Our sector dedicates 
an average of 12% of its revenues to the funding of Research & Development activities, 
which is one of the two highest ratios across all industrial sectors in Europe. To give 
you an element of comparison, the automotive industry dedicates 5% of its turnover to 
R&D. This effort on R&D is absolutely vital for us, since new technology has always 
been  the  major  competitive  differentiator  in  world  markets.  This  is  even  truer  today, 
with the growing competition from new entrants such as Brazil, China, India and Rus-
sia.  The  European  industry  certainly  cannot  compete  on  price  with  these  nations  and 
has no choice but to innovate. 

So we certainly do our share of the work when it comes to research funding. But 
we need support. Indeed aeronautics research is technology and capital intensive, and 
subject to very long cycles. Investments in technological innovation are therefore risky, 
and only bear fruit on a long-term basis. This is why financial markets are very reluc-
tant  to  fund  aeronautics  research,  and  why  public  sector  support  is  essential  both  at 
European  and  national  levels.  Backed  by  this  public  support  –  which,  may  I  say,  is 
common to all aeronautics powers worldwide – the aeronautics sector is in a position to 
co-fund research and innovation activities. 

Over the last four decades, a lot of political courage and strong will have been ne-
cessary to propel the European aerospace industry to the top of the world’s rankings. 
As an industry we acknowledge the political support which we have received, and we 
are certainly grateful for it. This being said, the realities of the situation which I have 
just outlined are such that this support is more necessary than ever. 

Following the assessment of Simon Tilford, Chief Economist at the Centre for Eu-
ropean Reform (a UK think-tank) and talking about European policies, he says that we 
need to increase the support for the development of new technologies as other countries 
are doing; the U.S. but also emerging aerospace powers such as China, provide more 
support  for  technology  development.  This  is  true,  in  particular,  thanks  to  the  cross-
subsidisation  of  the  civilian  aerospace  industry  through  defence  spending,  which  is 
nowhere near as pronounced in Europe as in the U.S. for instance. 

Let me be clear here: this form of cross-subsidisation is not a source of public in-
vestment which we call on European policymakers to develop. What we invite them to 
do instead is to work in close partnership with us, to ensure that new aerospace tech-
nologies continue to be developed and deployed in Europe, and to allow us to compete 
on a level playing field with other global aerospace players. For this we encourage Eu-
ropean policymakers to: 

•  First,  support  the  aeronautics  thematic  within  the  future  Common  Strategic 
Framework  for  Research  and  Innovation,  with  the  creation  of  a  dedicated 
funded  aeronautics  programme  enabling Europe  to  meet  its  long-term  objec-
tives. 

•  Second,  ensure  the  stability  of  instruments  recently  deployed  in  the  7th 
Framework Programme and which have proven their value (such as upstream 
pioneering research, technological integration projects, as well as Public Pri-
vate Partnerships and Joint Technology Initiatives such as Clean Sky). At the 

34

I. Policy and Strategy – Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment

same  time  the  efficiency  of  these  instruments  should  be  enhanced  through  a 
simplification of their implementation processes. 

•  And, last but not least, we call on European policymakers to support the dep-
loyment of SESAR, the future European air traffic management system. 

These recommendations are included in an ASD Position Paper, “Aeronautics and 
the EU Common Strategic Framework”, which I invite you, dear Miss Commissioner, 
dear colleagues, to take a close look at. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, aerospace has been, over the last 40 years, a great success 
story  for  our  continent.  But  today  we  stand  at  a  crossroads.  Europe  must  choose  be-
tween making the necessary efforts in R&D to maintain the leadership of its aerospace 
sector, or to stand still, taking success for granted, and being exposed to rising competi-
tion from emerging aerospace powers. 

The aerospace industry and European policymakers need to work in close partner-
ship  to  ensure  the  continuing  success  of  our  sector.  Only  with  the  support  of  public 
authorities shall we be able to continue delivering on key European priorities such as 
technological innovation and environmental sustainability. Only with that kind of sup-
port shall we be able to continue writing what has been a fantastic success story for our 
continent. 

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-35

35

Airports – Suitable and Sustainable 
Gateways to the Globalized World 

Michael KERKLOH 
President and Chief Executive Officer – Munich Airport 
Member of the High-Level Group on Aviation Research 

Abstract. The paper “Airports – suitable and sustainable gateways to the global-
ised world” concentrates on several different strategies, based upon Munich airport 
experience,  to  meet  the  different  future  challenges  for  the  airport  industry:  inter-
connected  multimodal  transport  system,  expansion  of  infrastructure,  sustainable 
measures that will ensure that growth is largely achieved on a carbon-neutral basis, 
strategic system partnerships, support from the airport region. 

Keywords. Airport, hub, passengers, Airport Carbon Accreditation Programme 

Introduction 

Flughafen Muenchen GmbH (FMG) operates Munich Airport, which opened at its cur-
rent location in 1992. The new airport’s strong growth rate – well above the industry 
average – raised it to join the ranks of Europe’s busiest hubs within just a few years. 
FMG  was  formed  in  1949,  and  is  jointly  owned  by  the  Free  State  of  Bavaria 
(51 percent),  the  Federal  Republic  of  Germany  (26  percent)  and  the  city  of  Munich 
(23 percent).  With  nearly  35  million  passengers  in  2010,  Munich  retained  its  number 
seven position among Europe’s top ten airports. The number of flights handled at the 
airport was approximately 390,000. The FMG Group, including its 14 subsidiaries, had 
total revenues of about 1.1 billion Euros last year. 

With more than 30,000 people working at over 550 companies, the airport is one 
of the largest employers in the state of Bavaria. Statistically, if Bavaria were a country, 
it would rank 20th among the world’s exporting nations. In view of Munich Airport’s 
importance for Bavaria and Germany, the airport operating company has set an ambi-
tious goal: “By 2015 we will be one of the most attractive, efficient and sustainable hub 
airports in the world”. 

The  mission  of  the  “High  Level  Group  on  Aviation  Research”  is  tasked  with 

“Formulating a new vision for the future of European aeronautics sector”. 

To successfully deal with the challenges of the future and ensure the competitive-
ness of the European aeronautics industry, individual strategies must be developed and 
implemented for European airports in general and Munich Airport in particular. In the 
interests of a successful “license to grow”, the airport management is pursuing the fol-
lowing five key strategies: 

1.  A  fully  interconnected  multimodal  transport  system  is  needed  to  provide  af-
fordable,  reliable  and  seamless  connectivity.  Intermodal  air-rail  connections 
will  provide  a  win-win  situation  in  terms  of  passenger  convenience  and  sus-

36

I. Policy and Strategy – Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment

Figure 1. Key strategies of Munich Airport to meet future challenges. 
Credit: Flughafen München GmbH 

tainability. The implementation of security processes that are as non-intrusive 
as possible or result in only minimal interruptions and delays are necessary. 
2.  Expansion of infrastructure has to be in line with needs. An adequate ground 
infrastructure  is  necessary  to  mitigate  delays  and  avoid  congestion.  Due  to 
traffic forecasts for Munich Airport 58 million passengers will be reached in 
2025. This volume cannot be handled without adding capacity to the runway 
system.  Consequently,  FMG  is  planning  the  construction  of  a  new  runway. 
The final ruling in the planning approval process for this expansion project is 
expected by the end of the year 2011. FMG also plans to expand its passenger 
handling capacity to meet increasing demand in the coming years. To achieve 
this  aim,  a  satellite  terminal  will  be  built  on  the  airport  apron  and  linked  to 
Terminal 2 by an underground transport system. The first phase of the satellite 
project will include the creation of 27 additional aircraft park positions adja-
cent to the terminal to permit passengers to board and disembark quickly and 
conveniently.  The  new  facility  will  have  an  annual  passenger  capacity  of  11 
million, and is expected to go into operation in 2015. 

3.  The airport plans to implement its expansion projects and handle the increased 
traffic  volume  through  sustainable  measures  that  will  ensure  that  growth  is 
largely achieved on a carbon-neutral basis. For this long-term target a global 
network is necessary with minimal or no negative effects on the environment. 
It is a clear fact that air travel must reach the target to be environmentally sus-
tainable  in  the  future.  One  step  to  protect  the  environment  is  the  use  of  sus-
tainable energy. Also airports themselves can save CO2 while using new tech-
nologies,  efficient  infrastructure,  optimized  operations  and  economic  instru-
ments.  Munich  Airport  proved  already  its  efforts  to  become  carbon-neutral 
and is today the first German airport, which achieved the “Optimization” level 
(Level 3) under the Airport Carbon Accreditation Programme. 

M. Kerkloh / Airports – Suitable and Sustainable Gateways to the Globalized World

37

Figure 2. Demand-driven development. 
Credit: Flughafen München GmbH 

Figure 3. Instruments for reaching carbon-neutral growth and energy efficiency. 
Credit: Flughafen München GmbH 

4.  Formation  of  strategic  system  partnerships  is  important  for  enhancing  com-
petitiveness. The most important growth engine for Munich Airport is the hub 
traffic of Lufthansa and its Star Alliance partners. These airlines in particular 
have played a decisive role in increasing the number of transit passengers us-
ing  Munich  Airport.  They  now  account  for  37  percent  of  total  traffic.  The 
close  cooperation  ensures  competitiveness  and  a  market-orientated  develop-
ment based on customer needs. 

5.  Acceptance of Munich Airport in the region has to be supported and strength-
ened.  Offering  attractive  job  opportunities  and  bundling  regional  forces  as 
well as resources let the airport understand itself as a partner of the airport re-
gion which creates wealth in the region. 

 
38

I. Policy and Strategy – Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment

The  feedback  of  travellers  from  all  over  the  world  reaffirms  that  we  are  on  the  right 
track.  They  value  the  outstanding  quality  of  the  passenger  experience  in  Munich  as 
well as the ease of making connections here. This has been confirmed again and again 
in  the  annual  surveys  by  Skytrax,  the  London-based  aviation  research  institute,  in 
which passengers regularly vote Munich one of the world’s top five passenger airports. 
On five different occasions – including the most recent survey in 2010 – Munich Air-
port has been voted number one in Europe. 

Europe’s  airports  will  take  numerous  and  very  diverse  measures  in  the  coming 
years to successfully fulfil the vision for 2050. For this purpose, an efficient and effec-
tive policy backed by a corresponding regulatory framework will be indispensible. 

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-39

39

The Future of Air Traffic Management 

Patrick KY 
Executive Director, SESAR Joint Undertaking 
Member of the High-Level Group on Aviation Research 

Abstract.  The  Single  European  Sky  ATM  Research  (SESAR)  programme  is  the 
technological  pillar  of  the  Single  Sky  European  Initiative,  founded  by  the  Euro-
pean  Union  and  Eurocontrol.  Its  role  is  to  develop  the  new  generation  of  ATM 
technologies and procedures to better cope with the predicted increase in air traffic 
over  the  next  twenty  years.  This  paper  gives  an  update  on  this  programme  and 
concentrates on its importance for innovation in the aeronautical sector. 

Keywords. SESAR, air traffic management, air transport, airspace, airport 

Introduction 

Air traffic management (ATM) technology is a peculiar affair. While relentless innova-
tion has spurred spectacular progress in comparable fields of activity – such as infor-
mation and communication technologies, software sciences or automation – the ATM 
industry  appears  to  be  stuck  in  a  time  warp.  Whereas  telecommunication  solutions 
intended  for  the  general  public  have  leapt  forward  in  terms  of  sophistication,  power 
and user-friendliness, communications in air traffic management are still relying exclu-
sively on VHF-radio, a technology that emerged in the first decades of the XXth cen-
tury. 

Modernisation has become inevitable, as ATM is facing unprecedented challenges: 
a continuous increase in air traffic that foreshadows a capacity crunch and the realisa-
tion that all human activities – including aviation – must demonstrate their long term 
sustainability  in  environmental,  societal  and  economic  terms.  Unless  we  change  the 
way air transport is managed, the European airspace will reach its maximum limits in 
terms of capacity, resulting in increased delays for passengers, higher costs for airlines 
and an increased environmental impact.  

1. The SESAR Programme 

The SESAR Joint Undertaking (SESAR JU) was set up in 2007 as a public – private 
body  to  manage  the  development  phase  of  the  €2.1  billion  SESAR  programme.  It 
brings together 15 industry members representing all actors in air traffic management: 
the  manufacturing  industry  (e.g.  Airbus,  Thales,  Indra  or  SELEX  Sistemi  Integrati), 
airports (e.g. Frankfurter Flughafen, Aéroports de Paris, BAA Airports), and air navi-
gation  service  providers  (e.g.  Deutsche  Flugsicherung,  Aena,  DSNA).  A  further  25 
associate partners  including non-European companies  (e.g.  Boeing or  Thales Austral-
ia), SMEs, universities and research institutes were taken aboard, to provide additional 

40

I. Policy and Strategy – Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment

input and expertise. In total, around 2,500 experts now are working together in Europe 
and worldwide on more than 300 interdependent projects aiming at lifting ATM tech-
nology to 21st century standards. 

Additionally,  the  SESAR  Joint  Undertaking  actively  involves  key  stakeholders 
such as airspace users (e.g.airines); staff and professional associations as well as regu-
latory authorities or the military sector through ad hoc working arrangements. Through 
their  early  involvement  in  the  work  programme,  the  Joint  Undertaking  ensures  that 
these stakeholders’ needs and expertise are fully reflected in the final SESAR technol-
ogies  and  procedures.  This  makes  the  SESAR  Joint  Undertaking  a  truly  international 
public-private partnership. 

2. Delivery Approach 

SESAR will dramatically change the way air traffic management is organised in future. 
Its work programme is organised in 16 work packages and roughly 300 projects which 
are  executed  in  cooperation with SESAR members.  These  packages will  develop  and 
deliver  the  necessary  operational  and  technical  materials  (specifications,  procedures, 
prototypes, validation reports, etc) for the progressive industrialisation, deployment and 
operation of Europe’s future ATM system. 

To demonstrate the consistency and operational value of its work in progress, the 
Joint Undertaking and its members have developed the so-called SESAR Release ap-
proach. As of 2011, a list of projects ready for early validation and pre- industrialisa-
tion is approved and widely communicated. The SESAR approach is ground-breaking, 
because  all  technological  improvements  are  directly  verified  in  an  operational  envi-
ronment  and  ready  for  deployment  by  European  leading  European  airlines.  The  2011 
Release  for  example  includes  remote  tower  technology,  satellite-based  precision  ap-
proaches, and additional automated tools for air traffic controllers. In 2012, the Release 
will concentrate on four main areas of operational improvements: airport platform safe-
ty, airborne operations, ATC operations and network management. 

3. Bridging Innovation into Air Traffic Management 

While the priority of the SESAR Joint Undertaking lies on delivering tangible, opera-
tional results for a modernised ATM system, it also dedicated one of its work packages 
(WP-E) to long-term and innovative research, to prepare the next evolution and bring 
about radical new ideas. WP-E concentrates on exploratory research aiming at identify-
ing potential applications most likely to generate concrete benefits. This work will pre-
pare  the ground for  applied  research  and development,  leading  to  further  advances  in 
ATM that will become necessary, as traffic continues to increase while economic and 
environmental constraints continue to evolve. 

The WP-E work package is structured around four themes: Legal Aspects of Para-
digm Shift; Towards Higher Levels of Automation in ATM; Mastering Complex Sys-
tems Safely; Economics and Performance.  

In that context, eighteen pioneering Research Projects have been launched so far. 
The Projects focus on specific challenges, explore innovative ideas and possible appli-
cations. They generate scientific knowledge which increases the understanding of ATM 
issues and demonstrates the potential of novel technologies, methods or concepts. SE-

P. Ky / The Future of Air Trafﬁc Management

41

SAR  issues  periodic  calls  for  proposals,  which  are  reviewed  by  a  balanced  panel  of 
independent experts from industry, research and academic communities – and possibly 
awarded support.  

The WP-E work package has also set up two very successful Research Networks, 
with  some  400  participants  worldwide,  25  PhD  theses  and  highly  successful  confe-
rences.  A  third  Research  Network  will  be  launched  during  2012.  Research  Networks 
are a key driver for technology leaps, as they bring together research groups, providing 
them  with  a  structured  framework  to  build  up  knowledge,  competence  and  capability 
which  will  serve  the  industry  in  the  long  term.  Each  Research  Network  comprises 
members  and  participants  from  academia,  research  centres,  industry  and  SMEs  that 
share  expertise  and  interest  in  a  relevant  air  traffic  management  or  transportation  do-
main. 

As SESAR as a whole is developing Europe’s future air traffic management sys-
tem, its pioneering arm in the WP-E work package is already expanding the boundaries 
of technology even further, paving the way for future advances that will make Europe’s 
Single Sky a global role model for ATM achievement. 

42

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-42

The Future of Aviation – A Joint 
European Effort 

Rafael GALLEGO 
Director General of Indra 

Abstract.  ‘Indra’,  the  Spanish  IT  leading  company,  committed  to  the  EU  pro-
grammes and SESAR in particular, is playing a leading role among the ground in-
dustry  manufacturers  in  the  domain  of  Air  Traffic  Management  (ATM)  and  Air-
port  technologies.  Three  elements  have  to  be  reinforced:  cooperation  between 
ANSPs (Air Navigation Service Providers) and ground technology suppliers, col-
laboration between ANSPs in major developments, partnership between the public 
sector and the industry. 

Keywords. ‘Indra’, ATM, ANSP, European interoperability 

Introduction 

It  is  a  pleasure  for  me  having  the  opportunity  to  participate  in  this  closing  panel  of 
Aerodays 2011, as spectator and in some way actor, of the impressive evolution of the 
use  of  the  Information  Technologies  during  the  last  thirty  years  in  the  Air  Transport 
industry. 

The new Vision 2050, presented by the Commissioner for Transport in the Open-
ing  Ceremony  has  been  the  highlight  of  Aerodays  2011.  Since  then,  there  have  been 
various sessions to address the current status of various R&D initiatives as well as to 
discuss  the  status  of  innovation  in  the  industry  from  different  stakeholders’  perspec-
tives. In summary, it is widely shared that the European aeronautics and air transport 
industry needs to maintain or even accelerate its current level of innovation if it wants 
to maintain its competitiveness. 

1. Europe Towards the 2050 Vision 

This is not an easy challenge because the capability level is increasing in all geographi-
cal areas of the world. But my view is that we can live up to this challenge because we, 
the  overall  community  are  up  to  the  endeavour.  Europe  is  much  better  prepared  now 
than it was a few years back. We are finding new ways to cooperate across countries 
and industry players: European Union, National Authorities, Regulators, air space users, 
airports and air navigation services providers (ANSP), aircraft manufacturers and tech-
nology suppliers. And among the European suppliers, we have been able to cooperate 
and compete. And even more important: Europe has a clear idea of the global nature of 
this  industry,  and  has  the  skills  to  jointly  work  with  other  continents,  to  harmonize 
standards and to achieve global interoperability. 

R. Gallego / The Future of Aviation – A Joint European Effort

43

Now, I would like to bring up some specific points to substantiate this statement. 
Indra, the Spanish IT leading company, is present in many aeronautics and air transport 
segments,  but,  today,  I  will  refer  to  the  domain  of  Air  Traffic  Management  and  Air-
ports  technology  where  Indra  is  a  playing  a  leading  role  among  the  ground  industry 
manufacturers. 

2. The Example of Indra 

Today, European ground manufacturers are able to compete in international contestable 
markets  with  a  remarkable  degree  of  success.  Indra  is  a  good  example  of  it,  having 
been  awarded  in  2010  Year  with  a  good  number  of  relevant  contracts  in  other  conti-
nents, namely Surveillance Radars and Area Control Centres in China, Tower of Con-
trol systems and Radars in India, Nation-wide ATM programmes in Perú, Omán, Mo-
rocco and Kuwait among many others. All of this shows that today European compa-
nies are well placed in this domain, but this position could be deteriorate or even van-
ished if we all do not strive to stay ahead of the game. 

3. For Achieving the Goals of SESAR 

In Europe, ATM ground systems R&D and innovation are mainly driven by our main 
ANSP  customers  and  by  the  SESAR  Programme,  the  technology  pillar  of  the  Single 
European Sky. So, we all agree on that achieving the goals of SESAR are a necessary 
step towards the new 2050 Vision in terms of economics, environment, safety and ca-
pacity. 

In order to meet those targets and foster innovation, we can build upon and rein-

force the following elements: 

1.  Cooperation between ANSPs and ground technology suppliers. 
2.  Collaboration between ANSPs in major developments. 
3.  Partnership between the public sector and the industry. 

The  cooperation  between  ANSPs  and  technology  suppliers  is  a  pre-requisite  for 
innovation. The new technology aims to support the evolution of the modes of opera-
tion of the airspace users and air navigation services providers. Therefore, it is impera-
tive that there is an intense dialog between the technology supplier and air navigation 
service  provider  in  order  to  test  and  evaluate  and  validate  the  new  concepts  in  near-
operational environments. 

A  good  example  of  collaboration  under  this  scheme  is  the  ongoing  agreement 
among the ANSPs of Spain, Germany, the UK and The Netherlands for using a com-
mon 4 Dimensions Trajectory Based Flight Plan Data Processing System, among other 
crucial components of ATM Automation, constituting the so called iTEC (interopera-
bility  Through  European  Collaboration)  Programme.  This  example  is  today  the  most 
firm pillar for the success of the future Single European Sky derived from the outcomes 
of SESAR. 

We can say that sharing the same technology is the foundation on which is based 
this firm agreement. Another key is that iTEC is not a “Lab Prototype”, on the contrary, 
it will be integrated on some of the most mature and advanced ATM systems of Europe, 
as are the SACTA of AENA (Spain), and the iCAS of DFS (Germany). Those systems, 

44

I. Policy and Strategy – Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment

along with the future NATS-iTEC of UK, the future LVNL iTEC and others that will 
joint in the future will constitute the backbone of the future European Interoperability. 
In my view, the success of the above has been a consequence of the shared com-
mitment of the ANSP and the suppliers to the project. This is the type of collaboration 
that shall occur at a European level. 

Finally,  in  the  area  of  Public  Private  Partnerships,  the  SESAR  Joint  Undertaking 
has  brought  into  a  single  program  the  founding  members  (the  European  Union  and 
Eurocontrol),  16  industry  members,  and  a  similar  number  of  associate  members.  The 
R&D foreseen by the European ATM master plan is now put into a single and shared 
program.  The  program  is  highly  complex  given  the  ambitious  level  of  changes  envi-
sioned and the number of actors involved. It has not been easy venture to ramp-up but 
we are arriving at a cruising speed with the sight of the first deliveries occurring this 
year. 

SESAR’s  challenge  now  is  to  move  into  industrialization  and  Deployment.  And 
the key for its success will centre around resolving an appropriate funding and govern-
ance  scheme.  Moving  R&D  into  innovation  and  new  systems  into  operation  is  what 
brings real benefits to airspace users and to society. And at an international level, this 
European  showcase  enhances  the  competitiveness  of  European  manufacturers  in  the 
global markets. 

4. Closing Remarks 

I would like to close my intervention by restating the commitment of Indra to the EU 
programs and in SESAR in particular. The new Vision 2050 can become a reality with 
the European Union’s commitment to the outcome of the Deployment of SESAR and 
to the future of R&D beyond the current program. This goes without saying, the sup-
port  is  also  essential  for  the  competitiveness  of  the  European  industry,  the  bringing 
together of diverse actors to work together. 

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-45

45

Preparing the Future of Aviation – Three 
Thoughts 

Jean-Paul HERTEMAN 
Chief Executive Officer& Chairman of the Executive Board – SAFRAN Group 
Member of the High-Level Group on Aviation Research 

Abstract. Three thoughts. First: 2050 is far but we need a vision for this horizon. 
Second:  Europe  will  not  reach  its  public  policy  goals  –  prosperity,  environment, 
safety, job, etc. – without a strong European aviation industry to deliver the means. 
Third: the rise of the aeronautics related RTD at the European level must be sus-
tained in the coming years and even be increased. It is more than important to con-
tinue the RTD effort in the FP8 dedicated to Aeronautics and Air Transport. Public 
and private funding should be blended within the Framework Programme. 

Keywords. Private industrial investment, European policy making 

Three thoughts I would like to share with you this morning. 

1. The First One Is: 2050 Is Far but We Need a Vision for this Horizon 

Forty  years  ago,  in  the  early  1970s,  our  predecessors  had  a  vision  and  an  ambition 
which  has  shaped  the  European  Aeronautics  and  Air  Transport  sector  as  we  know  it 
today. 

Remarkably, this vision acknowledged that Europe was the right scale for such an 

effort. 

On the political side, the European institutions of the time realized that a mobiliza-
tion of resources in the field of science and technology at the European level was nec-
essary to support a renaissance of Europe in Aeronautics and Air Transport. The first 
cooperative Cost, then BriteEuram programmes were launched. I remember that well. I 
was a young research engineer in materials, trying to participate in these. 

This  policy  was  pursued  over  the  years  and  European  cooperation  has  more  re-
cently been deepened with the strategic research agenda by ACARE and the launch of 
instruments such as Cleansky. 

The results, as we can witness them here in these Aerodays, are outstanding after 
forty years, Aeronautics and Air Transport are major contributors to the prosperity of 
the people of Europe. 

Commissioner  Geoghegan-Quinn,  I  want  to  commend  you  and  your  colleague 
Commissioner  Kallas  for  the  launch  of  the  initiative:  “beyond  Vision  2020,  towards 
2050”. 

It  should  be  clear  to  everybody  that  forty  years  from  now,  in  2050,  the world of 
aeronautics  and  air  transport  will  be  a  truly  multipolar  world  with  the  emergence  of 
new major players. It is as well crystal clear that the place of Europe in the world will 

46

I. Policy and Strategy – Preparing the Future of Aviation: A Joint Effort of Europe

be defined by the vision and the ambition that we will dare to have today in the field of 
Aviation and Space and by our ability to carry them into reality. 

And it starts now. 

2. Second Thought 

The European Commission has stated its ambition for an innovation policy and for an 
industrial policy. Well, when on the European scene a French engineer pronounces the 
words  “industrial  policy”,  it  may  lead  to  some  difficulties  and  misunderstanding.  Let 
me thus express here my vision of the relationship we expect between the industry and 
the policymakers. 

Europe  will  not  reach  its  public  policy  goals  –  prosperity,  environment,  safety, 
jobs… – without a strong European aviation industry to deliver the means. The Euro-
pean aviation industry is one of the few levers that Europe owns to make globalization 
more an opportunity than a threat for the European citizens. I would think it is coming 
from  nothing  else  than  the  (discriminating)  ability  to  innovate  we  have  been  able  to 
build so far. 

As  you  know,  your  industry  operates  in  an  extremely  regulated  environment. 
These public regulations, be they about flight safety, environment protection and many 
other topics, are necessary and welcome and do structure the innovation in our sector. 

Moreover, aerospace has no choice but to invest today in innovations which will 
meet their market in twenty years from now or even more. In such a long term market-
place, we need a common public-private understanding of the long term targets and, to 
some extent, of the ways to achieve them. 

Commissioner, let me show you this: an engine turbine blade made of carbon ce-
ramic  material.  It  is  four  time  lighter  than  the  metal  equivalent  part  and  withstands 
temperatures  higher  than  the  melting  point  of  the  special  turbine  metal  alloys.  This 
technology effort was started in the 80’s and will reach the market around 2020. It will 
bring about 3% reduction in fuel burn. 

The  “vision  2050”  provides  that:  a  coherent  framework  for  both  our  private  in-

vestment decisions and your policy making. 
This  is  the  fundamental  reason  for  blending  public  and  private  funding  within  the 
framework program: we two are partners to create our common future. 

3. The Rise of the Aeronautics Related R&T at the European Level Must Be 
Sustained in the Coming Years. In Fact, It Should Even Be Increased 

Why? 

Because we now have to face the exceptional challenges of both climate change, 

limitation of energy resources (shaky outlook for the unclear energy). 

Remember: during the last 40 years, air transport has grown twice faster than the 

GDP. 

The growth is far from being over, in emerging countries first, but as well in de-

veloped countries and Europe. 

It  has  been  made  possible  despite  a  structural  rise  in  oil  price  because  aerospace 

technologies allowed cutting the fuel burn by 70% per seat per mile. 

To continue growing at this rate, we need to deliver the same level of improvement 
in CO2 footprint by the next decades. I believe that is doable but it is a challenge that 

J.-P. Herteman / Preparing the Future of Aviation – Three Thoughts

47

requires the mobilization of the best of the best in the scientific world as well as in the 
industry world. 

At this level, it is truly a society challenge and it must be managed as such. And it 
is  a  global  challenge. We will  need  major breakthroughs  in  aeronautics  to do  it. And 
major breakthroughs in air traffic control to make it possible. 

The increase of the FP7 budget versus FP6 and FP5 – 300 M Euros per annum ver-
sus 190 M – has shown to be an efficient instrument to boost European investment in 
aeronautics R&T. 

It is more than important to continue this effort through a budget in FP8 dedicated 
to Aeronautics and Air Transport and indeed increased to a global level that will match 
the unique challenges we face. Be sure our industry is fully keen to invest its share of 
the effort. 

Not an easy decision to make by the time being for sure but I do believe it would 

be one of the best investments Europe can make today to build the future. 

48

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-48

The Future of Aeronautics, a European 
Perspective 

Charles CHAMPION 
Executive Vice President, Head of Engineering Airbus 

Abstract. The author gives in this paper some thoughts on how to respond to the 
future  travelling  public  expectations,  viz  to  fly  in  greener  aircraft  with  access  to 
their  digital  world  in  flight  with  the  best  level  of  quality  and  comfort.  Airbus  is 
ready  to  take  on  these  challenges  but  the  question  is:  “will  the  EU  be  alongside 
Airbus in the endeavour?” Various examples of Airbus innovations are presented: 
fly-by-wire  A320,  double-deck  A380,  brake-to-vacate  technology,  ALCAS  (Ad-
vanced  Low  Cost  Aircraft  Structures),  ‘MAAXIMUS’  project  for  novel  and  cost 
effective composite structures, active participation in Clean Sky, leadership of the 
Smart Fixed Wing Aircraft (SFWA) technology demonstrator, etc. Airbus has pro-
posed  a  concept  plane  to  help  crystallise  its  modern  ideas  and  shape  them  in  a 
communicable form. Innovation has become the major competitive differentiator. 

Keywords. Airbus, fly-by-wire, Brake-to-Vacate, ALCAS, aircraft-pod-concept 

Good morning ladies and gentlemen, I am very pleased to have the opportunity to ad-
dress you today. As I am the middle Airbus speaker this week, delivering the middle 
speech of the day on the occasion of the middle day of the conference, I will now en-
sure that my address to you is not “middle of the road”! 

As you know, I have been asked to speak to you today on the subject of “The Fu-

ture of Aeronautics: A European Perspective”. 

But how can I fit the future of aeronautics into the next 15 to 20 minutes? The sub-
ject is too big, the potentials are huge, and the impact on society could be so significant. 
Should I start with the product, the aircraft itself, or with the constituent technologies? 
Perhaps  this  would  be  a  natural  start  point  for  someone  trained  in  aerodynamics,  Or 
with the wider aviation system, including those aspects which the flying public directly 
encounter, such as security. I will give some thoughts on all, and from a European per-
spective, I hope not just an Airbus one.  

Before  going  into  the  technology  perspective,  it  is  important  however  to  remind 
you that Airbus’ CEO Tom Enders spoke to you yesterday about our perspective of the 
future, the importance of policy makers understanding the importance of unlocking and 
accelerating  the  technology.  He  explained  that  this  was  against  the  context  of  recent 
research Airbus commissioned amongst 10,000 people around the world. I would like 
to provide you with some more information on our findings. 

The  findings  from  the  opinion  survey  we  did  with  the  travelling  public  showed 
very  clearly  that  they  are  expecting  to  fly  more  in  the  future  so  European’s  aviation 
sector must meet growing passenger demand. Their demand is not only in terms of vol-
ume but also in terms of expectation. People expect to fly in greener aircraft with ac-
cess to their digital world in flight with the best levels of quality and comfort. From an 
engineer’s perspective, this may sound like an unrealistic consumer “ask” but what we 

C. Champion / The Future of Aeronautics, a European Perspective

49

Figure 1. Airbus A380. 

Figure 2. Airbus A320 NEO. 

Figure 3. Advanced Low Cost Aircraft Structures.

at Airbus need to emphasise to you is that we are ready to take on these challenges but 
the question back to the rest of you is – “will you be alongside us in the endeavour”? 

Airbus reached a milestone last year in that we reached our 40 years since founda-
tion. Our success was built on our ability to bring innovative products to the market-
place. Headline examples include, the fly-by-wire A320 and the double-deck aircraft, 
the  A380,  an  aircraft I personally  know very  well! You will  forgive  me  if  I  take  this 
opportunity to point out to you that 10 million passengers have flown on this aircraft, 
our airline customers are giving us great feedback on the performance and very positive 
passenger feedback their A380s are providing them. 

There  are  also  other  more  recent  examples  of  Airbus  innovation  such  as  the 
“Brake-to-Vacate” technology which has provided a means to reduce the runway occu-
pation required per plane at airports. We can be proud of our achievements. 

But  these  are  examples  underpinned  by  very  many  smaller,  largely  uncelebrated 
product innovations, which are continually improving the value of products we offer to 
the marketplace. Innovations based on the continuous efforts we perform on Research 
and Technology, some of which are presented at this conference in Madrid. 

You will also see some photographs on the screen of some of the projects. For ex-
ample,  the  ALCAS  project  (Advanced  Low  Cost  Aircraft  Structures)  Technologies 

50

I. Policy and Strategy – Preparing the Future of Aviation: A Joint Effort of Europe

Figure 4. Airbus A350XWB Wing. 

used extensively in the automotive industry were adapted to Airbus’ own wing assem-
bly requirements. 

Partly due to the experience from this project, and for the first time in Airbus‚ the 
A350XWB wings in the new North Factory at Broughton are being built in a horizontal 
rather than a vertical jig. This new methodology not only saves space and other manu-
facturing innovation but is an important human factor innovation too – due to the ergo-
nomic benefits the new jig layout brings attitude. Ultimately, the ALCAS demonstrator 
helped to understand the new manufacturing processes and validate the design by struc-
tural tests. 

And  to  continue,  the  MAAXIMUS  (More  Affordable  Aircraft  through  Extended, 
Integrated  and  Mature Numerical  Sizing) project  in  which 57  partners from  18  coun-
tries collaborate in development of novel and cost effective composite structures, which 
extends the capability of industry to further exploit this material technology. 

And  last  but  not  least  I  should  mention  the  TANGO  (Technology  Application  to 
the  Near  Term  Business  Goals  and  Objectives  of  the  Aerospace  Industry)  project, 
partly funded by the European Commission, which generated a number of innovations. 
Some of the most noteworthy contributed to the A380 and ultimately to the A350, like 
the  composite  centre  wing-box  and  some  fuselage  sections  and  shells  that  were  also 
manufactured in Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic. The results from this research project 
were  a  fundamental  basis  for  some  of  the  Airbus’  “first  time  to  market”  innovations, 
like the first CFRP fuselage section in a large, commercial aircraft (i.e. Section 19 in 
the A380). 

Of course there is a strong tradition in Spain on the subject of composite materials, 
as you will appreciate from the visit schedule prepared as part of the Aerodays confer-
ence. At Airbus the most recent product innovations have benefitted from this capabil-
ity.  The  A350 already  contains  53%  composite  materials  in  fuselage  and wing which 
results in 60% lower fatigue and corrosion maintenance. It also provides a 25% reduc-
tion in fuel burn & seat mile cost. This results in major Environmental benefits through 
advanced  technology  like  the  lowest  CO2  emissions  and  NOx  emissions  up  to  35% 
below CAEP6. 

 
C. Champion / The Future of Aeronautics, a European Perspective

51

Figure 5. Fuselage section. 

Figure 6. Airbus A350. 

All  of  this  was  possible  through  Innovations  based  on  the  continuous  efforts  we 
perform  on  Research  and  Technology.  And  those  efforts  must  continue,  and  indeed 
accelerate, to meet the challenging demands faced by the aeronautics sector. The Clean 
Sky programme sets a strong focus on tangible results and demonstrators will therefore 
be  needed  to  evaluate  new  technology  to  be  ready  in  order  for  us  all  to  fulfil  Vision 
2050. 

It  is  the  most  ambitious  European  Aeronautic  research  project  ever  undertaken. 
Actually  it  is  a  Joint  Undertaking  (JU)  between  the  European  Commission,  research 
establishments and the industry, setting out for the greening of aviation. 

To achieve the highly ambitious ACARE goals by 2020, by now over 400 Compa-
nies have  started  their  contribution. Airbus  is steering  the  Smart  Fixed Wing  Aircraft 

52

I. Policy and Strategy – Preparing the Future of Aviation: A Joint Effort of Europe

(SFWA) Technology demonstrator activities and we are convinced that this is an effi-
cient way of doing Research at European level that needs to be continued in future. 

And we are sure that we can even do better in the future. What is important to get 
there is to prepare on time. We have to start now with a clear vision where we want to 
be. 

The Vision 2050 presents our aspirations for the future: We hope that the European 
Aviation  Community  will  continue  in  leading  the  world  in  sustainable  aviation  prod-
ucts  and  services  whilst  meeting  the  needs  for  EU  citizens  and  society.  To  do  so  we 
must innovate at Airbus and the Industry at large will need to address competitive chal-
lenges from what were know as the emerging economies but could be more adequately 
called the booming economies. I refer to the BRIC countries. We cannot hope to com-
pete with them on price; innovation has become the major competitive differentiator. 

In  fact,  Aeronautics  and  Air  Transport  are  already  ensuring  safe  and  sustainable 
mobility for passengers and freight, generating wealth and economic growth while con-
tributing  to  the  balance  of  trade  and  European  competitiveness.  We  are  providing 
highly skilled jobs, here, at home, which is key to our success. Once again, in 2050 we 
will still be doing this, but we hope, even better. 

To illustrate my point, I would like to show you more concretely how Airbus ef-
forts can help meet Societal and Market needs, for the overall benefit of the EU citizens, 
and world passengers. 

New materials and processes developed through research and technology projects 
underpin  the  Vision  2050  goals  of  “Maintaining  and  extending  industrial  leadership” 
and “Prioritising research, testing capabilities and education”. These will be exploited 
in the next generations of aircraft and help to secure step changes in efficiency, which 
in turn supports the goal of “Protecting the environment and the energy supply”. All of 
these  technologies build  upon  each other  to  shape  the future  for our  industry  and our 
society.  

Airbus  has  proposed  a  concept  plane  to  help  crystallise  these  many  and  various 

ideas, and shape them in a communicable form. 

Let’s look at what may be round the corner – although there are some may agree 

with Albert Einstein who said: 

“I never think of the future … it comes soon enough”. 

The airports of the future will have to be much more practical than today for the 
passengers  too!  Taking  a  plane  could  be  as  simple  as  taking  the  Metro,  with  planes 
parking alongside a loading bay on which passengers are waiting, similar to a station. 

Alternatively passengers could be calmly pre-seated in modules (or capsule com-
partments) before the plane actually arrives. These compartments would be loaded onto 
the plane as it lands. 

Airbus engineers describe this as the ‘Aircraft Pod Concept’ which blurs the dis-
tinction  between  aircraft  and  airport;  after  all  they  are  all  part  of  an  ensemble  that 
transports people and goods. 

Moving back to the present though, I know that the subject of bio-fuels is another 
topic being discussed at this conference and Airbus were delighted to sign a contract on 
this yesterday. 

But the key to all these fuels is the efficiency of the engine and the engine and air-

craft combination after all; waste is still waste whatever form it takes. 

We are obviously looking at various options with the main propulsion providers to 
define an innovative power plant. In the near term this might mean Open Rotors, Ad-

C. Champion / The Future of Aeronautics, a European Perspective

53

Figure 7. Airbus Concept Plane. 

vanced Turbofans, Geared Turbo Fan or even Ducted Counter-rotating Fans but in the 
long term perhaps we might see Liquid Hydrogen thrusters or even some new, as yet 
unknown, propulsion techniques. 

Many, if not all, of these technologies will require significantly new and improved 

materials. 

Some  materials  of  the  future  will  include  additional  functionality  that  provides 

transparency on command, negating the need for windows. 

New materials could be self-cleaning and even self-repairing. Think of the leaves 
of a lotus plant, which water rolls off in beads, taking contaminants with it. Today this 
is already used on the surfaces of cabin bathrooms. In the future this will be found on 
the fabric of seats and the carpets on which we walk. Self-repair of this kind is already 
used  today  in  surface  protection.  Certain  paints  can  seal  a  scratch  just  as  the  human 
skin heals itself when scratched. 

Materials that change shape and return to their initial shape, like the organs of liv-
ing  creatures,  are  a  very  real  possibility.  Such  materials  might  be  metals  that  have  a 
‘memory’; or are covered with a ‘skin’ of material that carries a system that will insti-
gate a shape change. A memory is created by providing materials with a certain level of 
intelligence.  This  means  the  ability  to  ‘control’,  so  a  sensor  system  and  an  activator 
system exist within the material. 

The future passenger cabin will of course be ecological. No more non-renewable 
materials like metal and plastic, but plant fibres, fully recyclable, that can be grown to 
the desired shape from responsible, sustainable resources. 

Airbus  is  committed  to  researching  sustainable  materials  and  how  to  dispose  of 
them at the end of their life and this is why we are one of the partners in the PAMELA 
programme (Process for Advanced Management of End of Life of Aircraft). 

At Airbus we have looked at a multitude of visions: the Supersonic Plane, the Hy-
personic Plane the Cryoplane and the Cruise Ship of the Sky, to mention but a few. But 
Airbus’ experts in aircraft materials, aerodynamics, cabins and engines have also come 
up with a design to meet the expectations of the passengers of the future. 

 
54

I. Policy and Strategy – Preparing the Future of Aviation: A Joint Effort of Europe

More than a flight of pure fantasy, The Airbus Concept Plane illustrates what air 
transport could look like in 2050 – even 2030 if advancements in existing technologies 
continue apace. Ultra-slim wings for lower aerodynamic drag, semi-embedded engines 
which significantly reduce noise pollution and increase lift, a completely reworked tail 
design and a fuselage shaped to optimise lift – these are externally visible signs of what 
our engineers have dreamed up. This Concept plane is not our next generation aircraft 
or even the generation after that, but rather a playground for future-oriented ideas. We 
are inviting researchers and interested parties around the world to talk to us because we 
want to be the ones who turn these visions of the future into INNOVATION, – mean-
ing into a “flying reality” – before our many competitors. 

I have the privilege to lead the thirteen thousand engineers at Airbus and through 
them many thousands more in our partner organisations. They are motivated by a huge 
pride in our products, and an excitement about flight. Yes, there are many professional 
and technical challenges which provide for a satisfying career – but it is the dream of 
flight that provides the first motivation. This is alive and well at Airbus – despite the 
fact that flight is now routine, almost mundane, for many citizens of Europe – this spirit 
of excitement and improvement is needed to take us to the future of aeronautics. Airbus 
will play its part in defining this future together with all the industrial partners and in-
dustry stakeholders. 

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-55

55

Tackling the Environmental Challenges to 
Aeronautics 

Eric DAUTRIAT 
Executive Director – Clean Sky Joint Technology Initiative 

Abstract.  The  environmental  challenge  has  become  over  the  last  ten  years  more 
and more the main driver for future technologies and future aircraft architectures. 
The paper deals with the following topics: from local to global – anticipating the 
oil  peak,  another  political  and  societal  challenge  –  ACARE  and  environment  – 
Clean Sky, a game-changing Public-Private Partnership – the numerous technical 
areas  speeded  up  by  the  environmental  challenge  –  Primes,  Tiers  One,  Research 
Organisations,  Universities,  SMEs,  are  the  Clean  Sky  Partners  –  the  full  set  of 
demonstrators involving Clean sky Members and many Partners – Clean Sky will 
deliver  main  demonstrators  from  2014  –  the  variety  of  means  –  Game-changing 
concepts will tackle further environmental challenges. 

Keywords. Environment, demonstrators, Clean Sky partners, game-changing con-
cepts 

The environmental challenge is not the first challenge that the aviation sector is facing. 
But as Antonio Vasquez, the Iberia CEO, said yesterday, it is maybe the biggest ever. It 
is now strongly contributing to a change of mindset. Over the last 10 years, it has be-
come more and more the main driver for future technologies and future aircraft archi-
tectures. 

It has been decades since aviation started to pay a lot of attention to environmental 
parameters. Here I refer to noise and air quality, where a very impressive progress was 
made.  This  concerned  the  local  effects  of  aviation. It  was  prompted  by  the  residents’ 
claims, in the vicinity of airports. It had significant effects on aircraft design, in particu-
lar on the engine design. 

But what we are facing now is of a different scale, which comes on top of these lo-
cal  effects.  This  is  about  climate  change,  as  everybody  knows.  It  is  now  about  the 
planet: even with a limited impact, aviation is interacting with the planet and mankind. 
Two eminent interlocutors and a great political challenge! The image of aviation in the 
eyes of all citizens is at stake, and we have to better explain our action to them. 

Like the climate change, the aviation sector is also global, worldwide, and thinks 

global: this allows to have a common, efficient approach. 

Another  major  characteristic  of  the  greenhouse  effect  is  that  it  is  long-term  and 
cumulative.  Aeronautics  is  long-term  as  well.  This  is  probably  the  industrial  sector 
where the products have the longest research and development lead times and the long-
est operational lifetime: there are more than 50 years from the concept of a new part to 
its disposal. The replacement cycle of commercial products is slow. This is an apparent 
paradox when you consider the very hightech features of this sector, at the leading edge 
of progress. But what is for sure is that the lead times of human action on climate and 

56

I. Policy and Strategy – Preparing the Future of Aviation: A Joint Effort of Europe

1995-2009 anomalies relative to 1951-1980 mean

Aviation impact: 2 to 3%

Turbojets
Turbojets
Turbojets
Turbojets
Turbojets
Turbojets

1st Generation Turbofans
1st Generation Turbofans
1st Generation Turbofans
1st Generation Turbofans
1st Generation Turbofans
1st Generation Turbofans

2nd Generation Turbofans
2nd Generation Turbofans
2nd Generation Turbofans
2nd Generation Turbofans
2nd Generation Turbofans
2nd Generation Turbofans

More than 20dB
More than 20dB
improvement
improvement

l
l
l
l
l

e
e
e
e
e
v
v
v
v
v
e
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e
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L
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L
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e
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e
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s
s
s
s
s
o
o
o
o
o
N
N
N
N
N

i
i
i
i
i

l
l
l
l
l

a
a
a
a
a
r
r
r
r
r
e
e
e
e
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t
t
t
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a
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L
L

t
t
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s
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s
s
u
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u
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r
r
r
r
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h
h
h
h
T
T
T
T
T
t
t
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t
t
f
f
f
f
f
a
a
a
a
a
r
r
r
r
r
c
c
c
c
c
r
r
r
r
r
i
i
i
i
i
A
A
A
A
A
r
r
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r
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f
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d
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t
t
t
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c
c
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r
r
r
r
r
r
r
r
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r
o
o
o
o
o
C
C
C
C
C

20 dB
20 dB
20 dB
20 dB
20 dB

1955
1955
1955
1955
1955

1960
1960
1960
1960
1960

1965
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1965

1970
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1975
1975
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1975

1980
1980
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1985
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1990
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1995
1995
1995
1995
1995

2000
2000
2000
2000
2000

Entry into Service Date
Entry into Service Date
Entry into Service Date
Entry into Service Date
Entry into Service Date

Figure 1. From local to global. 

2

2

3

3

Figure 2. Anticipating oil peak. 

on aeronautics investments and vision are commensurate: this helps to define a clever 
strategy and to keep to it. 

This does not mean that we can linger on our way to greening aviation: for sure, 

acting quickly is even one of the reasons why public sector support is needed. 

I’m not certain, even if I do hope so, that climate change will remain at any time as 
high on the political agenda as it used to be in recent years. The lukewarm results of the 
Copenhague  summit  still  resonate.  This  makes  the vision and  leadership  of  the  Euro-
pean Union on this matter all the more necessary. But what is for sure is that the energy 
challenge  will  continue  to  grow.  This  is  another  long-term  matter.  Reducing  the  fuel 
consumption  is  a  must,  not  only  economical,  but,  I  would  say  more  deeply  and  even 
more  urgently,  important  in  societal  and  political  sense.  Biofuels  will  not  do  the  job 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
E. Dautriat / Tackling the Environmental Challenges to Aeronautics

57

(cid:2)(cid:3)(cid:2)(cid:4)(cid:5)(cid:6)(cid:7)(cid:8)(cid:9)(cid:6)(cid:10)(cid:8)(cid:11)(cid:12)(cid:13)(cid:14)(cid:8)(cid:15)(cid:10)(cid:8)(cid:16)

Vision 2020 (January 2001)
• To meet Society’s needs
• To achieve global leadership for Europe

ACARE
October 2002 : The Strategic Research Agenda (SRA)        5 Challenges

Quality and 
Affordability

Environment

Safety

Air Transport 
System Efficiency

Security

October 2004 : The SRA 2         High level Target Concepts

Very Low 
Cost ATS

Ultra Green 
ATS

Highly 
Customer 
oriented ATS

Highly time-
efficient ATS

Ultra Secure 
ATS

22nd 
Century

•80% cut in NOx emissions
•Halving perceived aircraft noise
•50% cut in CO2 emissions per pass-Km by drastic fuel consumption 
reduction
•A green design, manufacturing, maintenance and disposal product life 
cycle

4

4

Figure 3. ACARE and environment. 

alone.  Designing  even  more  abstemious  aircraft,  with  the  oil  peak  approaching,  is  a 
challenge which duplicates and reinforces the CO2 one: the good news is that the aero-
nautical industry has always made successful efforts in this direction, as it did for noise. 
In the last forty years, this fuel consumption has decreased by 70%. Of course, along 
the way it becomes more and more challenging and costly to improve, and this leads to 
finding more efficient and comprehensive ways to organize and fund research. 

As a consequence of these global and long-term features, the aeronautical sector is 
probably  the  best  organized,  not  only  at  European  level,  but  also  beyond.  The  ambi-
tious targets set by ICAO and the upcoming definition of a standard for CO2 could not 
have been set if the aviation sector had been scattered, if the industry itself had not ini-
tiated the right steps. 

You all know this slide, but you would miss it if I didn’t show it. The technologi-
cal platform ACARE, of which our moderator today is an outstanding co-chairman, has 
brought together the whole sector – public and private players – in an active research 
and innovation global reflection, committing to ambitious, shared targets. 

Long term, global, well organized, and high tech: this is why and how aviation can 

bring a lot to tackling the environmental challenge that mankind is facing. 

In  return,  this  environmental  challenge  is  really  helping  to  structure  and  focus 

aeronautical research. 

The ACARE target of halving CO2 emissions with technologies available in 2020 
cannot be reached only by the market invisible hand. It needs a long-term public and 
private  common  vision  and  commitment,  it  needs  stability,  while  being  in  step  with 
market  needs: CO2  reduction  cannot just  trail  behind  the market  with  a kind  of  loose 
reaction  loop,  it  needs  a  more  voluntarist  approach,  adding  some  technology-push  to 
the pure market-drive: this is about following a policy and long-term objectives. 

This  is  what  Europe,  in  particular  the  European  Commission,  impulsed  with  the 
Clean Sky Joint Technology Initiative, a programme started in 2008, reaching now its 
steady-state  level,  aiming  at  providing  system-level  demonstrators  of  green  technolo-

 
58

I. Policy and Strategy – Preparing the Future of Aviation: A Joint Effort of Europe

(cid:2)(cid:3)(cid:4)(cid:5)(cid:6)(cid:7)(cid:8)(cid:9)(cid:10)(cid:11)(cid:7)(cid:5)(cid:7)(cid:12)(cid:5)(cid:13)(cid:4)(cid:14)(cid:15)(cid:16)(cid:5)(cid:6)(cid:12)(cid:17)(cid:6)(cid:12)
(cid:18)(cid:19)(cid:20)(cid:3)(cid:17)(cid:15)(cid:14)(cid:18)(cid:21)(cid:17)(cid:22)(cid:5)(cid:23)(cid:4) (cid:18)(cid:5)(cid:21)(cid:23)(cid:6)(cid:4)(cid:21)(cid:24)(cid:16)(cid:17)(cid:25)

Joint 
technological
initiative

Greening
aeronautics

CO2

Noise

Nox

Multi-year
programme, up 
to  to 2017

Total budget 1,6 B€,
one of the largest
European research
programmes ever

Started in  
2008

800 M€ European Commission

800 M€ industry

Up to system-level
demonstrators

On ground and in flight

5

5

Figure 4. Clean Sky, a game-changing Public-Private Partnership. 

(cid:2) Aerodynamics (cid:3) drag and 
acoustics

(cid:2)Materials, processes, 
structures (cid:3) weight and 
ecodesign

(cid:2)Propulsion efficiency (cid:3) fuel 
consumption and noise

(cid:2)On-board energy (cid:3)
weight and pollutants

(cid:2)Trajectory (cid:3) block 
fuel and noise

6

6

Figure 5. Technical areas. 

gies for all kinds of aircraft, with 2017 as a time limit, with clear CO2 and noise reduc-
tion targets. Clean Sky is, by far, the largest research programme of Europe in aeronau-
tics ever. 

At the last, Aerodays, five years ago. Clean Sky was still in limbo. The dream of 
starting  such  an  initiative  was  taking  shape.  Then,  the  build-up  phase  was  somewhat 
difficult. Now we can say that we are well on track – with some quite exciting technical 
challenges and risks ahead of us! 

 
 
 
E. Dautriat / Tackling the Environmental Challenges to Aeronautics

59

Otto Fuchs

Zodiac

Avio

Safran

DLR

Cranfield University

Eurocopter

NLR

Ruag

Diehl

EADS-CASA

CIRA

EADS-IW

And manyothers!!

Liebherr

GTD

Imperial College

ONERA

Rolls-Royce

Qinetiq

Fraunhofer

AgustaWestland

Alenia

Airbus

Dassault

Thales

MTU

Volvo

Aernnova

SAAB

Fokker

ITP

TU Berlin

Tecnalia

TU Braunschweig

Cenaero

Pace

Politecnico Milano

7

7

Figure 6. Clean Sky players. 

Integrated Technology Demonstrators

Green Rotorcraft

Smart Fixed Wing Aircraft

Green Regional Aircraft 

Sustainable and 
Green Engines

> 500 partners through calls

74 associates

6x2 ITD leaders

Eco-Design

40% SME

Systems for Green Operations

Technology
evaluator

8

8

Figure 7. A full set of demonstrators involving Clean Sky Members and numerous. 

Sharing  such  targets,  all  across  the  industry,  is  meaningful.  It  goes  beyond  the 
usual coordination of collaborative projects, because this Initiative is longer term, com-
prehensive,  results-focused,  and  puts  together  most  of  the  aeronautical  Primes,  Tiers 
One,  Research  Centres  and  hundreds  of  partners  to  bring  research  up  to  innovation. 
You  can  see  here  a  random  sample  of  these  participants  to  Clean  Sky.  These  players 
not  only discuss  and  share policy-level objectives, but work  together on  a day-to-day 
basis. Lasting new links are being created between Universities, SMEs, integrators and 
so on, throughout such a 10 years cooperation. 

No other goal than the global warming could have been so widely inspiring, both 

for the private sector innovation capability, and for the public sector policy. 

 
 
 
60

I. Policy and Strategy – Preparing the Future of Aviation: A Joint Effort of Europe

(cid:2)(cid:3)(cid:4)(cid:5)(cid:6)(cid:7)(cid:8)(cid:9)(cid:10) (cid:11)(cid:12)(cid:3)(cid:3) (cid:13)(cid:4)(cid:3)(cid:12)(cid:14)(cid:4)(cid:15) (cid:16)(cid:5)(cid:12)(cid:6)(cid:7)(cid:13)(cid:4)(cid:16)(cid:17)(cid:6)(cid:18)(cid:19)(cid:15)(cid:5)(cid:19)(cid:17)(cid:15)(cid:18) (cid:20)(cid:15)(cid:17)(cid:16)
(cid:21)(cid:22)(cid:23)(cid:24)(cid:25)(cid:7)(cid:5)(cid:7)(cid:20)(cid:4)(cid:11)(cid:7)(cid:4)(cid:26)(cid:5)(cid:16)(cid:27)(cid:3)(cid:4)(cid:18)

Open rotor

Improvements to 
GTF

30% average
CO2 reduction

Laminar wing demo

Helicopter optimized path

All-electric
Regional a/c demo

Electrical ECS

9

9

Figure 8. Clean Sky will deliver main demonstrators from 2014: a few examples. 

Six different areas are addressed, each of them involving several large, ground or 
flight  demonstrators  at  a  high  Technology  Readiness  Level:  Large  aircraft.  Regional 
aircraft, Rotorcraft, and with a transverse role, the Engines, the Systems and the Eco-
logical Design. 

Through  the  interfaces  between  these  areas,  I  am  convinced  that  a  more  holistic 
approach for research is taking shape. This is the first time that such a set of common 
objectives is agreed by all stakeholders, translated into the different aircraft types, ad-
dressed through a common and stable programme, with cross-links and common rules, 
evaluated and monitored through dedicated tools. 

Because these teams are building integrated demonstration products, and because 
the JTI reflects the structure of the aeronautical sector, these areas are managed by 12 
major players of the European industry. Around them, they involve also a lot of associ-
ate  members.  The  coordination  and  management  are  ensured  by  a  Joint  Undertaking, 
reporting to a Governing Board where strategic decisions are taken, from the industry, 
the  research  organizations  and  the  European  Commission.  This  Governing  Board  is 
chaired  this  year  by  the  previous  speaker,  Charles  Champion  –  and  vice-chaired  by 
Rolf Henke from DLR. 

But the Joint Undertaking is also involving more and more partners through calls 
for proposals every 3 or 4 months, and we have currently, in total, close to 400 stake-
holders in Clean Sky – and we keep growing. 

The topics of these calls for proposals are fit to SMEs, which currently represent 
40% of the winners, including a lot of newcomers in aeronautical research. This shows 
how much and how widely such a set-up can prompt innovation. 
Many  technology  streams  are  involved  in  the  CO2  noise  reduction,  from  materials  to 
aerodynamics to propulsion. The large demonstrators are involving for instance: 

•  The Open Rotor, on ground and in flight – one of the most promising and also, 

one of the most demanding, game-changing concepts in Clean Sky; 

 
 
E. Dautriat / Tackling the Environmental Challenges to Aeronautics

61

… and a variety of forecasts

10

10

Figure 9. A variety of means. 

•  A natural laminar wing flight test; 
•  An all-electric (or as “more electric” as possible!) regional aircraft fly test, in-
volving  also  new  structures  and  health  monitoring,  to  mention  just  a  few  of 
them. They will be tested mostly by 2014–2015, but first intermediate results 
and deliveries are being produced now: this was highlighted in the two Clean 
Sky sessions this morning. 

The average CO2 reduction target, depending on the aircraft type, and depending of 
course  on  the  success  of  the  demonstrators,  is  in  the  range  of  30%  –  while  the  noise 
reduction  targets  are  in  the  range  of  10  dB.  This  shows  the  strong  contribution  from 
Clean  Sky  to  the  ACARE  goals.  Other  technologies,  stemming  from  other  funding 
sources, for instance national, may or must be involved, because Clean Sky is building 
synergies and acting as a catalyst. 

Besides CO2 and noise reduction, Clean Sky has also a focus on Eco-Design, the 
aim of which is to reduce the overall environmental footprint throughout the life of the 
product.  I’m  pretty  sure  that  the  attention  paid  to  this  matter  will  keep  growing,  to 
avoid waste, chemicals and allow for full recycling. 

What we are providing with Clean Sky is demonstrated technologies. They will be 
available for further development. It is only through there inclusion in operational air-
craft that the relevant CO2 and noise reduction will materialize. 

In parallel, let me remind you that, in the field of ATM, through the European Sin-
gle Sky and SESAR, CO2 improvements in the range of 10% are expected. Both activi-
ties, aircraft technologies and ATM, are complementary and coordinated. 

As Clean Sky is far from being the end of the story, it is needed and feasible to go 
beyond,  well  beyond,  what  is  currently  being  addressed.  As  we  have  seen  yesterday, 
the flightpath to 2050 is setting new targets: 75% of CO2 reduction, 65% of noise re-

 
 
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I. Policy and Strategy – Preparing the Future of Aviation: A Joint Effort of Europe

11

11

Figure 10. Game-changing concepts will tackle further environmental challenges. 

duction and so on. We are rather at the beginning, of what this environmental mindset 
may or will trigger. For this, a variety of means must be used. 

Biofuels are not addressed by Clean Sky. In the future, there is no doubt that they 
will strongly emerge and contribute to reach our ambitious targets, to an extent which 
has still to be better defined as you can see on this slide... But most of the technical and 
industrial  challenges  of  the  biofuels  are  upstream,  in  the  production  and  distribution 
area, more than in their use by aircraft, and they are not aviation-specific. 

The  aircraft  technologies  themselves  have  still  a  significant  potential  for  innova-
tion, to further green our aviation. We will be imaginative and ambitious. We are able 
to fly brand new architectures and concepts. More game-changing architectures, what-
ever they look like at the end, are still ahead of us. A still closer cooperation between 
all players, and a still wider holistic approach, are needed. 

I focused on CO2 but there are other potential sources of radiative effects. In par-
ticular, scientists have also to understand and better model some effects on the global 
warming  from  phenomena  such  as  “contrails”,  the  avoidance  of  which  could  prompt 
changes in the flight altitudes and routes. 

The  emission  trading  scheme,  which  should,  as  such,  significantly  contribute  to 
change the game, should also be used to bring still more support to research and inno-
vation in the field of environment. 

The  Joint  Technological  Initiative  concept,  which  had  itself  to  be  demonstrated, 
exists now; lessons can be learnt from the current Clean Sky for future improvements, 
and this JTI concept is fit for purpose to tackle future challenges, in the context of the 
Innovation Union. 

Working for future of the planet in such a high-tech sector has the ability to renew 
the passion with which we can reach the Moon. By the way, reaching the Moon is car-
bon-free, even with a rocket (maybe not contrail-free, this has to be checked!), but this 
is another story, maybe for some European Space Days somewhere... 

 
Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-63

63

Flightpath 2050: Europe’s Vision for 
Aeronautics 

Axel KREIN a and Gareth WILLIAMS b 
a Senior Vice-President, Research & Technology – Airbus SAS 
b Vice-President, Business Development – Airbus SAS 

Abstract.  Towards  the  end  of  2010  Vice-President  Kallas  and  Commissioner 
Geoghegan-Quinn  invited  a  group  of  European  top-level  representatives  of  the 
European aviation1 industry to develop a new vision for European aviation with a 
2050 horizon. The aeronautics part of this vision encompasses all matters relating 
to  the  air  vehicle,  comprising  the  vehicle  and  its  systems,  its  technology,  design 
and manufacture as well as its maintenance, repair and overhaul. 

Keywords.  Environment,  energy,  safety,  security,  competitiveness,  Flightpath 
2050 

1. A Vision for Aviation 

Aeronautics  is  at  the  heart  of  the  Air  Transport  System.  Over  the  past  40  years,  the 
European  aeronautic  industry  has  successfully  risen  from  a  niche  sector  to  a  world 
leading  industry.  During  this  time  the  demand  for  air  travel  has  grown  very  signifi-
cantly and Europe has taken an increasing share of this market. European Aeronautics 
Industry  numbers  approximately  82,000  aeronautical  companies  [1],  including  a  sig-
nificant share of small and medium-sized enterprises which in 2009 supported 468,300 
sustainable and highly skilled jobs. In the same year, aeronautics generated a turnover 
in  excess  of  €100  billion,  of  which  approximately  60%  is  exported  outside  the  Euro-
pean Union (Fig. 1). 

On  average,  12%  of  aeronautic  revenues,  representing  almost  €7  billion  per  year 
for civil aeronautics alone, are reinvested in Research and Development (R&D). Every 
Euro invested in aeronautics R&D creates an equivalent additional value in the econ-
omy  every  year  thereafter.  Aeronautical  technologies  are  catalysts  for  innovation  and 
spill-over  into  other  economic  and  technological  sectors,  thus  contributing  to  the 
growth  of  the  European  economy  as  a  whole.  Around  20%  of  aerospace  employees 
work on R&D. This has been achieved through the collective efforts of major compa-
nies, thousands of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), academia and research labo-
ratories.  The  role  of  the  European  prime  platform  integrators  in  guiding  and  setting 
framework  for  these  efforts  has  been  vital.  Key  to  this  success  has  been  the  constant 
hunger  to  innovate  and  to  exploit  technology  where  it  benefits  the  customer.  That  is 
both the airlines and the travelling public.  

Equally important has been the concerted efforts to improve coherence of research 
and technology programming and funding. As a result of this Aeronautics continues to 
be the highlight of an integrated high technology research, development and manufac-
turing sector. 

64

I. Policy and Strategy – Preparing the Future of Aviation: A Joint Effort of Europe

Figure 1. What Aeronautics gives to Europe today. 

2. Challenges and Goals for the Future 

All these efforts have provided a firm foundation for the future and there is a tremen-
dous  opportunity  for  European  aeronautics.  Air  traffic  is  predicted  to  grow  at  around 
4.8% each year. This growth means that nearly 26,000 new aircraft will be required in 
the next 20 years (Fig. 2). 

However, Aeronautics faces a huge challenge in fulfilling its responsibility to soci-
ety for protection of the environment, and for being safe and secure. Progress is being 
made  in  meeting  these  challenges  but  sustaining  progress  becomes  increasingly  diffi-
cult as traffic volumes grow. At the same time the industrial competition is becoming 
ever fiercer, not only from established or traditional rivals such as the United States of 
America  but  now  from  new  and  strong  challengers,  notably  Brazil,  Canada,  China, 
India and Russia. Authorities in these countries have understood the strategic nature of 
aviation and support their industries accordingly, enhancing competition at all levels. 

The challenges of the next 40 years are greater by far than those we have faced in 
the last 40. To harvest this opportunity we depend entirely on our ability to innovate! 
Technological leadership, the root of Europe’s current success, will continue to be the 
major competitive differentiator. Break-through technology will be required to secure 
future competitive advantage, to properly manage ever-increasing complexity and most 
notably to master the environmental challenge. Innovation is not a nice to have – it is a 
fundamental necessity for survival. 

So  let  me  know  show  you  some  of  the  key  elements  the  Vision  for  the  future of 

aeronautics, which covers the themes of: 

•  Environment and Energy; 
•  Safety and Security; 
•  Competitiveness; 
•  Customer Experience. 

 
A. Krein and G. Williams / Flightpath 2050: Europe’s Vision for Aeronautics

65

Figure 2. Challenges for the future. 

The  following  sections  describe  these  themes  in  terms  of  their  potential  status  in 

2050, and what goals must be attained to achieve that status. 

3. Environment and Energy 

Since  the  1960s,  Commercial  airlines  have  cut  their  fuel  consumption  and,  therefore, 
their CO2 emissions by 70%. Today, a passenger on board an Airbus A380 only uses 3 
litres of fuel per 100 kilometres. However as the effect carbon emissions have on our 
planet becomes increasingly important, it is essential for the aviation industry to con-
tinue to find even more solutions.  

So our vision is that in 2050 substantial developments in vehicle and engine have 
combined  and  built  upon  each  other  to  yield  a  truly  new  generation  of  European  air 
vehicles and equipment, with significantly improved and continuously improving fuel 
and noise efficiency. The air traffic control system is optimised to provide the best tra-
jectories for fuel and time efficiency and associated atmospheric emissions and to ad-
dress noise. Noise projection on the ground is also reduced. Noise generated by rotor-
craft  at  heliports  continues  to  be  in  compliance  with  the  local  operational  rules.  De-
pendence on crude oil is reduced by drop-in liquid fuels from other sources at a com-
petitive cost. Furthermore the effect of aviation on the atmosphere is fully understood. 
A combination of measures, including technology development, operational procedures 
and market-based incentives mean that environmental impact of aircraft has been miti-
gated  at  a  rate  outweighing  the  effects  of  increasing  traffic  levels.  The  public  is  in-
formed, understands and is convinced that the aviation sector has made the utmost pro-
gress in mitigating environmental impacts and therefore considers that air travel is en-
vironmentally sustainable (Fig. 3). 

66

I. Policy and Strategy – Preparing the Future of Aviation: A Joint Effort of Europe

Figure 3. Aeronautics challenges and key goals for environment and energy. 

The goals we have set ourselves in order to reach this ambitious state are these: 

• 

In 2050 technologies and procedures available allow a 75% reduction in CO2 
emissions per passenger kilometre to support the ATAG target2 and a 90% re-
duction in NOX emissions. The perceived noise emission of flying aircraft is 
reduced by 65%. These are relative to the capabilities of typical new aircraft in 
2000;  

•  Aircraft movements are emission-free when taxiing; 
•  Air vehicles are designed and manufactured to be recyclable; 
•  Europe is established as a centre of excellence on sustainable alternative fuels, 
including those for aviation, based on a strong European energy policy; 
•  Europe  is  at  the  forefront  of  atmospheric  research  and  takes  the  lead  in  the 
formulation  of  a  prioritised  environmental  action  plan  and  establishment  of 
global environmental standards. 

4. Safety and Security 

Regarding  safety  in  2050,  European  aviation  has  achieved  unprecedented  levels  of 
safety  and  continues  to  improve.  Manned,  unmanned,  legacy  and  next  generation, 
autonomous aircraft and all types of rotorcraft operate simultaneously in the same air-
space  and  in  most  weather  conditions.  The  occurrence  and  impact  of  human  error  is 
significantly  reduced  through  new  designs  and  training  processes  and  through  tech-
nologies  that  support  decision-making.  Advanced  on-board  monitoring  systems  allow 
the  aircraft  and  air  transport  system  to  predict  and  mitigate  technical  and  operational 
issues,  including  weather,  before  they  arise.  This  state  is  embodied  through  the 
achievement of the following goals: 

 
A. Krein and G. Williams / Flightpath 2050: Europe’s Vision for Aeronautics

67

•  Overall, the European air transport system has less than one accident per ten 
million commercial aircraft flights. For specific operations, such as search and 
rescue, the aim is to reduce the number of accidents by 80% compared to 2000 
taking into account increasing traffic;  

•  Weather and other hazards from the environment are precisely evaluated and 

risks are properly mitigated; 

•  The European air transport system operates seamlessly through fully interop-
erable and networked systems allowing manned and unmanned air vehicles to 
safely operate in the same airspace. 

5. Competitiveness 

In 2050, the innovative, sustainable and highly competitive European aviation industry 
has  cemented  its  place  as  the  world  leader.  It  is  recognised  globally  for  its  vehicles, 
engines,  systems  and  equipment  and  a  large  range  of  very  cost  effective  and  energy 
efficient  products.  This  position  has  been  secured  through  a  seamless  European  re-
search and innovation system that assures continuity through blue sky research, applied 
research, development, demonstration and innovation in products and services.  

Europe’s industry maintains and improves its critical mass, leading edge capabili-
ties and competitiveness through continuous and focused investment funded by strate-
gic  industrial  and  public-private  partnerships,  supported  by  cutting  edge  research  or-
ganisations  and  education,  organised  in  geographic  clusters  and  networks.  Multi-
disciplinary  design  and  development  tools  are  used  routinely  and  co-operatively  to 
support a high level of integrated system design. Final product performance is achieved 
to  within  a  very  fine  tolerance  (0.5%)  of  design  prediction  based  on  balanced  design 
techniques  and  simulations  ensuring right-first-time  manufacture.  This, with  seamless 
integration  of  design  and  manufacturing,  and  the  successful  management  of  complex 
supply  chains,  means  that  development  timescales  and  costs  have  been  dramatically 
reduced. 

Close-to-operations,  full-scale  technology  validation,  demonstration  and  in-flight 
testing is used to manage risk and to test technology. This enables the relentless pursuit 
of breakthrough and step-change innovations in products and services. New concepts, 
methods  and  tools  are  used  to  manage  increasing  complexity.  These features have so 
enhanced  the  reputation  of  European  aeronautics  that  the  best  researchers,  engineers 
and  managers are  attracted  by  the  European  aviation  sector,  which has the  reputation 
for being a most highly desirable, attractive, challenging and rewarding career choice.  

The goals identified in Flightpath 2050 that must be achieved are: 
•  The  whole  European  aviation  industry  is  strongly  competitive,  delivers  the 
best products and services worldwide and has a share of more than 40% of its 
global market; 

•  Europe will maintain leading edge design, manufacturing and system integra-
tion capabilities and jobs supported by high profile, strategic, flagship projects 
and programmes that cover the whole innovation process from basic research 
to full-scale demonstrators; 

•  Streamlined systems engineering, design, manufacturing, certification and up-
grade processes have addressed complexity and significantly decreased devel-
opment costs, including a 50% reduction in the cost of certification. A leading 
new generation of standards is created. 

 
68

I. Policy and Strategy – Preparing the Future of Aviation: A Joint Effort of Europe

6. Customer Experience 

The vision for the passenger experience in the air transport system has been presented 
in other papers at this conference. Aeronautics clearly has a substantial contribution to 
make in this area. Achieving seamless, secure, rapid and resilient travel that the vision 
foresees places strong demands on the aircraft and its systems. In particular for that part 
of the journey that takes place in an air vehicle, air travellers in 2050 expect that their 
local on-board environment (air quality and temperature control) matches that expected 
in  the  home  or  in  the  office,  and  that  services  and  communications  for  business  and 
leisure is available seamlessly and reliably throughout the entire journey. 

The goals identified in Flightpath 2050 include: 

•  Passengers  are  able  to  make  informed  mobility  choices  and  have  affordable 
access  to  one  another  90%  of  travellers  within  Europe  are  able  to  complete 
their journey, door-to-door within 4 hours; 

•  Flights  arrive  within  1  minute  of  the  planned  arrival  time  regardless  of 

weather conditions; 

•  An air traffic management system is in place that handles at least 25 million 

flights a year; 

•  A coherent ground infrastructure is developed including: airports, “vertiports” 

and heliports; 

•  All passengers pass through security screening without intrusion and unneces-

sary intervention or disruption. 

7. Time Horizons 

It is clear that our European vision for aeronautics is extremely ambitious and challeng-
ing.  Overcoming  the  challenges  and  achieving  our  Vision  requires  a  supreme  effort 
over many years. Aeronautics is marked by the high complexity of its vehicles and sys-
tems, all of which are both technology and capital intensive and that are subject to very 
long  development  cycles  (up  to  20  years),  they  are  produced  over  a  time  frame  of  at 
least 25 years and remain in service for at least another 25 years in which they required 
product support. We have to consider a total of a seventy year timeframe!  

The scale of the risk associated with massive investments in technological research 
and innovation, which only bear fruit on a long-term basis, is clearly extremely high. 
Research efforts need to be based on a programmatic approach that provides continuity 
across R&T efforts over many years. Managing this risk is dependent on the availabil-
ity  of  excellent  research,  testing  and  validation  capabilities  and  the  means  to  demon-
strate integrated solutions at large scale or in flight. It is therefore important to under-
stand the impact of these long cycles on what achieving the vision means in technology 
terms (Fig. 4). 

Because of the large number of aircraft already in service In order to have any real 
effect on the overall performance of aviation or around 2050 we need to be introducing 
into  service  aircraft  with  many  of  these  innovative  features  and  performance  from 
around 2040. On the basis that more than iteration cycles are needed to bring into the 
market vehicles individually fully capable achieving all necessary elements of this vi-
sion.  It  will  not  be  possible  to  reach  these  goals  in  the  iteration  of  a  single  product  
(Fig. 5). 

 
A. Krein and G. Williams / Flightpath 2050: Europe’s Vision for Aeronautics

69

Figure 4. Time Horizons – Product Life Cycle. 

Figure 5. Time Horizons – New Generation Fleet. 

So it is clear that the time to embark on the first part of the roadmap towards this 
new Vision is coming very soon. Indeed it is essential in the planning for FP8!! So how 
to move from the Vision to action! Today we don’t know exactly what is required for 
us to achieve this Vision. We have a very sound basis of knowledge and understanding 
but  there  are  also  many  breakthroughs  which  are  yet  to  be  achieved.  There  is  much 
more  to  be  learned  and  to  be  understood  and  to  be  tested  and  confirmed.  We  know 
what is at the end of the journey – but we do not yet have a clear view of how to get 

 
70

I. Policy and Strategy – Preparing the Future of Aviation: A Joint Effort of Europe

Figure 6. Vision to action. 

there! We cannot see all the way towards 2050 today! But clearly we cannot wait. It is 
imperative to launch actions soon. Before we set off on the journey we need to be sure 
that we are heading in the right general directions and that we are doing as many of the 
things that need to be done now, in order to have the right things in place for the steps 
beyond (Fig. 6). 

What is needed is a roadmap from where we are today to the vision. This road map 
for aviation research, development and innovation, will account for both the evolution 
of  technology  and  technology  breakthroughs  and  step  changes.  This  road  map  is 
needed  to guide  and  support  future  actions in  public  and private  European  R&T pro-
grammes  towards  the  Vision  including  future  Framework  Programmes.  The  roadmap 
must be developed with the participation of stakeholders from all sectors of Air Trans-
port and must be underpinned by appropriate levels of funding. 

The  leadership  of  Europe  in  the  field  of  aviation  is  underpinned  by  the  work  of 
ACARE in providing the dedicated and independent advice on strategic issues affecting 
the sector and the preparation of the Strategic Research Agenda in 2001. To continue 
the pursuit of our Vision for 2050 the primary recommendation of Flightpath 2050 is to 
revitalise and extend ACARE as the strategic advisory body for research and innova-
tion  that  encompass  both  aeronautics  and  air  transport  and  associated  regulatory  and 
institutional enablers. In doing so it should: 

•  Encourage full participation of representatives of airline, airport and other op-

erational aviation areas; 

•  Provide policy recommendations to guide the way towards achieving the Vi-

sion; 

•  Bring together authoritative, senior figures from all aeronautics and air trans-
port stakeholders, Member States and the European Commission to build con-
sensus in favour of strategic actions; 

 
A. Krein and G. Williams / Flightpath 2050: Europe’s Vision for Aeronautics

71

•  Create  the  appropriate  mechanisms  to  connect  to  the  equivalent platforms  of 
other transport sectors (where they exist) in order to secure the intermodal ob-
jectives of the Vision; 

•  Launch actions to urgently develop the new strategic roadmap. 

Flightpath 2050 was  created by  the  synchronised  efforts  of  many  stakeholders  in 
the field of aviation. The Strategic Research Agenda required to secure the vision must 
now be developed and delivered by the same broad range of stakeholders in Air Trans-
port and aeronautics. 

Endnotes 

1 Aviation is used to mean Aeronautics and Air Transport. 
2 Carbon-neutral growth starting 2020 and a 50% overall CO2 emission reduction by 2050. 

References 

[1]  ASD Facts and figures, 2009. 

 
                                                           
 
Introduction to Part Two 
Aviation Technologies and Operations 

The second part of the book addresses the technology and operation aspects. After an 
introductory article about the Clean Sky Joint Technology Initiative, the key technolo-
gies  responding  to  the  main  challenges  identified  by  Europe’s  Strategic  Research 
Agenda for Aeronautics are addressed in six chapters. Mainly the achievements of joint 
technology projects of EU level are presented (in brackets the number of papers). 

Chapter “Greening the Air Transport” 
•  Flight Physics (5); 
•  Climate and Alternative Fuels for Aviation (3); 
•  Noise Reduction (2); 
•  Propulsion (5). 

Chapter “Securing the Air Transport” (3). 

Chapter “Safety” (6). 

Chapter “Air Traffic Operations” (4). 

Chapter “Cost Efficiency” 
•  Manufacturing Techniques for Engine Components (2); 
•  Structures and Materials (6); 
•  Systems and Equipment (3). 

Chapter  “Pioneering  the  Air  Transport”,  after  a  strategy  oriented  paper  on  “A 
Technical Vision of Sustainable Commercial Air Transportation in 2030”, 7 tech-
nological project papers are presented. 

 
 
Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-75

75

Clean Sky: Bringing Sustainable Air 
Transport Closer 

Eric DAUTRIAT 

Abstract. Funded equally by the European Commission and Europe’s aeronautical 
industry, Clean Sky is a Joint Technology Initiative designed to speed up the tech-
nology breakthroughs needed to achieve ACARE’s environmental goals. As a pub-
lic-private partnership, it aims to develop, mature and validate key “clean technol-
ogies” for aviation in order to shorten the time to market for new solutions tested 
on Full Scale Demonstrators. With a budget estimated at €1.6 billion over 7 years, 
Clean Sky is expected to lead the earlier introduction of new, radically greener Air 
Transport products.  

The  following  text  provides  a  presentation  of  the  organisation  and  current 
state  of  play  of  the  initiative  as  well  as  an  overview  of  the  flagship  technologies 
developed within the programme, each one of those leading to five observations on 
the promising approach of research and innovation promoted by Clean Sky. 

Keywords. ACARE, aeronautics, all electric aircraft, Clean Sky, composites, full-
scale demonstrators, emission reduction, Joint Technology Initiative, Joint Under-
taking,  flight  path  optimisation,  FP7,  innovation,  laminarity,  open  rotor,  research 
and technology, Technology Readiness Level 

1. Introduction 

“Clean Sky”: the designation clearly sets the tone.  

We are talking of aeronautical technologies designed to reduce the environmental 

footprint of future aircraft in terms of CO2, noise, NOX and life cycle effects.  

2. The Organisation of the Clean Sky JTI 

Born out of the ACARE (Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research in Europe) Stra-
tegic Research Agenda, Clean Sky is a new kind of initiative (Fig. 1). 

As a “Joint Technological Initiative”, it hinges on a public-private partnership as-
sociating the European Commission and just about the entire civil aircraft industry of 
Europe.  In  the  course  of  a  ten  year  period  (2008–2017),  it  aims  to  deliver  integrated 
demonstrators with a high TRL (Technology Readiness Level). 

The total cost of the programme is 1.6 billion euros, making it one of two or three 

of the largest research programmes ever financed by the European Union in any field. 

In addition to direct benefits to European citizens, the reduction of CO2 emissions 
and noise also provides a federating objective on a technological level. Efforts will be 
made  in  the  areas  of  aerodynamics,  mass,  propulsion  efficiency,  flight path optimisa-
tion, etc.  

76

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – The Clean Sky JTI

Figure 1. Organisation of the Clean Sky JTI. 

Figure 2. ITD Leaders of the Clean Sky JTI. 

2.1. The ITD Leaders 

The programme is organized into 6 Integrated Technology Demonstrators (ITD), tech-
nological platforms grouping together coherent research areas and the interested play-
ers (Fig. 2). 

 
E. Dautriat / Clean Sky: Bringing Sustainable Air Transport Closer

77

Each one is directed by a tandem of industrialists. Three of them concern aircraft 

directly: 

•  Smart Fixed-Winged Aircraft, for commercial aircraft (Airbus and Saab); 
•  Green Regional Aircraft (Alenia and EADS-CASA); 
•  Green Rotorcraft (Eurocopter and AgustaWestland); 

with three further transverse topics: 

•  Sustainable and Green Engines (Rolls-Royce and Safran); 
•  Systems  for  Green  Operations  (mission  and  flight  path  management,  energy 

management with Thales and Liebherr); 
•  Eco-Design (Dassault and Fraunhofer). 

The  whole  is  topped  by  a  “Technology  Evaluator”,  a  set  of  models  intended  to 
identify  environmental  benefits  on  a  level  of  an  individual  mission,  an  airport  or  the 
entire world fleet. This Evaluator is directed by Thales and the DLR – German Aero-
space Center. 

2.2. Associates and Partners 

Around this circle of ITD leaders is a wider circle of associates: Over 70 other indu-
strialists, research centres, SMEs (Small & Medium Enterprise) and universities, com-
mitted like the leaders for the whole duration of the programme. These include organi-
sations as diverse as Zodiac, MTU, Onera, Ruag, the Universities of Milan and Cran-
field or the Romanian INCAS. 

Leaders,  associates  and  the  European  Commission  constitute  the  members  of  the 
Clean Sky Joint Undertaking, or J.U., a peculiar legal creature whose unique mission is 
to implement the Technological Initiative of the same name. They are represented by a 
governing board, which acts as both the management committee of the programme and 
the board of directors of the J.U.  

The essence of the public-private partnership lies in the joint taking of strategic de-
cisions.  Of  course,  shared  decision  making  also  implies  shared  funding.  Funds  are 
provided  half  by  the  Commission  –  from  the  FP7  (Framework  Programme  for  
research – Euro funding and industry co-funding) budget – and half by industry. (NB: 
The term “industry” is a simplification. It includes research centres and other public 
organisations sharing the same financing terms). 

A third circle exists, of crucial technological and political importance: The “Part-
ners”. These are selected by means of regular (more or less quarterly) calls for propos-
als  (CfPs).  They  must  meet  precise  technical  specifications  stemming  from  the  re-
quirements of the demonstrators.  

In March 2011, after seven calls for proposals and the related evaluation processes 
which  are  carried  out  according  to  European  Commission  rules,  it  appears  that  the 
SMEs are representing about 40% of the winners. A total of almost 400 identified par-
ticipants  (including  the  Members)  is being reached:  Clean  Sky  is gradually  involving 
not only the major aeronautics players, but also a significant number of newcomers. 

As  regards  governance,  the  highest  authority  is  wielded  by  the  governing  board 
while the management of the programme is entrusted to the Executive Director of this 
Joint  Undertaking  and  his  twenty-member  team.  The  JU  issues  contracts  to  members 
and partners and ensures proper execution of activities; the Executive Director is direct-
ly responsible to the European Parliament. 

 
 
 
 
78

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – The Clean Sky JTI

Figure 3. Cross-sectional drawing of the Snecma Counter Rotating Open Rotor. 

3.  The Flagship Projects: Paving the Way 

It  would  be  tedious  to  cite  the  hundred  or  so  key  technologies  and  30  demonstrator 
projects included in the six ITDs. A few examples will suffice in order to make some 
general observations. 

3.1. Open Rotor 

Open Rotor (Fig. 3) is the weightiest project, to the extent that Clean Sky finances two 
parallel projects: one by Rolls-Royce, the other by Snecma, both with geared counter-
rotating pusher propulsors.  

In  terms  of  CO2  benefit,  Open  Rotor  is  very  promising  with  approximately  30% 
reduction in engine specific fuel consumption with respect to a Year 2000 reference, a 
little  less  once  installed  because  of  weight  penalties  for  example.  Problems  of  noise, 
vibration  and certification have  to  be  resolved  of  course,  but  the  latest information  is 
encouraging. One of these demonstrators will be bench tested in 2015, and subsequent-
ly flight tested on an Airbus A340-600.  

This concept is in fact not entirely new, having already been tested in the United 
States  during  the  1980s’  surge  in  fuel  prices,  more  short-lived  than  today.  It  does 
though benefit from developments carried out in the past quarter of a century. 

First Observation 
Clean Sky aims for the medium term, the very next generation of aircraft. 

3.2. Laminarity 

Laminarity is another large-scale project, and a flight demonstration is also planned in 
2015 on an A340, with the realisation and installation of an 8 metre-long wing element 
(Fig. 4).  

For the moment it is a question of natural laminarity, which makes manufacturing 
aspects all the more essential, as well as the verification of the robustness of this lami-
narity along time. 

Like Open Rotor, laminarity is a very promising technology that will be relevant 

for future aircraft generations that could enter the market around the horizon 2025.  

 
E. Dautriat / Clean Sky: Bringing Sustainable Air Transport Closer

79

Figure 4. BLADE – Major laminar flow demonstration. 

Clean  Sky  provides  the  platform  and  timeframe,  making  the  large  required  tech-

nological steps at the right time. 

Second Observation 
Clean Sky, by definition, is related to industrial strategies.  
It aims to prepare, from the viewpoint of environmental technologies, future gen-
erations  of  planes  and  rotorcraft.  This  provides  an  essential  guarantee  –  disregarding 
unforeseen factors which are always possible in research – that public expenditure will 
not be frittered away on superb but inapplicable technologies. It is also the objective of 
shared governance. 

3.3. Flight Path Optimisation 

Flight path optimisation is another effective means to reduce both CO2 emissions and 
noise.  In  addition  to  the  SESAR  (Single  European  Sky  ATM  Research)  programme, 
another J.U. comprising the technical side of the European Single Sky initiative, which 
will  optimize  air  traffic  and  achieve  environmental  benefits  by  avoiding  fuel  waste, 
Clean Sky is also looking into cockpit technologies which will enable real time optimi-
sation of an individual mission. 

Third Observation 
SESAR is interested in traffic, Clean Sky with the vehicle. The two programmes 

are partially linked and subsequently coordinated. 

3.4. Composites 

Research  concerning  composite  materials  (and  therefore  weight)  is  carried  out  within 
the framework of regional aircraft (Fig. 5). 

 
 
80

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – The Clean Sky JTI

Figure 5. Next Generation Regional Aircraft with composite materials. 

Some  examples  include  carbon  nanotubes  in  order  to  improve  conductivity  and 

shear strength, and multi-layer, multifunction materials.  

Admittedly, Clean Sky is far from being the only party involved in research activi-

ties on composites. For large aircraft, it is carried out in other contexts. 

Fourth Observation 
Clean Sky is not an island; on the contrary, it has many partners, many connections 
with the collaborative research in FP7 or national programmes; better still, Clean Sky 
aims to have some leverage on the latter.  

3.5. Towards All Electric Aircraft 

Business aircraft, regional aircraft and helicopters coordinate part of their “all electric” 
activities  since  “all  electric”  or  “almost  all”,  is  easier  to  achieve  in  these  sectors  (for 
reasons, in particular, of dissipated power) than for large aircraft, although the latter are 
not absent (Fig. 6). 

Corresponding architectures will all be tested on a “Copper Bird” belonging to the 

“Eco-Design” ITD. 

Fifth Observation 
Clean Sky is a coordinated programme; with many inter actions between the dif-

ferent ITDs, and not a simple juxtaposition of interests. 

This, together with the global nature of the technology evaluator, demands a “sys-

tems” approach which had not been a feature of European programmes until now. 

4. Conclusion 

Clean Sky being an aeronautical enterprise, one might say that it has now reached full 
cruising  speed,  after  a  delayed  take-off.  Initial  hurdles  have  been  overcome  and  the 
necessary budgetary flexibility and operational effectiveness achieved. 

 
E. Dautriat / Clean Sky: Bringing Sustainable Air Transport Closer

81

Figure 6. Potential optimised architecture. 

Later, it will be up to the market to put these technologies into operation. The first 
intermediate  achievements  are  emerging:  Partial  tests  in  flight,  production  of  innova-
tive parts, etc. 

These parts of the puzzle will begin to be assembled towards 2013, when the larg-
est  demonstrators  start  to  turn  over.  In  the  meantime,  the  environmental  benefits  are 
being secured. 

Clean Sky has proven to be a very essential instrument in driving substantial tech-

nology advancement for the future of aeronautics. 

About the author 

Eric DAUTRIAT 
Executive Director of the Clean Sky Joint Undertaking 
Clean Sky Joint Undertaking – Av. de la Toison d’Or 56–60  
4th floor - B-1060 Brussels 
Tel: +32 – (0)2 221.81.52 
Fax: +32-(0)2 221 81 50 
eric.dautriat@cleansky.eu 
http://www.cleansky.eu/ 

82

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-82

Aerodynamic Technologies for More 
Effective, Environmentally Friendly Air 
Transport System: The KATnet Strategy 

Adel ABBAS, Geza SCHRAUF and Eusebio VALERO 

Abstract.  Most  of  the  requirements  fixed  by  the  ACARE  Vision  2020  for  civil 
aircraft  operations  are  conditioned  by  the  improvement  of  aircraft  aerodynamic 
performance, which necessitates using technologies able to achieve a more effec-
tive, environmentally friendly air transport system. The European coordination ac-
tion  so-called  KATnet  has  identified  and  assessed  key  aerodynamic  technologies 
that offer solutions to take up the challenges of this Vision 2020. These technolo-
gies are highlighted here below. 

Keywords. Aerodynamics, swept wing, laminar flow, flow control, turbulent skin 
friction, drag reduction 

1. Introduction 

The increasing environmental awareness of European society has always been present 
within  the  aeronautical  community  and  has  had  a  strong  influence  on  determining  its 
perceptions of how future aircraft should be. In line with this, the ACARE Vision for 
2020 compiled by a group of Renowned Personalities in the aeronautical field, has pro-
posed a clear set of requirements for civil transport aircraft operation in order to reach 
the following specific goals: 

•  Five-fold reduction in accidents; 
•  Halving perceived aircraft noise; 
• 
• 
•  Air traffic system capable of handling 16 million flights a year; 
• 

50% cut in CO2 emissions per passenger-km; 
80% cut in NOX emissions; 

99 % of all flights within 15 minutes of timetable. 

Most of these goals are directly related to the improvement of aircraft aerodynamic 
performance by employing technologies to achieve a more effective, environmentally 
friendly air transport system. In this context the European Coordination Action KATnet 
I  and II (Key  Aerodynamic  Technologies for Aircraft  Performance  Improvement), fi-
nanced  by  the  European  Commission  was  conceived.  The  main  objective  of  KATnet 
was to support the global strategic approach of ACARE. This has been attained by the 
development  of  a  common  RTD  strategy  for  identified  key  technology  areas,  and  by 
providing a communication platform for all aircraft disciplines related directly or indi-
rectly with aircraft performance improvement. This platform was realized by Internet, 
workshops  and  a  conference  on  the  subject.  KATnet  has  identified  and  assessed  key 

 
 
A. Abbas et al. / Aerodynamic Technologies

83

Figure 1. Forward swept wing configuration investigated in NACRE. 

aerodynamic technologies that offer the potential for the challenges of the Vision 2020 
to be met and has investigated relevant implementation strategies.  

These  technologies  can  be  categorised  into  two  different  groups.  First,  technolo-
gies aimed to reduce aircraft vortex (or induced) drag, targeting aircraft configuration. 
Second, technologies for viscous drag reduction (mainly skin friction) and the elimina-
tion  of  flow  separation  through  the  application  of  passive  and  active  “flow  control” 
technologies. These technologies are highlighted in the following sections. 

2. Aircraft Configuration Technologies 

Pursuing a high aspect ratio wing solution for the aircraft or adopting a wing tip device 
if  the  aircraft  is  span  limited  can  reduce  vortex  drag  at  a  given  lift  coefficient.  The 
Aerodynamics of high aspect ratio wings for ‘Proactive Green’ wings has been exten-
sively  investigated  in  several  projects.  Further  multidisciplinary  work  at  an  aircraft 
concept level is required and this was incorporated within the FP6 NACRE (New Air-
craft  Concept  Research)  project.  Conventional  wingtip  devices  are  considered  mature 
and Large Winglets were investigated in the FP6 AWIATOR project. Exploratory re-
search into novel wing tip treatments was studied in the FP5 project M-DAW, resulting 
in  a  successful  test  in  the  European  Transonic  Wind  tunnel  (ETW)  of  the  selected 
wingtip  concept.  The  outcomes  of  these  activities  highlight  the  need  for  further  re-
search to address multidisciplinary, aero-elastic and structure aspects of their design. 

The  forward  swept  wing  configuration  (Fig.  1)  offers  many  advantages  with  re-

spect to Natural Laminar Flow (NLF) technology [4]. 

The lower leading edge sweep for same 50% chord line sweep yields to less cross-
flow instabilities and allows a larger NLF area to be obtained (or higher cruise Mach 
number  to  be  chosen).  In  addition,  favourable  stall  behaviour  and  less  wave  drag  are 
expected.  The  foreseen  drawbacks  are  a  larger  trailing  edge  sweep  angle  which  can 
strengthen trailing edge separation problems in the inner wing area and a tendency for 
static structural divergence. 

3. Drag Reduction Technologies 

Significant research experience in drag reduction technologies has been gained over the 
past years supported by a dedicated EU programme [5]. 

Several drag reduction concepts have been investigated with emphasis on laminar 
flow  technologies  either  natural  or  hybrid  laminar  flow  control.  A  net  fuel  saving  of 

84

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

Figure 2. ETW test carried out to calibrate transition tools (TELFONA project). 

about  10%  could  be  achieved  by  the  laminarisation  of  flow  over  the  wing,  tails  and 
nacelles. 

3.1. Natural Laminar Flow (NLF) 

The European research project TELFONA (Testing for Laminar Flow on New Aircraft, 
[7]) investigated design challenges for Natural Laminar Flow wings. The objective of 
the  TELFONA  project  was  to develop  the tools required to  design  and test  a  Natural 
Laminar  Flow  wing,  including  those required for  in-flight  performance  determination 
(Fig. 2).  

Laminar flow airfoils have also been designed for a very light jet business aircraft 
in the framework of the EC-Project CESAR (Cost Effective Small Aircraft). The key 
factor has been determined to be the choice of the pressure distribution which has to be 
designed to achieve a good compromise between cross-flow and Tollmien-Schlichting 
instabilities. 

Recently,  the  NLF  concept  has  been  targeted  at  maturing  technology  for  nacelle 
applications. On a classic nacelle, the panel junctions cause laminar to turbulent transi-
tion. It has been determined that it is necessary to move these junctions (between the 
nose cowl lip and the external panel, the nose cowl and the fan cowl and all access pan-
els) further downstream. Bombardier and QinetiQ have designed a laminar flow nacelle 
which allows a laminar flow extent of about 30% giving rise to drag reductions of 4 to 
7 drag counts depending on the reference configuration. 

3.2. Hybrid Laminar Flow (HLF) 

Extensive research has been undertaken both at a national and European level to mature 
Hybrid Laminar Flow by suction. A number of successful demonstrations in wind tun-
nels  and  flight  have  been  carried  out.  The  technological  challenges  are  now  largely 
non-aerodynamic  –  dealing  with  the  integration  of  the  complex  system  solutions  into 
the wing, nacelle, fin and horizontal tail primary structures. 

Recently,  NLF/HLFC  (HLFC:  Hybrid  Laminar  Flow  Control)  has  been  investi-
gated for a supersonic business jet in the EC HISAC (Environmentally Friendly High 
Speed Aircraft) project. The main results showed that Natural Laminar Flow should be 
achievable  on  the  outboard  wing  while  suction  and  the  use  of  anti-contamination  de-
vices are needed to maintain laminar flow on inboard wing (Fig. 3). A 50% chord up-
per surface transition location and a 30% viscous drag reduction is potentially achiev-
able. 

A. Abbas et al. / Aerodynamic Technologies

85

Figure 3. Applications of NLF & HLFC concept on a supersonic test (HISAC project). 

In  the  field  of  supersonic  aircraft,  the  EC  SUPERTRAC  project  investigated  the 
possibility  of  reducing  skin  friction  drag  on  wings  by  transition  control.  Wind  tunnel 
test results demonstrated a successful application of suction in supersonic flow using a 
sintered  plate  with  high  porosity  (Reynolds  number  at  the  transition  approximately 
5.106). A supersonic wing designed with an optimisation process exhibits a drag reduc-
tion of 6%, compared to a fully turbulent configuration, through the use of suction and 
an anti-contamination device. 

3.3. Alternative Laminar Flow Technology 

Alternative methods for promoting laminar flow are being considered by the research 
community.  These  may  become  more  attractive  due  to  advances  in  micro  and  nano-
machining  and  electro-mechanical  manufacture.  Technologies  identified  include  the 
application of distributed roughness to delay cross-flow instabilities and the active con-
trol of  Tollmien-Schlichting  instabilities  through  the  application  of  mass-less jets  and 
surface  actuation.  Such  technologies  may  offer  lighter  weight  solutions  than  conven-
tional hybrid laminar flow systems. More research is required to understand the viabil-
ity of such approaches both in terms of the fundamental flow physics and the resultant 
control system requirements. 

3.4. Turbulent Skin Friction Reduction 

Even if the application of laminar flow technology is successful, a significant propor-
tion of turbulent skin friction drag will still be present on the airframe, mainly on the 
fuselage.  Riblet  technology  is  considered  an  aerodynamically  mature  technology  that 
could  offer  modest  reductions  (7%  skin  friction  drag  reduction)  in  aircraft  turbulent 
drag.  However,  considerable  effort  must  be  applied  to  improve  manufacturing  tech-
nologies and material properties if these are to be successfully deployed on an aircraft 
without an adverse impact on maintenance.  

 
86

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

Another example is the use of dimples technology, currently investigated by DLR. 
This  passive  treatment  typically  gives  small  levels  of  drag  reduction  and  may  not  be 
attractive due to the costs associated with their implementation. 

4. Separation Control Technologies 

Numerous research activities on the control of flow separation are being undertaken in 
USA  and  in  Europe,  including  many  wind  tunnel  demonstrations  [2,6].  This  research 
allows the assessment of the effectiveness of various actuators and various concepts of 
actuation, as well as the optimal parameters of such devices (geometry, size, orientation, 
flow rate, frequency). A particular problem with this approach is that the use of small-
scale wind tunnel models often necessitates the use of smaller actuators than would be 
needed  in  flight  demonstrations.  Moreover,  for  active  pulsed  actuators,  actuation  fre-
quencies are usually an order of magnitude higher for wind tunnel demonstrations than 
for  flight  test.  In  the  case  of  pneumatic  actuators  wind  tunnel  demonstrations  have 
shown that actuator blowing jet velocities must be higher than the local external flow 
velocity (by a factor of about 1.5 or 2). Non-dimensional excitation frequencies of the 
order of 1, lead to dimensional frequencies around 1kHz for wind tunnel model demon-
strations. 

Typically, flow separation control technologies can be classified as: passive, active 
and reactive. Passive systems do not require a power input for their operation, but have 
in  general  a  drag  penalty  during  cruise  operation.  Vortex  generators  (VG)  or  sub-
boundary  layer  vortex  generators  (SBVG)  are  among  these.  Active  system  requires 
power input for actuation. Examples of these include pulsing fluidic vortex generators, 
(pneumatic), and synthetic jets (electrical-mechanical electromagnetic or plasma actua-
tors). Reactive systems, in addition to being powered require some kind of intelligence 
and actuate according the information supplied from a sensor system. 

4.1. Passive Flow Control Devices 

Passive VGs are small aspect ratio airfoils mounted normal to the lifting surfaces ahead 
of the flow separation point that energise the boundary layer to prevent separation. The 
only  difference  with  SBVG  is  that  the  latter  are  submerged  in  the  boundary  layer  to 
reduce the drag penalty.  

A typical application of VG/SBVGs for buffet control was performed experimen-
tally in the DERA 8’ high speed wind tunnel by QinetiQ. Other applications such as: 
improving the attachment of flows in the Pylon-wing interference or in internal flow in 
an S-duct engine air-intake configuration (Fig. 4) have been studied by Onera and nu-
merically  by  KTH  (Kungliga  Tekniska  Högskolan  –  Royal  Institute  of  Technology, 
Sweden). 

4.2. Active Flow Control Devices 

Blowing air through slots adds energy to the boundary layer, energising the flow near 
the wall enabling it to overcome adverse pressure gradients. Jet entrainment has been 
shown to enhance the lift generated by airfoils; through exploitation of the Coanda ef-
fect.  This  mechanism  allows  a  tangential  surface  jet  sheet  to  remain  attached  even  if 
large curvature effects are present. Both steady and unsteady (vortex generator) blow-

A. Abbas et al. / Aerodynamic Technologies

87

Figure 4. Flow control application to S-duct engine air-intake. 

Figure 5. Different configurations to be studied in European Project AVERT. 

ing technologies have been proven experimentally, with more or less success, to con-
trol  boundary  layer  separation  [1,3].  These  experiments  have  shown  that  various  pa-
rameters  must be managed and calibrated, the most important being blowing velocity 
VJ and excitation frequency F in the unsteady case. 

Examples of these devices have been investigated on a slat-less/flap configuration. 
The reduced complexity of this high-lift system allows for a weight saving estimated to 
be  of  the  order  of  200kg  for  a  typical  short  range  150  seat  aircraft.  The  analysis  has 
been performed at M = 0.153 and a jet velocity of VJ = 340 m/s, where a CLmax as 
high as 3.5 at angles of attack of 25º has been obtained compared to an original value 
of 2.5. 

The  EC  AVERT  project  investigated  many  different possibilities  for  the  applica-
tion of fluidic/synthetic jets and vortex generators for a standard high-lift configuration 
having a drooped nose both numerically and experimentally (Fig. 5). 

5. Conclusions 

This  report  gives  an  overview  of  key  aerodynamic  technologies  identified  by  the 
KATNet network and shows how they are aligned with the European aerospace 2020 
vision goals. It is perhaps not surprising that the biggest impact aerodynamics can po-
tentially make is in the area of the environment – as this is directly influenced by prod-
uct performance at both high and low speed.  

A number of relatively low maturity technologies have been identified which could 
provide a further step in the direction of the 2020 vision goals and if successful could 
help achieve the 2020 challenges. These technologies mostly fall into the area of flow 
control of which 3 categories can be defined. Delay in laminar to turbulent transition – 
Reduction in turbulent skin friction – Flow separation control. 

 
88

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

It is apparent that an important research plan is needed if the 2020 vision goals are 
to be achieved. Effort is needed not only in the area of aircraft configuration and com-
ponent optimisation but also in fundamental research into the flow physics of drag gen-
eration and innovative mechanisms of flow control. 

References 

[1]  D.  Greenblatt  and  I.J.  Wygnanski,  The  control  of  flow  separation  by  periodic  excitation,  Progress  in 

Aerospace Science, Volume 36, 2000. 

[2]  V. Kilbens and W. Bower, “An Overview of Active Flow Control Applications at the Boeing Company”, 

AIAA 2004-2624. 

[3]  D.C. McCormick, “Boundary Layer Separation Control with Directed Synthetic Jets”, AIAA 2005-519. 
[4]  G. Redeker and G. Wichmann, “Forward Sweep – A Favorable Concept for a Laminar Flow Wing”, J. of 

Aircraft, Volume 28(2), 1991. 

[5]  J. Reneaux, Overview on drag reduction technologies for civil transport aircraft, ECCOMAS 2004. 
[6]  W. Sellers, G. Jones and M. Moore, “Flow Control Research at NASA Langley in Support of High Lift 

Augmentation”, AIAA 2002-6006. 

[7]  T. Streit et al., The TELFONA Pathfinder Model, a Second Look, V European Conference on Computa-

tional Fluid Dynamics ECCOMAS CFD, 2010. 

About the Authors 

Adel Abbas is Head of Aerodynamics R&T, Flight Physics, Airbus Operations, 28906 Getafe (Madrid) 
Tel.: +34 916241445 
Adel.abbas@airbus.com 

Geza Schrauf is Engineer, Aerodynamics R&T, Flight Physics, at Airbus Bremen 
Tel.: +49 4215383232 
Geza.schrauf@airbus.com 

Eusebio Valero is Professor of Applied Mathematics Department, Universidad Politécnica of Madrid 
Tel.: +34 913366326 
Eusebio.valero@upm.es 

 
 
Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-89

89

NODESIM–CFD: Non-Deterministic 
Simulation for CFD Based Design 
Metho logies 
do

Charles HIRSCH 

Abstract.  As  of  today,  analysis  and  design  methods  in  aeronautical  industry  are 
based on simulations with a unique set of input data and model variables. But real 
operating  conditions  are  a  superposition  of  numerous  uncertainties  under  which 
the industrial products operate, the presence of which is a major source of risk in 
the  design  decision  process.  The  European  project  “NODESIM-CFD”  (Non  De-
terministic  Simulation  for  CFD  Based  Design  Methodologies)  –  www.nodesim. 
eu – aims at providing tools able to evaluate and quantify uncertainties in aerody-
namic and thermal performance predictions, thus contributing to support the goals 
of enhanced design confidence, risk reduction and improved safety. 

Keywords. Non-deterministic simulation, CFD, Monte-Carlo method, Polynomial 
Chaos method 

1. Introduction 

Presently, the analysis and design methods employed by the aeronautical industry, par-
ticularly CFD simulation tools and their multidisciplinary extensions for fluid-structure, 
fluid-thermal or aero-acoustics applications, rely heavily on the concept of determinis-
tic simulation, which for a unique set of input data and model variables predicts single 
valued output quantities. Nevertheless, the reality shows that the operating conditions 
are a superposition of numerous uncertainties under which the industrial products are 
functioning,  their  presence  being  a  major  source  of  risk  in  the  design  decision  proc-
esses. Therefore, a new paradigm for CFD based virtual prototyping emerged, aiming 
to  incorporate  these  uncertainties  in  the  simulation  process.  This  is  the  non-
deterministic  simulation,  which  predicts  for  an  output  quantity  an  entire  domain  of 
variation. In what follows, the outcomes of the efforts of the NODESIM-CFD consor-
tium  related  to  the  development  of  non-deterministic  methodologies  that  have  been 
incorporated in software tools for the identification and quantification of uncertainties 
in  industrial  oriented  applications  are  summarized.  In  addition  the  “lessons”  learned 
and directions to be pursued in order to achieve industrial readiness of the developed 
methodologies are sketched. 

2. NODESIM-CFD’s Objectives and Achievements 

17  teams  from  the  aeronautical  and  power  generation  fields,  research  establishments 
and universities joined their efforts and resources in the European project NODESIM-

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

CFD in order to address the following topic: accounting for operational and geometri-
cal  uncertainties  in  the  CFD  simulation  tools.  Consequently,  their  efforts  have  been 
focused on the following measurable scientific and technological objectives: identifica-
tion  and  quantification  of  the  uncertainty  parameters;  development  of  several  non-
deterministic  methodologies;  application  of  these  methodologies  to  subsystems  and 
systems; introduction of the non-deterministic simulations into the design and decision 
process; stimulate the scientific co-operation and transfer of knowledge within the con-
sortium. 

Uncertainties  associated  to  a  wide  variety  of  aeronautical  applications  covering 
domains  of  application  as  engine  aerodynamics,  wing  aerodynamics,  conjugate  heat 
transfer and fluid-structure interactions have been identified and sorted in three classes: 
operational, geometrical and “numerical” uncertainties. Among the operational ones we 
are mentioning the Mach number, angle of incidence, Reynolds number while for the 
geometrical ones the expert opinion pointed to the manufacturing issues, dynamic dis-
tortion  or  degrading  factors  [3].  “Numerical”  uncertainties  refer,  in  a  generic  way,  to 
the physical modeling uncertainties and the numerical sensitivities related to the impo-
sition of boundary conditions and selection of various numerical parameters governing 
the computation [2,3]. We underline that in NODESIM-CFD project a clear distinction 
between  the  concepts  of  uncertainty  and  error  has  been  accepted  in  the  spirit  of  [7]. 
Also, the problem of assigning a probabilistic description to the random variables asso-
ciated with each identified uncertainties has been addressed. In this respect, two soft-
ware tools have been available in consortium: the first one being able to define a beta 
probability  density  function  (PDF)  starting  from  an  expert  opinion  expressed  as  the 
maximum, minimum and the most likely value of the uncertain parameter and the sec-
ond one being able to fit a textbook-PDF over an experimental histogram of the uncer-
tainty. 

Regarding  the  development  of  non-deterministic  methodologies  consortium  fo-
cused  on  the  most  promising  ones  such  as  perturbation  techniques  and  adjoint  based 
methods, efficient Monte Carlo methods and Polynomial Chaos methods (PCMs). The 
developed methods have been able to predict ranges of variation, marked by computed 
“error” bars, for the output quantities of interest. One of the most important findings, 
with  consequences  for  the  validation  process,  has  been  that  there  are  differences  be-
tween the deterministic predictions obtained for the imposed mean values of the con-
sidered uncertainty and the mean values of the non-deterministic simulations (Fig. 1). 

The next objective  consisted  of validating the developed non-deterministic  meth-
odologies  by  applying  them  in  test  cases,  ranging  as  level  of  complexity,  from  aca-
demic  to  industrial  ones.  Several  teams  incorporated  few  of  these  methodologies  in 
their optimization environments in order to test their potential in achieving robust de-
signs  for  airfoils  and  blades.  The  line  of  actions  of  the  validation  process  intersected 
with that associated to the last objective dedicated to the transfer of knowledge, which 
looked for offering the developers’ support to the industrial “end-user” partners. With 
respect to the external dissemination, the most important action was the organization of 
the “NODESIM-CFD Workshop on Quantification of CFD uncertainties” (http://www. 
nodesim.eu/workshop.html).  To  our  knowledge  this  was  the  first  “non-deterministic” 
workshop having as one of the objectives the assessment of non-deterministic method-
ologies on test cases with imposed uncertainties. 

 
C. Hirsch / NODESIM–CFD: Non-Deterministic Simulation for CFD Based Design Methodologies

91

Figure  1.  Pressure  ratio  vs.  mass  flow  performance  map  for  the  NASA  Rotor  37;  operational  uncertainty
imposed  on  the  outlet  static  pressure;  square  marker  –  2nd  order  solution  obtained  with  a  Non-Intrusive 
Probabilistic Collocation method; diamond marker – deterministic solution; (the “error” bars represent varia-
tions in [–σ/2,+σ/2]; σ = standard deviation). 

3. Lessons Learned and Findings 

Some of the major findings of the NODESIM-CFD project are summarized hereafter: 

•  Considering  the  uncertainties  in  the  simulation  process  asks,  in  our  opinion, 
grounding  the  validation  process  on  non-deterministic  results,  while  the  ex-
perimentalists should be asked providing measured data of the intrinsic uncer-
tainties of their equipment; 

•  The precise form of the PDF of the input uncertainties has a strong effect on 
the predictions of the standard deviation and mean values for the PDF of the 
output variables; 

•  Promising non-deterministic methodologies have been demonstrated; 
•  The effects of numerical ‘noise’ of the CFD codes and their convergence be-
haviour on the output uncertainty predictions have been identified, but further 
efforts are needed for understanding and controlling these effects; 

•  The  presence  of  a  discontinuity  in  the  response  of  the  investigated  system 

poses difficulties in computing accurately a non-deterministic solution; 

•  The general treatment of geometrical uncertainties has not been addressed to a 

sufficient level; 

•  Devising  robust  formulation  of  the  objective/constraint  functions  for  the  ro-
bust design  is still  largely  an  open question,  as  it  can  affect  significantly  the 
design outcome; 

•  All the evidence gained relies on test problems with very few uncertainties. 

4. Towards Industrial Readiness 

In order to use the current uncertainty quantification (UQ) methods in real life applica-
tions, technology readiness levels (TRL) of 5–6 should be reached. In addition to the  

 
 
 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

known  challenges  in  UQ  community,  as  the  curse  of  dimensionality  (i.e.,  handling 
large number of uncertainties), the treatment of geometrical uncertainties and the quan-
tification  of  the  input  uncertainties  from  scarce  experimental  data,  the  following  par-
ticular ones in the realm of CFD have been pinned down in a recent literature survey 
performed by us: the discontinuous stochastic responses due to the presence of shock 
waves; the influence of the convergence level of the flow solver and various numerical 
sensitivities on the non-deterministic predictions and the robust formulation of the ob-
jectives and constraints in the robust design and optimisation. 

The efficient management of the curse of dimensionality seems to indicate as the 
most promising methods those based on sensitivity analysis with adjoined formulation 
and automatic differentiation, while for the Monte-Carlo methods improvements of the 
sampling techniques are expected [8]. Regarding the non-intrusive PCMs the usage of 
the adaptive sparse grids in the probabilistic space appears as an interesting solution [4]. 
The  treatment  of  the  geometrical  uncertainties  is  extremely  challenging  for  intrusive 
PCMs where these are modeled as random fields and must be decomposed in a collec-
tion of random variables. One option is to use the Principal Component Analysis [5]. 
For the quantification of input uncertainties from scarce experimental data, techniques 
developed  in  the  realm  of  computational  mechanics  intend  solving  inverse  problems 
employing  Polynomial  Chaos  expansions  [1]  or  Bayesian  inference  approach  [6]  de-
serve  special  attention.  The  investigations  on  the  influence  of  the  convergence  level 
and  numerical  sensitivities  are  to  be  driven  by  the  research  on  the  adaptive  sampling 
techniques in the stochastic space and CFD-mesh adaptation. Adding adaptive features 
to  Monte-Carlo  methods  and  PCMs  is  suggested  as  being  the  path  to  be  followed  in 
handling  the  effects  of  the  discontinuities  in  system’s  response  caused  by  the  shock 
waves. 

Finally, validation has to be accompanied by an effort directed to the building of 
UQ-databases containing dedicated industrial computational challenges with clear tar-
get  performances  which  must  be  tackled  by  the  current  available  non-deterministic 
methodologies. 

References 

[1]  M. Arnst, R. Ghanem, and C. Soize, Identification of Bayesian posteriors for coefficients of chaos expan-

sions, Journal of Computational Physics, 229 (9), 3134–3154. 

[2]  V. Couaillier and M. Delbos, Accurate Boundary Conditions with classical and higher order CFD meth-
ods,  NATO  RTO-AVT-147  Symposium  on  “Computational  Uncertainty  in  Military  Vehicle  Design”,  
3–6th December 2007, Athens, Greece, Paper 29. 

[3]  T.P. Evans, P. Tattersall, and J.J. Doherty, Identification and quantification of uncertainty sources in air-
craft  related  CFD  computations  –  An  industrial  perspective,  NATO  RTO-AVT-147  Symposium  on 
“Computational  Uncertainty  in  Military  Vehicle  Design”,  3–6th  December  2007,  Athens,  Greece,  
Paper 6. 

[4]  B. Ganapathysubramanian and N. Zabaras, Sparse grid collocation schemes for stochastic natural convec-

tion problems, Journal of Computational Physics, 225, 652–685. 

[5]  V. Garzon, Probabilistic Aerothermal Design of Compressor Airfoils, PhD Thesis, Massachusetts Insti-

tute of Technology, 2003. 

[6]  Y.M. Marzouk and H.N. Najm, Dimensionality reduction and polynomial chaos acceleration of Bayesian 

inference in inverse problems, Journal of Computational Physics, 228, 1862–1902. 

 
 
 
C. Hirsch / NODESIM–CFD: Non-Deterministic Simulation for CFD Based Design Methodologies

93

[7]  W.L.  Oberkampf,  T.G.  Truncano,  and  C.  Hirsch,  Verification,  validation,  and  predictive  capability  in 

computational science and physics, Applied Mechanics Review, 57 (5), 345–384. 

[8]  J. Peter, M. Marcelet, S. Burguburu, and V. Pediroda, Comparison of surrogate models for the actual op-
timization of a 2D turbomachinery flow, In Proc. of the 7th WSEAS International Conference on Simula-
tion, Modelling and Optimization (SMO’07), ISSN: 1790-5117, ISBN: 978-960-6766-05-3, 2007, 46–51. 

About the Author 

Charles Hirsch is Prof. Emerite at Vrije Universteit of Brussels (Belgium) 
President of Numeca International S.A. 
Chaussée de la Hulpe, 189. B-1170 Brussels 
charles.hirsch@numeca.be 
www.numeca.be 

94

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-94

Morphing High Lift Structures: 
Smart Leading Edge Device and Smart 
Single Slotted Flap 

Hans Peter MONNER and Johannes RIEMENSCHNEIDER 

Abstract.  With  13  partners  from  8  countries  the  EU  project  SADE  (Smart  High 
Lift Devices for Next Generation Wings) aims at making a major step forward in 
the development and evaluation of the potential of morphing airframe technologies. 
The project contributes to the research work called for to achieve the reduction of 
carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions through new, intelligent, low-weight 
structures.  Research  into  ‘smart’  structures  and  morphing  airframes  will  open  up 
new horizons in lightweight aircraft design. 

Keywords.  Morphing,  smart  high  lift  configuration,  leading  edge  skin,  closure 
flap ribs, slotted flap 

1. Introduction – The “SADE” Project 

All aerodynamic concepts for the significant reduction of drag such as laminarisation 
require  thin,  high-aspect-ratio  wings.  However,  state-of-the-art  high-lift  systems  will 
suffer  from  the  reduced  construction  space  and  do  not  cope  with  the  requirement  for 
surface  quality  and  accuracy.  Thus,  the  SADE  project  is  looking  to  develop  suitable 
‘morphing’ high lift devices: The seamless ‘smart leading edge device’ is an indispen-
sable enabler for laminar wings and offers a great benefit for the reduction of acoustic 
emissions. The ‘smart single slotted flap’ with active camber capability permits a fur-
ther increase in lift (Fig. 1). Thanks to their ability to adapt the wing’s shape, both de-
vices also offer aerodynamic benefits for cruise flight. 

Figure 1. SADE smart high lift configurations (Source: DLR). 

H.P. Monner and J. Riemenschneider / Morphing High Lift Structures

95

Figure 2. Aeroelastic model of wind tunnel experiment with open section (Source left: FOI) and CAD model 
of WT mount (Source right: TsAGI). 

SADE  builds  on  available  promising  concepts  for  smart  structures.  The  techno-
logical realisation and optimisation of these concepts towards the special requirements 
of full-scale systems is the most essential challenge for morphing today. Another chal-
lenge results from the aeroelastic condition that the structural system is optimised for. 
Hence, a realistic full-scale section of a morphing wing will be manufactured and tested 
in  the  TsAGI  T101  wind  tunnel  for  an  investigation  of  these  effects.  Some  selected 
results of SADE will be described subsequently. 

Besides the actual research work, it is an important goal of the project to share the 
research results with the research community in Europe. That is why the consortia or-
ganised  a  dedicated  SADE  session  at  the  first  EASN  (European  Aeronautics  Science 
Network)  Workshop  on  Aero-structures  in  October  2010  in  Paris,  presenting  a  wide 
spectrum of project results including: 

•  Design strategies for high lift devices; 
•  The design of variable stiffness skins and selectively deformable structures; 
•  The aeroelastic and aerodynamic analysis of novel high lift devices. 

2. Work Related to the Wind Tunnel 

2.1. Preparation 

According  to  the  results  of  the  aerodynamic  investigations  for  loads  and  shapes  the 
structural  design  for  the  wind  tunnel  model  has  been  carried  out.  This  involved  the 
structural  design  of  the  wing  section  comprising  a  smart  leading  edge,  wing  box  and 
trailing edge flap as well as the end plates and wind tunnel mounting. Additionally, to 
ensure  safe  operation,  a  complete  aeroelastic  and  aerodynamic  design  (Fig.  2)  of  the 
wind tunnel test section was required. Flutter stability and the influence of the tunnel 
and the aspect ratio of the model with its end plates have also been investigated. 

The wind tunnel model itself will be a five meter section of a FNG (Flügel Neuer 
Generation)  wing  with  a  chord  of  3  meters  and  a  rectangular  plan  form.  It  will  be 

 
 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

a) Leading edge skin (DLR). 

c) Wing box (TsAGI). 

b) Kinematics (EADS).

     d) Closure flap ribs (PAI). 

Figure 3.

equipped with a flexible nose and a conventional flap, which can be placed into cruise, 
take off and landing positions. The wing box and the flap are conventionally manufac-
tured of metal, the skin of the nose is made of Glass Fibre Reinforced Plastic (GFRP) 
as  the  flexibility  and  strength  of  this  skin  is  crucial  for  the  success  of  such  a  gapless 
droop nose. The model will be instrumented with three chord-wise sections of pressure 
tubes and strain gauges within the morphing part of the model and the kinematic link-
ages.  It  is  planned  to  use  optical  measurements  to  evaluate  the  displacement  of  the 
leading edge under loading conditions. 

2.2. Hardware 

Currently the hardware is being manufactured (Figs 3a, b, c, d) by different partners: 
DLR  provides  the  leading  edge  skin,  EADS  IW  supplies  the  kinematics,  the  trailing 
edge with the flaps and the mounting plates are manufactured by Piaggio and the wing 
box  and  side  plates  as  well  as  the  connections  to  the  mount  of  the  wind  tunnel  are 
manufactured by TsAGI. Assembly of the different parts is an ongoing task presently 
being undertaken at EADS and later at TsAGI. 

2.3. Droop Nose Design for Wind Tunnel 

As the flaps and wing box are rather conventional in their design, the seamless smart 
leading  edge  is  designed  to  be  flexible  enough  to  be  morphed  into  the  take  off  and 

 
    
 
 
H.P. Monner and J. Riemenschneider / Morphing High Lift Structures

97

Figure 4. Smart Leading Edge design cycle (Source: DLR). 

landing shape, but strong enough to carry the aerodynamic loads into the substructure 
and to bear the strains of morphing. In order to do so, a skin design process has been 
established, which allows the tailoring of the skin thickness in a way that the displace-
ments introduced by the kinematics will morph the skin into the desired shape. Also the 
load introduction into the skin is of interest. Omega stringers were designed to distrib-
ute the load of morphing deflections into the skin, taking into account the stability and 
strength of the stringers. The difference between the aerodynamic target shape and the 
achieved shape is within tolerable limits. Besides the skin it is an important task to de-
sign the kinematics to deploy the droop nose to a position of approx. 18 degrees. The 
kinematics has to achieve the trajectories derived from structural investigations of the 
skin  with  minimum  deviations,  allow  continuous  movement  (no  raster)  and  it  has  to 
keep driving moments low for the fully retracted and fully deflected positions. Another 
requirement  is  to  ensure  that  only  one  actuator  is  required per  span  wise  station.  The 
results of the skin and kinematic design were combined and a final strength calculation 
was carried out. 

3. Materials and Structures 

A crucial part of all morphing structures are the materials and structures that allow the 
morphing on one hand but at the same time carrying of the applied loads. Several ac-
tivities within SADE deal with such materials and structures. Selected results are pre-
sented in this section. 

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

Figure 5. FMC-UD-pre-preg (Source: EADS). 

3.1. Flexible Matrix Composites 

To reduce system-complexity of a droop nose with a compliant mechanism one solu-
tion is to continuously support the skin through a system of inflatable actuation-tubes. 
This actuation concept will work pneumatically and make use of flexible matrix com-
posites (FMC). 

These  FMCs  are  a  combination  of  highly  flexible  materials  such  as  rubber  and 
very stiff continuous fibres (carbon or glass fibres). These materials enable high flexi-
bility in one direction while being very stiff in the other. Combining a tube-like geome-
try and a variable fibre-angle lay-up enables a wide range of deformation possibilities. 
A study of the possible material combinations for the manufacturing of FMCs and the 
production  methods  thereof  were  carried  out  by  EADS,  testing  rubber,  silicone  and 
thermoplastic elastomer matrices with carbon fibres using different production methods. 
One focus was the creation of a production capability for large quantities of easy-to-use 
off-the-shelf material, similar to pre-preg material for “classical” composite materials. 
Test  specimens  based  on  the  gained  knowledge  were  manufactured  and  characterised 
for their mechanical properties. 

The  results  are  twofold,  on  the  one  hand  a  technology  has  been  identified  with 
which  FMC  can  be  reliably  produced  and  on  the  other  hand  a  suitable  material-
combination  has  been  found.  The  experiments  with  the  various  production  processes 
and materials proved pultrusion and pressure moulding as the leading technologies to 
create flexible matrix composites. In particular, pultrusion enables the production of a 
constant quality of pre-preg FMCs (Fig. 5). 

For  pressure  moulding  to  become  a  viable  production  technique  a  way  has  to  be 
found to properly restrain the fibres to avoid undulations. If the fibre-placement could 
be ensured pressure moulding could still not be used to create the finished product. It is 
still necessary to first create a wrought material from which the final layup can be real-
ised. 

3.2. Variable Stiffness Skin 

Another activity within the project is dealing with tailored variable stiffness skins and 
actuation topologies as a solution to the dilemma of having a high stiffness to withstand 
aerodynamic  loading,  and  low  stiffness  to  enable  morphing.  Such  a  variable  stiffness 
skin is achieved by a spatial fibre angle and skin thickness variation. The tailored stiff-
ness  distribution  beneficially  influences  the  structural  deformation.  A  realistic  skin 

 
H.P. Monner and J. Riemenschneider / Morphing High Lift Structures

99

Figure 6. Deformed and un-deformed actuation topology (Source: TUD). 

stiffness  has  been  designed  by  TUD  while  taking  the  actuation  and  varying  aerody-
namic  loads  into  account.  In  addition  to  this  skin  optimisation  a  combined 
skin/actuation topology optimisation was carried out for the leading edge of the FNG 
wing  –  for  now  neglecting  aerodynamic  loads.  For  the  topology  optimisation  a  fixed 
region  (connection  to  the  spar)  and  the  position  of  the  actuation  load  are  given.  The 
actuation element  density  is optimised  considering  skin  strain  constraints.  The  results 
are 2D stiffness distributions over the leading edge, which indicate regions for hinges 
and levers (Fig. 6). 

Hinge  locations  are  predicted  by  the  optimiser  as  areas  with  a  reduced  stiffness. 
Such an optimisation result can be seen in the following figures. Such optimisations are 
very useful to simulate and to design next generation leading edge topology. 

4. Virtual Aircraft 

Besides the analysis of individual concepts there is an activity within SADE to estab-
lish  a  tool  chain  for  coupled  fluid-structure  analysis  in  the  range  of  medium  to  high 
fidelity.  These  analyses  include  the  execution  of  non-linear  aero-structural  analysis 
loops  and  calculation  of  the  deformed  shapes  and  stresses  under  structural  load  and 
flow parameter variations. In addition, the tool extracts aerodynamic performance data, 
such as cp, for the selected flow parameter variations. 

Starting from the structural Finite Element (FE) model, wing profile data and aero-
dynamic parameters, the tool attempts to automate the analysis process (Fig. 7). In the 
current version the 2Dimensional fluid mesh and the FE model for mesh deformation 
are generated automatically  (Fig.  8).  The  mesh deformation  model  is  the  same  as  the 
aerodynamic  mesh  but  the  elements  are  specifically  devised  ‘mesh  deformation  ele-
ments’. 

Fluid-structure  coupling  is  based  on  a  promising  novel  approach,  the  ‘common 
mesh  refinement’  method,  which  allows  for  smooth  field  transfer,  preserving  forces 
and moments. The field transfer process is integrated in the structural code in the form 
of special field transfer surface elements, which are solved together with the structural 
elements. The tool chain is now capable of carrying out droop nose deformation analy-
sis  with  aerodynamic  loads  applied.  This  is  illustrated  with  an  analysis  of  one  of  the 
wing  profiles studied  within  SADE  (DLR F15  profile  with  flaps deployed)  and  a de-
formable leading edge (Cranfield structural model) in Fig. 9. 

 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

Figure 7. Schematic view of virtual aircraft tool chain (Source: SMR – Swiss engineering and development 
company). 

Figure 8. FE model (left) and CFD model (right) (source: SMR). 

Figure 9. Coupled deformation analysis of droop nose (source: SMR). 

The  goal  of  the  analysis  is  to  calculate  deformation  and  stresses  of  the  structure 
under aerodynamic and structural loads, the actuation loads being defined by boundary 
conditions  causing  large  deformations  of  the  leading  edge  and  by  the  aerodynamic 
loads of the deformed wing profile. The tool loops automatically over discrete values 
of the angle of attack analysis parameter, producing synthesis plots such as lift coeffi-
cient against angle of attack plot. 

 
H.P. Monner and J. Riemenschneider / Morphing High Lift Structures

101

Figure  10.  System  Topology  for  the  Kinematic  Chain  Concept  (source:  RWTH  –  Rheinisch  Westfälische 
Technische Hochschule Aachen). 

5. Concept Evaluation 

To round up the project an evaluation of these concepts on an aircraft level has been 
developed. The ILR Preliminary Aircraft Design Suite was enhanced so that it can es-
timate such influences. To do that a high-lift model, based on the major system compo-
nents for the conventional reference system containing slats and single-slotted Fowler 
flaps with standard hydraulic actuation has been established (Fig. 10). 

This model has then implemented into the model for the entire conventional sys-
tems  architecture  of  a  transport  aircraft.  The  modular  implementation  allows  for  an 
easy integration of innovative systems into the overall systems architecture. The model 
allows  estimates  on  mass  and  energy  consumption  of  the  different  aircraft  systems, 
whereas  the  different  energy  systems  (hydraulics,  electrics  and  pneumatics)  are  sized 
by  their  consumers.  The  assessment  on  an  aircraft-level  becomes  possible,  since  all 
repercussions of system integration are accounted for by the model.   

The System topology for the kinematic chain concept is shown in Fig. 10. 

Selected Publications 

At the 1st EASN Association Workshop on Aero-structures in Paris the SADE consor-
tium contributed an entire session with eight presentations. The following publications 
are  just  a  small  selection  of  the  full  list  of  publications,  which  can  be  found  on  the 
SADE web site. 

–  H.P. Monner and J. Riemenschneider, “Morphing high lift structures: Smart leading edge device and smart 

single slotted flap”, Aerodays 2011, 30 March – 1st April 2011, Madrid, Spain. 

–  M. Kintscher, “Experimental Testing of a Smart Leading Edge High Lift Device for Commercial Trans-
portation Aircrafts”, 27th Congress of the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences (ICAS), 19 – 
24 September 2010, Nice, France. 

–  N. Di Matteo, S. Guo and R. Morishima, “Aeroelastic Modelling and Analysis of a Wing with Morphing 
High Lift Devices”, International Forum on Aeroelasticity and Structural Dynamics (IFASD), Paris, June 
2011-06-09. 

–  E. Anton Lammering and R. Henke, “Technology Assessment on Aircraft-Level: Modelling of Innovative 
Aircraft Systems in Conceptual Aircraft Design”, 10th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Op-
erations (ATIO) Conference, Fort Worth, Texas, Sep. 13–15, 2010. 

 
102

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

About the Authors 

Dr-Ing. Hans Peter Monner, Head of the Adaptronics Department at DLR-Braunschweig, is project Coordi-
nator of the European SADE Project 
Hans.Monner@dlr.de 
+49 531 295 23 14 

Dr-Ing. Johannes Riemennschneider is Deputy Head of the Adaptronics Department 
Johannes.Riemenschneider@dlr.de 
DLR – German Aerospace Center 
Institute of Composite Structures and Adaptive Systems  
Lilienthalplatz 7 
38108 Braunschweig (Germany) 

 
Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-103

103

Flow Control by Plasmas 
in the PLASMAERO Project 

Daniel CARUANA 

Abstract. With the continued objective of increasing aircraft performances whilst 
reducing the environmental impact, research is being carried out to find innovative 
solutions to influence air flow using simple actuators. If the aerodynamic configu-
ration of future aircraft could be modified in real time in flight, then the aircraft’s 
performance could be continually adapted to provide optimum aerodynamic char-
acteristics.  Among  the  innovative  solutions,  the  use  of  plasma  technologies  has 
shown itself to be very promising from both a performance point of view and in 
terms of the diversity in potential applications from external and internal flow con-
trol,  combustion,  enhancement  and  noise  attenuation.  The  main  advantages  of 
plasmas  devices  are  their  manufacturing  and  integration  simplicity,  low  power 
consumption, ability for real time control at high frequency and their robustness. 

Keywords.  Plasma,  PLASMAERO,  plasma  synthetic  jet,  dielectric  barrier  dis-
charge 

1. Introduction: PLASMAERO Project Identity Card, Consortium and Objectives 

PLASMAERO  is  a  European  project  of  the  Seventh  Framework  Programme,  partly 
funded by the European Commission and coordinated by ONERA. The PLASMAERO 
consortium  is  composed  of  11  organisations  from  seven  different  countries  (Arttic, 
CIRA, CNRS, Darmstadt University, EPFL, Imp, NLR, Nottingham University, Onera, 
Snecma, Southampton University). The project began on the 1st October 2009 and will 
have a three-year duration. 

PLASMAERO seeks to demonstrate how surface & spark discharge plasma actua-
tors could be used to control aircraft aerodynamic flows. This will be achieved through 
an  enhanced  understanding  of  their  physical  characteristics  and  an  in-depth  study  of 
how they may be optimised to influence the air flow properties. The project objectives 
are to: 

•  Understand, model and classify, through experimental and numerical studies, 
the  most  relevant  physical  characteristics of  surface  and  jet  plasma  actuators 
capable of influencing airflow; 

•  Perform comparative experimental tests and numerical studies of different ac-
tuator configurations to select the most promising for further development; 
•  Demonstrate  through  wind  tunnel  experimentations  the  ability  of  plasma  de-
vices to significantly better improve the aerodynamics in representative aero-
nautical airflow conditions; 

 
 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

•  Demonstrate  the  ease  of  use  and  installation  of  these  actuators  in  a  reduced 

size flight platform; 

•  Provide  exhaustive  recommendations  on  future  work  to  be  performed  to 
achieve the implementation of this technology base on next generation aircraft 
programmes. 

PLASMAERO is broken down into 4 main technical subjects each of which pos-

sesses specific technical objectives. 

2. Plasmas Devices for Aerodynamics Developed in PLASMAERO 

The possible use of plasmas to manipulate airflow was identified in the mid 1990s, but 
studies  on  flow  control  using  plasma  actuators  was  only  started  in  2000  [1].  Plasmas 
actuators are considered as active devices because they add energy to the flow. Three 
types of plasma actuators are being developed in the PLASMAERO project. 

2.1. Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) 

The Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) device where a non-thermal plasma is gener-
ated by the application of a high-voltage discharge between two electrodes (5 to 50 kV). 
It  creates  an  ionisation  field  and  generates  regions  where  the  density  of  one  species, 
positive  or  negative  ions  is  dominant.  Amongst  the  outcomes  is  a  corresponding  ion 
wind due to the movement of ions at the surface of the airfoil very close to the wall. 
DBDs are known to produce Ionic Wind (I.W.) velocities up to 6 m/s but on a surface 
area and very close to the wall. New devices being developed in PLASMAERO, called 
“saw-like” and “floating DBD”, have demonstrated ionic wind velocities up to 10 m/s 
(Fig. 1) [2,3]. 

2.2. Nanosecond Pulsed Dielectric Barrier Discharge (ns-DBD) 

The Nanosecond Pulsed Dielectric Barrier Discharge (ns-DBD) where the voltage be-
tween electrodes increases in a few nanoseconds. The discharge regime is quite differ-
ent than for DBD devices. The “nanosecond regime” is characterized by the develop-
ment of synchronized, high current streamers at each rise or decay of the voltage, with-
out  any  corona  phase.  Recent  work [4,5] shows  that during nanosecond discharges,  a 
large amount of energy is deposited by the discharge at the tip of the top electrode. A 
large part of this energy is quickly converted into gas heating in this small region which 
is responsible for the generation of micro-shock waves (Fig. 2). 

2.3. Plasma Synthetic Jet (PSG) 

The Plasma Synthetic jet where a spark-plasma positioned inside a micro-cavity con-
taining a small orifice adjacent to the surface, causes an electro-thermally heating of the 
gas inside it which leads to a rapid increase in internal pressure. This high-pressure gas 
issues through the orifice and forms a high velocity, hot pulsed plasma micro-jet. Once 
the jet issues from the cavity, it creates a partial vacuum inside the cavity. Ambient gas 
is then drawn into the cavity which recharges it for the next pulse. The characteristics 
of this device depend on the cavity geometry, the energy deposition and on the electri-

D. Caruana / Flow Control by Plasmas in the PLASMAERO Project

105

a) Principle of DBD actuator. 

b) Floating-DBD. 

c) Ion wind smoke visualization.

d) I.W. measurements. 

Figure 1. Ionic wind by DBD. 

Figure 2. ns-DBD – Schlieren visualisation and computational temperature parametric study. 

cal  parameters.  The  PSJ  can  produce  a  jet  velocity  up  to  300 m/s  and  pulsation  fre-
quencies up to 2500 Hz (Fig. 3) [6,7]. 

3. PLASMAERO Aerodynamic Applications – Mid-Term Project 

The mass flow produced by the chosen plasma devices will be used in different ways to 
improve  aerodynamics  (separations,  tip  vortex,  boundary  layer  transition,  flap  noise 
and shock/boundary layer interaction application). 

 
106

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

                                         a) PSJ device – φ 8 mm 

              b) 2 cm 

300

250

200

150

100

50

0

0

V jet (C=6 nF)

V  jet (C=10 nF)

V  jet (C=20 nF)

V  jet (C=30 nF)

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

Figure 3. PSJ device (φ 8 mm) & generated micro-jet – φ orifice = 1mm – V = 300 m/s. 

3.1. Separation Delay 

For separation delay, the control strategy is to add energy to the boundary layer directly 
by generation of ionic winds close to the wall (DBD) or by the generation of vortices 
(wall jet DBD or PSJ) to reattach the separated flow (Fig. 4). The first tests results have 
shown  an  important  reduction  of  the  separation  area,  particularly  for  the  35m/s  mean 
flow velocity (highest tested), which could increase lift and delay the stall angle of the 
aerofoil by several degrees of incidence. 

3.2. Boundary Layer Transition Delay 

For boundary layer transition delay, DBD plasma actuators have been used in order to 
modify the transition location by the generation of an ionic wind parallel to the wall of 
the model which is able to change the boundary layer characteristics and hence to exert 
an  effect  on  the  skin  friction  and  delay  transition  from  laminar  to  turbulent  flow 
(Fig. 5) [8]. 

                                  
     
 
D. Caruana / Flow Control by Plasmas in the PLASMAERO Project

107

a) Separated (DBD off) 

b) Re-attached (DBD on) 

c) Separated (DBD off) 

Figure 4. Separation re-attachment – 2D flow – Naca0015 airfoil (C = 500 mm) – PIV measurements a&b) 
DBD, IW = 5 m/s, U0 = 20 m/s – c&d) PSJ, V = 280 m/s, U0 = 35 m/s. 

d) Re-attached (DBD on) 

108

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

Transition location on ONERA D upper side 
Alpha = 2.5° U0 = 7 m/s  Plasma f = 2 KHz

Transition location on ONERA D upper side 
Alpha = 2.5° U0 = 12 m/s  Plasma f = 2 KHz

)
v
m

(
S
M
R
e
r
i

w

t
o
H

1,0

0,8

0,6

0,4

0,2

0,0

Without plasma

DBD 8.5 KVolts

DBD 12.7 kVolts

DBD 17 kVolts

)
v
m

(

S
M
R
e
r
i
w

t
o
H

1,0

0,8

0,6

0,4

0,2

0,0

Without plasma

DBD 17 kVolts

0

100

200

300

0

100

200

300

X (mm)

a) 

X (mm)

b) 

Figure 5. Boundary Layer transition delay by DBD (30% delay). – U0 = 7 m/s and 12 m/s – 2D flow. 

Figure 6. Slat noise control by DBD – 2D flow – U0 = 25 m/s. 

3.3. High Lift Noise Control 

One method for controlling high-lift noise is to use air-jet vortex generators. The slat 
interacting with the main element of the wing produces noise with tonal and broadband 
elements. It is recognised that the origin of one of the primary sources comes from the 
upper  trailing  edge  of  the  slat.  The  finite  thickness  of  the  slat  trailing  edge  produces 
shed  vortices.  The  disturbances  produced  by  the  vortices  are  amplified  and  directed 
towards  the  ground  due  to  the  existence  of  the  main  element  and  slat.  DBD  plasma 
device should be able to induce flow momentum sufficient to be able to influence the 
flow in the vicinity of the slat cove (Fig. 6) [9]. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
D. Caruana / Flow Control by Plasmas in the PLASMAERO Project

109

4. Conclusion 

In conclusion, mass flow creation or heat deposition by plasma devices can be used to 
add energy to a flow and improve or control it. Floating DBD, ns-DBD and PSJ actua-
tors have been developed and some examples of aerodynamic applications with differ-
ent  flow  control  strategies  adapted  to  plasma  devices  have  been  presented.  The  first 
results achieved at mid-term of PLASMAERO project are very encouraging. The sec-
ond stage of the project seeks to show that the characteristics of these actuators can be 
adapted to the flows relevant to large transport aircraft. 

Acknowledgments 

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Commu-
nity’s Seventh Framework Program FP7/2007-2013 under grant agreement n°234201. 
The author also acknowledges all the participants of the project, the work package and 
task leaders: C. Hollenstein, J.P. Boeuf, C. Gleyzes, C. Tropea, Eric Moreau, P. Ley-
land, F. Rogier, J. Kok, K.S. Choi, P. Molton, A. Séraudie, X. Zhang, P. Ott., P. Barri-
cau, R. Donelli. 

References 

[1]  J.R. Roth, Physics and phenomenology of plasma actuators for control of aeronautical flows, Journal of 

Physics D: Applied Physics, 40 (2007) Editorial. 

[2]  N. Benard, A. Mizuno and E. Moreau, J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 42 (2009) 235204. 
[3]  J. Podliński et al., 12th Int. Symp. on High Pressure Low Temp. Plasma Chemistry, 2010, pp. 74–78. 
[4]  P. Pechske et al., 42 Plasmadynamics and Lasers Conference, AIAA, 27–30 June 2011. 
[5]  T. Unfer and J.P. Boeuf, Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 52 (2010) 124019. 
[6]  D. Caruana et al., AIAA-2009-1307. 
[7]  P. Hardy et al., Plasma, AIAA-2010-5103. 
[8]  A. Séraudie, 41st AIAA Fluid Dynamics Conference and Exhibit, AIAA, 27–30 June 2011. 
[9]  X. Luo and X. Zhang, 41st AIAA Fluid Dynamics Conference and Exhibit, AIAA, 27–30 June 2011. 

About the Author 

Daniel Caruana is Engineer at the Aerodyanmics and Energetics Models Department of ONERA (France) 
He is PLASMAERO EU Project coordinator 
ONERA – Centre Midi Pyrénées – 
2, avenue Edouard Belin 
F-31055 Toulouse 
daniel.caruana@onera.fr 
www.onera.fr 

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Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-110

Future Fast Methods for Loads 
Calculations: The ‘FFAST’ Project 

Dorian JONES and Ann GAITONDE 

Abstract. The ‘FFAST project’ is being performed by a consortium comprising 13 
members: University of Bristol, INRIA, CSIR, TU Delft, DLR, IRIAS, University 
of Liverpool, Politechnico di Milano, NUMECA International S.A., Optimad En-
gineering S.r.l., Airbus Operations Ltd, EADS-MAS and IITP. It is focused on the 
investigation and development of methods for accelerating the aircraft loads calcu-
lation process. 

Keywords. Load calculations, field velocity method, split velocity method 

1. Background 

Unsteady loads calculations play an important role within much of the design and de-
velopment of an aircraft, and have an impact upon the concept and detailed structural 
design,  aerodynamic  characteristics,  weight,  flight  control system  design,  control  sur-
face design, performance, etc. They determine the most extreme stress levels and esti-
mate  fatigue  damage  and  damage  tolerance  for  a  particular  design.  For  this  purpose, 
loads  cases  due  to  dynamic  gusts  and  manoeuvres  are  applied  to  detailed  structural 
models during the design phase. 

The flight conditions and manoeuvres, which provide the largest aircraft loads, are 
not  known  a  priori.  Therefore  the  aerodynamic  and  inertial  forces  are  calculated  at  a 
large  number  of  conditions  to  give  an  estimate  of  the  maximum  loads,  and  hence 
stresses, that the structure of the detailed aircraft design will experience in service. Fur-
thermore, these analyses have to be repeated every time that there is an update in the 
aircraft structure. Within the modern civil airframe industry, each of these loads calcu-
lation cycles requires more than 6 weeks. This long lead time, together with the mul-
tiple  times  this  calculation  procedure  needs  to  take  place,  has  a  detrimental  effect  on 
cost and time to market. This discussion of the number of critical loads cases raises two 
main points.  

First, the replacement of the current low fidelity models with more accurate aero-
elastic simulations is attractive because of the reduced tunnel testing costs and the de-
creased  risk  of  design  modification  later  in  the  design  process;  however,  the  overall 
computational costs of the loads process must not increase. 

Secondly, the new aircraft configurations that will be vital to  meet future perfor-
mance  targets  are  likely  to  possess  design  envelope  boundaries  and  therefore  critical 
loads cases that are very different from those previously found on conventional aircraft. 
Engineering  experience,  that  is  currently  used  to  reduce  the  number  of  critical  loads 
cases without compromising air safety, cannot be extended to novel configurations. 

D. Jones and A. Gaitonde / Future Fast Methods for Loads Calculations: The ‘FFAST’ Project

111

The FFAST project is focusing on three areas of research that have been identified 

as offering major reductions in the total analysis cost/time. 

•  Faster identification of critical loads cases: minimization of the total number 
of requested aeroelastic analyses to some representative key-points by forma-
lising  the  process  and  reducing  dependency  on  engineering  judgment.  This 
will allow non-conventional configurations to be evaluated at lower risk; 
•  The extraction of aerodynamic and aeroelastic reduced order models (ROMs), 
suitable for loads analysis, from complex full order models. Such models re-
produce  the  dominant  characteristics  of  higher  fidelity  models,  but  at  lower 
cost than the full order simulation; 

•  Reduced order model acceleration of full-order models. Full order simulations 
are currently too expensive for routine use, but reduced order models offer po-
tential cost savings through convergence acceleration. 

Success  in  each research  theme  may  make  a  considerable  individual  contribution 
to  the  reduction  of  loads  analysis  cost.  Improvements  are  multiplicative  and  the  step 
change in analysis costs will only come about if there are simultaneous improvements 
in each of the three identified areas. 

2. Critical Load Identification 

For conventional aircraft geometries, whose response can be calculated using assump-
tions  of  linearity,  engineering  experience  can  be  used  to  reduce  the  number  of  loads 
cases that must be calculated. However, for non-conventional configurations that may 
be  required  to  meet  future  performance  targets  engineering  judgement  will  not  be 
available. Furthermore, even for conventional geometries, increasingly non-linear con-
trol systems and new manufacturing techniques mean that the assumption of linearity is 
becoming  unacceptable.  Thus  it  becomes  clear  that  a  more  general  methodology  for 
identifying the critical cases that characterise the whole parameter space is needed. In 
the FFAST project the use of optimisation and design of experiments methodologies to 
produce  a  method for  critical  load  identification  is  being investigated. Initially  this  is 
being  developed  and  applied  to  the  current  design  process  where  its  efficacy  can  be 
evaluated  more  easily  [1].  However,  the  methods  will  be  extended  to  determine  the 
worst  case  gust  loads  for  a  non-linear  and  non-conventional  aircraft,  since  gusts  are 
often the most critical load case for structural design and also are the main fatigue load-
ing source for the majority of the structure. Gust modelling using full order CFD is not 
straightforward  and  some  work  has  been  undertaken  (Fig.  1)  to  develop  a  new  CFD 
approach that is more accurate and efficient and hence will be a good basis for the de-
velopment of reduced order models [2]. 

3. Reduced Order Modelling 

The aim of Reduced Order Modelling (ROM) is to produce a lower order model that 
includes all the fundamental dynamics of the full system (Fig. 2). A ROM is designed 
to be significantly cheaper to evaluate than a full model, offering the potential to speed 
up the design process while offering greater accuracy then the existing methods used in 

112

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

Figure 1. Vertical onset velocity profile and the response in lift coefficient to a 1-cosine gust using two dif-
ferent full order methods. FVM: the Field Velocity Method (also sometimes known as the disturbance veloci-
ty approach) and SVM: the Split Velocity Method. 

industry. A range of aerodynamic reduced order modelling techniques having the same 
input/output  characteristics  as  the  full  order  system  are  being  considered  within  the 
FFAST project. These methods can be used as surrogates to replace the full CFD pro-
vided  acceptable  accuracy  and  computational  savings  compared  to  full  CFD  can  be 
achieved. The surrogate models for external flows that have been investigated include 
Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) variants, Eigensystem Realisation Algorithm 
(ERA)  based  methods  [3];  an  extension  of  the  non-linear  harmonic  balance,  a  ROM 
technique based on a Fourier decomposition of the unsteady flow components [4] and a 
global full aircraft aeroelastic surrogate model for use in the early stages of the design 
process. 

4. Hybrid Methods 

An alternative approach to speed up calculations is to use reduced order modelling to 
accelerate  full  order  CFD  rather  than  to  replace  it  completely.  The  hybrid  full  or-
der/ROM methods investigated so far have included a basis fusion method where a full 
order  solution  is  advanced  on  a  reduced  basis  which  is  supplemented  as  required;  a 
zonal fusion which uses full CFD and ROMs in different regions of the domain; a mul-
ti-model  space  mapping  approach  which  is  similar  to  the  multigrid  approach  except 
that it uses lower order models rather than coarser meshes to accelerate the solution and 
a unified solver with full order CFD [5] a non-linear structural ROM [6]. 

 
D. Jones and A. Gaitonde / Future Fast Methods for Loads Calculations: The ‘FFAST’ Project

113

Wind tunnel experiment

Large-scale model
High fidelity CFD

Physics and 
geometry

CFD

System of n 
ODEs

Wide range of validity

ROM

Reduced 
system of  
r<< n ODEs

Reduced basis: POD modes
Reduced basis: POD modes

Restricted range of validity

Low-dim. description of large-
scale system dynamics

Figure  2.  Concept  of  Reduced  Order  Modelling  process  illustrated  for  a  biconvex  aerofoil  at  a  transonic 
Mach number. 

5. FFAST Test Cases 

In  order  to  compare  the  methods  implemented  and  developed  in  the  FFAST  project 
common test geometries have been developed. Due to the fact that the methods being 
investigated  and  developed  are  at  different  levels  of  maturity  a  range  of  test  cases  is 
needed. These consist of a full aircraft, a clean wing extracted from the aircraft and 3 
aerofoil sections from points across the span (Fig. 3). 

 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

Figure 3. FFAST Test Cases from full aircraft to 2D aerofoil sections. 

6. Conclusion 

The  FFAST  objectives  are  to  develop  and  assess  methods  to  accelerate  the  loads 
process.  The  project  is  thus  focused  on  critical  load  identification  and  reduced  order 
modeling.  All  the  methods  have  produced  promising  initial  results.  The  description 
above is based on the status of the FFAST project after 1 year, but further work is still 
ongoing. The FFAST project will contribute to the goals of improving European indus-
trial competitiveness by developing capabilities to design an aircraft concept that will 
have significantly lower fuel burn levels than today’s best standard. Lowering aircraft 
fuel  burn  will  result  in  reductions  in  CO2  emissions  that  will  go  a  significant  way  to 
meet the ACARE 2020 vision targets. In order to meet these targets the aircraft design 
process must evolve rapidly to allow a number of concepts to be retained and assessed 
from  top  level  definition  through  to  high  levels  of  maturity  whilst  also  reducing  lead 
times. New tools and technologies are required to enable this. In this context, FFAST 
will  provide  the  foundation  for  a  new  approach  in  the  key  area  of  rapid  critical  load 
analysis across a range of granularity and fidelity. FFAST is an upstream university led 
project, and as a result, the main outputs will be: new knowledge in the form of novel 
numerical simulation technologies and innovative approaches to the loads process; ear-

D. Jones and A. Gaitonde / Future Fast Methods for Loads Calculations: The ‘FFAST’ Project

115

ly release software; a solution database for unsteady loads cases and recommendations 
in the form of written reports on a range of candidate technologies, that will guide fu-
ture research investment. 

References 

[1]  H.  Khodaparast,  G.  Georgiou,  J.E.  Cooper,  L.  Riccobene,  S.  Ricci,  G.A.  Vio  and  P.  Denner,  Efficient 

Worst Case “1 – Cosine” Gust Loads Prediction, Paper IFASD-2011-48. 

[2]  C. Wales, D. Jones and A. Gaitonde, Simulation of Airfoil Gust Responses Using Prescribed Velocities, 

IFASD-2011-53. 

[3]  C.  Wales,  A.  Gaitonde  and  D.  Jones,  Stabilisation  of  Reduced  Order  Models  via  Restarting,  IFASD-

2011-38. 

[4]  F. Debrabandere, B. Tartinville and C. Hirsch, A Staggered Method Using a Modal Approach for Fluid-

Structure Interaction Computation, Paper IFASD-2011-03. 

[5]  T.P. Scholcz, A.H. van Zuijlen and H. Bijl, A Multi-model Incremental Adaptive Strategy to Accelerate 
Partitioned Fluid-Structure  Algorithms using Space-Mapping, IV International Conference on Computa-
tional Methods for Coupled Problems in Science and Engineering, 2011. 

[6]  A.G.B. Mowat, A.G. Malan, L.H. van Zyl and J.P. Meyer, A Hybrid Finite-volume-ROM Approach to 

Non-Linear Aerospace Fluid-Structure Interaction Modelling, Paper IFASD-2011-08. 

About the Authors 

Dr. Dorian Jones and Ann Gaitonde are Senior Lecturers at the Department of Aerospace Engineering, Uni-
versity of Bristol 
Room 1.55, Queens Building – University Walk – 
BS8 1 TR, Bristol, United Kingdom 
Tel.: +44 1173 315 626 
Dorian.Jones@bristol.ac.uk 
Ann.Gaitonde@bristol.ac.uk 
www.bristol.ac.uk 

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D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-116

Aviation Industry Roadmap 
to Sustainability 

Thomas RÖTGER 

Abstract.  Based  on  IATA’s  four-pillar  strategy  (technology,  operations,  infra-
structure and economic measures) a set of high-level industry goals was submitted 
to ICAO in 2009: average fuel efficiency improvement of 1.5% p.a. till 2020; car-
bon-neutral growth from 2020, net CO2 emissions reduction by 50% in 2050 rela-
tive  to  2005.  Aircraft  fuel  efficiency  measures  include  technologies,  mainly  for 
engines,  aerodynamics  and  lightweight  materials,  which  are  estimated  to  save 
around  25  to  35%  between  2005  and  2020.  Operational  and  infrastructural  im-
provements are expected to save around 10%. High potential is seen from aviation 
biofuels, which have been flight-tested and certified for commercial use. Sustaina-
bility standards exist that are applicable to them. However, their production costs 
are still high and investments into aviation biofuel production need to be encour-
aged by a suitable political framework. 

Keywords. Climate change, technology goals, emission reduction, biojet fuels 

1. Background and Objectives 

Aviation  contributes  about  2%  of  all  man-made  CO2  emissions,  as  confirmed  by  the 
United  Nations  Intergovernmental  Panel  on  Climate  Change  (IPCC)  [1].  However, 
global demand for air transport is expected to continue to grow by 4 to 5% per year, 
with related CO2 emissions growing at a lower annual rate of about 3% thanks to conti-
nuously improved fuel efficiency. The IPCC estimates that in 2050 aviation’s contribu-
tion to global man-made CO2 emissions will be around 3% [1]. It is therefore appropri-
ate for aviation to further decouple emissions from traffic growth.  

To this end, in 2007 IATA established a four-pillar strategy [2] based on: 
1.  New technologies including more fuel-efficient aircraft and engine design as 

well as aviation biofuels; 
2.  More efficient flight operations; 
3. 
4.  Positive economic measures. 

Improved airspace and airport infrastructure and 

Based on these four pillars, all the major aviation stakeholder groups, namely air-
lines,  airports,  aircraft  manufacturers  and  air  navigation  service  providers  agreed  in 
2009 on a set of collective industry goals [3], which were subsequently commended by 
the  UN  Secretary  General,  prior  to  the  COP15  climate  conference  in  Copenhagen. 
These high-level industry goals are: 

−  An  average  annual  fuel  efficiency  improvement  of  1.5%  between  2009  and 

2020; 

T. Rötger / Aviation Industry Roadmap to Sustainability

117

Figure 1. Roadmap to achieve the high-level industry emissions goals. 

−  A  stabilization  of  net  CO2  emissions  levels  (“carbon-neutral  growth”)  from 

2020; 

−  A  long-term  goal  of  reducing  net  CO2 emissions  by  50%  in  2050  relative  to 

2005. 

The  International  Civil  Aviation  Organization  (ICAO)  recognized  the  carbon-
neutral growth goal and set an increased fuel efficiency improvement goal of 2% p.a., 
which includes governmental measures beyond industry control, such as the implemen-
tation  of  the  Single  European  Sky  (SES  / SESAR).  These  goals were  included  in  the 
Climate Change Resolution of the 37th ICAO Assembly in October 2010 [4]. 

2. Emissions Reduction Roadmap 

Figure  1  is  a  schematic  illustration  of  a  roadmap  to  achieve  the  high-level  industry 
emissions goals with the different elements of the four-pillar strategy [5]. Compared to 
a “do-nothing” situation with continued traffic growth and unchanged fuel efficiency, 
considerable  emissions  reductions  can  be  achieved  by  continuous  improvements  in 
aircraft  and  engine  technology  as  well  as  optimization  of  operational  procedures  and 
airspace and airport infrastructure. Fuel efficiency improvement has always been one of 
the strongest drivers for innovation in aviation. This trend is expected to continue with 
unreduced effort, in line with the above fuel efficiency goals and supported by aviation 
R&T programmes in the EU and elsewhere. 

However, to achieve carbon-neutral growth, further measures are necessary. Sub-
stantial  potential  is  seen  in  the  use  of  biofuels,  which  could  take  a  strongly  growing 
part of fuel supply in the next decades. Revolutionary new technologies in the aviation 
system of the future, such as alternatives to the tube-and-wing aircraft and to the cur-
rent air traffic management and airport operations, are also expected to contribute sub-
stantially  to  achieving  the  50%  emissions  reduction  goal.  It  is,  however,  improbable 
that  the  high-level  aviation  industry  goals  will  be  fully  achieved  by  direct  emissions 

 
118

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

Figure 2. Estimated fuel burn reduction potential of airframe and engine technologies, from [6]. 

reduction alone; therefore the use of economic measures such as emissions trading and 
carbon offsets to close the remaining gap has not been excluded. 

There  are  several  main  technological  measures  to  improve  the  fuel  efficiency  of 
aircraft, principally new engine architectures (such as the geared turbofan or the open-
rotor engine), aerodynamic improvements (such as laminar flow control, winglets and 
riblets), and the wider use of new lightweight materials for aircraft structures and cabin 
furnishing.  

IATA, together with the German Aerospace Centre DLR and the Georgia Institute 
of  Technology,  conducted  the  TERESA  project  (TEchnology  Roadmap  for  Environ-
mentally  Sustainable  Aviation)  to  evaluate  the  potential  of  future  fuel  efficiency  im-
provements [6]. Four time horizons were considered (Fig. 2): 

−  Retrofits (can be added on in-service aircraft): 7–13%; 
−  Serial modifications (for new aircraft of in-production types): 7–18%; 
−  New  aircraft  types  around  2020  (including  the  new  generation  of  single-

aisles): 25–35%; 

−  New aircraft types far beyond 2020 (applying radical new technologies): 25–

50%. 

Figure  2  shows  these  results  together  with  some  example  technologies  for  each 
group. Note that for the selected technologies in the first two groups, it is possible in 
principle  to  introduce  them  as  retrofits  or  modifications  within  a  current  aircraft  pro-
gramme, but this does not mean that it is always economically sensible to do so. Such a 
decision depends, among other reasons, on the expected fuel cost savings. 

Similar studies, such as the ICAO Independent Expert Study on Fuel Technology 
Goals  [7],  come  to  results  that  compare  fairly  well  with  the  figures  of  the  TERESA 
study. It should be noted that the reference year for both the TERESA and the ICAO 
study is 2005, whereas the ACARE fuel efficiency goal (50% aircraft fuel burn reduc-
tion with approximately 40% coming from airframe and engine technology) refers to a 
baseline in 2000, i.e. spans a longer timeframe. 

Improvements in operations and infrastructure (“Pillars 2 and 3” of the industry 4-
pillar strategy) are expected to add approximately another 10% of fuel savings. Opera-
tional  procedures,  widely  under  aircraft  operators’  own  control,  comprise  elements 
such as optimized flight and fuel planning accuracy, taxiing with one engine out, wider 
use of ground electrical power by aircraft standing at the gate and improved mainten-

T. Rötger / Aviation Industry Roadmap to Sustainability

119

ance  techniques  such  as  regular  engine  washing.  A  large  set  of  infrastructural  im-
provements is being realized in the Single European Sky (SES/SESAR) [8] and its US 
counterpart NextGen [9], and other major ATM upgrade projects and plans are ongoing 
in  various  countries  including  China,  India,  and  Japan.  Various  features  such  as  re-
quired  navigation  performance  (RNP),  flex  tracks  and  continuous  descent  operations 
(CDO)  contribute  to  reducing  fuel  burn  by  shortening  flight  routes,  optimizing  flight 
profiles  and  avoiding  hold  patterns  and  departure  queues.  Obviously  better  air  traffic 
management achieves higher savings in the congested European and US airspace than 
on routes in less congested areas that already allow relatively high fuel efficiency. 

3. Aviation Biofuels 

The introduction of aviation biofuels (“biojet”) is seen as a major potential for aviation 
to reduce its CO2 emissions. Their technical suitability has been successfully proven in 
a  number  of  flight  tests  using  commercial  aircraft  without  any  modifications  [10]. 
Biomass-to-liquid (BtL) fuels produced by the Fischer-Tropsch process have been cer-
tified for commercial use in 2009, and the certification of hydrogenated renewable jet 
fuels has been completed in June 2011 [11]; applicability is expected from July 2011. 

Having witnessed the mistakes made in sourcing the first generation of biofuel for 
road transport, leading to increased food prices and impacts on land and water use, the 
aviation industry is strongly focused on the sustainability of biojet fuels. In particular 
reduction  of  lifecycle  greenhouse  gas  emissions  is  an  important  requirement.  Carbon 
lifecycle analyses of several biofuels show emission reductions up to around 80% (e.g. 
camelina with 75% [12] and some lignocellulosic BtL beyond 80% [13]). 

There are a number of regulations and voluntary standards applicable to biojet fu-
els.  IATA  is  a  Steering  Board  member  of  the  Roundtable  on  Sustainable  Biofuels, 
which has developed a comprehensive set of sustainability principles and criteria cov-
ering  all  relevant  environmental,  economic  and  societal  aspects  [14].  Biofuel  regula-
tions  in  the  EU  (Renewable  Energy  Directive,  RED  [15])  and  US  (Renewable  Fuel 
Standard, RFS [16]), comprise sustainability requirements, which have to be met to get 
access to incentives. Each of these standards uses a different set of sustainability crite-
ria. The methodologies required to demonstrate compliance with different standards are 
often incompatible, in particular for the calculation of greenhouse gases. For aviation as 
a global industry a global harmonisation of these regulations, or at least mutual recog-
nition, would be highly desirable.  

The largest remaining challenges are the need to build up production of biojet fuels 
at large industrial scale and to significantly reduce their production costs, which is ex-
pected to be initially about twice as high as Jet A-1. Urgent next steps for the industry 
are  thus  to  attract  powerful  capital  investors  and  to  start  the  up-scaling  process  with 
demonstration  plants.  Synergies  with  the  automotive  biofuel  sector  should  be  devel-
oped where helpful. 

Governments’ influence is decisive for the success of biojet fuel implementation, 
in the same way as it occurred earlier in the automotive sector. A supportive political 
and economic framework could: 

−  Help bridge the price gap between biojet and Jet A-1; 
−  Encourage and de-risk capital investments into biojet production and promote 

creation of public-private partnerships; 

120

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

Intensify research and development activities on aviation biofuels; 

− 
−  Provide  globally  harmonized  biojet  fuel  sustainability  standards  and  user-

friendly biojet accounting methods; 

−  Harmonize measures in both transport and energy policy. 

4. Conclusion 

Aviation is the first industrial sector that has committed at the global level to ambitious 
short, mid and long-term goals for CO2 emission reductions. The industry’s four-pillar 
strategy to achieve them comprises technological innovation for aircraft and engines as 
well  as  biojet  fuels,  improved  operations  and  infrastructure  and  complementary  eco-
nomic measures. An assessment of aircraft and engine technologies under development 
estimates a reduction of fuel burn by 25 to 35% for the new aircraft generation around 
2020.  Operational  and  infrastructural  improvements  are  expected  to  yield  additional 
savings of about 10%. Biojet fuels promise a large CO2 reduction potential. The suc-
cess of their implementation depends, however, on suitable governmental support and 
capital investment. 

Acknowledgements 

The author would like to thank Eike Stumpf and Stéphane Dufresne and their teams at 
DLR and Georgia Tech for their valuable work and the fruitful cooperation in the TE-
RESA (TEchnology Roadmap for Environmentally Sustainable Aviation) project. 

References 

[1]  IPCC Fourth Assessment Report: Climate Change 2007, R.K. Pachauri and A. Reisinger (Eds.), IPCC, 

Geneva, Switzerland, 2007. 

[2]  IATA: A global approach to reducing aviation emissions, November 2009. 
[3]  ICAO: A global sectoral approach for Aviation, HLM-ENV/09-WP/19, High-level meeting on interna-

tional aviation and climate change, Montréal, October 2009. 

[4]  ICAO Resolution 17/2, A37-WP/402, 37th ICAO Assembly, Montréal, October 2010. 
[5]  ATAG, Beginner’s Guide to Aviation Efficiency, November 2010. 
[6]  The IATA Technology Roadmap Report, 3rd edition, June 2009. 
[7]  Report of the Independent Experts on fuel burn reduction technology goals, CAEP-SG/20101-WP/11, 

CAEP SG Meeting, Toulouse, November 2010. 

[8]  SESAR JU: European Air Traffic Management Master Plan, Ed. 1, March 2009. 
[9]  FAA’s NextGen Implementation Plan, March 2011. 
[10]  T.F. Rahmes et al., Sustainable Bio-Derived Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene (Bio-SPK) Jet Fuel Flights 
and Engine Tests Program Results, AIAA 2009-7002, 9th ATIO Conference, September 2009, Hilton 
Head, South Carolina. 

[11]  ASTM D7566 – 11 Standard Specification for Aviation Turbine Fuel Containing Synthesized Hydro-

carbons, July 2011. 

[12]  D.R.  Shonnard,  L.  Williams  and  T.N.  Kalnes,  Camelina-derived  jet  fuel  and  diesel:  Sustainable  ad-
vanced biofuels, Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy, Vol. 29, Issue 3, pp. 382–392, October 
2010. 

[13]  R.W. Stratton, H.M. Wong and J.I. Hileman, Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Alternative 

Jet Fuels, PARTNER Project 20 report, version 1.2, June 2010. 

 
 
T. Rötger / Aviation Industry Roadmap to Sustainability

121

[14]  RSB  Principles  &  Criteria  for  Sustainable  Biofuel  Production,  RSB-STD-01-001  (Version  2.0),  No-

vember 2010. 

[15]  Directive 2009/28/EC, Official Journal of the European Union, 5 June 2009. 
[16]  US Environmental Protection Agency, Regulation of Fuels and Fuel Additives: Changes to Renewable 
Fuel Standard Program, 40 CFR Part 80, EPA-HQ-OAR-2005-0161; FRL-9112-3, RIN 2060-A081. 

About the Author 

Dr. Thomas Rötger is Assistant Director, Environment Technology at the International Air Transport Associ-
ation (IATA) 
IATA – Route de l’Aéroport 33 – CH-1215 Genève (Switzerland) 
Telephone : +41 22 770 2898 
RoetgerT@iata.org 
www.iata.org 

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D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-122

REACT4C – Climate Optimised Flight 
Planning 

Sigrun MATTHES 

Abstract.  The  European  Project  REACT4C,  coordinated  by  the  Institute  of  At-
mospheric  Physics,  German  Aerospace  Agency  (DLR),  addresses  inefficiencies 
which exist in the aviation system with respect to fuel consumption and emissions 
by investigating the potential of climate-optimised flight routing for reducing the 
atmospheric impact of aviation. 

Keywords. Climate impact, trajectories, climate-optimised flight routing, ATM 

1. Optimising the Total Climate Impact of Flight Trajectories 

Climate impact of non-CO2 aviation emissions depend on time and the position of the 
aircraft, as atmospheric processes leading to climate change vary with background con-
ditions and transport pathways within the atmosphere. Hence, a mitigation potential for 
climate impact exists by identifying climate-optimised aircraft trajectories.  

The scope of the collaborative project REACT4C (Reducing Emissions from Avia-
tion by Changing Trajectories for the benefit of Climate) is to expand a flight planning 
tool in order to be able to optimise the total climate impact of flight trajectories [1]. The 
scientific  expertise  within  the  interdisciplinary  consortium  allows  to  jointly  set-up  a 
modelling chain which identifies flight altitudes and flight routes that lead to reduced 
overall climate impact (Fig. 1). Among aviation climate impact we consider CO2, NOX 
(via ozone and methane), soot, contrail and contrail-cirrus. 

Figure 1. Schematic concept of weather based climate-optimisation (DLR Institute Atmospheric Physics). 

 
S. Matthes / REACT4C – Climate Optimised Flight Planning

123

Figure 2. Line shaped contrails and contrail cirrus forming in aircraft engine exhaust. 

2. The General Concept 

Starting from a particular synoptic situation (wind, temperature, humidity, background 
concentrations), we derive spatially and temporally resolved information on the climate 
impact for an emission under these specific synoptic conditions, so-called climate cost 
functions. These serve as interface between flight planning and climate impact. These 
4d  functions  quantify  the  atmospheric  climate  response  (sensitivity)  to  aviation  emis-
sions  depending  on  space  (latitude,  longitude,  altitude)  and  time  of  the  emission.  To 
explore  the  uncertainty  of  our  procedure,  this  work  is  complemented  by  a  scientific 
multi-model-assessment. Finally, potential changes in aircraft design are explored that 
are better suited for climate-optimised flight routing than present day aircraft. 

3. The Objectives of the REACT4C Project 

The main objectives of REACT4C are to explore the feasibility of adopting flight alti-
tudes and flight routes that lead to reduced fuel consumption and emissions, and reduce 
the  climate  impact;  and  to  estimate  the  overall  global  effect  of  such  optimised  flight 
routing measures in terms of climate change. 

4. The Aviation Climate Impact 

Aviation  climate  impact  is  composed  of  individual  emission  impacts,  e.g.  [2].  Direct 
radiative impact originates from carbon dioxide (CO2) and black carbon (soot). Indirect 
impact  originates  from  nitrogen  oxides  (NOX)  which  form  ozone  (O3)  and  influence 
methane (CH4) life time, and from water vapour which potentially forms contrails and 
contrail-cirrus (Fig. 2), and from soot causing aviation induced cloudiness (AIC). 

 
 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

Climate impact of aviation non-CO2 emissions depends on: 
•  Time and position of aircraft; 
•  Actual  weather  conditions  (processes,  transport  pathways,  temperature,  hu-

midity); 

•  Background concentrations. 

5. Modelling Chain 

The  objectives  of  REACT4C  are  mainly  achieved  by  a  numerical  approach,  which 
combines atmospheric models of different complexity, air traffic management (ATM) 
tools  for  planning  flight  trajectories  and  models  to  calculate  aircraft  emissions  with 
tools for aircraft pre-design.  

•  University of Reading in collaboration with UK Met Office identifies typical 
weather situations (classification) and characterises them, including their sta-
tistical probability. 

•  DLR-Institute  of  Atmospheric  Physics  jointly  with  CICERO,  Norway  calcu-
lates for each selected weather situation, radiative forcings and 4d climate cost 
functions for unit emissions at predefined mission location. 

•  Eurocontrol Experimental Centre calculates climate optimised flight trajecto-
ries.  Simultaneously,  the  related  incremental  reduction  in  emissions  and  cli-
mate change is estimated. 
In  a  joint  effort  the  potential  total  (global  and  annual)  mitigation  gain  from 
environmental flight planning is computed, and the uncertainties in the mitiga-
tion gain from environmental flight planning are estimated. 

• 

•  Atmospheric scientists from Manchester Metropolitan University (UK), DLR-
Institute  of  Atmospheric  Physics  (Germany),  CICERO  (Norway),  University 
of Aquila (Italy) prepare a multi-model climate impact assessment, and derive 
uncertainties. 

•  Aircraft  pre-design  concepts  are  explored  by  Airbus  France  in  collaboration 

with DLR for climate-optimised trajectories.  

An expanded flight planning tool allows optimisation with respect to e.g., minimal 

operational costs, or minimal climate impact. 

6. Meteorological Classification 

We use atmospheric indices as basis for classification of weather patterns, e.g. for the 
North Atlantic specifically NAO (North Atlantic Oscillation) and EA (Eastern Atlantic) 
oscillations.  This  allows  to derive prevailing weather patterns  and  their probability  to 
occur.  For  each  selected  weather  pattern  a  representative  (typical)  real  case  serves  as 
period for detailed analysis. A study to provide classification of weather patterns in the 
North  Atlantic  is  currently  under  preparation  [3].  Weather  types  were  classified  and 
named according to prevailing jet, e.g. strong zonal jet or strong tilted jet. An analysis 
of flown trajectories reveals strong influence of specific weather types (Fig. 3). 

S. Matthes / REACT4C – Climate Optimised Flight Planning

125

Figure 3. Weather patterns and corresponding flight tracks for strong zonal and weak tilted jet in the North 
Atlantic (University of Reading). 

7. Climate Cost Functions 

For  such  real  weather  situations  we  calculate  4D  climate  cost  functions  in  a  compre-
hensive global climate-chemistry-model with a Lagrangian approach, analysing the fate 
of aviation emissions. This allocates the corresponding climate response to an emission 
at a specific location and time for various weather pattern. Separate cost functions are 
calculated for nitrogen oxide emission, water vapour, soot, but also carbon dioxide. We 
quantify  radiative  forcing  as  basic  variable,  from  which  we  derive  standard  climate 
metrics [4].  

Background concentrations and resulting climate cost functions which show large 
gradients,  e.g.  ozone  (Fig.  4),  are  a  reliable  indicator  for  optimisation  potential  with 
respect to flight trajectories. 

8. Flight Planning Tool 

As next methodological step, these climate cost functions are used as interface between 
climate impact model and flight planning tool (ATM). Such interface can be used for 
any kind of flight planning tool, irrespective of using a way-point approach or a trajec-
tory based approach (TBO). Within our set-up we combine climate cost functions with 
way-point based tools which are consequently enabled to calculate corresponding cli-
mate impact for individual flight segments. For a given set of city pairs for a specific 

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

Figure  4.  Background  concentrations  of  ozone  (extracted  from  chemistry-climate  model  EMAC)  showing 
large spatial variability at cruise level (DLR Institute of Atmospheric Physics). 

weather pattern the tool (SAAM) is used to analyse all available options of waypoint 
combinations  and  intersections.  We  calculate  fuel  consumption,  operating  costs  and 
climate impact of each individual option simultaneously. It is then possible to identify 
both the minimal cost trajectory, and the minimal climate impact trajectory by means 
of the same flight planning tool. 

9. Mitigation Gain 

As final step individual optimised trajectories need to be combined to a global emission 
inventory,  which  is  to  be  evaluated  by  means  of  chemistry-transport  models  with  re-
spect to its overall climate impact. This evaluation proofs the robustness of our model-
ling chain for climate-optimised flight planning. 

10. Multimodel Estimates 

To explore the uncertainty of the procedure explained above, an updated aviation emis-
sion  inventory  based  on  the  CAEP/8  movement  data  for  the  year  2006  was  prepared 
within REACT4C. Two corresponding mitigation scenarios were compiled: one shift-
ing  aircraft  cruise  altitudes  upwards  and  another downwards  by  2000 ft.  The updated 
aviation climate impact estimates are calculated by means of a multimodel assessment.  
Particular focus is given to reducing uncertainties for individual climate impacts of 
aviation, e.g. contrail cirrus. A recent update on global radiative forcing of contrail cir-
rus  [5]  is  taken  into  account.  A  suite  of  comprehensive  atmospheric  models  with  tar-
geted configurations is employed to derive estimates of changes in atmospheric compo-
sition. 

 
S. Matthes / REACT4C – Climate Optimised Flight Planning

127

Figure 5. Pre-design optimisation concept – parametric study (Airbus). 

11. Green Aircraft 

For the adaptation required in aircraft pre-design, due to climate optimised trajectories 
(1) a systematic assessment of climate optimised flight profiles (or trajectories) is per-
formed  and  (2)  resulting  pre-design  requirements  are  identified.  REACT4C  aims  to 
deliver  fundamental  concepts  of  aircraft  pre-design  that  are  better  suited  for  climate-
optimised flight routing, which might have the potential to enter the Clean Sky JTI in a 
later phase.  

Having a closer look at individual aviation climate impact components quickly re-
veals several specific requirements. For example, minimising contrail formation might 
require  to  perform  shallow  (several  hundred  feet)  step  climbs  and  descents  (to  avoid 
shallow supersaturated regions) for individual flights. While, for example, minimising 
climate impact due to NOX requires the avoidance of regions on larger (synoptic) scale, 
by  explicitely  identifying  alternative  tracks,  which  additionally  exploit  optimal  wind 
conditions.  For  the  pre-design  optimisation  seven  degrees  of  freedom  were  analysed: 
wing area, engine thrust, wing aspect ratio, wing sweep, wing relative thickness, engine 
type, and cruise Mach number. From these, wing area and engine thrust were identified 
as promising optimisation parameters (Fig. 5). 

For conceptual reasons we do not vary cruise Mach number in our optmisation in 
order to clearly distinguish between potential mitigation gain due to climate-optmised 
routing and any potential mitigation gain due to reduced cruise Mach number. 

12. Conclusion 

Within the REACT4C Consortium a number of tasks have been accomplished. Classi-
fication of meteorological situations has been successfully completed in the North At-
lantic  Region,  with  five  weather  classes  in  winter,  and  three  classes  in  summer.  The 

 
 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

modelling  chain  starting  from  individual  daily  meteorology,  integrating  climate  cost 
functions and passing on to the flight planning tool is finalized as first set-up. An up-
dated  base  case  inventory  and  mitigation  scenarios  for  aviation  emissions  were  pre-
pared based on CAEP/8 movement data and applied in a multi-model assessment. The 
green  aircraft  pre-design  study  identified  respective  study  parameters,  flight  profiles 
and  requirements.  Active  involvement  of  stakeholders  is  important  for  this  highly  in-
terdisciplinary  project  and  takes  place  in  our  REACT4C  Expert  Panel  with  regular 
meetings and thematic workshops.  

For overall climate impact optimisation, individual impact needs to be considered 
simultaneously, specifically the impact of CO2, NOX, sulphate, black carbon aerosols, 
and contrail-cirrus. The calculation of climate-optimised flight trajectories for specific 
weather  situations  representing  weather  classes,  allows  to  derive  generalised  recom-
mendations for climate-optimised flight paths based on weather pattern characteristics. 

Acknowledgement 

This work is supported by the European Commission (FP7) under research grant AAT-
233772. 

The author thanks Volker Grewe and Patrick Jöckel of DLR, Institute of Atmos-
pheric Physic, for providing scheme (Fig. 1) and ozone distribution (Fig. 3) respective-
ly, Emma Irvine and Keith Shine of the University of Reading for making track analys-
es available (Fig. 3), and Christoph Blondel of Airbus France for the optimisation con-
cept (Fig. 5). The authors gratefully acknowledge the helpful comments on the manu-
script by Christine Frömming. 

References 

[1]  Matthes  et  al.,  2008:  A  novel  concept  for  environmental  flight  planning,  TAC-2  conference,  Aachen, 

Germany. 

[2]  Lee et al., 2009: Aviation and global climate change in the 21st century, Atm. Env., 43, 3520–3537. 
[3]  Irvine et al., 2011: Characterizing north Atlantic weather patterns for climate optimal routing, Meteoro-

logical Applications (to be submitted). 

[4]  Fuglestvedt et al.,  2010, Transport impacts on atmosphere and climate:  Metrics, Atm.  Env., 44, 4648–

4677. 

[5]  Burkhardt  and  Kärcher,  2011:  Global  radiative  forcing  from  contrail  cirrus,  Nature  climate  change,  1, 

54–58. 

About the Author 

Sigrun Matthes is Atmospheric Science Researcher, REACT4C Project Coordinator and Chair of the ECATS 
International Association 
DLR, Institute of Atmospheric Physics 
Oberpfaffenhofen – D- 82334 Wessling (Germany) 
Tel.: +49 8153-28-2524 
Sigrun.Matthes@dlr.de 
www.dlr.de 

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-129

129

SWAFEA: A European Study 
on the Feasibility and Impact 
of the Introduction of Alternative Fuels 
in Aviation 

Philippe NOVELLI 

Abstract. Committed to taking an active role in climate change mitigation and in 
the  promotion  of  secure  and  sustainable  energy  sources,  the  European  Commis-
sion’s  Directorate  General  for  Mobility  and  Transport  initiated  the  SWAFEA  – 
Sustainable Way for Alternative Fuels and Energy for Aviation – study in Febru-
ary 2009 to investigate the feasibility and impacts of the use of alternative fuels in 
aviation. Alternatives to crude oil-based kerosene are seen as an important compo-
nent in the efforts to reach the target set by the European Directive for Renewable 
Energy (RED, [1]) to introduce 10% of renewable energy in transport by 2020. It’s 
also an important development with view to the introduction of aviation in the ETS 
from 2012 [2].The study was to develop a comparative analysis of different fuels 
and energy-carrier options for aviation on the basis of current knowledge, and to 
propose a possible vision and roadmap for their deployment in order to facilitate 
and support future policy decisions. The SWAFEA study, which delivered its find-
ings and recommendations in April 2011 [3],1 encompassed all aspects of the poss-
ible  introduction  of  alternative  fuels  in  aviation  using  a  highly  multidisciplinary 
approach. This included technical, environmental, and economic assessments. The 
study was carried out under the leadership of the French Aerospace Research Lab 
ONERA,  in  cooperation  with  a  consortium  of  twenty  partners2 bringing  together 
European  research  organisations  and  representatives  of  virtually  every  major 
stakeholder in the aviation fuel chain. 

Keywords.  Alternative  fuels,  Fischer-Tropp  synthetic  paraffine  kerosenes  (FT-
SPK),  Hydroprocessed  renewable  jet  (HRJ),  CTL  (coal),  GTL  (gas),  BTL  (bio-
mass) 

1. Candidate Alternative Fuels for Aviation 

Over  the  last  three  years,  the  landscape  of  alternative  fuels  for  aviation  has  quickly 
evolved with the approval by ASTM in 2009 of the Fischer-Tropsch synthetic paraffin-
ic kerosenes (FT-SPK), made from coal (CTL), gas (GTL) or biomass (BTL), followed 
by the approval in 2011 of Hydroprocessed Renewable Jet (HRJ3), made from hydro-
processed vegetable oils or animal fats [4]. These products can be blended with Jet A-1 
up to 50%, to produce “drop-in” fuels meaning that these fuels can be used just as if 
they  were  conventional  Jet  A-1,  without  any  limitation,  special  handling  or  re-
certification of aircraft.  

The  technical assessment  performed  in  the frame  of  SWAFEA  aimed  at  comple-
menting  these  works,  focused  on  well-established  processes  and  final  products  that 

130

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

clone  crude-oil  based  kerosene  molecules,  by  investigating  possible  solutions  beyond 
these first candidate fuels. 

Fuel  evaluations  were  focused  on  potentially  “drop-in”  solutions,  meaning  fuels 
that were believed to have significant chance to be demonstrated as drop-in. Indeed, no 
identified not “drop-in” solution was perceived, on the basis of current knowledge, to 
potentially  present  such  advantages  that  it  could  counterbalance  the heavy  drawbacks 
of being non “drop-in” both from an economic and an operational point of view. 

Investigations carried out on the selected fuel types were mainly based on an expe-
rimental  testing  programme  designed  to  answer  key  questions  regarding  the  short  to 
mid-term development of alternative fuels for aviation [5]. This testing programme was 
not intended to be an approval programme and, consequently, it included only a selec-
tion of important tests [6]. 

Among other results, the performed analysis showed: 
•  The potential interest of low blending ratio with Jet A-1 of HRJ designed with 
higher freezing point (while keeping the blend freezing point specification un-
changed)  –  an  higher  freezing  point  indeed  requires  less  processing  (hydro-
isomerisation) which translates in higher yields and improved economic effi-
ciency; 

•  The benefit with view to engine emissions of decreasing the aromatic content 
by increasing the blending ratio of SPK with Jet A-1 over 50% while, if many 
of  the problems  associated  to  aromatics  content  decrease  could be  addressed 
by further studies, compatibility with seals remains a critical problem, at least 
as long as aircraft not using “zero aromatic tolerant” seals haven’t been retired 
from service (currently the option of synthetic aromatics is preferred);  

•  The potential of naphthenic compounds obtained from liquefaction (consisting 
mainly of cyclo-paraffins and naphteno-aromatics) as a blendstock with HRJ, 
additional investigation being recommended to confirm the possibility of aro-
matics substitution. 

Emerging routes to produce hydrocarbons from sugar [8,9,10] or from lignocellu-
lose  (through  an  intermediate  transformation  in  sugar)  could  not  be  assessed  within 
SWAFEA but are certainly to be considered looking at the on-going works and at their 
potential interest from an economic point of view since such routes could combine rela-
tively  low  cost  feedstock  and  reduced  capital  cost  compared  to  Fischer-Tropsch 
process. 

2. The Potential for GHG Emissions Reduction 

A major consideration for going to alternative fuels in aviation being the GHG emis-
sions  reduction,  an  important  task  within  SWAFEA  was  the  evaluation  of  the  actual 
emissions of these new fuels. HRJ and BTL pathways were analysed for a number of 
feedstock. GTL was also considered as it is a mature alternative fuels for aviation that 
is likely to emerge to answer aviation fuel demand and provide supply diversification. 

Main results are summarized in Fig. 1 for GHG global emissions (“well to wake”). 
All the evaluated biofuel pathways demonstrate a potential for significant GHG emis-
sions  reductions.  Nevertheless,  their  ability  to  reach  the  RED’s  threshold  of  60%  in 
terms  of  emissions reduction  depends  strongly  on  the process,  the feedstock  and also 
the  cultivation  pathway  which  is  generally  the  major  contributor  (in  particular  due  to 

P. Novelli / SWAFEA

131

Figure 1. Short caption Results from SWAFEA life cycle assessment [11] (with no land use change). Note: 
reference value for kerosene is the one set by the RED. 

Well To Tank GHG emissions

Microalgaes pathway 1

Palm

Rapeseed

Jatropha seed cake recycling

Jatropha chemical fertilizer

Camelina

Switchgrass

SRC

Miscanthus

Cultivation and drying
Transportation and intermediate storage
Oil extraction and refining
Oversea transportation
Fuel plant
Transportation / Distribution

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

gCO2eq/MJ fuel

Figure 2. Illustration of contributions to biofuels life cycle emissions (with no land use change) [11]. 

the use of agrochemical inputs, especially N2O) as shown in Fig. 2. The optimisation of 
the cultivation steps is a paramount factor for achieving GHG emissions reduction. 

HRJ pathways  generally  produce  more  GHG  emissions  than  BTL because of  the 
use  in  the  process  of  hydrogen  today  produced  from  natural  gas.  The  evaluated  oil 
seeds also demonstrate higher cultivation emissions than lignocellulose feedstock used 
for BTL. The ability of HRJ to match the RED’s target finally depends on the feeds-
tock and on the emissions associated to their cultivation.  

 
132

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

However,  like  other  recent  studies  [12],  the  evaluation  carried  out  within  SWA-
FEA  shows  that  the  contribution  of  land  use  changes  may  offset  all  benefits  from  a 
given alternative fuel if the biomass is grown on a land formerly covered by vegetation 
with high carbon stocks. Land use change (LUC) may easily have a dominating effect 
over  the  whole  production  chain4 and  should  thus  be  carefully  controlled.  A  current 
unsolved issue is that this land use change cannot always be directly observed. Indirect 
land  use  change  (iLUC)  may  result  from  the  displacement  of  cultures  because  of  the 
deployment of energy crops on areas that were used for other purposes and especially 
for  food  production.  No  methodology  is  today  agreed  to  address  iLUC  in  LCA  and 
iLUC is also difficult to tackle through sustainability framework for biofuel certifica-
tion. 

If  significant  emissions  reductions  are  possible  with  biofuels,  the  analysis  shows 
that GTL imported to Europe from a remote production facility is likely to have higher 
GHG emissions compared to the current EU Jet A-1 baseline. CCS can be applied, but 
currently, even the most complex and costly measures are unlikely to give a net reduc-
tion in carbon emissions relative to today’s benchmark. 

3. Alternative Fuels Atmospheric Impacts 

Aviation emissions and the type of fuel used have an impact on atmospheric chemistry 
and on the radiative balance of the atmosphere beyond the CO2 effect. Contrails formed 
by  condensation  of water vapour onto  exhaust  aerosols,  including  soot particles,  may 
trigger the formation of induced cirrus clouds. Emissions of nitrogen oxides perturb the 
natural chemical cycles, lead to ozone production or destruction depending on latitude 
and altitude, and modify methane time of residence in the atmosphere [13]. These indi-
rect  effects  from  burning  fuel  at  cruise  altitude  provide  further  contributions  to  the 
greenhouse effect in addition to CO2 emissions. 

From literature data and from the high pressure combustion tests performed within 
SWAFEA, the use of alternative fuels such as the 50% SPK blends with Jet A-1 leads 
to significant reduction in engine soot and SOX emissions due to the reduced content of 
aromatics and sulphur. Other species are less affected and their emissions changes may 
depend on the combustion chamber technology (NOX, CO, UHC) while the lower con-
sumption  associated  to  higher  energy  content  of  SPK  is  a  factor  for  NOX  and  CO2 
emissions reduction. 

In addition to the positive effect on local air quality, the simulations performed in 
SWAFEA show that the reduced soot concentrations may affect significantly contrails 
properties  and  possibly  reduce  their  radioactive  impact  in  the  atmosphere [14]. Addi-
tional studies on alternative contrail formation mechanisms are clearly recommended as 
current conclusions remain preliminary. 

From  the  performed  studies,  the  other  impacts  of  alternative  fuels  on ozone con-

centrations are expected to remain modest and bellow natural ozone variability. 

4. Sustainability of Alternative Fuels 

Next  to  the  assessment  of GHG  emissions,  an  analysis  of  the potential  availability  in 
2050 of “traditional” biomass (agriculture, forestry and waste) was carried out within 
SWAFEA [14]. A proper assessment of the world agriculture production capability was 

P. Novelli / SWAFEA

133

achieved.  Resources  from  forestry  and  waste  were  added  from  literature  review.  The 
analysis doesn’t constitute a prediction of the biomass production in 2050, but an esti-
mate of the possible production from a “technical” point of view. 

Sustainability constraints in compliance with the RED or the RSB [15] framework 
were enforced in the analysis (no deforestation, lands first used to secure extrapolated 
food  demand  in  2050,  no  negative  LUC,  etc.)  and  conservative  choices  were  used  to 
prevent  from  over-estimation.  Energy  crops  with  the  highest  performances,  including 
both lignocellulose and oil seeds, were regionally selected for the production scenario. 
From this assessment, agriculture appears likely to be the main potential contribu-
tor  to  energy  biomass  production,  while  there  are  significant  uncertainties  about  long 
term availability of forestry resources and residues for which conservative choices were 
thus made. 

The  potential  biomass  availability  was  assessed  against  the  biofuel  demand  to 
achieve the aspirational targets for emissions reductions. Taking into account transfor-
mation yield for BTL and HRJ, and the fact that neither hydroprocessing nor Fischer-
Tropsch produce only jet fuel, it turned out that, with the performed evaluation, achiev-
ing  a  50%  reduction  of  aviation  emissions  in  2050  compared  to  2005  would  mean 
processing 76% of the available biomass in biofuel. This was considered as an exces-
sive  fraction.  Stabilising  emissions  at  their  level  of  2020  appears  as  more  achievable 
target which would require to process about 52% in biofuel, preserving biomass availa-
bility for other applications. Considering the uncertainties, it is recommended that such 
evaluation  be consolidated. Nevertheless, a  conclusion  is  that  radically  more  efficient 
biomass or processes and also revolutionary aircraft technologies should really be pur-
sued to meet this 50% emissions reduction targets. 

Achieving the foreseen development of the production in the next 40 years is also 
a  significant  challenge  which  requires  investment  in  agriculture,  cultivating  a  large 
amount of lands not cultivated today, and the availability of fertilizers and of manpow-
er. Reaching a carbon neutral growth at 2020 emissions level as early as 2030 would 
for example request a rate of increase of the biomass production by 2030 that appears 
quite hard to achieve. Availability of large quantities of sustainable biomass may thus 
be the main bottleneck to reach industry targets. 

Algae appear as particularly interesting candidates to provide additional source of 
biomass  since  they  promise  high  yields  and  modest  requirements  on  land  quality, 
avoiding a direct competition with food. Algae potential is nevertheless still to be dem-
onstrated,  main  research  challenges  being  to  confirm  at  large  scale  the  high  perfor-
mances obtained in laboratory or pilots, and to reach competitive production costs for 
energy production. This is clearly an important axis of research for a wide development 
of biofuels. 

5. Economics of Alternative Fuels 

An  analysis  has  been  carried  out  within  SWAFEA,  essentially  on  HRJ  and  BTL,  to 
evaluate how biofuels compare with conventional jet fuel and which measures could be 
required for their deployment [16]. 

The  economical  assessment  considered  the  supply  chain for  the aviation  fuel up-
lifted  in  European  countries.  It  has  been  built  around  the  industry  target  of  halving 
aviation CO2 emissions in 2050 compared to 2005, assuming no limitation on resources 

134

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

Figure 3. Biofuel final production cost (including blending cost). Reference scenario: very low penetration of 
biofuel by 2020. Variant: 5% penetration by 2020. 

(feedstock,  capital,  etc.).  This  determines  the  ramp  up of  the  industry  and  the  “learn-
ing” effect that can be expected from the production development.  

Figure 3 provides production cost simulations. They are compared to jet fuel price 
evolutions  extrapolated  from  the  U.S.  Energy  Information  Agency’s  projections  and 
also projections for carbon price on the basis of literature data. Cost evaluations were 
done  for  two  “extreme”  hypotheses  for  feedstock  prices.  The  first  one  assumes  a  de-
crease of feedstock price thanks to learning effect and yield increase. The second one 
postulates an increase of feedstock price with crude oil price. 

The analysis shows that neither BTL nor HRJ solutions are initially cost competi-
tive with conventional jet fuel while in the longer term their viability depends heavily 
on the possibility to secure “low price” feed stock supply. Specific policy measures and 
incentives are thus required to initiate the deployment of biofuels. 

HRJ exhibits the highest dependence on feedstock price and cost competitiveness 
in  the  medium  to  long  term  cannot  be  reached  unless  cheap  and  abundant  sources  of 
sustainable oils can be secured. 

BTL  is  initially  dominated  by  capital  investment.  With  learning,  the  specific  in-
vestment cost may drop and BTL fuels will eventually become cost competitive when a 
large  number  of  plants  have  been  built  since  the  feedstock  for  BTL  is  comparably 
cheap and varied. The much higher required initial investment is nevertheless likely to 
be a significant difficulty for deployment.  

Indeed,  behind  the  production  price,  the  development  of  the  production  capacity 
has also to be considered. Under the assumption that only one fuel solution is used to 
meet European demand, approximately 80 HRJ production plants or approximately 300 
BTL  production  plants  would  be  required  to  halve  emissions  in  2050.5 This  indicates 

 
P. Novelli / SWAFEA

135

that a large and immediate technological and financial effort would be required to ramp 
up the production and achieve targets. The development of the production capacity is 
likely to be a second bottleneck to reach emissions reduction targets. 

As a conclusion, specific policy measures and incentives are required to initiate the 
deployment  of  biofuels.  Without  further  incentives,  the  current  open  ETS  system,  in 
which biofuel use is free from emissions allowances need, is not likely to trigger bio-
fuel production start-up. 

An additional important point is the strong link which exists for technical and eco-
nomic  reasons  between  the  production  of  aviation  fuel  and  of  other  products,  in  par-
ticular road transport fuels. The profitability of biofuels in the other transport modes is 
thus an important parameter of the jet biofuel business case. Competition between the 
two sectors has also to be managed considering the high diesel demand and attractive-
ness due to the existing levers of substantial duty and tax reductions. 

6. Conclusions and Perspectives 

Although the aviation sector has a good track record in reducing its environmental im-
pact through efficiency gain, it is highly unlikely to reduce or even stabilise its emis-
sions through this means alone. 

Biofuels  present  a  real  potential  for  reducing  GHG  emissions,  provided  that  the 
feedstock  production  step  is  well  mastered.  However,  if  at  least  BTL  and  HRJ  path-
ways will be available in the short term to produce jet quality fuels, they face a lack of 
competitiveness  with  conventional  jet  fuel  that  is  likely  to  hinder  their  development, 
even  with  the  exemption  of  biofuels  use  from  ETS.  In  addition,  biomass  availability 
and production development appear as the critical bottlenecks for biofuel ramp-up and 
for achieving emissions reductions targets. 

Both  biomass  availability  and  economics  evidence  the  need  for  more  efficient 
processing pathways, with higher transformation yields and reduced costs, and for new 
sources of feed stocks.  

Achieving  significant  emissions  reduction with biofuels will  need  time  and  a de-
termined policy, meaning also that aviation will have to offset a part of its emissions 
beyond 2030. Initiatives have to be decided from now to start the process and generate 
the learning and technological progress which is required for a faster future deployment. 
Defining a low minimum goal for biofuel introduction in aviation by 2020 could 
be a first step on which policy measures suitable for triggering a start-up of the produc-
tion could be based.  

No single measure seems adapted to achieve both this production target, a signifi-
cant involvement of multiple stakeholders in biofuel production and the emergence of 
diversified technologies. The limited profitability margin of airlines is also to be consi-
dered with view to their capacity and willingness to pay a premium for biofuel, espe-
cially in situation where policy measures could induce competition distortion. A com-
bination of measures is probably to be preferred. In particular a global plan pushing for 
the emergences of a number of “end to end” projects addressing the complete produc-
tion chain from feedstock to fuel could be a way to reach a minimum production target 
while  favouring  technology  development  and  diversity  along  with  the  development 
of energy  biomass  production.  Such  plan  could  possibly  be  funded  by  the  revenue  of 
ETS auction. To complement it, the possible interest of a quota mandate policy on fuel 

 
136

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

production could be investigated, in a “push and pull” approach that guaranties that the 
deployment occurs and also may offers possibilities to distribute the funding on a wider 
range of payers. 

In  any  case,  early  deployment  should  definitely  go  with  an  intensification  of  the 
research  on  innovative  processes  and  feedstock,  and  should  be  considered  in  synergy 
with other sectors and in particular with the automotive industry. 

Endnotes 

1 SWAFEA final report is available on www.swafea.eu. 
2 SWAFEA partners: Airbus, AirFrance, Altran, Bauhaus Luftfahrt, Cerfacs, Concawe, DLR, EADS-IW, 
Embrarer,  Erdyn,  Iata,  Ineris,  IFPEN,  Onera,  Plant  Research  International  (WUR),  Rolls-Royce  UK  and 
Rolls-Royce Deutschland, Shell, Snecma, University of Sheffield. 

3 Official designation by ASTM is now Hydroprocessed Ester and Fatty Acid (HEFA). 
4 In some case this effect may be positive, for example when perennial crops are cultivated on converted 

grasslands. 

5 This evaluation is based on an optimum size for BTL plant around 1 Mt/y and 5 Mt/y for HRJ. 

References 

[1]  Directive 2009/28/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on the promo-

tion of the use of energy from renewable sources. 

[2]  Directive 2008/101/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 amending 
Directive 2003/87/EC so as to include aviation activities in the scheme for greenhouse gas emission al-
lowance trading within the Community. 

[3]  Ph. Novelli, SWAFEA final Report, SWAFEA D.9.1 report, April 2011, www.swafea.eu. 
[4]  ASTM D7566, Standard Specification for Aviation Turbine Fuel Containing Synthesized Hydrocarbons. 
[5]  C.  Lewis,  Technical  feasibility  and  performance  of  biofuels  in  aviation,  Aero  engine  analysis,  SWA-

FEA D.3.2 report, March 2011, www.swafea.eu. 

[6]  Annual  book  of  ASTM  standards,  D4054:  Standard  Specification  for  Qualification  and  Approval  of 

New Aviation Turbine Fuels and Fuel additives. 

[7]  W. Weiss (1) *, H. Dulot, A. Quignard, N. Charon, M. Courtiade, Direct Coal to liquids (DCL): high 

quality jet fuels. 

[8]  http://www.amyris.com/en/markets/fuels/renewable-jet-fuel. 
[9]  P.G. Blommel and R.D. Cortright, Production of Conventional Liquid Fuels from Sugars, Virent Ener-

gy Systems, Inc. 2008. 

[10]  Ch. Ryan, Path to Cellulosic Alcohol-to-Jet, Gevo’s presentation, Paris Air Show 2011. 
[11]  A. Prieur, L. Thellier and L. Patouiallard, Life cycle analysis report, SWAFEA D.6.2.2 report, January 

2011, www.swafea.eu. 

[12]  R. Stratton, H.M. Wong and J.I. Hileman, Life Cycle Green House Gas Emissions from Alternative Jet 

Fuels, PARTNER Project 28 report, April 2020. 

[13]  D.S. Lee, D.W. Fahey, P.M. Forster, P.J. Newton, R.C.N. Wit, L.L. Lim, B. Owen and R. Sausen, Avi-

ation and global climate change in the 21st century, Atmos. Environ. 3520–3537, 2009. 

[14]  Environmental Analysis Report, SWAFEA D.6.2 report, January 2011. 
[15]  RSB Principles & Criteria for Sustainable Biofuel Production, version 1.0, 12.11.2009. 
[16]  Christensen, Peineke, Tamboer, Hagenzieker and van Druten, Business Case & Implementation Strate-

gies, SWAFEA D.7.1 report, March 2011. 

                                                           
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
P. Novelli / SWAFEA

137

About the Author 

Philippe Novelli is Project Manager at ONERA (France) 
Coordinator of the SWAFEA study 
ONERA 
Chemin de la Hunière 
BP 80100 
F-91123 Palaiseau Cedex 
philippe.novelli@onera.fr 
www.onera.fr 

 
138

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-138

European Aviation Noise Research 
Network (X-NOISE) 

Dominique COLLIN 

Abstract.  Over  the  last  ten  years,  ambitious,  national  and  regional  research  pro-
grammes have been initiated to support technology breakthroughs aimed at further 
noise reduction. Such initiatives have been established in the European Union, the 
United States, Japan, Canada, Brazil and the Russian Federation. The emergence 
of dedicated network structures has played a significant role in the elaboration and 
successful implementation of these various initiatives. In Europe in particular, im-
portant  works  are  being  conducted  within  the  context  of  the  Framework  Pro-
grammes. This paper summarises the achievements of the research effort dedicated 
to the reduction of aviation noise as coordinated by the X-Noise network through 
the Coordination Actions X3-Noise (2006–2010) and X-Noise EV (2010–2014). 

Keywords.  Noise  reduction,  X-Noise  network,  turbomachinery  noise,  exhaust 
noise, airframe noise 

1. X-NOISE: A Precursor of Networks Dedicated to Aviation Noise Reduction 

The various network structures set up in the world have been used to develop and con-
solidate detailed research strategies addressing the high level goals set by national and 
regional research frameworks, establishing the conditions for more active and coordi-
nated research covering all areas related to the International Civil Aviation Organiza-
tion (ICAO) Balanced Approach. Within this framework networks provide the capabili-
ty to effectively manage clusters of basic research projects as well as the transition to-
wards further stages of technology demonstration.  

The European X-Noise organisation may be considered as both a precursor and a 
typical example of such networks. Dedicated to the aviation noise research effort, it has 
developed its activities along three main directions as described below: 

•  The  definition,  coordination  and  assessment  of  research  strategies  aimed  at 
meeting the 2020 ACARE noise target (average reduction of 10 dB per opera-
tion relative to the 2000 situation); 

•  The  dissemination  and  communication  of  the  Scientific  research  effort  and 
technological achievements as well as issues and priorities for the future; 
•  The  improved  integration  of  European  research  community  activities  in  the 

field of air transport related noise research. 

2. Achievements in Noise Reduction 

The  ACARE  Strategic  Research  Agenda  (SRA)  has  established  a  general  framework 
for European Aviation related research, including the definition of quantified targets for 

D. Collin / European Aviation Noise Research Network (X-NOISE)

139

Figure 1. Roadmap of EU funded aviation noise research projects. 

2020. To successfully address these objectives, a key step has been the elaboration of a 
detailed  research  strategy  supported  by  complementary  tools  such  as  state-of-the-art 
assessment and gap analysis, as well as mechanisms to gather novel ideas and concepts. 
This has been achieved through a process involving consultation of the scientific com-
munity as well as the other major stakeholders. The scope and ambition of the resulting 
X-Noise network strategy and associated recommendations can be well represented by 
means of a projects roadmap (Fig. 1) which presents the status of EU-funded aircraft 
noise projects as of end 2010, addressing in effect the key research fields (also called 
Contributors) as identified in the ACARE SRA. 

As  can  be  seen  in  Fig.  1,  this  approach  has  ensured  that  all  aspects  of  research 
were covered, in particular, activities that go beyond the development of quieter indi-
vidual  technologies  and  would  support  the  implementation  of  operation  and  environ-
mental practices aimed at managing the noise impact around airports, also including the 
modelling and understanding of Noise-Emissions interdependencies.  

X3-Noise’s in-depth analysis of the current achievements and Technology Readi-
ness  Level  6  prospects  carried  out  in  support  of  the  recent  AGAPE  exercise  has  al-
lowed  a  mid-term  interim  objective  of  –5 dB  per  operation  being  met  by  2010  to  be 
considered through the effort pictured in Fig. 1. Putting this status in perspective with 
further expectations relative to the stated ACARE Contributors, aircraft noise research 
effort  is  considered  as  globally  on  track  to  meet  the  ACARE  target,  but  will  require 
several  breakthrough  achievements  before  2016.  As  a  consequence,  to  maximise 
chances  of  meeting  the  10dB  noise  reduction  target,  the  following  recommendations 
were expressed: 

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

•  Maintain significant effort in support of Noise Reduction Technologies Gen-
eration 2 to reach TRL6, including active techniques and addressing integra-
tion issues such as weight, performance and durability; 

•  Maintain support to activities on Novel Architectures, with a particular focus 

on Low Noise Aircraft configurations; 

•  Ensure  successful  implementation  of  Low  Noise  Operational  Procedures  as 

investigated in FP5 and FP6. 

It was also pointed out that these results did not take into account the specific sit-
uation  created  by  the  emergence  of  the  open  rotor  engine  configuration  as  a  serious 
contender when dealing with low carbon technology options. Offsetting the anticipated 
noise source impact associated with novel open rotor engine architectures will necessi-
tate an aggressive approach, through dedicated research aimed at rotor blade aeroacous-
tic design, engine/airframe installation and flow control techniques in particular. 

Furthermore,  a  significant  aspect  of  research  networks  involves  the  capability  to 
join forces and regroup with counterparts in order to address and explore wider issues.  
Typical  examples  of  such  collaborations  at  European  level  include  the  develop-
ment of a strategy aimed at “Research for a Quieter Europe” through involvement with 
the CALM network. The Environmental Noise Directive of 2002 focuses on a common 
approach to address environmental noise, to be executed at the national, regional and 
local levels according to the principle of shared responsibility. The associated strategic 
vision derived and proposed by CALM for noise research covers a wide range of areas 
including assessment of noise exposure and perception, health impacts of exposure to 
noise,  noise  abatement  including  cost-benefit  aspects,  new  technologies  and  system 
approaches for improved noise control at source and the further development of legisla-
tive standards.  

ICAO maintains a high level of activity aimed at defining future international poli-
cies  and  standards  in  the  environmental  area.  To  this  end,  it  is  developing  a  forward 
looking view by means of technology goals definition and a modelling system predict-
ing  the  interdependent  impacts  of  future  policy  options.  The  issue  of  noise-emissions 
interdependencies is also at the core of future technology efforts as absolute component 
performance in noise may be dependent on the trade-off positions selected with refer-
ence  to  CO2 or  NOX.  In  this  context,  X3-Noise  has  collaborated  with  its  counterpart 
network on aviation emissions (AERONET). Common brainstorming workshops have 
been  organized  to  firm  up  a  long  term  approach  for  a  European  framework  able  to 
manage environmental interdependencies modelling and a subsequent project (TEAM-
PLAY) was launched at the end of 2010. 

3. Main Activities in the Dissemination Domain 

X-Noise Dissemination activities do involve scientific exchanges within the European 
research community as well as actions aimed at international dissemination and com-
munication. 

The  backbone  of  Scientific  Exchanges  is  the  Annual  X-Noise  Workshop  which 
revolves  every  year  around  a  topic  relative  to  the  research  agenda.  Now  in  place  for 
almost  10  years,  it  has  become  a  successful  periodic  event  in  Europe  where  the  best 
experts in the field can present the most recent findings and the whole network com-
munity gathers and exchange information. The event has in average been attended by 

D. Collin / European Aviation Noise Research Network (X-NOISE)

141

70 participants, involving about 20 contributed papers each time. Regular international 
participation has been registered from Russia, US and Japan. 

The  network  has  also  relied  on  a  number  of  additional  dissemination  vectors 
such as  its  dedicated  Public  Website  allowing  free  access  to  generic  information  on 
EC-funded aircraft noise projects, an EU projects publication database and all previous 
Scientific Workshops proceedings (www.xnoise.eu). 

Another  aspect  of  dissemination  has  involved  communication  of  research 
achievements and prospect towards regulatory bodies. In 2007, an International Tech-
nology Seminar was organised, attended by Research Establishments and Industry from 
the major aircraft manufacturing countries, i.e. Brazil, Canada, EU, Japan, Russia and 
USA.  It  did  feature  general  presentations  of  major  national/regional  aircraft  noise  re-
search initiatives. A particular emphasis was put on research goals and their definition 
process.  The  European  participants  later  contributed  to  the  material  presented  to  the 
ICAO CAEP Independent Experts Panel at the occasion of the Noise Technology Re-
view held in September 2008. Similarly, early in 2011, a new event has been organized 
to  prepare  for  the  second  CAEP  Noise  Technology  Review  scheduled  at  the  end 
of 2011. 

4. Integration of Research Community 

Thanks  to  the  various  individual  projects  and  the  networking  efforts  carried  out  over 
the last ten years, the European Aircraft Noise Research Community has now reached a 
critical mass. As of the middle of FP7, more than 150 different organisations had parti-
cipated  in  at  least  one  noise  project  proposal  over  the  last  4  EU  research  framework 
programmes. Three priorities have then driven the network activities in this area: 

•  Ensure  better  coordination  of  expertise  at  national  level,  so  that  value-added 
contributions  for  EU  projects  are  more  clearly  identified,  around  a  common 
set of well disseminated priorities and objectives, also leading to a better ex-
ploitation of national funding around similar priorities; 

•  Ensure better identification and exploitation of national upstream research into 
the more comprehensive EU projects, such as Integrated (Level 2) Projects; 
•  Favour development of local networks, with a particular emphasis on new EU 
member states, in order to foster participation in future projects, with a partic-
ular focus on SMEs. 

To  this  end,  a  network  of  National  Focal  Points  (NFPs)  has  been  established  to-
gether with appropriate resources tailored to the specific national situations. Within the 
NFP system, the initial phase of network development focused on identifying potential 
participants, mapping local expertise as related to stated priorities in aircraft noise re-
search at EU level (ACARE scope) and establishing the network in the national context. 
Workshops and information sessions have been organized by the Focal Points, national 
homepages have been established. Furthermore, representatives of CIS, South America 
and Mediterranean regions have also joined the network to strengthen links and devel-
op opportunities for further international cooperation. 

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

5. Future Perspectives 

X3-Noise  has  now  been  superseded  by  the  new  X-Noise  EV  Coordination  Action 
which  will  extend  the  network  activities  further  as  described  in  the  conceptual  “3-
Pillar” approach shown below (Fig. 2). 

This  extended  scope  should  strengthen  the  technology  effort  and  simultaneously 
ensure that the “Management of Noise Impact” contributor is effectively implemented, 
having  in  mind  further  recommendations expressed  in  support of  the AGAPE  assess-
ment, namely: 

•  Consolidate European predictive capability to evaluate the impacts of aircraft 
and rotorcraft noise on communities, including environmental interdependen-
cies; 

•  Support  improved  understanding  and  modelling  of  community  impact  and 

overall psycho acoustic annoyance; 

•  Promote a harmonised policy framework on land use practices and mitigation 
options as well as develop clear indicators to assess progress made in their ef-
fective implementation. 

More generally, as lasting organizations beyond the limited timeframe of individu-
al  projects,  research  networks  ensure  a  much  needed  structural  continuity  aimed  at 
longer term strategies. Examples of multidisciplinary European network collaboration 
have also served to emphasize the interest of such structures to address complex envi-
ronmental  issues  at  strategic  level.  Similarly,  a  concerted  approach  benefiting  from 
networks support could create more international cooperation opportunities for research 
aimed at reducing aviation environmental impact. 

Figure 2. X-NOISE 3-Pillar approach, key network features and geographic involvement. 

 
D. Collin / European Aviation Noise Research Network (X-NOISE)

143

About the Author 

Dominique Collin is Research Engineer at SAFRAN/Snecma – X-Noise Coordinator 
SAFRAN/Snecma – Centre de Villaroche 
F-77550 Moissy Cramayel 
dominique.collin@snecma.fr 
www.snecma.fr 
www.xnoise.eu 

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D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-144

Validation and Improvement 
of Airframe Noise Prediction Tools 

Christophe SCHRAM and Lilla KOLOSZÁR 

Abstract.  The  European  project  named  VALIANT  –  VALidation  and  Improve-
ment of Airframe Noise prediction Tools – is a Collaborative Research Project ad-
dressing the external noise challenges raised by the development of green aircraft. 
It focuses on broadband airframe noise (AFN) by tackling both landing gears and 
high lift devices, which are the two main contributors to AFN of an aircraft at ap-
proach.  The  complexity  and  diversity  of  broadband  turbulent  airframe  noise 
sources  make  that  prediction  and  subsequent  reduction  with  present  numerical 
tools extremely challenging and far from mature. 

Keywords. Airframe noise prediction, aeroacoustics, Eddy simulations 

Since the 1950’s, the increase in population density around airports and the increase in 
number of aircraft flights have given rise to much greater intrusion of aircraft noise on 
community life. Community noise is cited today as a major problem to be solved by the 
aircraft transport industry to improve the environment around airports and to allow the 
current growth of passenger travel to continue. 

The objective is to contribute to the ACARE strategic goal of reducing the external 
noise by 10 EPNdB per operation in 2020, taking 2001 as the baseline. European aero-
nautical industry has committed to meet this extremely demanding challenge. Amongst 
various other important aspects, the fulfillment of the ACARE objectives involves the 
improvement  of  accurate  and  fast  prediction  techniques  to  enable  virtual  prototyping 
and shorten development cycles. The VALIANT consortium is very much aware of the 
fact that a project dealing with a real airframe with slat, flap and landing gear integrated 
in a unique complex geometry would not permit the answering of questions concerning 
the maturity and validation of the numerical methods. Indeed, such assemblies would 
require prohibitive computations as well as wind tunnel testing, which are incompatible 
with  the  development,  systematic  comparison  and  experimental  validation  of  high-
accuracy  numerical  tools.  This  knowledge  can  be  accumulated  only  by  studying  iso-
lated generic configurations (slat, flap, landing gear, etc.). Moreover, previous and cur-
rently  running  research  programs  dealing  with  AFN,  such  as  RAIN,  SILENCE(R), 
AWIATOR, TIMPAN, CLEANSKY and OPENAIR, study realistic rather than generic 
configurations, with a clear focus on noise reduction technologies at a realistic scale. In 
contrast, VALIANT is aiming to validate/improve noise prediction tools and represents 
a very complementary contribution towards the ACARE goals. 

The  following  specific  flow  configurations  representing  the  basic  mechanisms  of 
AFN generated by  the  most  relevant  elements of  a  real  aircraft have been selected  in 

 
C. Schram and L. Koloszár / Validation and Improvement of Airframe Noise Prediction Tools

145

Figure 1. The gap model installed in the anechoic chamber AK-2 of TsAGI. 

VALIANT for a thorough investigation aimed at validating and improving the broad-
band AFN predictive tools: 

•  Turbulent flow over a gap; 
•  Flow past airfoil with flap; 
•  Flow past airfoil with slat; 
•  Flow past two-struts. 

The first configuration reflects the main features of the flow field found in any air-
craft retractable device, the second and the third cases are more specifically representa-
tive of the high-lift wing devices, and the last configuration includes interactions that 
take place in landing gears. Thus these four generic flows actually cover the most im-
portant sources of AFN generated by a real aircraft and therefore their study provides a 
sufficient  basis  for  evaluation  and  improvement  of  the  Computational  Aeroacoustics 
(CAA) tools aimed at predicting AFN. 

For each of the four aforementioned basic configurations the main technical objec-

tives are: 

−  To generate a detailed, accurate experimental database on broadband noise as-
sociated  with  the  configuration  including  the  turbulent  flow  sources  causing 
the noise; 

−  To validate and improve CAA tools for prediction of the corresponding type 

of broadband AFN and generate a detailed numerical database. 

The use of generic configurations permits the establishment of very complete and 
accurate  experimental  databases  that  will  be  used  for  the  validation  of  the  prediction 
tools, which is an essential step towards their improvement. The first half of the project 
has  therefore  focused  on  measurements,  particularly  to  obtain  the  necessary  data  for 
validating the simulations. Since numerical simulations, especially Large Eddy Simula-
tions (LES) and Detached Eddy Simulations (DES) are very sensitive to boundary con-
ditions,  some  measurements  to  provide  these  inputs  had  to  be  conducted  in  the  early 
stages of the project to permit a timely start of the simulation work. 

All planned measurements related to the gap test case were performed by TsAGI 
(Fig. 1). Based on the inflow parameters provided by these measurements the numeri-
cal partners were able to start their state-of-the-art simulations on this geometry. 

Until now, mainly aerodynamic results have been obtained. IMM performed simu-
lations using the DES and Delayed DES (DDES) approaches, while TUB used just the 

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

Figure  2.  Vortical  structures  captured  in  the  gap  configuration,  indicated  by  λ2-isosurface  coloured  with 
spanwise velocity component. 

DDES  model  (Fig.  2).  Based  on  these  first  simulations  further  improvements  of  the 
computational methods were identified. 

The  wing-flap  simulations  were  also  started  as  soon  as  the  necessary  boundary 
condition input data were made available. These measurements were done in the ane-
choic  wind  tunnel  of  ECL.  During  the  two  measurement  campaigns  detailed  acoustic 
and  aerodynamic  data  were  collected  by  ECL  and  ONERA  (wall-pressure,  hot-wire, 
microphone  array,  single  microphone  measurements)  [1,3].  In  the  second  half  of  the 
project,  VKI  will  perform  PIV  and  acoustic  beamforming  measurements  of  the  same 
wing-flap arrangement (with span doubled with respect to the ECL mock-up) in its L1 
wind tunnel.  

The first numerical simulations of the wing-flap were performed, based on the hot-
wire data collected by ECL over the wing. DLR used a RANS based noise prediction 
technique where it is possible to separate the regions of sound production. Using this 
technique they found that the wing is mainly radiating low-frequency noise, while the 
high-frequency content is more due to the presence of the flap, the gap between them 
contributing to the whole range of radiated frequencies (Fig. 3). 

All the other partners involved in this configuration use transient flow simulation, 
either  LES  or  Improved  DDES  (IDDES)  in  order  to  resolve  the  noise  source  region 
around the bodies. The generation of synthetic turbulence at the inflow was found to be 
a crucial point for achieving meaningful results. Within the framework of VALIANT, 
NTS [2] dedicates special effort to this problem (Fig. 4). 

The definition of the wing-slat case required a preliminary CFD and optimisation 
step. ONERA performed a numerical optimisation of the 2D airfoil-slat configuration 
having a retracted wing-slat chord of 0.3 m. The objective was to obtain a mean flow 
and  a  distribution  of  noise  sources  in  the  slat  region  representative  of  a  conventional 
high-lift  wing  with  deployed  flap  and  slat  at  an  incidence  of  4°  while  minimising 
the overall  lift  and  deviation  of  the  wind  tunnel  open-jet.  The  optimised  airfoil  is  a 
2-element  wing  with  a  nominal  incidence  of  18°.  Detailed  numerical  simulations  in-
cluding  the  whole  test  section  revealed  that  the  measurements  should  be  conducted 
with an angle of attack 27° in order to reproduce the free stream conditions of 18°. The 
measurements conducted at ECL confirmed that an angle of attack of 25° permits the 
targeted  pressure  distribution  in  the  slat  area  to  be  produced.  As  in  the  previous  test 
case, the measurements are done both at ECL and VKI. For CFD (Figs 5 and 6), VKI, 
ONERA, NTS and NUMECA conducted unsteady flow simulations based on LES-like 

C. Schram and L. Koloszár / Validation and Improvement of Airframe Noise Prediction Tools

147

Figure 3. Superposition of individual snapshots of the sound pressure for different sources, for the wing-flap 
test case. 

Figure 4. Visualisation of E-IDDES solution for the wing-flap case: snapshots of vorticity and eddy viscosity 
in XY-plane and 3D view of swirl iso-surface. 

methods.  DLR  used  a  stochastic  approach  of  turbulence  reconstruction  from  steady 
RANS computation as described before. 

The  twin-strut  configuration  was  measured  in  the  small  anechoic  wind  tunnel 
(Fig. 7) of NLR who performed both far-field and microphone array measurements to 
determine  the  noise  directionality  and  the  source  localisation  for  different  regimes  of 
speeds  and  angles  of  attack  of  the  twin-strut  alignment.  Besides  these  acoustic  mea-
surements NLR obtained pressure data on the surfaces of the struts and VKI performed 
PIV  measurements.  TUB  has  performed  CFD  simulations  (using  a  DDES  technique) 
and still needs to complete the aeroacoustic analysis based on the FW-H formulation. 
CIMNE has performed preliminary 2D CFD simulations (using a VMS technique) on 
the two original test cases. 

Two formulations have been compared, the so-called algebraic sub-grid scale me-
thod and the orthogonal sub-scale stabilisation method. The inhomogeneous Helmholtz 
equation  will  be  solved  to  compute  the  acoustic  pressure  in  the  far-field.  IMM  uses 
a hybrid DES method for the numerical computation of the compressible viscous flow 

 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

Figure 5. Instantaneous Schlieren-like view in the slat cove region. 

Figure 6. Power Spectral Density of pressure, wing-slat configuration. 

Figure 7. KAT test section with airfoil section (white) and microphone array. 

(Fig. 8) whiles the aeroacoustic analysis will be based on the FW-H formulation. NU-
MECA has performed LES simulations for the two original test cases and still needs to 
complete the aeroacoustic analysis based on the FW-H formulation. 

The  second  half  of  the  project  will  focus  on  completing  the  experimental  cam-
paigns  (PIV  in  particular),  and  on  developing  and  implementing  improved  numerical 

 
 
 
C. Schram and L. Koloszár / Validation and Improvement of Airframe Noise Prediction Tools

149

Figure 8. Instantaneous flow field in mid-span plane and in 3D, visualisation is based on turbulent viscosity 
(SA model). 

and analytical simulation tools. Once all the improvements are implemented a series of 
second-pass simulations will be conducted with the upgraded methods. In terms of dis-
semination and exploitation of the results, two Lecture Series (March 2012 and 2013) 
will be organised by VKI to share the experiences and results obtained throughout the 
project. In addition to these important events, scientists participating in other active EC 
projects  (OPENAIR,  CLEANSKY)  have  been  contacted  with  a  view  to  the  organisa-
tion  of  joint  workshops,  where  the  best  suited  methods  for  AFN  prediction  and  their 
potential  for  integration  into  industrial  processes  for  airframe  noise  reduction  will  be 
presented. 

References 

[1]  B. Lemoine, M. Roger and I. Legriffon, Aeroacoustics of a Model Non-Lifting Wing-Flap System in a 
Parallel  Flow,  17th  AIAA/CEAS  Aeroacoustics  Conference  (32nd  AIAA  Aeroacoustics  Conference) 
05–08 June 2011, Portland, Oregon. 

[2]  M. Shur, P.R. Spalart, M. Strelets and A. Travin, A Rapid and Accurate Switch from RANS to LES in 

Boundary Layers Using an Overlap Region, Flow Turbulence Combust (2011) 86:179–206. 

[3]  M. Terracol, E. Manoha and B. Lemoine, Investigation of the unsteady flow and noise sources genera-
tion  in  a  slat  cove:  hybrid  zonal  RANS/LES  simulation  and  dedicated  experiment,  AIAA  Paper  2011-
3203, 41st AIAA Fluid Dynamics Conference and Exhibit, Honolulu, Hawaii, 27–30 Jun 2011. 

About the Authors 

Dr. Christophe Schram is Assistant Professor at the von Karman Institute of Fluid Dynamics (Belgium) 
schram@vki.be  

Dr. Lilla Koloszar is Ph.D. student in the same Institute 
koloszar@vki.ac.be  

von Karman Institute of Fluid Dynamics 
Ch. De Waterloo 72 
Rhode-St-Genese 
B-1640 Belgium 
+32 2 3599611 
www.vki.ac.be 

 
 
 
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Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-150

Structure of the Combustion 
in a Trapped Vortex Combustor 

Joseph BURGUBURU, Gilles CABOT, Michel CAZALENS and Bruno RENOU 

Abstract. Due to continuous efforts through past and ongoing European projects, 
lean  combustion  by  means  of  internally  staged  injectors  now  appears  to  be  the 
promising  technology  for  obtaining  the  required  emission  reductions  compatible 
with  a  sustainable  growth  of  aviation  transport.  The  European  project  “TECC-
AE” –  Technologies  Enhancement  for  Clean  Combustion  in  Aero-Engines  –  ad-
dresses a number of fundamental issues. To look even after ahead and to overcome 
the complexity issues inherent to stages lean combustors, TECC-AE also focuses 
on the design of an innovative lean combustor concept and on the development of 
a compact Ultra Low NOX (ULN) injection system. 

Keywords.  Clean  combustion,  combustor  chamber,  flame,  particle  image  veloci-
metry, trapped vortex combustor 

1. Background 

The ACARE organisation (Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research in Europe) set 
the  objective  of  a  80%  decrease  in  NOx  emissions  by  2020  for  aircraft  engines.  To 
reach  this  objective,  several  European  projects  have  been  carried  out.  The  TECC-AE 
project  (Technologies  enhancement  for  clean  combustion  in  aero-engines)  is  one  of 
them. 

The main objective of this project is to provide tools and technologies to develop 
an overall staged lean combustion technology capable to fulfill the required reduction. 
However, to reduce NOx emissions, it is necessary to reduce the flame temperature. It 
means generally to burn in lean conditions. In actual swirl stabilized combustion, lean 
conditions  tend  to  provoke  combustion  instabilities  which  could  be  very  harmful  for 
the safety of the whole engine. New ways of flame stabilization have to been found. 

A part of this project focuses on the study of a new combustor architecture. This 
one is based on the concept of a flame stabilized by the hot product recirculation loca-
lized in a cavity. This concept is called Trapped Vortex Combustor (TVC). 

TVC concepts have been studied since 1993 [1–4] and showed promising results in 
term of flame stability and lean blow out limit. The first studied burner was cavity only 
fueled.  In  the  second  generation,  both  the  main  and  the  cavity  flows  were  fueled. 
Moreover the flame stabilization was enhanced by flame-holders [4]. 

The  objective  of  the  experimental  device  built  in  collaboration  with  Snecma  and 
settled  in  the  CORIA  laboratory,  is  to  better  understand  the  mechanism  of  the  flame 
stabilization in this new configuration. 

 
 
 
J. Burguburu et al. / Structure of the Combustion in a Trapped Vortex Combustor

151

Figure  1. Description of the combustion chamber: 
The cavity in which takes place the pilot flame, the 
rods  and  the  main  annular  stream  in  which  burns 
the main flame. 

Figure  2. Picture of a stabilized flame in the trans-
parent  TVC  burner:  (1)  flame  inside  cavity,  (2) 
Main flow, pressure drop just behind rods, (3) main 
flame stabilization. 

2. Theoritical Flame Stabilization Mechanism 

The “rich” flame located inside the cavity generates a continuous source of burn prod-
ucts and a source of highly reactive radicals. These highly reactive elements go from 
the cavity to the main stream thanks the presence of rods immerged in the main stream 
(Fig. 1). They generate a wake zone downstream, characterized by a law velocity zone 
and a law pressure zone. The pressure drop sucks up the radicals from the cavity to the 
main stream and provides a continuous source of burn gases enabling the stabilization 
of the main lean flame (Fig. 2). 

3. The Combustor Chamber 

The combustion chamber is axis-symmetric and totally transparent. The diameter of the 
annular main stream is equal to 80 mm and its thickness is equal to 10 mm. This stream 
is  fed  by  a  lean  air/methane mixture.  The  cavity  width  can be varied  from  18  mm  to 
25 mm and its depth is fixed to 20 mm. The cavity air methane mixture is injected with 
an annular slot of 1 mm height at the bottom of the cavity. 20 rods of 3 mm diameter 
are  radially  placed  in  the  main  stream,  just  upstream  the  cavity  (Fig.  1).  They  act  as 
flame holders. Cooling air is injected on the downstream face of the cavity (Fig. 2). In 
this first study, the burner is fuelled with methane. The mas flow rates of the different 
inlets of fuel and air are piloted by a set of thermal mass flow rate controllers. 

4. Measurement Techniques 

Three  measurements  have  been  carried  out  simultaneously  in  reactive  conditions:  the 
flame chemiluminescence, the velocity field and the dynamic pressure. 

 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

Figure 3. Evolution of the pressure inside the combustion chamber during a cycle. Phased locked measure-
ment positions are noticed by red circles. 

The 2D velocity map is measured thanks to the Particle Image Velocimetry tech-
nique  (PIV).  These  measurements  have  been  done  with  two  Nd:Yag  lasers  (532  nm) 
pulsed to a 4 Hz frequency and with a double exposure camera delayed at 10µs. The 
cavity and main flows are seeded by 1 µm zircon particles. 

The light emitted by the flame is an indicator of the flame chemistry (chemilumi-
nescence). Then the collection of the spontaneous emission of CH* radical thanks to an 
ICCD camera and to an appropriate spectral filter inform us of the position and the in-
tensity of the combustion reaction The two cameras are focused in the same plane and 
triggered at the same 4 Hz rate.  

The dynamic pressure in the combustion chamber informs us of the cyclic instabil-
ities  of  flame.  The  pressure  signal  is  continuously  acquired  during  the  measurements 
and each couple velocity/CH* field is temporally referenced to the pressure signal. The 
temporal  analysis  of  the  pressure  signal  allows  sorting  of  images  as  function  of  the 
temporal  phase.  And  then  for  each  phase,  an  average  and  a  root.mean.square  (r.m.s.) 
can  be  calculated.  This  permits  the  reconstruction  of  the  phase  matched  of  simulta-
neously mean velocity and mean intensity reaction maps. The 0 deg phase corresponds 
to the minimal of the pressure signal (Fig. 3). 

Velocity measurements have been done into two planes along the axial direction: 
In the middle plane located between two rods (hereafter MP), and in the plane of a rod 
(hereafter RP). 

5. Results 

The Main flame structure has been measured for the reference case. The velocity of the 
main flow equals 8 m/s for an equivalence ratio of 0.85. The velocity of the cooling air 
equals 6 m/s. The velocity of the cavity injection equals 8 m/s for an equivalence ratio 
of 3.  

The  mean  flow  topology  (Fig.  4)  obtained  in  reactive  conditions  presents  these 
characteristics: in both planes (MP and RP) a vortex is present in the inner part of the 
cavity. Its upper tangential direction is opposite to the main flow direction. Therefore, a 
second  despun  vortex  is  present  which  makes  the  velocity  continuity  with  the  main 
flow.  In  the  RP,  thanks  to  the  depression  generated  by  the  rods,  a  part  of  the  vortex 

J. Burguburu et al. / Structure of the Combustion in a Trapped Vortex Combustor

153

Figure  4. Mean velocity field colored by mean CH* emissions. Top: Middle Plan. Bottom: Rod Plan. The 
velocity field in the rod plane highlights the importance of gas suction. 

takes place in the main flow. In the middle plane without the depression generated by 
the rod, the second vortex is queasily inexistent. In both plane, close to the cooling air 
injection, the mean flow highlights the leakage of the cavity flow into the main flow. 
The frequency of this phenomenon equals 150 Hz. Moreover, the presence of harmon-
ics in the pressure fluctuations (150 Hz, 300 Hz, 450 Hz) confirms the strong coupling 
between the acoustic of the combustion chamber and the flame fluctuations. 

The phased locked flow fields and CH* measurements provide more information 

on the flame dynamic.  

The  minimum  of  the  combustion  intensity  is  start  line  for  the  description  of  the 
cycle,  the  cycle  the  main  flow  is  queasily  extinguished  (290  deg.  see  Fig.  5)  and  the 
flame is located inside the cavity. Due to the high equivalence ratio inside the cavity, 
and speed of the injected flow, the flame takes place after the mixing between the cavi-
ty flow and the cooling air flow. Residuals of the main flame of the previous cycle are 
convected downstream, at the exit of the main channel. A small amount of CH radicals 
in the wake of the rod: The depression generated by the rods sucks the burn gases into 
the main stream as shows the velocity field close to the rod. 

The intensity the combustion increases (290–350 deg. see Fig. 5). The burn gases 
sucked and the low velocity zone behind the rod initiates the combustion in the wake of 
the  cylinder,  close  to  the  cavity.  The  intensity  of  the  combustion  in  the  main  stream 
increases and combustion gets to the outer part of the combustion chamber. 

Moreover,  the  acoustic  plays  an  important  role  on  the  overall  flow  velocity.  The 
amplitude  of  the  pressure  fluctuations  is  about  1.5  *104  Pa  (Fig.  3).  Consequently, 
the amplitude of the velocity fluctuations equals about 20 m/s. On the whole combustor, 
the  axial  velocity  decreases  by  amplitude  of  20  m/s  simultaneously  confirming 
the strong  influence  of  acoustic  on  the  axial  velocity  field.  The  velocity  inside  the 
main stream decreases below zero (110–180 deg) down to a minimum value (–6 m/s, 
145 deg). 

 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

Figure 5. Phased locked velocity field colored by CH* emissions at different instants: Left in the Rod Plan, 
right, between two rods (Middle Plan). 

With the law and decreasing incoming air fuel mixture velocity, the flame propa-
gates in the upstream direction (90 deg, Fig. 5) in the main channel and the axial veloc-
ity  becomes  negative  (100  deg).  This  flame  propagation  in  the  upstream  direction  is 
enhanced by the cavity dynamic. Thermal extension inside the cavity makes the burn 
products go fast into the main stream in the upstream direction. However, thermal ex-
pansion  dilates  the  burnt  gas  of  the  main  stream  in  the  downstream  direction.  .The 
second  vortex  is  still  present  and  the  cavity  is  aerodynamically  closed  (90–170  deg). 
Then the cavity empties (190 deg) in its downstream part (Fig. 5). 

Meanwhile,  the  main  flame  front  propagates  more  than  20  mm  upstream  in  the 
main  channel.  Then,  the  acoustic  velocity  fluctuation  increases  (150  deg),  becomes 
positive (172 deg), convecting downstream the main flame out of the channel progres-
sively. The main flow composed by burnt gases, penetrates into the upper part of the 
cavity. It highly stretches the flame in the cavity and reduces its intensity. Combustion 
mainly occurs in the downstream part of the cavity, up to the downstream air injection, 
close to the wall.  

The increase of the main flow velocity increases the suction of the burnt gases into 
the  main  stream  behind  the  rods:  though,  the  main  stream  flame  front  has  been  con-
vected downstream the rods, CH* signal is present and its intensity increases (290 deg). 
The cycle is over. 

J. Burguburu et al. / Structure of the Combustion in a Trapped Vortex Combustor

155

6. Conclusion 

This  trapped  vortex  combustor  confirms  the  mechanism  of  the  flame  stabilization. 
However, the flame stabilization is greatly influenced by the velocity fluctuations gen-
erated  by  the  acoustic  flow  field.  The  acoustic  frequency  of  the  combustion  chamber 
fits to the dynamic response of the flame. The amplitude of the acoustic velocity fluc-
tuations  strongly  destabilizes  the  combustion.  The  numerical  simulations  validated 
from this study shows that the flame becomes stable for a higher main flow rate. 

References 

[1]  K.Y. Hsu, L.P. Goss, D.D. Trump and W.M. Roquemore, 1995. Performance of a Trapped Vortex Com-

bustor, in: AIAA (Ed.), 33rd AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit, Reno, NV, USA. 

[2]  K.Y.  Hsu  and  G.J.  Sturgess,  1997.  Entrainment  of  mainstream  flow  in  a  trapped-vortex  combustor  in: 

AIAA (Ed.), 35th Aerospace Sciences Meeting & Exhibit, Reno, NV. 

[3]  K.Y. Hsu, L.P. Goss and W.M. Roquemore, 1998. Characteristics of a trapped-vortex combustor. Jour-

nal of Propul-sion and Power 14:57–65. 

[4]  W.M.  Roquemore,  D.T.  Shouse,  D.  Burrus,  A.  Johnson,  C.  Clayton,  V.R.  Katta,  G.J.  Sturgess, 
K.-Y.  Vihinen,  2001.  Trapped  Vortex  Combustor  Concept  for  Gas  Turbine  Engines,  in:  AIAA  (Ed.), 
39th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting & Exhibit, Reno, NV. 

About the Authors 

Joseph Burguburu 
CORIA UMR 6614 
Snecma – Avenue de l’Université – BP 8 
F-76801 Saint-Etienne de Rouvray 
Tel.: +33 (0)2 32 95 98 53 
joseph.burguburu@coria.fr 

Dr. Gilles Cabot 
Same address as above 
Tel.: +33(0)2 32 95 97 67 
gilles.cabot@coria.fr 

Professor Bruno Renou 
Same address as above 
Tel.: +33(0)2 32 95 98 54 
bruno.renou@coria.fr 

Dr. Michel Cazalens 
Snecma – Rond-Point René Ravaud – Réau 
F-77550 Moissy-Cramayel 
Tel.: +33 (0)1 60 59 76 95 
Michel.cazalens@coria.fr 

 
 
 
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Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-156

TIMECOP-AE: Towards Innovative 
Methods for Combustion Predictions 
in Aero-Engines 

Thomas LEDERLIN 

Abstract. The aim of the FP6 TIMECOP-AE project (2006–2010) was to improve 
the necessary combustion prediction methods that enable the development of prac-
tical  advanced  combustion  systems  for  future  engines,  with  reduced  emission  le-
vels and fuel consumption. Predictive tools are required to be able to reduce NOx 
emissions, to decrease the development time and costs of new combustion systems 
and to improve the operability of lean-burn combustion systems. Most promising 
approaches to satisfy future emission levels regulations are based on lean combus-
tion  technology.  However,  lean  combustion  compromises  combustor  operability, 
including  ignition,  altitude  re-light,  pull-away,  weak  extinction  performance  and 
thermo-acoustic instability behaviour. Therefore it is of prime importance to eva-
luate the behaviour of the flame during these transient phases in the design stage 
and modelling tools are required. Without these tools the development of advanced 
combustion systems relies on many costly and time consuming rig tests. The high-
fidelity simulations proposed in TIMECOP-AE are therefore a way to increase our 
competitiveness. 

Keywords. Large Eddy simulation (LES), ignition kernel, visualisation techniques 

1. The Large Eddy Simulation Approach 

During the last years big advances have been made in the field of reactive Large Eddy 
Simulation  (LES)  with  gaseous  fuels.  This  approach  gives  promising  results  with  re-
spect to turbulence modelling and can be used to model unsteady processes. Within the 
framework  of  TIMECOP-AE,  the  LES  tools  have  gained  a  new  critical  capability: 
modelling  of  the  liquid  fuel  combustion  process  for  conventional  and  low-emission 
combustors,  over  a  wide  range  of  operating  conditions.  The  operating  conditions  in-
clude  the  above-mentioned  transient  phenomena,  such  as  ignition  or  extinction.  The 
developments  achieved  in  the  simulation  tools  are  concerned  with  models  for  turbu-
lence, chemistry, turbulence-chemistry interactions, and liquid spray models. The me-
thods and models developed within TIMECOP have been evaluated against high quali-
ty  validation  data  issued  from  several  validation  test-rigs,  from  academic  burners  de-
signed  to  validate  a  specific  model  up  to  a  generic  combustor,  representative  of  an 
aero-engine combustor (Fig. 1). 

 
 
 
 
 
T. Lederlin / TIMECOP-AE: Towards Innovative Methods for Combustion Predictions

157

Figure 1. Generic combustor experimental model. 

To reach the main objective of advancing LES methods into two-phase flows for 
gas turbine applications, TIMECOP was divided into 4 work packages and the technic-
al activity distributed as follows: 

•  Development  of  models  and  study  of  fundamental  issues,  handled  by  work 

package 1; 

•  Production of experimental data for validation, handled by work package 2; 
• 

Implementation of 2-phase capability in numerical solvers and validation cal-
culations, handled by work package 3; 

•  Application  of  new  simulation  tools  to  industrial  configurations,  handled  by 

work package 4. 

2. TIMECOP at a Glance 

23 institutions from 8 European countries constituted the TIMECOP consortium: 

•  Universities:  University  of  Cambridge  (UK),  Technische  Universität  Darm-
stadt (GER), Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (GER), Technische Universi-
teit  Eindhoven  (NED),  Imperial  College  (UK),  Loughborough  University 
(UK),  Czestochowa  University  of  Technology  (POL),  University  of  Rome 
(IT), Ecole Centrale Paris (FR); 

•  Research  centres:  CERFACS  (FR),  ONERA  (FR), DLR (GER), IMFT (FR), 

• 

CNRS (FR), ICEHT (GR), IFPEN (FR); 
Industries:  Turbomeca  (FR),  Rolls-Royce  Deutschland  (GER),  Rolls-Royce 
plc (UK), MTU (GER), SNECMA (FR), AVIO (IT). 

The scientific production of the project is summarized here: 

• 
• 
• 
• 

7 test-rigs; 
18 CFD codes or modules; 
94 technical deliverables validated; 
41 publications produced. 

 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

3. The Scientific Content 

3.1. Work Package 1 – Fundamentals 

Within this work package, numerical  models for two-phase flow, chemistry and igni-
tion have been developed, improved evaluated and tested. Both Eulerian and Lagran-
gian  two-phase  models  have  been  considered,  and  the  performances  of  the  two  ap-
proaches have been compared. Chemistry models have been developed for application 
to LES. Approaches are based on the Flamelet Generated Manifold method, the Condi-
tional Closure Model, the Field PDF method, and the Computational Singular Perturba-
tion  method.  Furthermore,  a  specific  spark  ignition  model  has  been  developed.  The 
models have been implemented in numerical solvers and exploited by industrial part-
ners. 

3.2. Work Package 2 – Validation Experiments 

There  are  a  number  of  factors  that  still  prevent  full  utilisation  of  such  sophisticated 
simulation methods, especially for spray flames, by industry. The need to improve the 
reactive LES capability is closely dependent on availability of accurate, comprehensive 
diagnostic measurement data to be used for validation. WP2 focused on development 
and  application  of  advanced  diagnostic  techniques  on  geometries  and  flow  problems 
ranging from very well defined, easy-to-characterise, academic test cases to industrial 
test cases. The former tests were used to support model development, the latter to vali-
date models in presence of complex geometries and ambiguity in boundary conditions. 
A wide range of advanced visualization and diagnostic techniques (e.g. PIV, PTV, 
PDA, LDA, IMI, PLIF, OH* chemiluminescence, Mie scattering) have been used and 
often tested to the limit of their capabilities (Fig. 2). 

Attention has been paid to analyse a range of operating conditions, going from alti-
tude relight up to cruise. Both reactive and inert experiments have been carried out. A 
good combination of single- and two-phase flow experiments has been conducted. The 
data collected has been then used to both define boundary conditions and validate LES 
predictions. Important aspects of evaporation, turbulence-chemistry interaction, droplet 
transport and droplet combustion have been investigated. Notwithstanding the obvious 
challenges posed by application of these advanced techniques, which often have gone 
through  their  own  development  process  within  TIMECOP-AE,  the  objectives  of  pro-
ducing  a  comprehensive  matrix  of  test  cases  for  validation  of  LES  methods has  been 
achieved as per plan. 

In summary, the significant achievement of WP2 has been to stretch the capability 
of  existing  diagnostic  techniques  and  so  provide  valuable  LES  validation  data  used 
elsewhere  in  TIMECOP-AE.  In  particular,  demonstration  has  been  provided  that  ad-
vanced laser diagnostic methods can be directly used on industrial geometries and can 
produce a wealth of information on the aerothermal behaviour of aero-engine combus-
tors. 

3.3. Work Package 3 – Numerical Validation and Implementation of Fundamentals 

The  aim  of  this  work  package  was  to  integrate  the  fundamental  models  into  the  ad-
vanced  CFD  methods,  in  order  to  obtain  the  2-phase  reactive  CFD  capability  and  re-
solve the intrinsic unsteady behaviour of turbulent flows. To ensure the proper imple-

T. Lederlin / TIMECOP-AE: Towards Innovative Methods for Combustion Predictions

159

Figure 2. Experimental visualization of an ignition kernel. 

mentation of these new models, validations were first performed on academic experi-
ments. Once validated, the advanced CFD methods were ready to be tested on complex 
3D geometry experiments. 

All  the  tasks  defined  in  the  Description  of  Work  of  the  TIMECOP  project  have 
produced state-of-the-art scientific results and contributions in multiple scientific pub-
lications  in  international  conferences  and  journals.  Such  a  prolific  production  is  the 
result  of  the  developments  and  validations  of  multiple  LES  strategies  to  handle  two-
phase reacting flows not only from a theoretical point of view but also for industry-like 
configurations.  Despite  minor  adjustments  all  the  tasks  with  strong  links  with  WP4 
(Exploitation) have provided new industrial tools with great potential as illustrated by 
the industrial partners. 

3.4. Work Package 4 – Exploitation 

LES of reactive two-phase flow is the next evolution in CFD methodologies applied to 
the  conception  of  aeronautical  engines.  It  should  complement  and  eventually  replace 
existing RANS conception techniques. The justification of this evolution resides in the 
fact that engine performances and transient phases are not predictable with the only use 
of RANS. Some examples are flight relight, combustion instabilities, ignition and lean 
blow-off  prediction,  etc.  Also  RANS  is  very  depending  on  turbulence  modelling  and 
there is no general turbulence model adapted to any geometry or engine operation cir-
cumstance. The basis principle of LES makes this technique naturally adapted to com-
plex turbulent flows, such as those encountered in aeronautical combustors (Fig. 3). 

TIMECOP-AE has greatly helped introduce the LES tools into the industrial envi-
ronment for aero-engine design. All industrial partners have computed one of the con-
figurations that were experimentally tested in WP2. The results proposed have clearly 
shown that performing LES of two-phase reactive flows in an industrial context is feas-
ible. Previous to TIMECOP-AE project, LES was mainly used by researchers without 
or  with  a  weak  link  with  the  aeronautical  industry.  Several  research  projects  (PREC-
CINSTA,  ICLEAC,  MOLECULES)  have  helped  industrials  evaluate  and  understand 
the interest to adopt such LES tools to improve the conception process. However, only 
gaseous-fuel  combustion  simulations  had  been  applied  to  industrial  configurations. 
TIMECOP-AE  has  brought  2-phase  flow  modelling,  which  is  an  essential  feature  in 

 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

Figure 3. LES velocity field in a model aero-engine combustor. 

combustion simulation, into the industrial applications. LES technique still remains to 
be improved in terms of robustness and computational time consumption to be routine-
ly integrated in the industrial conception cycles. However, all aero-engine manufactur-
ers in TIMECOP consortium have tested it, by adapting owned CFD tools to LES, by 
adopting research tools modified to fit the industrial needs or by testing commercially-
available tools. 

4. Conclusion 

TIMECOP-AE has helped consolidate the requirements that LES tools should satisfy to 
be  integrated  in  the  aero-engine  industry  conception  process.  Models  required  by  in-
dustry needs have been developed by the research partners of this project, integrated in 
the  industrial  tools  and  then  evaluated  by  the  industrials  against  academic  and  real 
combustor engine geometries. The industrial LES related methodologies have started to 
be developed by each company. The research effort in this field should be continued; 
noticeably to obtain faster solvers to fit the conception timeline of aeronautical engines 
and to improve the models developed in TIMECOP. 

About the Author 

Dr. Thomas Lederlin is Combustion Research Engineer at the Methods Department of Turbomeca S.A. Tur-
bomeca – BP 17 
F-64511 Bordes Cedex  
Tel.: +33(0)5 59 12 50 65 
thomas.lederlin@turbomeca.fr 

 
Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-161

161

Towards Flutter-Free Turbomachinery 
Blades 

Damian M. VOGT and Torsten H. FRANSSON 

Abstract.  The  Royal  Institute  of  Technology,  Sweden,  is  leading  an  EU  FP7 
project called “FUTURE” involving a consortium of 25 partners from industry, re-
search institutes and academia. Flutter is and remains one of the key limiting phe-
nomena  when  designing  next  generation  of green  aircraft  and  engines.  Precisely, 
the main objective of the FUTURE research programme is to ensure that the phe-
nomenon of flutter is not harming the mechanical integrity of tomorrow’s aircraft 
engines. By advancing the state-of-the-art in flutter prediction capabilities and de-
sign rules, FUTURE will lead to benefits in terms of decreased development costs, 
reduced  weight  and  fuel  consumption,  as  well  as  increased  ability  to  efficiently 
manage  flutter  problems  on  engines  at  service.  The  focus  of  FUTURE  is  put  on 
two  primary  areas  of  turbo-machines,  in  which  flutter  is  observed:  low-pressure 
compressors and low-pressure turbines. 

Keywords.  Flutter-free  blades,  turbomachinery,  low-pressure  compressors,  low-
pressure turbines 

1. Introduction 

The propulsion of civil and military aircrafts is today almost exclusively based on tur-
bomachinery-based engines, which is primarily due to their unprecedented power den-
sity.  Turbomachines  have  progressively  evolved  since  the  middle  of  the  last  century 
and  key  advances  have  been  made  in  increasing  reliability,  availability  and  environ-
mental friendliness. Today’s aircraft engines consume on an average 12% less fuel than 
their late 1990-ies counterparts [1] and are thanks to this much “greener”. Environmen-
tally friendly aircraft engines are light, powerful, silent and produce low emissions of 
greenhouse gases and nitride oxides. This is achieved by having an efficient propulsion 
concept such as a high bypass ratio turbofan and by having an efficient power genera-
tion  cycle.  Below,  a  number  of  trends  are  listed  that  contribute  to  making  an  aircraft 
engine “greener”: 

Increased component efficiency; 

− 
−  Reduced component counts (i.e. fewer stages, fewer blades); 
−  Reduced weight of components; 
− 

Increased cycle and propulsion efficiency. 

In the light of these trends, there are limits for how “green” and aircraft engine can 
become  presently  using  traditional  cycles.  Component  efficiencies  are  already  very 
high  and  major  improvements  are  therefore  hard  to  realize.  Cycles  can  still  be  made 
more efficient, but the primary limitation is the available technology, which to a large 
degree still is under development. Reducing engine overall weight by reduced compo-

 
 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

Figure 1. A modern aircraft engine (picture courtesy of Rolls-Royce). 

nent  count  and  reduced weight  of  components  is  one of  the key  trends in  developing 
new aircraft engines. All these developments must however be made without compro-
mising  safety  and  last  but  not  least  affordability.  Of  many  phenomena  affecting  the 
mechanical  integrity  of  turbomachines,  flutter  is  probably  the  most  severe,  as  it  can 
lead to the disintegration of components in very short time. 

2. The Phenomenon of Flutter 

Flutter denotes a self-excited and self-sustained phenomenon that is due to the interac-
tion of fluid and structure [2]. In other words, an air flow past a structure can excite the 
structure by itself without any external input. Unless properly damped, flutter rapidly 
leads to excessive vibration amplitudes that literally can rip components apart or have 
them failing due to High-Cycle Fatigue (HCF). 

Given its severity, the phenomenon of flutter has gained attention already early in 
the development of turbomachines, even before these were used in aircraft propulsion. 
It has early been recognized that both the ratio of mass between the structure and the 
surrounding fluid as well as the vibration frequency of the structure play an important 
role for the flutter susceptibility of an object [2,3]. In this sense, long and slender com-
ponents are more prone to flutter than short and sturdy ones.  

Modern aircraft engines feature such kinds of blades in the low-pressure parts of 
the  system,  i.e.  the  fan  and  the  low-pressure  compressor  on  one  hand  and  the  low-
pressure turbine on the other hand (Fig. 1). It is thus primarily these components that 
are of concern with respect to the flutter phenomenon. 

3. Designing for Flutter Safety 

Whereas in previous years the design of turbomachinery in general and the design of 
components  for  flutter  safety  were  largely  based  on  empirical  methods,  the  use  of 
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tools is nowadays regarded as industry standard. 
CFD methods allow analyzing a flow field in three-dimensional (3D) and very detailed 
manner based on flow models that are implemented in a numerical manner and solved 
on  a  mesh  of  finely  distributed  grid  points.  The  models  can  be  used  to  analyze  the 

 
D.M. Vogt and T.H. Fransson / Towards Flutter-Free Turbomachinery Blades

163

Figure 2. Typical output from a 3D CFD analysis on a turbine blade row. 

steady flow, i.e. the flow in which there is no variation of flow quantities over time, or 
the unsteady flow.  

Unsteady  analyses  typically  feature  computational  efforts  that  are  of  an  order  of 
magnitude greater than steady analyses. It is thereby the user, who chooses whether a 
steady  or  an  unsteady  analysis  is  appropriate.  Furthermore,  the  extent  of  the  analysis 
domain must be set such that the phenomena of interest are captured with the employed 
model.  Commonly,  CFD  analyses  span  over  a  part  of  an  aircraft  engine  only  (one  or 
several  stages)  rather  than  the  entire  engine.  Typical  outputs  from  CFD  analyses  in-
clude pressure distributions, identification and quantification of losses, power transfer 
and streamlines (Fig. 2). 

When designing for flutter safety, the analyses usually include a structural and an 
aerodynamic part given the interdisciplinary character of the investigated phenomenon. 
In the structural part, one or several vibration mode shapes are determined using Finite 
Element Modeling (FEM). Using CFD, it is thereafter analyzed, how the flow responds 
to a certain vibration mode shape. This response can be of the following type: 

−  The flow responds in a way in which the energy from the vibration is damped. 
The specialists refer to this as “positive damping”. This is always a preferred 
situation; 

−  The flow responds in a way in which the vibration is augmented, which is then 
referred to as “negative damping”. Negative damping can lead to flutter, if the 
amount  of  negative  damping  from  the  flow  exceeds  the  amount  of  positive 
(structural) damping of the setup. 

The inherent complexity when designing for flutter safety is the fact that the least 
stable modes are not known a priori [5]. Flutter analyses therefore always imply that a 
large  number  of  modes  are  analyzed  and  consequently,  such  analyses  are  very  time 
consuming and tedious. Having these analyses being part of the turbomachinery design 
process in an early stage presents a challenging balance between adequate accuracy of 
the  numerical  tools  employed  and  the  computational  costs  associated. State-of-the-art 
nowadays is that flutter can be predicted at a fair degree of accuracy (refs). Uncovering 
a flutter problem at a later stage in the design process may be extremely costly. El-Aini 
et  al.  [6]  report  that  whereas  90%  of  all  possible  High-Cycle  Fatigue  (HCF)  occur-
rences are uncovered during engine design, the remaining 10% stand for one third of 
total engine development costs. 

 
 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

4. Description of the “FUTURE” Project 

In the light of the aforementioned challenges associated with flutter in turbomachines, 
the  Royal  Institute  of  Technology  (KTH),  Sweden,  is  leading  an  EU  FP7  funded 
project  called FUTURE (www.future-project.eu)  involving 25 partners from  industry, 
research institutes and academia. Within the FUTURE project, a combined experimen-
tal  and  numerical  effort  is  undertaken,  such  as  to  increase  the  prediction  accuracy  of 
turbomachinery  flutter  predictions.  As  such,  the  FUTURE  project  will  provide  Euro-
pean  aero  engine  module  manufacturers with  improved design  tools  that  significantly 
reduce both the need for costly redesigns and the risk for late flutter events. The focus 
of the project is put on the two primary areas of turbomachines, in which flutter is ob-
served as are i) low-pressure compressors and ii) low-pressure turbines. 

The challenge when doing validation of numerical tools for flutter predictions lies 
in the complexity of the involved phenomenon. Whereas full engine tests represent the 
reality in the best way, they are of less suited in generating validation data. There are 
many reasons for this ranging from the possibility to acquire pure and undisturbed data, 
controllability  of  the  operating  point,  instrumentation  and  data  acquisition  to  name  a 
few. Instead, it is more beneficial to use simplified setups, in which engine-typical flow 
conditions  are  achieved  while  the  instrumentation  is  tailored  such  as  to  measure  the 
involved phenomena in an accurate manner. 

In the FUTURE project, a number of different aerodynamic test facilities are used 

as are: 

−  Non-rotating compressor cascade rig with controlled oscillation of blades; 
−  Non-rotating turbine cascade rig with controlled oscillation of blades; 
−  Rotating compressor rig (1 ½ stage); 
−  Rotating turbine rig (1 stage). 

Whereas the cascade test facilities open up for detailed instrumentation and an in-
timate  assessment  of  the  involved  unsteady  aerodynamic  phenomena,  the  rotating 
counterparts  provide  a  more  engine  typical  environment  and  produce  validation  data 
with having both aerodynamic and structural phenomena interacting. 

The compressor test object (Fig. 3) has been designed such that negative aerody-
namic  damping  (i.e.  flutter)  can  be  achieved  depending  on  the  compressor  operating 
point. 

The  test  object  is  of  blisk  type  (i.e.  integral  disk  with  blades)  and  is  operated  at 
high rotational speed (up to 20,000 rpm). The rotating compressor tests are performed 
in a facility at the Technical University in Darmstadt, Germany. In these tests, the vi-
bration  of  the  various  blades  is  measured  using  tip-timing  technology  with  optical 
probes. Furthermore, the unsteady blade surface pressure is measured on various blades 
such  as  to  conclude  back  on  local  aerodynamic  damping  parameters.  The  structural 
properties of the test object are characterized in a spin rig at the École Centrale de Lyon, 
France,  where  piezoelectric  excitation  of  the  structure  is  used.  In  addition,  a  non-
rotating  cascade  counterpart  is  operated  at  the  École  Polytechnique  Fédérale  de  Lau-
sanne, Switzerland. The cascade features extensive instrumentation of the blades, such 
that detailed validation data can be acquired. 

On the turbine side, a low-pressure turbine (LPT) profile has been designed that is 

typical for present and future generations of aircraft engines (Fig. 4). 

 
 
 
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165

Figure 3. Compressor test object. 

Figure 4. Turbine test object.                            Figure 5. Turbine sector cascade test rig. 

The test object is of bladed-disk type (i.e. disk with separate blades) and is operat-
ed at low rotational speed typical for modern high bypass-ratio turbofans (around 2,500 
rpm). The rotating turbine tests are performed at the Centro de Tecnologías Aeronáuti-
cas, Spain. Two test objects are investigated, that differ in the mechanical setup. Simi-
lar  to  the  compressor,  the  blade  vibration  amplitudes  are  measured  using  tip  timing 
technique. The structural properties of the test object are characterized in a spin rig at 
AVIO,  Italy,  where  magnetic  excitation  of  the  structure  is  used.  In  addition,  a  non-
rotating cascade counterpart is operated at the Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden 
(Fig. 5). 

Again, these tests are used to gain detailed insight into the unsteady aerodynamics 

during blade oscillation. 

In  parallel  to  the  experimental  activities,  a comprehensive  part of  numerical  ana-
lyses  are  performed  by  the  various  partners.  On  one  hand,  these  analyses  have  been 
performed when designing the test objects and characterizing the experiments. An ex-
tensive set of pre-test predictions have been performed by various partners using their 
own flutter analysis best practices such as to have a comparison of the results upfront 
the  experiments  [7].  The  comparisons  indicate  a  spread  of  predicted  aerodynamic 
damping in the order of magnitude of 100% (Fig. 6). 

 
       
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

Figure 6. Comparison of predicted aerodynamic damping (5 different project partners). 

It  is  thereby  noticeable  that  two  out  of  five  partners  predict  flutter,  whereas  the 
other  three  predict  a  stable  situation.  On  the  background  that  all  these  partners  are 
known  experts  in  aircraft  engine  components,  these  results  underline  the  uncertainty 
presently associated with flutter predictions. 

One  of  the  major  benefits  from  the  FUTURE  project  will  be  generated  from  a 
comprehensive  assessment  of  the  various  numerical  tools.  Validation  and  calibration 
will be performed on the unique set of test data acquired in the project. Best practice 
guidelines  will  be  elaborated  that  shall  help  making  flutter  predictions  more  accurate 
and reliable while not compromising on computational costs. 

5. Conclusions 

Flutter is and remains one of the key limiting phenomena when designing the next gen-
eration  of  “green”  aircraft  engines.  Due  to  its  harmful  nature,  flutter  needs  to  be 
avoided at any costs. As engine design processes increasingly rely upon numerical pre-
diction tools, these tools need to be validated on relevant test cases to ensure prediction 
accuracy  and  reliability.  The  EU  FP7  funded  project  FUTURE  employs  a  number  of 
new  and  unique  compressor  and  turbine  flutter  test  cases  that  are  representative  for 
modern aircraft engines. The goal of the project is to acquire a new set of flutter valida-
tion data, against which a variety of state-of-the-art numerical prediction tools will be 
validated. Meeting the goals of the FUTURE project will give the project consortium 
the advantage of being able to predict flutter at a higher degree of accuracy. In a wider 
perspective, this will provide key enabling technology for designing “green”, safe, reli-
able and affordable aircraft engines, now and in the future. 

References 

[1]  www.newac.eu/17.0.html, accessed on 2011-06-09. 
[2]  T.H. Fransson, 1999, “Aeroelasticity in Turbomachines”, VKI Lecture Series, May 1999, Rhode-Saint-

Genèse, Belgium. 

[3]  A.R. Collar, 1946, “The Expanding Domain of Aeroelasticity”, The Royal Aeronautical Society, London, 

UK, 1946, pp. 613–636. 

D.M. Vogt and T.H. Fransson / Towards Flutter-Free Turbomachinery Blades

167

[4]  A.  Meldahl,  1946,  “Selbsterregte  Flügelschwingungen  mit  einem  Freiheitsgrad”,  Brown  Boveri 

Mitteilungen, Nr. 12, 1946, pp. 386–393. 

[5]  J. Panovsky and R.E. Kielb, 2000, “A Design Method to Prevent Low Pressure Turbine Blade Flutter”,  

J. of Engineering for Gas Turbine and Power, Vol. 122, January 2000, pp. 89–98. 

[6]  Y.  El-Aini,  R.  de  Laneuville,  V.  Soner  and  V.  Capece,  1997,  “High-Cycle  Fatigue  of  Turbomachinery 

Components – Industry Perspectives”, AIAA Paper 97-3365. 

[7]  H. Mårtensson, J. Östlund, R. Bladh and B. Grüber, 2011, “Design and Analysis of a Transonic Flutter 

Research Compressor”, IFASD paper IFASD-2011-171. 

About the Author 

Damian Vogt and Torsten Fransson work at the Division of Heat and Power Technology at the Royal  
Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, where they lead the EU FP7 funded project FUTURE. 
damian.vogt@energy.kth.se  
torsten.fransson@energy.kth.se  
www.energy.kth.se  

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Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-168

Validation of Radical Engine Architecture 
Systems: The “DREAM” Research Project 

David BONE 

Abstract. “DREAM” – validation of Radical Engine  Architecture systems – is  a 
Framework  Programme  7  Call  2  project  with  a  total  budget  of  €40  million  and 
which is in its fourth and final year in 2011. This project comprised of 44 partners 
from 13 countries from the EU, Switzerland, Russia and Turkey and comprised of 
larger  Original  Equipment  Manufacturers  (OEMs),  SMEs,  universities  and  re-
search  establishments.  It  is  the  response  to  commercial  and  environmental  pres-
sures that have come about mainly as a result of two main factors: the continued 
pressure  to  reduce  CO2  and  the  future  availability  and  cost  of  Jet  A1  fuel. 
“DREAM” has studied designs for contra-rotating open rotors and has been devel-
oping novel systems to achieve, versus Year 2000 reference engines: (i) a reduc-
tion  in  CO2  by  27%  (7%  better  than  ACARE  goals);  (ii)  a  reduction  in  noise  by 
9 dB cumulative. 

Keywords.  Engine  architecture,  blades,  turbines,  contra-rotating  open  rotors, 
geared open rotor, low pressure turbine, direct drive open rotor 

1. Some Historical Background 

During the early to mid 1980s there was significant pressure on the airlines to contain 
the impact of the escalating cost of Jet A1 fuel caused by the escalating price of crude 
oil.  This  resulted  in  increased  efforts  by  both  the  airframe  companies  and  the  engine 
companies to achieve significant reductions in aircraft fuel consumption.  

It was known that conventional propeller engines offered substantial fuel burn ad-
vantages  over  their  turbofan  engine  equivalents.  However  there  was  a  significant 
downside  in  that  turboprop  engines  of  the  time  only  achieve  Mach  numbers  of  up  to 
0.6M which, if selected instead of turbofan powered aircraft, would have major impact 
on flight schedules and passenger expectations.  

The drive was to use modern methods to design an efficient open rotor propeller to 
maintain  its  efficiency  at  the  much  higher  cruise  Mach  numbers  typical  of  the  latest 
short-range aircraft (M = 0.78 to 0.8). To achieve this, the engine and airframe compa-
nies  looked  to  the  development  of  advanced  open  rotor  propellers.  Features  that  the 
engine manufacturers researched were: 

•  Swept blades for higher speeds; 
•  Greater number of blades; 
•  Blades with lower thickness/chord ratios; 
•  Higher hub/tip ratios; 
•  A second row of counter-rotating blades to eliminate net swirl. 

 
 
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Figure 1. The GE36 Engine. 

Figure 2. The P&W/Alison 578-DX Engine (source flightglobal.com). 

There were two demonstrator engines developed in the West: 
1.  General Electric successfully ground-tested and flew an open-rotor GE-36 en-
gine (also known as the UDF™) This engine had direct drive contra rotating 
propellers  that  were  driven  directly  from  contra-rotating  statorless  turbines 
(Fig. 1). 

2.  The  Pratt  &  Whitney/Alison  578-DX  engine  (also  known  as  the  Propfan™) 
which had a reduction gearbox between the LP turbine and the contra-rotating 
propellers  which  consisted  of  two  rows  of  2.95  m  (11.6  ft)  diameter  blades: 
six in the front row and six in the aft row (Fig. 2). 

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Figure 3. The Progress D-27 Engine (source damtp.cam.ac.uk). 

In  addition  the  Progress  D-27  engine  was  developed  in  the  U.S.S.R  for  the  An-
tonov An-70 military transport where four engines were fitted in a tractor configuration. 
It was also planned that this engine would power the Antonov An-180 passenger air-
liner with two engines in a rear-mounted configuration. This aircraft was scheduled for 
a  1995  entry  into  service  but  was  subsequently  cancelled.  Another  Russian  propfan 
application was the Yakovlev Yak-46. 

The UDF™ and the Propfan™ were both able to deliver high Mach speeds (0.72 
to 0.8) and significantly reduced SFC, although the noise levels from the were well in 
excess of those achieved by existing turbofan engines. 

The drop in oil prices in the late 1980s, coupled with little global interest to reduce 
CO2, resulted in less interest from the airlines, and consequently there was no further 
development of the Open Rotor concept. 

In  2000,  an  increased  focus  on  climate  change  resulted  in  the  creation  of  the 

ACARE 2020 goals: 

•  Reduce  fuel  consumption  and  CO2  emissions  by  50%  (20%  for  the  engine 

alone); 

•  Reduce perceived external noise by 50%; 
•  Reduce NOX by 80%. 

In addition, fuel prices continue to oscillate, but the trend is likely to be upwards 

over the coming years (Fig. 4). 

The DREAM project is the response of the engine community to address these en-

vironmental and commercial pressures. 

DREAM is studying a range of novel designs for both contra-rotating open rotors 

and turbofans by: 

•  Exploiting progress made since 1990 in 3D fluid dynamics methods in steady 
and unsteady conditions  to  increase  the  aerodynamic  efficiency  while  reduc-
ing noise levels; 

 
 
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171

Figure 4. Increasing Trend in Fuel Prices (source Platts RBS). 

•  Performing  tests  on  contra-rotating  rigs  to  measure  aerodynamics  and  noise 

that will feed the simulation models; 

•  Developing novel engine systems including active and passive vibration con-
trol, engine structures with additional functionally and active solutions for tur-
bines such as smart active clearance control and active boundary layer control; 
•  Validating the use of alternative fuels in these aero engines and demonstrating 

green house gas emission reduction. 

DREAM was awarded is a Framework 7 Call 1 Level 2 project started in February 
2008,  initially  as  a  three  year  project  but  it  was  subsequently  extended  to  four  years. 
The project consists of 44 partners from 13 countries with expertise and capability from 
within  the  EU,  Switzerland,  Russia  and  Turkey  and  a  wide  variety  of  organisations 
including larger OEMs, SMEs, Universities and Research establishments. 

The  project  objectives  reflect  the  major  step  forward  in  engine  technologies  and 
are aimed at achieving or bettering the ACARE 2020 goals at rig demonstration tech-
nology level. 

The objectives are for the engine and pylon in isolation: 
•  CO2 – 7% better than ACARE or 27% better than Year 2000 engine; 
•  Noise – 3 dB per operation point (~ –9dB cumulated on 3 cert points) versus 

the Year 2000 engine. 

One of the major aspects of the project is to study the aero and noise performance 
of contra-rotating open rotors. This architecture offers a step change in propulsive effi-
ciency  compared  to  the  turbofan  engine,  but  it  will  be  noisier  than  an  equivalent  ad-
vanced turbofan engine (Fig. 5). 

The  factors  influencing  the optimum  design  of  the  open  rotor  system  results  in  a 

compromise between the installation of the engines and resultant noise (Fig. 6). 

2. Project Structure 

The  project  consists  of  5  technical  Sub-Projects  supported  by  a  Coordination  Sub-
Project  that  handles  the  management  activities  within  the  project.  The  Sub-Projects 

 
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Figure 5. Open Rotor/Advanced Turbofan Efficiency and Noise Comparison. 

Figure 6. Optimum Design of Open Rotor System. 

have been constructed to enable the partners to focus on key technical elements of the 
project and also to ensure project integration. 

The structure of the project is shown here below (Fig. 7). 

2.1. Technical Sub-Projects 

(cid:2)(cid:3)(cid:4)(cid:3)(cid:4)(cid:3) Sub-Project 1 – Whole Engine Architecture 

The objectives of SP1 are to: 

•  Define  the  aircraft  specifications  that  set  the  DREAM  engine  requirements 
both  for  open  rotors  architectures  and  advanced  conventional  turbofan  tech-
nologies; 

•  Compare,  assess  and  rank  the  systems  investigated  within  DREAM  by  their 

technological potential whilst achieving environmental goals; 

 
 
 
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173

Figure 7. Project Structure. 

•  Provide  requirements  and  objectives  of  each  different  DREAM  engine  tech-

nology; 

•  Establish how the propulsion system compare to the ACARE goals and assess 

the possible shortfalls; 

•  Use  of  a  Techno-economic  Environmental  Risk  Analysis  Model  known  as 

TERA 2020. 

The work completed on SP1 is: 
•  Through  an  active  cooperation  involving  all  SPs  partners,  a  detailed  assess-
ment process defines a clear, fair and complete comparison of all engine archi-
tectures benefits vs Year 2000 engine configurations. This assessment process 
covers fuel burn (metrics for pollution and economics), and noise on the certi-
fication points; 

•  Analysis has confirmed promising figures for fuel burn target; 
•  On the Techno-economic Environmental Risk Analysis Model concept models 
of  open  rotor  modules  have  been  created  and  verified  against  available  data 
and  OEM  experience  and  these  have  been  integrated  into  a  fully  operational 
optimization  environment,  enabling  sensitivity  and  trade  off  analysis  regard-
ing fuel burn, emissions and noise. 

2.2. Sub-Project 2 – Geared Open Rotor 

The objective of SP2 was to carry out research surrounding the development a geared 
Open Rotor engine. It is broken into six work packages: 

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Figure 8. Low Speed Rig Testing at DNW. 

    Figure 9. Pitch Control Bearing Rig. 

•  Architecture and Specification 

Test data from the Rolls-Royce Open Rotor rig (Rig 145) on an initial set of pro-
peller blades running at DNW in Holland and ARA the UK has permitted for an 
optimised re-specification of an optimised design and test programme 

• 

Installed and Uninstalled Aero/Acoustic Rig Testing (2 Work Packages) 

The SP2 objectives  to generate  and  capture  aerodynamic  and  noise data  from  rig 
testing on the initial design of blades and the optimised design of blades have been 
achieved. 

The optimisation of data allowed (Fig. 8): 
•  Further enhancements in the understanding of low and high speed optimi-
sation  at  different  RPM/Pitch/Mn  configurations  to  increase  Open  Rotor 
understanding; 
• 
Improvements in the understanding of test data correction and correlation; 
•  Acquisition  of  data  to  understand  change  in  performance  relative  to  de-

sign points chosen; 

•  Build  knowledge  database  at  different  conditions  to  increase  confidence 

in CFD and its understanding; 

•  Acquisition of quality data to understand key aero-mechanical parameters. 

•  Pitch Control and System Integration 

Rolls-Royce and SCITEK have developed a test rig to undertake bearing friction 
measurements under conditions representative of open rotor technology (Fig. 9). 

Novel  hydrostatic  bearings  have  been  designed  and  manufactured  to  apply 
centrifugal and thrust loads in a frictionless manner. Real-time control and data ac-
quisition  is  employed  to  obtain  high  speed,  high  accuracy  bearing  friction  meas-
urements. Test data from the rig will feed directly into the design and control sys-
tem of the Pitch Control Mechanism (PCM) of an open rotor engine. 

 
 
 
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175

Figure 10. Geared Open Rotor LP Turbine. 

•  Low Pressure Turbine Design 

This WP  aimed  to develop  the  design  of  an  optimised  Low Pressure  Turbine for 
the geared open rotor configuration by: 
•  Defining and validating aerodynamic technologies to maximise efficiency; 
•  Defining low weight technologies for use in geared open rotor engines; 
•  Developing the design and analysis methods required in the design to predict 

life. 

Technical progress throughout the project has enabled the characterisation and de-
sign of a High Speed Low Pressure system (Fig. 10). 

Aerodynamic testing has been carried out the data analysis. Experimental re-
sults have been fed back to conceptual design to select the optimum solution taking 
account efficiency, weight and noise. 

Detailed  design  has  been  developed  for  critical  parts  and  to  demonstrate  po-

tential opportunities, when necessary. 

In DREAM, ITP, with the collaboration of partner Universidad Politecnica de 
Madrid,  has  worked  to  develop  an  understanding  of  High  Cycle  Fatigue  in  Low 
and High speed turbine designs. 

•  Hot Structures 

The main objective of this Work-Package is to explore the implications of the new 
engine configuration onto the hot structure design and to achieve an optimised de-
sign concept for the cycle provided. Technical progress throughout the project has 
enabled  the  detailed  design  of  a  Hot  Structure  with  a  significant  reduction  in 
weight and cost. 

The first step was focused on selecting the appropriate configuration (includ-
ing material selection) for the aero turbine, paying special attention to deflections 
of the structure, vital to ensure the functionality of the whole engine. 

The  second  step  included  the  weight/cost  optimization,  taking  advantages  of 
new  high-tech  assembly/manufacturing  techniques,  which  led  to  the  detailed  de-
sign of a light high resistant Hot Structure (Fig. 11). 

 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

Figure 11. Hot Structures. 

2.3. Sub-Project 3 – Direct Drive Open Rotor 

The objective of SP3 was to develop an Open Rotor based upon a Direct Drive concept. 
This has been undertaken in 5 Work-Packages: 

• 

Specification and Management 

The main activities of this Work Package were to coordinate activities between the 
SP3  partners  and  the  DREAM  Management  Committee,  to  derive  specifications 
for the modules studied inside this sub-project and to provide the final Direct Drive 
Open Rotor assessment to Sub-Project 1. 

•  Perform Open Rotor Propeller Blades Detailed Design and Evaluation 
•  Provided the definition of mock blades for aero and acoustic tests; 
•  Studied the installation effects and design a mock pylon for installed tests; 
•  Studied aero-acoustic advanced concepts for open rotor; 
•  Performed aero-acoustic and mechanical assessment; 
•  Evaluated  the  impact  of  smart  blade  concepts  on  blade  design  and  perform-

ances. 

•  Develop a Design for a Contra-Rotating Turbine 

This Work-Package looked at three elements for the design of the contra-rotating 
turbine, and to investigate the new components which are introduced in the contra-
rotating shaft line: 
•  The  contra-rotating  drum  containment  capability  was  considered  with  dedi-
cated test campaign. A new material for the Drum, based on wound fibres was 
assessed (Fig. 12); 

•  Contra-Rotating Strut, which transfers the load from the Drum to the Contra-

rotating Shaft was assessed in terms of strength and performance; 

•  Contra-Rotating Blades: The effect of compression tensile status of vibratory 
capabilities of the blades was studied on a test on a rotating drum with simpli-
fied blades; 
•  LP Compressor 

This Work-Package looked at the design of an LP compressor to support the direct 
drive Open Rotor engine (Fig. 13). 

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177

Figure 12. Pre-stressed plates impact test. 

Figure 13. 5 Stage High speed Open Rotor Booster (CIAM) and R4 bench (Von Karman Institute). 

This work consisted of: 
•  The design of the Open rotor LP compressor; 
•  The  design  and  test different  technologies  to  improve  the efficiency and 

the stability of the Open rotor LP compressor; 

•  An assessment the Open rotor LP compressor at engine level. 

•  Evaluate  the  Aero  and  Acoustic  Performances  of  the  Contra  Open  Rotor  Blades 

and Pylon 

This  work  was  carried  out  using  wind  tunnel  installations  at  TsAGI  (Russia) 
(Fig. 14).  Six  different  geometries  were  tested  in  low  speed  and  two  geometries 
were tested in high speed conditions. Reverse thrust tests were also carried out on 
two geometries and the pylon installation effects were considered at both low and 
high speed. 

 
 
 
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Figure 14. Low and High Speed rigs at TsAGI. 

Figure 15. Active Damping of Fan Blades.      

Figure 16. Ultra Low Count Fan Outlet Guide Vanes. 

2.4. Sub-Project 4 – Innovative Systems 

This Sub-Project consists of four work packages that provide enabling technologies for 
low weight and low cost future engines and also an efficiency improvement of 0.5% by 
adding innovative functionality and active solutions for turbines: 

• 

Specification and Assessment 

This  provides  specifications  for  the  technology  assessed  in  this  sub-project  and 
provides the final assessment of the technologies to Sub-Project 1. 

•  Development of Intelligent Vibration Damping Systems and Low Noise Structural 

Fan OGV 

Active vibration control engine structure with piezo actuator damping systems and 
elastomeric  damping  rings  for  passive  vibration  control  and  cost  efficiency 
(Fig. 15).  This  Work-Package  also  considers  the  design  of  a  low  noise  ultra  low 
count Structural Fan OGV (Fig. 16). 

•  Novel Structure for Mid Frame 

Two  TMTF  designs  have  been  aero-  dynamically  designed  and  tested  and  High 
Velocity Oxy Fuel coatings tested (Fig. 17). 

 
     
 
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179

Figure 17. Evaluation of high velocity oxygen fuel thermal spray coating. 

Figure 18. CFD simulation of a short section of an ACC tube with 20 impingement cooling holes. 

•  Active Turbine 

This  Work-Package  assessed  and  optimised  the  aerodynamic  performance  of  ac-
tive boundary layer control for high-speed conditions and to validate a closed-loop 
LPT active clearance control (ACC) system: 

•  Different  actuator  configurations  for  pulsed  ejection  were  tested  in  a  turbine 

cascade in a high-speed wind tunnel; 

•  ACC  impingement  cooling  heat  transfer  characteristics  examined  by  CFD 
simulations  and  experiments  with  scaled  models  and  real  ACC  panels 
(Fig. 18); 

•  A microwave sensor for radial clearance measurements was adapted for meas-
urements  with  shrouded  blades  in  a  low  pressure  turbine,  manufactured  and 
tested in a test engine. 

•  A  closed-loop  ACC  system  was  investigated  with  a  software  demonstrator 

(Fig. 19). 

2.5. Sub-Project 5 – Alternative Fuels Demonstration 

This  Sub-Project  will  demonstrate  the  performance  of  an  existing  available  fuel  (a 
Shell GTL type and a 3rd generation UOP SPK (HVO) fuel from Camelina): 

 
 
 
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Figure 19. Closed Loop ACC System. 

The requirements for the fuel are: 
•  No significant modification of aircraft or engine is needed (‘drop-in’ fuels); 
•  Contribute to the reduction of green house gas emissions (CO2 emissions will 

be measured and compared with standard aviation fuel). 

This consists of three Work-Packages: 

•  Aircraft and Engine Impact 

Two alternative drop-in fuels have been selected: a 50% GTL – 50% JetA1 blend 
provided by Shell and a 50% HVO – 50% JetA1 blend made of camelina oil pro-
vided by UOP. The impact of using these fuels was evaluated both on aero-engine 
fuel systems and on aircraft fuels systems. Tests needed to validate the use of the 2 
selected alternative fuels. 

•  Component Tests 

This Work-Package looked at the effect of the alternative fuels on various engine 
components including fuel system, combustion system and elastomerics: 

•  Fuel systems tests at Turbomeca (Fig. 20); 
•  Combustion tests at Pars Makina (Fig. 21). 
•  Altitude ignition tests at ONERA to check ignition performances of alternative 
fuels under altitude conditions (cold air, cold fuel, sub-atmospheric pressure) 
compared with jet-A1 (Fig. 22). 

Results of component tests 

Fuel  systems  performances  with  synthetic  fuels  are  similar  to  performances  with 
Jet-A1. 

 
 
 
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181

   Figure 20. Rubber Immersion tests at Turbomeca. 

Figure  21. Combustion Tests on Alison/RR C2500 
Combustor at Pars Makina. 

   Figure 22. Ignition Tests at ONERA MERCATO. 

Figure  23. TM Arrius 2B2 engine installed for en-
durance tests. 

No major disparities have been found between alternative fuels and reference 
Jet A1 during the combustion test conducted with small helicopter turboshaft en-
gine. 

During the ONERA MERCATO test campaign unexpected clogging was en-
countered at –15°C with HVO blend. A second test campaign confirmed this be-
haviour. Complementary investigations have been performed by UOP on the HVO 
blend from the same batch than the one used at ONERA MERCATO. It was dem-
onstrated  that  the  origin  of  the  clogging  was  due  to  a  contamination  of  the  fuel 
batch, and was not linked to the HVO type bio-fuels. 

•  Engine Demonstration 

The objective of this Work-Package was to demonstrate that alternative fuels can 
be  used  in  an  aeroengine  without  major  modification.  The  engine  demonstration 
was performed at Turbomeca on an ARRIUS 2B2 prototype engine with the HVO 
blend (Fig. 23). 

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

The engine demonstration included: 
•  Performance tests with Jet A1 and the HVO blend; 
•  Lean  blowout  tests  and  emissions  measurements  with  Jet  A1  and  the 

HVO blend; 
60 hours of endurance tests with the HVO blend. 

• 

The tests were followed by a strip down and examination of the engine and a check 
of fuel systems equipment. 

•  Results of Sub-Project 5 

•  The  overall  behaviour  of  the  engine  with HVO  blend  is  consistent  to  engine 

behaviour with JetA1. 

•  The endurance with HVO blend was successful. 
•  HVO  effects  on  Emission  Index  (EINOx,  EICO,  EIHC)  compared  to  Jet  A1 

are lower than engine to engine variability. 

•  HVO effects on Smoke Number levels compared to Jet A1 are lower than the 

uncertainty of the measurement process. 

•  The tests validated the fuel system functional requirements ‘compatibility with 

materials’ and ‘lubrication of the fuel system components’. 

3. DREAM Overall Summary 

DREAM is now coming towards its completion. The project has been instrumental in 
taking forward the knowledge on Open Rotor technology; in particular the results from 
the  project  indicate  that  it  is  possible  to  engineer  an  Open  Rotor  engine  solution  that 
provides a step forward in engine efficiency and also capable of achieving acceptable 
engine noise levels. There is a considerable amount of work that would still need to be 
carried out to integrate such an engine on an airframe and to show conclusively that the 
full installation effects can be managed. However DREAM, which looks at the engine 
and  pylon  in  isolation,  will  achieve  its  objectives  with  respect  to  both  efficiency  and 
noise. 

The project has also carried out important research into novel systems. The tech-
nology developed and the knowledge gained during the course of this work has shown 
that  there  are  potentially  valuable  gains  to  be  had  if  these  are  incorporated  in  future 
engines, in particular enabling the implementation of the Open Rotor concept. 

Lastly,  the  work  carried  out  on  the  alternative  fuels  demonstration  has  pro-
vided valuable information on the characteristics and operation of GTL and HVO fuel 
both  at  component  level  and  at  engine  demonstration  level.  This  has  greatly  in-
creased the understanding on the use of alternative fuels and, along with work carried 
out elsewhere on this topic, will support decisions to be made on the future use of these 
fuels. 

D. Bone / Validation of Radical Engine Architecture Systems: The “DREAM” Research Project

183

About the Author 

David Bone is the European Programme Manager for Rolls-Royce plc1 and has been the Coordinator of the 
“DREAM” project since its award. 

Rolls-Royce plc – PO Box 31 –  
Derby DE24 8BJ – UK – 
Tel.: +44 (0) 1332 249842 
dave.bone@rolls-royce.com 
www.rolls-royce.com 

1 Rolls-Royce employs around 38,000 people worldwide, including 23,500 in the UK, 5,000 in the rest of 
Europe and 8,000 in North America. A significant amount of Rolls-Royce technology investment is directed 
towards reducing noise and emissions. 

 
                                                           
 
 
 
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Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-184

Main Achievements of VITAL 
(enVIronmenTALly Friendly Aero Engine) 

Marius GOUTINES 

Abstract. VITAL programme started in January 2005 and was completed in De-
cember  2010.  It  was  devoted  to  investigation  of  architectures  and  technologies 
able  to  reduce  aero-engines  environment  impacts.  The  two  main  specific  objec-
tives of VITAL were a reduction of community noise by 6 EPNdB per operation 
and a reduction of CO2 emission by 6% (i.e. –6% fuel burn). This paper presents a 
brief description of the main achievements in each investigated turbofan domain. 

Keywords. Environmentally friendly aero-engine 

1. Introduction 

VITAL scope was focused on low pressure (LP) modules for high and very high by-
pass ratio (BPR) turbofans. In accordance with VITAL objectives the research actions 
were to investigate and evaluate low noise, low weight and high aerodynamic efficien-
cy technologies for LP modules.  

This programme was led by Snecma and involved 53 partners. All main European 
engine manufacturers participated to VITAL as well as members of aero engine indus-
try supply chain and small or medium enterprises (SME) with specific expertise. Key 
Russian  and  European  research  institutes  brought  to  VITAL  a  very  highly  valuable 
contribution.  

2. Single Fan (RR Led) 

A fully instrumented direct drive fan has been tested in the “ANECOM” aero-acoustic 
rig. Following results were obtained: 

• 

2.5%  fan  efficiency  improvement  versus  2000  State-of  the  Art  (SoA),  with 
Technology Readiness Level 4; 

•  Fan noise reduction participates at the 15 EPNdB (cumulative) improvement, 

at engine level, versus 2000 SoA and with TRL 5 level. 

30% of weight reduction has been obtained at fan system level with TRL 5 maturi-
ty. Fatigue, bird strike and blade release tests have been completed on hybrid compo-
site RTM/metal blades. 

 
 
 
M. Goutines / Main Achievements of VITAL (enVIronmenTALly Friendly Aero Engine)

185

Figure  1.  Fan  installed  in  ANECOM  anechoic  aero
rig (RR). 

Figure  2.  Fan  rotor  ready  for  blade  release  test 
(RR). 

Figure 3. Contra turbofan model (Snecma).   

Figure  4.  Front  view  of  a  contra  fan  model 
(Snecma). 

Figure 5. Contra fan model in CIAM anechoic rig. 

3. Counter Rotating Fan or CRTF (Snecma Led) 

3 fully instrumented models of 3 new CRTF designs have been tested in “C3-A” aero-
acoustic test rig by CIAM (Russia). This bench allows forward and aft noise measure-
ments. Main achievements with TRL 4 were: 

•  Tests  of different  rotor  spacing, blade  shapes,  loading radial  distribution  and 

blades number (10 × 14 and 9 × 11); 

•  +2.5 point efficiency benefit versus 2000 SoA reference single fan; 

 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

Figure 6. Composite full scale fan frame demo 
(Volvo Aero). 

Figure  7.  Titanium  core  engine  structure  demon-
stration (Volvo Aero). 

Figure 8. Turbine structure, sub-scale super alloy demo (ITP). 

•  No noise benefit versus 2000 SoA single turbofan at same BPR was obtained. 
This is due to the two rotors interaction tones stronger than expected. Further 
research studies are still needed on this phenomena. 

4. Structures (Volvo Aero Led) 

Several structures concepts were brought at TRL 5 with weight reduction potential and 
production  process  verified  in  comprehensive  manufacturing  and  mechanical  tests. 
Following results have been obtained: 

•  A  full  scale  polymer  matrix  composite  fan  frame  saving  25%  weight  versus 

2000 SoA;  

•  Titanium  fabrication  of  a  core  engine  structure  saving  15%  weight  vs  2000 

SoA; 

•  A super alloy hot structure for turbine, saving 18% weight versus 2000 SoA. 

5. Low Pressure Compressor (Techspace Aero Led) 

A low speed booster with increased stage aero-loading has been tested, fed by an up-
stream clipped fan, leading to TRL 6 validation. A high speed booster with increased 

M. Goutines / Main Achievements of VITAL (enVIronmenTALly Friendly Aero Engine)

187

Figure  9.  Low  speed  booster  test  in  CIAM  aero-
dynamic rig. 

          Figure 10. High speed booster rotor. 

Figure 11. AVIO turbine aerodynamic rig. 

Figure  12.  MTU  rig  assembly  ready  for 
aerodynamic tests. 

Figure 13. ITP turbine rig. 

aero loading was also tested and TRL 4 achieved for this configuration. Aerodynamic 
researches are still needed to increase stability margins and efficiency for those highest 
aero-loadings. 

6. Low Pressure Turbines (MTU Led) 

3 approaches were adopted for weight and noise reductions: 

          
 
 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Greening the Air Transport

Figure 14. Scale 1 MMC shaft machined at Volvo Aero Norway. 

Figure 15. Multi-metallic shaft specimen. 

•  UHL: Ultra High Lift blading consisting in reducing the blade rows solidities 

(AVIO); 

•  UHSL: Ultra High Stage Loading, increased ∆H/n.U2 (MTU); 
•  UHAR/LN: Ultra High Aspect Ratio and Low Noise design (ITP). 
The best obtained results are: 

• 

• 

20% weight reduction, with only 0.5 point efficiency penalty, at TRL 5 matur-
ity. This gain could be brought up to 30% with TRL 3 level; 
3 EPNdB noise reduction in aircraft approach condition, at turbine level and 
with TRL 4. This gain could reach 4.5 EPNdB with TRL 3. 

7. High Torque Density Shaft (Snecma Led) 

A  first  investigated  way  was  the  MMC  shaft  (Titanium  Matrix  Composite  with  SiC 
fibers). An increase of torque density by 50% was obtained with TRL4 but research is 
still needed to improve the performance of the titanium/steel welding. 

A  second  investigated  way  was  a  multi-metallic  shaft.  50%  of  torque  density  in-
crease was also obtained with TRL 4. For this technology research is also still needed 
to improve corrosion protection. 

 
 
M. Goutines / Main Achievements of VITAL (enVIronmenTALly Friendly Aero Engine)

189

Figure 16. VHBR nozzle with chevrons installed in CEPRA19 anechoic low speed wind tunnel. 

8. Installation and Thrust Reverser (Snecma Led) 

A first topic of the investigation was the wing effect on Very High By-Pass Ratio en-
gine jet noise. Acoustic interactions and masking effects have been quantified and can 
be use for actual predictions. A second topic was to establish guide lines for innovative 
lightweight nacelle and thrust reverser. 

9. Conclusions 

VITAL  programme  matured  to  TRL  4  or  5  advanced  technologies  for  Low  Pressure 
modules  of  advanced  ducted  engines  (HBR  and  VHBR  turbofans  or  counter  rotating 
fans). Further research works are needed to reach TRL 6, required level to launch low 
risk development programmes. Main achievements are related to efficiency, weight and 
noise improvements. 

About the Author 

Marius Goutines – Snecma (Safran Group) 
Research & Technology Programmes  
Snecma Villaroche 
Rond-Point René Ravaud, Réau 
77550 MOISSY-CRAMAYEL, France 
Tel: +33 (0) 1 60 59 71 39 
Mobile: +33 (0) 6 08 23 39 42 
e-mail: marius.goutines@snecma.fr 
www.snecma.com 

 
190

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-190

CRISIS: Multi-Trainee, Multi-Organisation, 
Multi-Level Critical Incident Management 
Training and Simulation System 

B.L. William WONG 

Abstract. CRISIS – Critical Incident Management Training System Using an In-
teractive  Simulation  Environment  –  is  a  European  research  project  aimed  at  re-
searching  and  developing  a  train-on-demand  simulation  platform  for  crisis  man-
agement training. It started in May 2010 with a series of iterative user studies and 
participation in emergency exercises at Reykjavik airport (Iceland), Lisbon airport 
and Caiscais aerodrome (Portugal) and at the British Transport Police (UK). Train-
ing scenarios are being developed and used to specify the video game engine from 
which “crisis” will be designed to enable individuals, teams, and teams from vari-
ous emergency services to train together in a multi-player environment. 

Keywords. Critical incident, interactive simulation, training 

1. General Objectives 

CRISIS is a 36-month, 12-partner FP7 project aimed at researching and developing a 
train-on-demand simulation platform for crisis  management training. It will train first 
responder  supervisors  and  Emergency  Operations  Centre  commanders,  in  real-time 
decision making and response to simulated critical incidents in virtual world replicas of 
airport and railway settings. CRISIS will support both collocated and distributed train-
ing across different emergency service organisations. CRISIS addresses the problem of 
infrequent  crisis  management  training.  Full-scale  exercises  are  often  conducted  every 
two or three years, with two to three small scale exercises each year, as they are expen-
sive to run and can significantly inconvenience the public. 

The project started in May 2010, with a series of iterative user studies and partici-
pation in emergency exercises at Reykjavik Airport (Iceland), Lisbon Airport, Caiscais 
Aerodrome (Portugal), and at the British Transport Police (UK). Training scenarios are 
being  developed  and  used  to  specify  the  interactive  virtual  world,  to  be  developed  in 
Unity3D, an advance commercial video game engine. Using this engine, CRISIS will 
be designed to enable individuals, teams, and teams from different emergency service 
organisations to train together in an immersive multi-player environment. 

2. The Dual-Path Strategy 

CRISIS  will  adopt  a  dual-path  strategy  in  recognition  of  the  different  timeframes  for 
research and development activities. In the development pathway, we will construct a 
more  stable  prototype  that  can  be  used  as  a  demonstrator  of  the  basic  concepts  es-

B.L.W. Wong / CRISIS

191

poused in the original proposal. We will use the research pathway as a means to expe-
riment  with  new  ideas  that  emerge  from  Work  Package  6  Research  and  other  work 
packages. For example, one of the concepts that evolved over the last year is the use of 
natural  voice  to  communicate  and  coordinate  actions  among  first  responders  and/or 
other control centre personnel. In the research pathway, we are experimenting with how 
such voice communications operate together with natural gesture interaction [5], tech-
niques  for  eliciting  requirements  and  consolidating  them  across  different  incident 
types [3].  To  coordinate  these  two  pathways  we  have  organised  in  the  first  year,  two 
2-day research workshops to communicate research findings to the team, while several 
work package meetings have been held to share findings from field investigations and 
technical developments. This provides a common view of the simulation and training 
problem and language of expression. 

3. Scope of the Crisis Simulation Environment 

There will be two major components: The FielD eXercise or FDX component, and the 
Command  Post  eXercise  or  CPX,  component.  The  FDX  is  a  fine-grain,  first-person 
shooter style interaction environment where the trainee will directly control the actions 
of the computer avatar to deal with the emergency in the simulation world. The CPX is 
a  coarse-grain  level  simulation  that  corresponds  with  a  command  post  or  Emergency 
Operations Centre, where the emergency is represented on a computer-generated map 
display, together with other resource status displays and command and control informa-
tion artefacts. 

The trainee commanders will either speak directly with each other if located in the 
same  venue  or  via  the  computer-supported  communications  (e.g.  VOIP)  if  they  are 
remotely located. Events that occur at the FDX level will be reflected in the CPX level 
systems, and directives given by CPX commanders will also be reflected in the FDX 
level. The red line in Fig. 1 indicates the boundary of operations and interactions that 
will be supported in CRISIS. 

4.  Modes of Training 

CRISIS  will  provide  three  modes  of  training:  Mode  1  is  Individual-based  training 
where  the  trainee  will  train  against  a  full  simulation  where  other  team  members  are 
represented by the system. Mode 2 represent a training situation where real players are 
acting in a simulated environment and in the same location, while Mode 3 is when real 
players are connected through the computer simulation and are distributed or remotely 
located. This may be played at either the FDX or CPX levels, or collectively from FDX 
through to the CPX levels 

5. Competency – Based Training 

CRISIS  will  emphasise  the  training  of  competencies  such  as  skills  associated  with 
problem diagnosis, planning, re-planning, and acting, rather than with procedure train-
ing or asking trainees to choose between pre-defined options. The emphasis in CRISIS 

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Securing the Air Transport

Figure 1. Bold red line indicates boundary of the CRISIS simulation system. 

will be problem diagnosis and action generation; instead of the more familiar style of 
option selection. 

Our study has identified 12 training gaps in these key competencies: assess alerts, 
assess risks, categorise crisis, communicate, communicate information, leadership, fa-
miliarise with procedures, formulate handling strategy, prioritise information, recognise 
strengths  and  weaknesses,  resist  pressure,  and  take  control,  and  how  this  will  help  in 
developing  resilience  capabilities  [4].  Our  research  found  little  demand  for  training 
hands-on type skills such as how to use a fire-hose or how to carry out medical treat-
ment on a casualty. These would be better trained in other ways. 

6. Support Actions Rather than Roles 

Rather than to embed detailed sets of role descriptions and permissible actions of each 
role in a crisis management situation in avatars (e.g. fire commander, airport manager, 
and  so  forth), we decided  to adopt  a  simpler design  strategy  that  allows  the  avatar  to 
activate actions in the simulation, rather than restricted to actions configured around the 
role an avatar plays. In the real world, roles can change quickly and dramatically, yet 
seamlessly.  For  example,  the  first  fire  fighter  team  leader  to  arrive  on-scene  will  as-
sume the role of the fire ground commander until a more senior commander arrives, at 
which  point  he  reverts  to  his  original  role  of  fire  fighting.  To  achieve  such  seamless 
transitions  in  the  simulation  will  require  much  higher  levels  of  detailed  planning  and 
software programming of the actions permissible, and to how those roles will be acti-
vated. 

7. Whole-Task Training and Part-Task Training 

CRISIS is being designed to support both part-task as well as whole-task training. Part-
task training will enable individuals as well as small teams to carry out training in spe-

B.L.W. Wong / CRISIS

193

Figure 2. The Variable Uncertainty Framework. 

cific  aspects  of  crisis  management.  Such  a  scaffolding  or  ‘training  wheels’  approach 
breaks down complex situations that enable novice trainees to develop their expertise 
before progressing. In addition, trainees will be trained to ‘prepare for the unexpected’ 
as  complex  situations  demands  flexible  skills.  CRISIS  can  achieve  this  by  designing 
the  simulation  system  such  that  exercise  scenarios  can  be  varied  in  ways  that  make 
repeated training using the same circumstances unpredictable, yet configurable by the 
instructor so that it still enables the trainer to target specific skill areas such as situation 
awareness  or  decision-making.  We  refer  to  this  approach  as  the  Variable  Uncertainty 
Framework, discussed next. 

8. Variable Uncertainty and Scenario Building 

CRISIS  will  use  the  Variable  uncertainty  Framework  or  VUF  [2],  for  re-creating  the 
variability of real-world situations in the simulation. The VUF can be decomposed into 
three  dimensions,  which  can  be  controlled:  situational  complexity  of  each  event,  the 
total number of events, and predictability of event presentation. Varying these dimen-
sions will vary the difficulty of situations presented to trainees, from simple drills to the 
challenging (Fig. 2). 

For example, simple well understood, single-sub-events that are tightly controlled, 
are good at providing trainees with practice in basic drills. Such drills-type of exercise 
can  be  made  more  challenging  by  introducing  many  sub-events  thereby  increasing 
workload or the rate at which the trainee must deal with them. By having a single sub-
event,  but  increasing  the  situational  complexity  and  the  randomness  by  which  events 
are presented, we can create training situations that demand a higher level of skills to 
respond to the presented situation. Then finally, by increasing the number of events that 
are  presented,  simultaneously  or  overlapping  them,  with  high  situational  complexity 
and randomness, we can create situations that require an advance level of expertise. 

9. Secure and Inter-Operable 

The Secure Integration Platform will provide a component-based software architecture 
that would enable rapid integration of existing and new software components, and the 

 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Securing the Air Transport

potential for connecting with real-world command and control systems. This work will 
start later in the project. 

10. After-Action Review, Exercise Planning and Advanced Knowledge 

Management 

CRISIS  will  have  an  Exercise  Planning  and  After  Action  Review,  AAR  capability, 
enabling real-time injects, and rapid trainee performance evaluation. We are developing 
software  to  translate  the  Variable  Uncertainty  Framework  into  the  exercise  scenario 
planner. This will give the trainer the software tools and methods for controlling how 
events occur and how complex or demanding the events will be by setting the variabili-
ty of start times or dependence on previous events. 

The  AAR  system  is  expected  to  collect  a  vast  amount  of  user  performance  data, 
and will require advanced decision and knowledge management technologies and visu-
alisation techniques to facilitate rapid analysis. A proof-of-concept prototype has been 
developed  using  Drools  to  test  the  novel  approach  of  integrating  Topic  Maps  using 
rule-based  reasoning  and  pattern  detection  to  support  to  instructors  during  simulation 
training.  Researchers  are  further  investigating  Esper  as  a  basis  for  complex  events 
processing  for  real-time  analysis  of  events  generated  by  the  CRISIS  system  during 
training.  An  adapted  a  natural  language  question-answering  interface  to  the  scenario 
event data, is also being investigated to improve the question answering performance. 
In  the  absence  of  real  data  from  the  After  Action  Review  module,  researchers  have 
developed a scenario data generator, using the Domain-Specific Language (DSL) para-
digm. This will be used for defining requirements for real-time critique. 

11. Realistic Scenarios 

Photo-realism in simulation is not a major consideration for believability. Rather it is 
how well the emergency situations are constructed to make it believable. Our field in-
vestigations suggest that crisis managers from time to time experience shock and sur-
prise  when  faced  with  sudden  emergencies.  We  call  these  ‘startle  points’  [1].  Startle 
can lead to a momentary inability to carry out their tasks, or a total failure to do so. We 
are using techniques such as the Critical Decision Method to identify cues and features 
that cause startle so that we can re-create the conditions in CRISIS in a believable way 
so that trainees can recognise when they are experiencing startle effects and to develop 
coping  strategies.  Teams  from  different  organisations  who  are  often  unpractised  at 
working  together  are  often  sent  to  emergencies.  CRISIS  is  investigating  how  such 
teams cope with the lack of familiarity, and will identify characteristics of such situa-
tions and will attempt to re-create them in the simulations. The authentic use of sounds 
and  communications  in  simulation  can  also  add  to  believability.  Sounds  that  do  not 
match the scene can generate a high level of disbelief. Speaking with another person in 
the  simulation  scene  should be  comparable  with  physical  world  expectations,  e.g.  the 
voice of a person should become faint as one gets further from another person. We will 
research such sounds and methods for configuring them in the simulation, so that they 
can be designed to enhance believability. 

B.L.W. Wong / CRISIS

195

12. Dissemination 

In addition to a high level of dissemination activities (e.g. 19 refereed publications), we 
have  also  subscribed  to  Mendeley  (http://www.mendeley.com/)  the  on-line  reference 
manager and research social networking site. It forms a key part of our dissemination 
infrastructure. It provides a simple interface for the entire consortium to easily upload 
publications, and to share between partners and with other researchers who are allowed 
access to the CRISIS account. In this way, it increases the dissemination reach of our 
work. This will complement the material already available through the project’s web-
site (http://idc.mdx.ac.uk/projects/crisis/). 

13. Conclusion 

In operation for just over a year, CRISIS has made significant progress in understand-
ing the problem of critical incident management and how we can use simulation envi-
ronments to supplement crisis managers’ training. Ideas are also emerging about how 
we might exploit the research in the future. We envisage CRISIS being capable of be-
ing reconfigured and re-purposed by enabling users with limited programming ability 
to  configure  the  simulation  from  the  given set  of  avatars, props  and  their behaviours, 
thereby allowing the same system to be used to create environments to train crisis man-
agers at other airports, rail crossings, or even a football stadium. In addition, it can also 
be used as a test-bed for the un-thinkable by creating new threat scenarios and evaluat-
ing our plans against them. 

Acknowledgements 

This  project  received  funding  from  the  European  Commission’s  Seventh  Framework 
Security programme FP7-SEC-2009-1, under Grant Contract No. FP7-242474 awarded 
to Middlesex University. We thank our partners in the project: Crisware (DK), the Na-
tional Aerospace Laboratory NLR (NL), ObjectSecurity Ltd (UK), Space Applications 
Services N.V./S.A. (BE), VSL Systems AB (SE), Linköping University (SE), Haskoli 
Island (IS), AE Solutions Ltd (UK), ANA Aeroportos de Portugal (PT), British Trans-
port Police (UK), and ISAVIA Ltd (IS), and for the continuing support of our Senior 
Project Officer Alexandros Bakalakos. 

References 

[1]  J. Barnett et al., Startle points: Identifying situational cues, and their implications for developing realistic 

emergency training scenarios. In ISCRAM 2011, ISCRAM conference: Lisbon, Portugal. 

[2]  J. Field, A. Rankin, J.v.d. Pal, H. Eriksson and W. Wong, (2011). Variable Uncertainty: Scenario design 
for training adaptive and flexible skills. Paper presented at the European Conference on Cognitive Ergo-
nomics ECCE 2011, 24–26 August 2011. 

[3]  E.T.  Hvannberg  and  J.  Rudinsky.  Crisis  management  training:  Techniques  for  eliciting  and  describing 
requirements and early designs across different incident types. In 6th International Conference on Uni-
versal Access in Human-Computer Interaction, HCII 2011. Orlando: Springer. 

[4]  A. Rankin et al., Scenario Design for Training Systems in Crisis Management: Training Resilience Ca-

pabilities. In Proceedings of Resilience Engineering Symposium. 2011. 

[5]  C.  Rooney  and  P.  Passmore,  Gestural  Interaction  for  Simulation  Training,  in  Workshop  for  Embodied 
Interaction.  The  ACM  Conference  of  Human  Factors  in  Information  Systems  CHI  2011:  Vancouver, 
Canada. 

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Securing the Air Transport

Table 1. Partners 

About the Author 

B.L. William Wong is Professor of Human-Computer Interaction at the Interaction Design Centre of Middle-
sex University, London (UK). He is Project Coordinator for the European FP7 project “CRISIS” 
Middlesex University – The Burroughs – NW44BT London – UK 
w.wong@mdx.ac.uk 
www.eis.mdx.ac.uk/research/idc/ 

 
Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-197

197

Behavourial Science Modelling 
of Security in Airports: BEMOSA 

Alan KIRSCHENBAUM 

Abstract. The European R&TD project called BEMOSA – Behavioural Modelling 
for Security in Airports – aims at developing a dynamic and realistic model of so-
cial behaviour and security decision making to threats in airports. These objectives 
will  be  accompanied  by  advancing  the  state-of-the-art  in  behavioural  modelling. 
By examining airports as complex organisations throughout Europe and focusing 
on  key  decision  making  groups  such  as  control  tower  operators,  security  em-
ployees,  service  vendors  and  passengers,  BEMOSA  will  deliver  the  basis  for  a 
comprehensive and practical training programme that considers all the airport se-
curity stakeholders. Presently a mock-up model is being evaluated and refined as a 
generic format for the training modules. 

Keywords. Behavioural science, airport, terrorists, social organisations, security 

1. Prime Targets 

Airports have increasingly become industrial and commercial enterprises. This makes 
them prime targets for terrorists that aim to disrupt modern civil society. This threat is 
taken very seriously by all stakeholders involved, ranging from policy makers to airport 
management, and law enforcement agencies. In addition, such security threats are ex-
tremely  costly  in  terms  of  money,  complicating  air/land  side  logistics  and  affecting 

 
 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Securing the Air Transport

passenger  satisfaction.  These  combined  security  and  economic  pressures  make  it  im-
perative to leverage any investment in airport security as effectively as possible. 

2. Who Makes Decisions? 

Therefore, it is of no surprise that eliminating and mitigating threats to air traffic is one 
of  the  main  objectives  of  the  global  air  transport  system.  BEMOSA,  an  applied  re-
search project that is co-financed by the European Community, will contribute signifi-
cantly to this objective by focusing on the human factors involved in the security deci-
sion  making  process.  Emphasis  will  be  put  first  and  foremost  on  discovering  actual 
security behaviours of airport employees and passengers. From this an analysis will be 
generated of the security decision making process within the social and organizational 
context of airports. Deciphering who, how and under what situations such decisions are 
made  will  form  the  platform  for  a  scenario  based  simulation  based  training  program. 
The end product will be evidence based training programs to enhance security decision 
making. 

3. Airports Are Social Organizations 

BEMOSA  will  provide  answers  and,  more  importantly,  cutting  edge  applicable  solu-
tions for improvements in enhancing security decision making by strengthening human 

                 
 
A. Kirschenbaum / Behavourial Science Modelling of Security in Airports: BEMOSA

199

resource capabilities. The basis for doing so lies in utilizing a holistic view of the air-
port as a large and complex organisation within which there exist both formalities be-
tween administrative units and a more subtle non-formal set of socially based commu-
nication  networks  that  facilitate  daily  operations.  As  complex  organizations,  airports 
exhibit  characteristics  that  influence  employee  behaviour  through  human  resource 
management processes that relate to security issues. Therefore, it is important to under-
stand how people behave in normal routine as well as non-routine situations. 

4. Faulty Decisions Are Costly 

Such  an  analysis  should  not  only  be  limited  to  security  personnel,  but  also  to  people 
working on the airport premises in general (across organizational boundaries) and even 
extended to the largest group of people in an airport: the passengers. What procedures 
are in place and are these procedures indeed drilled and implemented, especially during 
a crisis situation? Are security personnel only focused on implementing specific proce-
dures  or  do  they  have  a  broader  outlook?  As  is  widely  recorded,  a  crisis  is  an  ever 
evolving situation when even most elaborate (static) plans cannot predict how decisions 
are made. And  most important of all: what actual behaviour indeed contributes to in-
creased security and what does not! 

5. Procedures vs Reality 

The research team of BEMOSA has already discovered specific gaps between security 
procedures and actual behaviour among a broad range of employees in airports of vari-
ous  sizes  distributed  throughout  Europe.  In  addition,  security  decision  making  was 
found to be predominantly based on group interaction rather than individual decisions. 
This initial platform of evidence should provide a clear insight into how people behave 
and what behaviour contributes to enhancing security decisions. This base of evidence, 
along with a continuous flow of ethnographic, field survey data, interviews and longi-
tudinal panel data should then generate a dynamic and realistic model of social beha-
viour  and  security  decision  making  during  security  threats  in  airports.  By  examining 
airports throughout Europe and focusing on key decision making groups such as con-
trol  tower  operators,  security  employees,  service  vendors  and  passengers,  BEMOSA 
will  deliver  the  basis  for  a  comprehensive  and  practical  scenario  based  training  pro-
gram that considers all the airport security stakeholders. 

6. How Decisions Are Made! 

Unlike most available training packages, the BEMOSA training packages will be based 
upon how people make security decisions in the face of reality during the “normal rou-
tine” and crisis situations that occur in airports. The analysis of the ethnographic, inter-
view  and  questionnaire  data  provides  strong  support  for  doing  so  within  a  scenario 
based framework. Given the empirical finding that such decisions are usually based on 
group  interaction  and  in  many  cases  discard  or  bend  the  rules,  a  scenario  approach 
should compliment the present system of only learning the rules. This novel approach 

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Securing the Air Transport

will lead to increased efficiency of air transportation by decreasing false alarms, as well 
as improve safety and coordination for all stakeholders in cases of an emergency and 
security threat. It will provide breakthrough advancements in real-world crisis handling, 
reduce some well-known effects of stress and time pressure on human behaviour, and 
can be readily applied across cultural and organizational boundaries. 

7. Cutting Edge Vision 

Building scenario based training requires implementing advanced software simulations 
that will help to capture and predict social behaviour affecting security decisions under 
routine  and  non-routine  situations,  including  emergencies  which  involve  passengers. 
By thinking out-of-the-box, we hope to provide the platform for the training modules 
and  training  packages  that  can  be  readily  applied  at  minimum  cost  to  airports  across 
Europe. 

About the Author 

Professor Alan (Avi) Kirschenbaum  
Faculty  of  Industrial  Engineering  &  Management  –  Technion  –  Israel  Institute  of  Technology  –  Technion 
City 
32000 Haifa, Israel 
avik@tx.technion.ac.il. 

 
Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-201

201

SOFIA: Flight Automation as a Safe 
Countermeasure for Potentially Hostile 
Aircraft 

Juan-Alberto HERRERÍA GARCÍA and Jorge BUENO GÓMEZ 

Abstract.  The  SOFIA  project  (Safe  Automatic  Flight  Back  and  Landing  of  Air-
craft) is a response to the challenge of developing techniques enabling the safe and 
automatic  return  of  an  airplane  to  ground  in  the  event  of  hostile  actions.  SOFIA 
validates the Flight Reconfiguration Function (FRF), which takes the control of the 
aircraft and manages to safely return it to ground under a security emergency (e.g. 
hijacking),  disabling  the  control  and  command  of  the  aircraft  from  the  cockpit. 
This  means  to  create  and  execute  a  new  flight  plan  towards  a  secure  airport  and 
landing the aircraft at it. The flight plan can be generated on ground or in a mili-
tary  airplane  and  transmitted  to  the  aircraft,  or  created  autonomously  at  the  own 
FRF  system.  For  the  validation  of  the  FRF,  SOFIA  uses  flight  and  Air  Traffic 
Control simulators and General Aviation aircraft. SOFIA designs architectures for 
integrating  the  FRF  system  into  several  typologies  of  avionics;  develops  one  of 
these  architectures;  and  finally  validates,  following  the  European  Operational 
Concept Validation Methodology (E-OCVM), the FRF concept and the means to 
integrate it in the current Air Traffic Management (ATM) system. 

Keywords. Hostile aircraft, safe countermeasure, flight automation, flight reconfi-
guration function, security emergency 

1. Introduction 

Europe is already researching in this area, taking benefit from the 6th Framework Pro-
gramme sponsored by the European Commission (EC) [1]. Within such initiative, sev-
eral projects with participation of key European companies in the sector, are investigat-
ing  the  Flight  Reconfiguration  Function  (FRF)  arena  such  as  SAFEE  and  SOFIA  . 
These  projects  are  the  response  to  the  EC  concerns  regarding  aviation  security.  Such 
concerns are derived from the results achieved by the Advisory Council for Aeronau-
tics Research in Europe (ACARE). They conform to the VISION 2020 paper and are 
presented in the ACARE Strategic Research Agenda (SRA2) [2]. The SOFIA outcomes 
rely on the SAFEE project results. Whilst the SAFEE project provides the aircraft with 
the capacity to detect the on-board hostile action and performs a diversion to take the 
aircraft up to a secure area, the SOFIA project controls the aircraft autonomously and 
lands it on a secure destination [3]. 

The FRF developed in the SOFIA project is the response from several leading Eu-
ropean  companies  –  Isdefe  (coordinator),  Deutsche  Flugsicherung  (DFS),  GALILEO 
Avionica,  Skysoft,  Alenia  SIA,  THALES  Avionics,  Instytut  Lotnictwa  (IoA),  Rhein-
metall Defence Electronics (RDE) and Diamond Aircraft Industries – to the demand of 
the society to improve the security of aircraft operations. And the improvement is rea-

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Securing the Air Transport

lized  through  an  autonomous  way,  as  requested  by  ACARE  SRA2  [2].  Furthermore, 
SOFIA analyses the integration into the airspace of such an airplane flown by the FRF 
and its impact on the ATC system, and assess the implications of these developments in 
regulatory and certification frameworks. 

2. Development Proposal 

The main objective of SOFIA [3] is the validation of the Flight Reconfiguration Func-
tion system and the assessment of its integration into the airspace. SOFIA is mainly a 
technological project, but it also considers relevant operational and regulatory aspects. 
SOFIA dedicates an important effort in the assessment of those operational and regula-
tory  issues  related  to  the  integration  of  the  FRF  system  into  the  airspace.  The  opera-
tional assessment approach is not only a theoretical study but is also practical since the 
validation exercises consider the interaction of FRF with the airspace. 

Taking the fact of the clear symbiosis between FRF and Unmanned Aerial Systems 
(UAS), SOFIA considers UAS developments and progresses as a constant reference for 
the project. This reference is not only present in the operational aspects, but also in the 
technological ones that enable the integration of the UAS into the airspace. For a few 
years, work is focused on the operation of UAS in non-segregated airspace, and in par-
ticular on the “sense and avoid” concept, that will enable to detect any other aircraft, 
and  therefore  to  define  and  fly  the  appropriate  trajectory  permitting  collision  avoid-
ance. 

SOFIA  follows  a  stepwise  approach  in  its  development  which  is  formed  by  four 

main interrelated steps: 

•  Assessment on the issues related to the operation of the FRF; 
•  Design of the FRF system: functions, databases, components, interfaces, etc.  
•  Development of the FRF system for enabling the validation exercises; 
•  Validation of the FRF system and its integration into the airspace. 

2.1. Step 1: Assessment of the Operational Issues 

The main goal of this step is to define the future FRF environment by examination of 
(i) forthcoming avionics architectures and in particular those for FRF relevant features  
(Flight Control, Flight Management and air-ground communication) and (ii) the ATM 
environment which can be expected to be in place for the timeframe of FRF implemen-
tation (initially 2025). Thus, and together with the modalities of the FRF, the integra-
tion  into  that  environment  and  the  procedures  required  for  the  management  of  FRF-
controlled  aircraft  can  be  defined.  The  task  also  assesses  the  avionics  architectures 
where the FRF system will have to be integrated. This activity is quite interesting for 
the project because the determined environment for the FRF deployment is  the refer-
ence for the whole project in two key aspects: FRF functions and validation exercises. 

Once the FRF environment is defined, integrating the aircraft equipped with FRF 
into the airspace is the challenge. In the current situation, aircraft are controlled by pi-
lots who interact with the air traffic controller (ATCO). The ATCO will command the 
pilot to execute maneuvers such as increase speed, change flight level, direct to a new 
waypoint  etc.  When  due  to  on-board  threats  the  FRF  is  put  in  control  of  the  aircraft, 
data link remains the only possibility for the controller to communicate with the aircraft 

J.-A. Herrería García and J. Bueno Gómez / SOFIA: Flight Automation as a Safe Countermeasure 203

by sending flight plans that the FRF will execute. But even this possibility can be dis-
rupted.  Then,  the  aircraft  follows  its  own  flight  plan  without  any  possibility  of  being 
controlled  from  the  ground  systems.  In  both  events,  new  procedures  are  needed  to 
guide the ATCO’s behaviour. Such new procedures are proposed by SOFIA which also 
introduces  the  need  of  a  Ground  Security  Decision  Station  (GSDS)  to  manage  these 
security events. 

Special focus is given on the regulatory and certification issues to which FRF inte-
gration gives rise. At this point, the reference to the UAS progress reveals crucial, and 
thus it is used as a main source to propose the appropriate regulatory and certification 
framework for FRF and the new procedures designed for its implementation. With re-
spect to other projects dealing with the future ATM environment and tackling the prob-
lem of integrating autonomously flying aircraft, the distinctive feature of SOFIA is to 
take account of the security-related circumstances under which the autonomous flights 
occur. In  this  scenario,  two questions will  come  up  when  the  FRF  and  the  new ATC 
procedures  will  be  faced  with  the  regulatory  and  certification  frameworks:  How  will 
FRF and the procedures meet those frameworks? How could the frameworks be mod-
ified to enable the Flight Reconfiguration and the new ATC procedures by maintaining 
the safety levels? 

2.2. Step 2: Design of the FRF System 

Its  main  goal  is  to  specify  both  the  FRF  system  and  its  integration  into  the  different 
avionics architectures that can be expected for the future, considering three  modes of 
operation envisioned for the FRF: 

•  Flight Plan with Negotiation (FRF_N): the FRF executes a flight plan generat-
ed on ground and transmitted to the FRF via data link. FRF analyses the feasi-
bility of the flight plan according to the aircraft conditions and performances. 
In  case  of  agreement,  the  flight  plan  is  executed.  Otherwise,  switch  to  next 
mode; 

•  Flight  Plan  without  Negotiation  (FRF_WN):  after  negotiation  is  finished 
without agreement or communication disruption, FRF executes the flight plan 
elaborated by itself, without any control from ground; 

•  Military  aircraft  relay:  this  is  an  intermediate  step  between  the  two  previous 
solutions. FRF receives a flight plan from a military aircraft and operates as in 
the FRF_N solution. 

As the FRF implied automation modes are expected to be at least partly present in 
future aircraft, SOFIA more specifically addresses the solutions allowing this automa-
tion and the associated mode transitions to be performed autonomously with no possi-
bility for a malevolent onboard person to intervene. This will lead SOFIA to focus es-
pecially on FRF interfaces to existing systems and HMI devices, and to perform specif-
ic in depth safety analyses to define an architecture that fits all of the needs and con-
straints. 

Figure 1 presents how FRF fits into the control chain in the aircraft replacing the 
pilot and directly interacting with the actuators of the airplane control and communica-
tion systems. 

SOFIA  studies  in  particular  the  autonomous  flight  re-planning  function  with  the 
associated  monitoring  function,  and  the  interfaces  to  available  onboard  surveillance 
systems which provide the means to detect various threats (equipment failure, terrain, 

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Securing the Air Transport

Figure 1. FRF Overall Architecture (Copyright Isdefe). 

traffic, or  weather hazard)  and  to  autonomously  make  decisions  about flight plan up-
date. Especially for the detection of traffic threats, SOFIA will analyze and consider the 
most  promising  civil  and  military  solutions  under  study  in  the  UAS  arena.  It  is  a  re-
markable iterative process that will be run between the design activity and the regulato-
ry, certification and safety assessments. As part of FRF design, SOFIA includes thus a 
study focused on data bases with the aim of identifying FRF-related requirements and 
specifying, with respect to the databases foreseen for future aircraft, the modifications 
and  new  data  fields  that  are  required  to  fit  FRF  needs  and  the  set  of  databases  that 
enables the calculations to be performed by FRF. 

Also worthy of note is the innovation brought about by SOFIA at the ground side 
regarding the ATM procedures and tools, for which the impact of FRF related proce-
dures  and  functions  will  be  assessed.  During  the  FRF  design,  a  safety  assessment  is 
carried  out.  The  main  goal  of  this  activity  is  to  propose  design  requirements  derived 
from the analysis of the preliminary design and the FRF integration into the airspace. 
Both safety assessments comprise the performance of a Functional Hazard Assessment 
(FHA)  and  a  Preliminary  System  Safety  Assessment  (PSSA).  EUROCONTROL 
EATMP SAM and SAE ARP 4761 are applied. 

2.3. Step 3: Development of the FRF System 

Its main goal is to develop the FRF functions for validation and to set up the simulation 
environment  that  allows  FRF  functional  validation  to  be  performed  according  to  the 
objectives and requirements set out in the SOFIA validation plan. The task includes the 
adaptation of already available platform components and the development of appropri-
ate new mock-up components in order to get functional test beds ready for carrying out 
of  FRF  validation.  Only  the  operational  modes  FRF  with  Negotiation  (FRF_N)  and 
FRF without Negotiation (FRF_WN) will be carried out. 

Six validation platforms are used in the SOFIA project: 
•  ATENA, flight simulator developed by GALILEO Avionica; 
•  AIRLABTM flight simulator developed by THALES Avionics; 
•  DFS ATC simulator; 
• 
•  Diamond Aircraft Industry Twin Star DA42 simulator; 
•  Diamond Aircraft Industry Twin Star DA42 aircraft. 

IoA’s I-23 Manager aircraft; 

 
J.-A. Herrería García and J. Bueno Gómez / SOFIA: Flight Automation as a Safe Countermeasure 205

2.4. Step 4: Validation of the FRF System and Its Integration into the Airspace 

Its main goal is to perform the validation experiments envisaged for the SOFIA project 
to assess first, whether the design of the FRF system is capable of supporting the func-
tionality required and second, the operation of FRF integrated into the ATC procedures 
as  proposed  by  SOFIA.  The  validation  exercises  follow  a  validation  plan  elaborated 
according to E-OCVM. 

The validation of FRF will only be made on the operational modes FRF with Ne-
gotiation (FRF_N) and FRF without Negotiation (FRF_WN). To carry out the valida-
tion, five experiments are proposed according to a stepwise strategy to feed back to the 
development  phase  validation  results  from  a  first  set  of  validation  exercises  to  refine 
the design and development of the FRF: 

•  A preliminary validation of FRF functions will be carried out during the de-
velopment phase. The ATENA simulator is linked to the DFS ATC simulator. 
This experiment is focused on refining the FRF functions, particularly the as-
sessment  of  the  FRF  functions  and  its  integration  into  the  airspace.  The  op-
tions Flight re-planning with negotiation and Flight re-planning without nego-
tiation will be assessed; 

•  A flight trial is executed during the development phase to refine the develop-
ment process by using an aircraft provided by IoA. This trial is focused on the 
assessment of Flight re-planning without negotiation; 

•  A  validation  exercise  is  run  in  the  THA  AIRLABTM  simulator  to  assess  the 

feasibility of FRF solutions for the commercial aircraft world; 

•  Tests are performed in the Diamond Aircraft Industry Twin Star DA42 simu-
lator  to  evaluate  the  integration  of  the  FRF  system  into  the  DA-42  aircraft, 
previous to the validation of the FRF into the DA-42 aircraft; 

•  A flight trial by using an aircraft provided by DAI. This trial will be focused 
on the assessment of the Flight re-planning with negotiation thanks to a link to 
the DFS ATC facility; 

•  The  validation  cycle  adopted  in  SOFIA  is  presented  in  (Fig.  2).  This  figure 
shows  the  links  among  the  validation  exercises,  how  they  are  used  to  refine 
the FRF versions developed in the project, and what validation platforms are 
used in each exercise. 

The validation objectives are those related to the demonstration of the FRF concept 
reliability in realistic environments: Issues relative to the appropriateness and feasibili-
ty of the FRF operational modes, evaluation of the impact on the ground segment (AT-
CO  work  load,  flight  plan  creation  on  ground),  cross  checking  and  execution  of  the 
flight  plan  and  landing  of  the  aircraft  by  FRF  that  are  to  be  assessed  in  SOFIA.  The 
next list addresses detailed validation objectives to be achieved in SOFIA. 

•  Validation of the impact of the FRF system on ground: 

−  Assessment of the reliability of the new ATC procedures and management 

in a FRF scenario; 

−  Assessment  of  the  reaction  of  the  ATCO  when  FRF  is  activated  and 

workload ATCO upon the different FRF operational modes. 

 
 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Securing the Air Transport

Figure 2. SOFIA Validation Cycle (Copyright Isdefe). 

•  Validation of the FRF system on-board: 

−  Creation of the flight plan by FRF on air; 
−  Crosschecking by FRF of the flight plan received from ground; 
−  Execution of the flight plan and landing of the aircraft by FRF. 

3. SOFIA Design Achievements 

3.1. FRF Environment 

In an emergency situation (e.g. a security crisis on-board as it is the case in SOFIA) the 
highest priority is to land the aircraft as quickly as possible. Therefore the flight to the 
selected aerodrome shall be as short as possible. The aircraft shall normally fly directly 
to the aerodrome. This part of the FRF flight will be the same for all the three FRF so-
lutions introduced in the following paragraphs. 

1.  Solution 1: Autonomous Flight Re-Planning 
For  the  FRF,  it  is  very  easy  to  create  a  new  flight  plan  to  a  special  emergency 
aerodrome,  because  all  necessary  information  is  available  on  board.  The  information 
about the crisis on board, the status of the aircraft and databases about the airspace are 
part of the safety and security systems. Information about the conditions at the selected 
aerodrome could be available, e.g. via ATIS. En-route weather information could also 
be received via data link or on board weather radar. As all information is available a 
route  to  the  airport  can  be  calculated  quickly.  FRF  can  down  link  the  route  to  the 
GSDS,  so ATC  can  keep  the  surrounding controlled  traffic  away.  GSDS  can  also  in-
form the selected airport and security authorities. In case of data link problems the FRF 
aircraft  flies  to  the  aerodrome  without  information  to/from  GSDS. ATC  monitors  the 
flight  and,  using  predicting  techniques  (ATC  tools),  ATC  can  anticipate  the  possible 
aerodrome selected by the FRF system. Thus ATC can also inform that aerodrome and 
the  authorities.  This  procedure  is  similar  to  today’s  procedure  for  an  aircraft  with  r/t 
failure. Therefore this solution is easy to work, clearly structured and the time to pre-

 
J.-A. Herrería García and J. Bueno Gómez / SOFIA: Flight Automation as a Safe Countermeasure 207

pare is relatively short. This is the preferred solution for the controllers according to the 
outcomes from the workshop hold with them at the DFS. 
2.  Solution 2: Flight Re-Planning with Negotiation 
Due  to  the  negotiation  between  the  FRF  system  and  the  GSDS,  the  preparation 
phase  in  Solution  2  is  more  time  consuming.  For  the  negotiation,  data  must  be  ex-
changed via data link. Depending on the technical equipment this data exchange may 
take longer. Additionally, during the negotiation phase two decisions must be taken. At 
first  GSDS  has  to  decide  about  the  destination  aerodrome  (and  the  alternative);  and 
secondly, the FRF system has to decide about the FPLN proposed by GSDS. Both de-
cisions need extra time to compute. If the negotiation fails, the FRF uses the flight plan 
calculated by itself, reverting to Solution 1. 

This information will be down linked to the GSDS through a secure data link. Re-
garding the premises made above, the aircraft will consume more time for the prepara-
tion phase than in Solution 1. Due to the decisions foreseen in the procedures, the struc-
ture of this solution is more complex. For the controllers this procedure is not as easy to 
work as Solution 1. 

3.  Solution 3: Mil. A/C Relay 
Regarding the amount of time required and the complexity of the procedures, Solu-
tion 3 is the least preferred solution. Intercepting the FRF aircraft requires time. A spe-
cially equipped military aircraft must be informed and flown to intercept it. Then the 
military aircraft has to connect to the FRF aircraft and receive the status information. 
Based  on  this  information  the  GSDS  must  calculate  a  new  route  to  the  emergency 
aerodrome.  This  information  is  to  be  transmitted  via  the  military  aircraft  to  the  FRF 
flight.  Then  the  FRF  aircraft  can  start  the  flight  plan.  If  the  connection  between  the 
military aircraft and the FRF flight or the connection between the military aircraft and 
GSDS fails, the FRF system creates a flight plan and follows it to the emergency aero-
drome. The interception of the FRF aircraft is time consuming and also the transmis-
sion of the data to GSDS via the military aircraft and back to the FRF aircraft is time 
consuming. Due to the integration of a third party (military aircraft) in the negotiation 
process the complexity of this solution is higher than in the other solutions. 

4.  Discussion on the Solutions 
Initially  a  combination  between  the  three  solutions was  envisaged.  The  proposed 
stepwise approach started with Solution 2, then Solution 3 and, as a last back up, Solu-
tion 1. This approach is very time consuming, very complex and not easy to work for 
all participating parties, particularly the Air Traffic Controllers (ATCOs). Therefore in 
SOFIA a clear structured solution is preferred. This preferred solution could either be 
Solution 1, Solution 2, or Solution 3. In Solution 2 and Solution 3 elements of Solution 
1  are  integrated  as  back up procedures  if failures occur during  the normal  procedure. 
Thus a combination of Solution 2 and 1 or Solution 3 and 1 is foreseen, not as a step-
wise  approach  but  as  one  solution.  However  the  preferred  solution  according  to  the 
ATCO’s inputs is Solution 1. 

3.2. Certification and Regulation 

The  SOFIA  project  has  analyzed  the  impact  of  the  Flight  Reconfiguration  Function 
(FRF) in the certification and regulatory frameworks. SOFIA has kept several meetings 
with ICAO, EASA and EUROCONTROL. 

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Securing the Air Transport

The  major  demand  regarding  certification  activities  was  detected  in  the  air  seg-
ment. Although the philosophy underlying the design of the FRF system is to be pur-
sued in compliance with the current regulatory framework, the existence of conflicts or 
gaps in current regulations is inevitable since the FRF is particularly innovative. Hence 
some changes in those regulations will be required in order to make the certification of 
the FRF system possible. Most conflicts detected in the current certification framework 
stem  from  the  pilot  being  out  of  the  loop  when  the  aircraft  is  under  command  of  the 
FRF system. In particular, the main associated issues are the fact that there is no pilot 
(1) to take over control of the aircraft when a critical system fails, and (2) to monitor 
malfunctions or emergencies on-board so that the pilot can react to them. Requirements 
have been derived and became a valuable input for the design of the FRF system from 
all the analysed codes for the air segment. 

On the ATC segment the certification issues are not so problematic, as ATC does 
not influence directly the FRF flight, only the configuration of already existing certified 
ATC systems has to be changed. Also the interface to the GSDS is based on existing 
technology. 

On the ground segment the GSDS is the only relevant system that has to be certi-
fied. Both the process and the responsibilities for such certification are not defined. As 
the GSDS has the ability to influence the FRF flight directly, it has to be regarded as a 
combination of air and ground segments. For regulatory issues, the procedures have to 
be confirmed by ICAO. All developed procedures have to be integrated into the ATM. 
Therefore  the  ANSPs’  procedures  and  documentations  have  to  be  updated  with  the 
FRF ones. 

With regard to both the regulatory and certification issues of the air segment, the 
main conflict with regulations stems from being the pilot out of the loop when the air-
craft is under command of the FRF, since the current regulatory framework assumes, 
explicitly  or  implicitly,  that  a  pilot  is  on  board  to  follow  the  prescribed  procedures. 
Another important issue leading to conflicts with regulations is the loss of communica-
tion with ground when the aircraft is under command of the FRF system, since in this 
situation  GSDS  is  not  informed  on  the  aircraft  status  and  evolution  of  the  crisis  on-
board, and no vital information can be up-linked to the aircraft when necessary. In ad-
dition, other aspects considered in the analysis of regulatory issues are Training, Air-
craft Maintenance and Security. Regarding training new programmes dealing with ‘se-
curity avionics’ systems’ should be developed. Similarly, procedures for handling these 
special systems should be developed for Aircraft Maintenance Organizations, based on 
requirements to be included in the regulatory framework. 

3.3. FRF Design 

In order to enable the implementation of the FRF, the airplane avionics must be fly-by-
wire. The design of the FRF has resulted in a set of eight functions and three databases 
(DB). The functions perform the actions assigned to the FRF to command and control 
the flight, and communicate with GSDS during the FRF flight of the airplane in emer-
gency. The DB provides the data needed to enable the FRF to perform the calculations 
for the flight reconfiguration. 

The FRF functions are described hereafter: 
The Decision Centre Function (DCF) shall manage the different FRF capabilities. 
It shall act like an event controller. It performs the FRF initialization (including built in 
test), modes management and systems interface management (including update of da-

J.-A. Herrería García and J. Bueno Gómez / SOFIA: Flight Automation as a Safe Countermeasure 209

tabases).  The  modes  management  deals  with  the  four  FRF  modes:  START,  IDLE, 
ARMED and ACTIVE, described here below: 
•  START: power-up of the system; 
• 

IDLE:  mode  for  ‘normal’  operations  of  the  airplane  in  absence  of  security 
emergencies or threats; 

•  ARMED: the FRF primary functionality calculates a new flight plan that shall 

fly the aircraft to a safe landing; 

•  ACTIVE: the FRF executes the flight plan calculated when in ARMED mode 

and prepares the aircraft for landing. 

The Health Monitoring System Interface (HMS) gathers data from systems crit-
ical to the operation of the FRF, and performs corrective actions in case of failure in 
order to ensure continuity of the FRF service. If a failure is critical enough not to be 
recoverable, the FRF will notify to ground (GSDS) the condition that forced this disen-
gagement. This will give the GSDS the opportunity to consider the best course of ac-
tion for the given situation. 

The  Route  Planning  and  Static  Flight  Monitoring  (RPL)  generates  a  suitable 
flight plan to a secure landing airfield. It takes into account the external airfield selec-
tion  criteria  and  authorizations  and  the  information  coming  from  the  FRF  databases 
regarding commercial routes and airports, terrain, restricted areas and military airports, 
static and dynamic Prohibited Security Areas and weather. 

The  Guidance  and  Leg  Management  (GLM)  monitors  the  flight  of  the  aircraft 
along  the  route,  continuously  evaluating  the  displacements  from  the  desired  path  and 
providing inputs to the autopilot for guidance. It also performs all the operations of leg 
change and connection. 

The  Route  Re-planning  (RRP)  performs  any  type  of  amendment  to  the  flying 
plan  during  its  execution  due  to  external  constraints  (e.g.,  traffic,  weather…).  Proce-
dures similar to the (RPL) shall be applicable. 

The  Dynamic Flight Monitoring  (DFM)  consists of different  sub-functions  that 

shall be activated during the FRF flight of the airplane: 

•  A/C  Performance  Monitoring,  in  order  to  provide  all  the  necessary  informa-
tion  (fuel  consumption,  timing  information  etc.)  to  FRF  to  perform  a  check 
along the selected path; 

•  Resolving conflicts with static obstacles, e.g. terrain and PSAs; 
•  Resolving conflicts with air traffic, performing automatically the TCAS pro-

cedures; 

•  Resolving conflicts with bad weather conditions. 

The External Communication (COM) produces the information to be exchanged 
between FRF and the GSDS: FRF Mode, FMS acceptance/rejection of the GSDS flight 
plan,  selected  airfield  to  land,  selected  flight  path,  Modified  Flight  Path  and  Health 
Data. 

The  Display  Management  (DSM)  provides  the  interface  between  FRF  and  Dis-
play  Function.  As  a  general  philosophy,  in  order  to  respond  to  terrorist  attacks  on 
board, a solution that prevents hijackers to know the real state of the aircraft (engines, 
trajectory etc) is preferred, only displaying the FRF mode. 

Several airplane systems are interfaced by the FRF (Fig. 3). Hence, navigation and 

surveillance sources, guidance systems and control systems are interfaced by the FRF. 

TARMS and EAS are security systems developed in the SAFEE project. 

210

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Securing the Air Transport

Databases

Secure
Comms

GSDS

TARMS

Coordin ation

ATC

Collision
avoidance

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Dynamic FM

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A/C model

Flight Plan Management

Guidance

Surveillance

Energy/Power

Health Monitoring
System

Landing Gear

Flight Controls

                                      FMS

Propulsion

Figure 3. FRF Interfaces (Copyright Isdefe). 

The FRF databases are described hereafter. 
The Static and Dynamic Database stores static data as terrain, obstacles, Prohi-
bited for Security Areas (PSA), civil and military aerodromes and their characteristics 
to  deal  with  threats, restricted  areas,  and dynamic  data  as  FPLN  and  airport selected, 
weather data, etc. 

The Aircraft Performance Database, needed to perform the guidance function. 
The Navigation Database, with Jeppessen plus airliner specific data. 

3.4. FRF Safety Assessment 

Safety is a requirement “society” poses on air transport. Although air travel is one of 
the  safest  forms  of  transportation,  an  increase  in  the  number  of  accidents  will  not  be 
accepted, not even in a context of growing traffic or emerging threats, such as for in-
stance  related  to  security.  Hence  the  challenge  to  industry  and  regulatory  agencies  to 
make an already safe system even safer.  

FRF provides a solution to a situation with a potentially catastrophic ending caused 
by the presence of a security threat. When hijacking (or similar threat) occurs on-board 
an  aircraft,  the  probability  of  losing  the  aircraft  increases  considerably,  therefore  any 
action taken to mitigate this possible end result will significantly improve safety. From 
this  point  of  view,  it  might  not  be  necessary  to  design  a  system  to  the  same  level  of 
safety  as  it  is  required  for  current  on-board  aircraft  systems,  however  the  inadvertent 
activation of the FRF shall be strongly prevented. 

It  can  be  demonstrated  that  such  inadvertent  activation  of  the  FRF  can  be  dealt 
with a moderate increase of workload by flight crews and will never have catastrophic 
consequences.  Nevertheless,  having  a  lot  of  spurious  FRFs  will  not  be  acceptable  by 
pilots  or  airlines  and  will  not  be  sustainable  by  the  ATS.  Therefore  requirements  are 
necessary to keep this number small enough. 

 
J.-A. Herrería García and J. Bueno Gómez / SOFIA: Flight Automation as a Safe Countermeasure 211

Since the expected number of FRF like scenarios is still to be better assessed, con-
servative  estimates  have  been  performed  when  imposing  safety  requirements  on  the 
FRF functionalities. Clear show stoppers have not been identified although equipment 
redundancy and additional design effort might be necessary to reach some of the tar-
gets. 

While the FRF is in operation there are two main modes that have been assessed 
throughout this work. The following two paragraphs discuss the feasibility of the func-
tionalities proposed in the different modes from a safety point of view. 

In the ARMED mode, a number of failures in this functional area could endanger 
the success of the FRF mission, not only during the calculation of the first FLPN but 
also in the hypothetical case that the FRF has to recalculate the flight plan and choose a 
new destination due to unanticipated events (e.g. conflict with traffic, change of threat, 
weather, etc). 

In  the  ACTIVE  mode,  safety  requirements  necessary  to  guarantee  a  safe  landing 
without  a pilot-in-the-loop  are  also quite  rigorous.  This  includes not only  those  func-
tions  associated  to  actions  performed  to  configure  the  airplane  for  landing  but  also 
functions intended to resolve conflicts found on the way to the chosen destination (like 
traffic or weather). 

The following paragraphs discuss the feasibility of the different scenarios from a 

safety point of view. 

1.  Scenario 2: Solution 1 with Datalink Where the FRF Autonomously Chooses a 

4D Route 

A large proportion of the safety requirements derived seem feasible for this scena-
rio. Clear show stoppers (safety requirements that definitely cannot be identified) have 
not been identified. Nevertheless, a number of safety requirements may be very diffi-
cult or costly to achieve: 

• 

Information  regarding  the  state  of  the  airport,  its  runways,  its  navigation 
equipment and suitability of weather conditions for landing are of critical im-
portance  for  the  ‘blind’  landings  to  be  performed  by  FRF.  This  poses  chal-
lenging  requirements  on  availability  and  quality  of  the  information  provided 
to the FRF at the holding as well as the information provided by ATIS when 
the FRF is approaching a certain airport and runway. In case of late informa-
tion that the selected approach and landing can for whatever reason not be per-
formed safely, the FRF has to re-plan an airport, an approach, the runway and 
possibly even a holding. This process has neither been defined nor assessed in 
the present work; 

•  A general issue is the selection of a set of suitable airports where FRF should 
land the aircraft. These airports on the one hand, should not be too busy, such 
that  procedures  necessary  for  clearing  approaches,  runways  and  their  neigh-
borhoods  are  feasible.  On  the  other  hand,  the  navigation  equipment  of  these 
airports needs to be of very high quality and availability as safe landing of an 
FRF critically depends on it. Such equipment may be relatively costly for such 
airports; 

•  Another general issue is that when overflying cities, nuclear reactors or gener-
ally areas where one would not want to have security challenged flights such 
as FRF is considered as a severe situation (severity class 2) in itself, this poses 

212

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Securing the Air Transport

challenging requirements to onboard and ground databases regarding the cor-
responding information. 

2.  Scenario 3: Solution 2 Where the Destination Airport is Negotiated with ATC 
The general situation is that the safety requirements for scenario 3 are equally or 
less difficult to achieve than for scenario 2. This is intuitively clear, as the selected air-
port  and  route  have  been  assessed  and  confirmed  by  ATC  in  the  negotiation  process 
between  FRF and  ATC. Nevertheless,  the difficult  safety  requirements for  scenario 2 
are generally still a challenge. 

3.  Scenario 1: Solution 1 Without Datalink, Where the FRF Autonomously 

Chooses a 4D Route 

Scenario 1 generally seems very difficult to achieve in a manner satisfying safety 
objectives and requirements. A crucial point on top of the aforementioned requirements, 
which are here even more difficult to achieve, is that the FRF blindly chooses a destiny 
airport and approach and is then completely dependent on ATIS for information to con-
firm that the actual state of the runway, navigation equipment, weather, etcetera allow a 
safe landing. It seems very difficult to have ATIS contain all necessary information of 
sufficient quality in a sufficiently timely manner, also because the FRF does not inform 
about the airport and route it has selected. For the latter reason, the FRF also implies a 
considerable challenge to ATC. 

The work is not complete, even after the safety assessment has been defined and 
turned over to the system developers responsible for leading the implementation of the 
FRF.  The  implementation  activities  should  be  continuously  monitored  to  ensure  that 
action is being accomplished, any roadblocks to implementation are removed and the 
plan accommodates any newly identified gaps. 

This  safety  enhancement  process  is  best  accomplished  in  a  step-wise  fashion  to 
move to the next level of maturity. Once the initial action plan has been completed, the 
process should be repeated in order to identify the next safety enhancement actions to 
be implemented. 

4. SOFIA Validation Achievements 

4.1. DFS-GAL Validation Exercises 

Following  the  validation  cycle  adopted  by  SOFIA,  the  first  validation  exercises  were 
run in November 2008. This validation experiment was performed by DFS and GALI-
LEO Avionica (GAL). The validation platform used for the experiment was composed 
by the ATC simulator from DFS and the ATENA flight simulator from GAL (Fig. 4). 
Both simulators were connected through a high wide band telephonic line, used to in-
terchange the flight data between both simulators. Solution 1, Flight Plan Without Ne-
gotiation, and Solution 2, Flight Re-planning With Negotiation, were tested, involving 
ATCOs in the ATC simulator and a pilot in the ATENA simulator. 

Several  objectives  for  the  validation  exercise  were  defined,  both  with  regards  to 
the  technical  performances  of  the  FRF,  and  the  operational  acceptance  of  the  proce-
dures by the ATCOs: 

•  Test the FRF capacity to negotiate a flight plan; 

J.-A. Herrería García and J. Bueno Gómez / SOFIA: Flight Automation as a Safe Countermeasure 213

Figure 

4. DFS ATC Sim

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GAL ATENA (rig

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Figure 5. Typical 
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Used in the DFS-

GAL Simulation

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214

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Securing the Air Transport

Finally, the three previous operational scenarios are considered in the experiment, 

resulting in three different exercises carried out by the ATCOs: 

•  Scenario  1,  i.e.,  flight  plan  without  negotiation  and  without  data  link.  The 
flight plan adopted by the FRF is not downloaded to ground as the data link is 
out of service. This implies the ATCO is not aware of the flight plan the FRF 
is to execute; 

•  Scenario 2, i.e., flight plan without negotiation and with data link in service. 
This  implies  the  ATCO  is  aware  of  the  FRF  intentions  as  the  flight  plan  is 
downloaded through data link; 

•  Scenario 3, i.e., flight plan with negotiation. The ATCO has now the capacity 

to define the flight plan to be executed by the FRF. 

The  outcomes  from  these  three  exercises  demonstrate  the  technical  feasibility  of 
the  FRF,  being  able  to  manage  the  solutions  (with  and  without  negotiation)  without 
failures. Even more interesting than these conclusions was the assessment of how the 
human part of the exercises performed. With regards to this, the following conclusions 
can be stated for each of the scenarios tested: 

•  Scenario  1,  i.e.,  flight  plan  without  negotiation  and  without  data  link.  The 
main concern and problem found by the ATCOS is that they are not aware of 
the FRF intents. Therefore they are every time reacting to the FRF executions 
but no medium term prevention is possible. The main risk is the time needed 
by the ATCO to clear the surrounding airspace and to advise the potential air-
ports were the airplane could land. The FRF provides the ATCO with a time 
to react between the alert is launched and the FRF starts to execute its flight 
plan. This time has to be augmented in this scenario to enable good and safe 
ATCO performance. The negative point is that the increase in time could jeo-
pardize  the  FRF  performance  (more  fuel  consumption).  The  affected  sector 
has to be closed completely. With regards to the workload, initially, it increas-
es in the affected sector and once this is clear of traffic, the workload increases 
in  the  surrounding  sectors.  Due  to  the  uncertainty  introduced  in  the  ATCOs 
tasks, this scenario jeopardizes the safety of the air traffic system; 

•  Scenario 2, i.e., flight plan without negotiation and with data link in service. 
The  concern  and  difficulty  in  the  previous  scenario  disappear  in  this  second 
scenario. The ATCOs are aware of the flight plan to be executed and the air-
port to land at by the FRF. Due to the fact that the flight plan and the landing 
airport are known, the traffic flow can be handled almost normally. Only the 
flights  to  the  landing  airport must  be  diverted  to other  airports.  The  affected 
sector does not have to be closed completely. ATCOs considered that safety is 
kept in the current values; 

•  Scenario  3,  i.e.,  flight  plan  with  negotiation.  The  ATCOs  generate  the  flight 
plan to be executed and the airport to land at by the FRF. This supposes an in-
crease in the ATCO work load not well accepted by them. Due to the fact that 
the flight plan and the landing airport are known, the traffic flow can be han-
dled almost normally. The only impact is that the flights to the landing airport 
must  be  diverted  to  other  airports.  The  affected  sector  does  not  have  to  be 
closed completely. ATCOs considered that safety is kept in the current values. 

After  performing  the  validation  exercises,  debriefing  sessions  were  run  with  the 
ATCOs  who  participated  in  every  exercise.  Debates  were  opened  and  questionnaires 

J.-A. Herrería García and J. Bueno Gómez / SOFIA: Flight Automation as a Safe Countermeasure 215

Figure 6. THALES Avionics’ Airlab™ Simulator (Copyright THALES Avionics). 

were distributed to gather the information needed to evaluate every scenario, the AT-
COs  preferences,  concerns,  problems,  and  in  general,  all  the  information  that  could 
enable a ranking of the scenarios and solutions tested. After the assessment of the in-
formation, it can be concluded that the most preferred scenario for the ATCOS is Sce-
nario 2, followed by Scenario 3. Scenario 1, in the last position, was the only one to be 
considered as jeopardizing the safety of the air traffic system. 

4.2. Validation Exercises 

The second validation exercises were performed on a simulator platform by Thales, the 
THA  Airlab™  Simulator  (Fig.  6).  This  simulator  controlled  SAFEE  EAS  functions, 
activated by a basic simulation of SAFEE TARMS in order to activate the SOFIA FRF 
implementation, shared between existing systems (FMS, ISS, CDS, …) and dedicated 
SOFIA systems (FRF and associated databases systems). 

This selection has been an added value for the SOFIA project to guarantee the con-
tinuation of research in FP6 projects. Additionally, SOFIA has joined the EAS and FRF 
functions.  That  means  the  complete  security  function  proposed  by  SAFEE  to  protect 
the aircraft against intended collision into ground is available to design the validation 
exercises. 

The THA validation exercise was focused at the reproduction of FRF_WN scena-
rio:  In  case  the  communication  between  ATCO  and  the  FRF  is  interrupted,  the  FRF 
starts to operate autonomously. In this scenario, new procedures are to be introduced by 
the ATCO, and different parameters were assessed: creation and execution of the flight 
plan by FRF and selection of the destination airport by FRF. 

This simulation was conducted with two main streams (Fig. 7): 
• 

“Off-Line” Stream: The off-line stream was performed to assess reliability and 
integrity of the ROUTINGS library by generating safe flight plans. Trajecto-
ries  were  created  automatically  under  constraints  by  a  dedicated  tool  able  to 

 
216

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Securing the Air Transport

Figure 7. Streams for the Airlab™ Simulation (Copyright THALES Avionics). 

• 

configure ROUTINGS input constraints such as a geographical area and local 
airports. For each couple of airports available in the local area, this automatic 
process generated a flight plan, which was accepted only when the overall dis-
tance was within a selected range (to remove “too-short” and “too-long” tra-
jectories); 
“Routine”  and  “Emergency”  Streams:  This  run  of  evaluations  comprised  17 
simulation executions. For each execution, aircraft flight parameters were rec-
orded, including position, altitude, FRF computed flight plan and FMS com-
puted trajectory. A results analysis was performed off line of all scenarios cor-
rectly executed. The elements checked for correctness at run-time by the oper-
ator in charge of the evaluation scenario are listed hereafter: 
−  The  simulation  initialization,  to  ensure  the  trivial  preliminary  require-

ments to run the simulation; 

−  The flight mode display (in FMA on PFD), as this information is the de-
scription to the crew of the current operating mode of the aircraft. These 
parameters  were  used  in  the  SOFIA  context  to  assess  that  the  system  in 
charge of the guidance is correct on executing the correct sub-mode; 
−  The  execution  of  the  trajectory,  in  particular,  to  note  the  time  frames 
where the aircraft position may be enhanced (versus expected trajectory) 
and thus ease further off-line analysis; 

−  The selected destination computed by the FRF, considering the expected 

scenario and the currently displayed candidate airport locations; 

−  The automatic execution of actions generally handled by the crew (selec-
tion  of  the  clearance  altitude,  activation  of  the  auto-pilot,  extensions  of 
flaps and gears…), required to fully matching SOFIA context conditions. 

The simulators configuration selected for the SOFIA validation trials facilitated a 
large  scope  of  validation  exercises  to  perform  all  the  tasks  foreseen,  with  two  clear 
added values with respect to the flight trials: it permits more flexible environments and 
exercises  with  no  risk  to  the  airspace  and  enables  to  check  two  important  tasks  like 
cross-checking of the flight plan and application of the new ATM procedures. 

About  140.000  flight  hours  were  simulated  to  test  ROUTINGS  operational  per-
formances. Correct ROUTINGS behaviour was assessed by a safety check of the gen-

 
J.-A. Herrería García and J. Bueno Gómez / SOFIA: Flight Automation as a Safe Countermeasure 217

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ed by the FRF
trials,  the  airc
ns, i.e. in case 
control of the
the DAI flight
s a guidance 
pilot was also
were  still  activ
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tests with rea
was  that  the  F
rthiness requir
oA with the I-
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o under the ful
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g. HDG-, NA
on, the pilot w
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al aircraft were
FRF  software
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-23 Manager 
in the FRF_W
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e carried out w
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aircraft (Fig. 
WN mode. The
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218

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Securing the Air Transport

Figure  9.  I-
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J.-A. Herrería García and J. Bueno Gómez / SOFIA: Flight Automation as a Safe Countermeasure 219

Figure 1

10. DA-42 Simul

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artment (left). 
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additional sim
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t trials perform
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the simula
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was in the resp
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ponsibility of 
uns were perf
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were added 
where FRF 
pending on 
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11). 
med with the 
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FRF  in  com
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There  were  q
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prove that 
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quantitative 
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mbination  with
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n  autopilot 
he  selected 

One i
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lots. 

important resu
rt to improve 
incl. auto flar

ult was that a 
position meas
re which are 

safe final app
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proach would 
y, and z) as we
m the function

require addit
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nality of today

tional tech-
nalities like 
y’s autopi-

            
220

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Securing the Air Transport

During the flight trials all air traffic around the flight test area and especially in the 
control zone of Bremen Airport that is only a few miles away from the flight test area 
was  monitored  by  DFS  Deutsche  Flugsicherung  GmbH.  Regular  air  traffic  was  con-
trolled  by  the  responsible  air  traffic  controllers  of  the  “DFS  centre  north”  located  at 
Bremen Airport. The SOFIA flight which was as well visible in the control centre was 
additionally monitored by an externally installed air traffic control display. 

5. Conclusions 

SOFIA, through its research, has reached the following main conclusions: 

•  SOFIA  has  defined  different  procedures  for  managing  aircraft  in  security 
emergency situations, being controlled by the Flight Reconfiguration Function 
(FRF); 

•  Safety  and  operability  of  these  procedures  were  validated  and  approved  by 

ATCOs; 

•  SOFIA  started  the  assessment  of regulatory  and  certification frameworks for 
such security systems not only by the research itself but also through discus-
sions  with  ICAO,  EASA,  EUROCONTROL,  SESAR  and  several  National 
CAAs; 

•  A ground authority and/or system (like a Ground Security Decision System) is 

needed at European level to: 
−  Take legal responsibility of decisions; 
−  Generate and track the flight plan for the FRF aircraft; 
−  Coordinate with national authorities, ANSP and airports. 

•  SOFIA moves aviation security a step forward; 
•  SOFIA  opens  the  door  towards  the  exploration  of  new  application  areas  for 

Flight Reconfiguration Function functionalities in fields like: 
−  Safety; 
−  Small general aviation aircraft; 
−  Highly automated systems; 
−  UAS; 
−  Single crew operations. 

•  SOFIA validated FRF functions are now available for aircraft operations in the 
future SESAR environment, specially for 4D trajectory management and tra-
jectory generation. 

6. Recommendations for Further Research 

The FRF system is proposed as countermeasure to terrorist hostile actions that aim to 
use  the  aircraft  as  a  means  to  affect  assets  on  ground.  The  affection  can  be  imple-
mented  in  different  ways:  crashing  the  aircraft,  using  it  to  propagate  biological  or 
chemical agents, or to multiply the effects through the explosion of a mass destruction 
weapon on-board the aircraft. As a response to this challenge, the SOFIA project de-
veloped  the  FRF  system  that  enables  the  safe,  automatic  and  autonomous  return  to 

J.-A. Herrería García and J. Bueno Gómez / SOFIA: Flight Automation as a Safe Countermeasure 221

ground of an airplane in the event of hostile actions. To carry out this action, the FRF 
disables the control and command of the aircraft from the cockpit, creates and executes 
a  new  flight  plan  towards  a  secure  airport  and  lands  the  aircraft  at  it.  Regarding  the 
generation of the flight plan to be executed by the FRF, several options are considered 
in the SOFIA project: The flight plan can be generated on ground (ATC) or onboard a 
military  airplane  and  transmitted  to  the  aircraft,  or  created  autonomously  in  the  own 
FRF system. Additionally, the SOFIA project investigates the integration of such solu-
tion into different airspace environments: current ATM, ASAS/ADS-B, automation of 
ground  functions,  airspace with/without  radar  coverage,  CDM, 4D  trajectory  negotia-
tion. Finally, the SOFIA project also analyses the impact of the regulatory and certifi-
cation frameworks on the FRF system and vice-versa; firstly, to constrain the FRF de-
sign  to  such  frameworks,  and  secondly,  to  propose  new  procedures  and  standards  to 
facilitate the technological development. 

The FRF system developed in the SOFIA project proposes a solution to one of the 
biggest challenges of future aviation: to make the aircraft more secure by themselves. 
But  it  also  introduces  some  interesting  questions  that  will  have  to  be  solved  before 
these systems can start to operate in order to guarantee the security introduced by them. 
In addition to the technological development, SOFIA considers that further research is 
necessary in the following areas: 

• 

Integration of the FRF with ACAS to enable the automatic response from FRF 
to ACAS alerts. Creation and execution of diversion trajectories or simply the 
execution of the trajectories proposed by the ACAS and ulterior resume of the 
previous flight plan; 

•  Collaborative negotiation of the FRF trajectory with other aircraft, in collabo-
ration  with  ground  ATC.  The  integration  of  FRF  with  ADS-B  is  therefore 
needed. This would enable a higher integration of the FRF aircraft into the fu-
ture airspace as defined by SESAR; 
Integration of FRF with  advanced  surveillance  systems  like  those being  pro-
posed by the FLYSAFE and ALICIA projects; 

• 

•  Explore the application of FRF in other scenarios like safety ones, crew reduc-

tion, UAS, very small and personal aviation; 

•  Need of a ground authority and/or system (GSDS) at European level to: 

−  Take legal responsibility of decisions (flight plan, destination airport…); 
−  Generate and track the flight plan for the FRF aircraft; 
−  Coordinate with national authorities, ANSP and airports. 

•  Testing of the software during flights test is very demanding and expensive. It 
is  recommended  to  test  the  SW  in  ground  simulators  and  tools  well  in 
advance. 

Moreover SOFIA poses the following open questions that need of further research 

to be answered: 

•  Who  is  responsible  for  the  management  and  upgrading of the  FRF  database, 

including PSA and airports? 

•  Who is responsible for uploading and upgrading the FRF database in the air-

planes? 

•  Who is responsible for the designation of the airports capable of dealing with 

the foreseen threats? and furthermore; 

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Securing the Air Transport

•  Who is responsible for designating to what airport an FRF aircraft is to be de-

viated? 

•  Who  is  responsible  for  the  aircraft  when  it  is  flown  by  the  FRF  system:  the 
airliner, the FRF manufacturer, the nation of the airliner, the nation of the air-
space,  the  nation  of  the  destination  airport,  EUROCONTROL,  the  EC,  the 
EDA? 

•  What is the responsibility of the ATC system, and particularly of the ATCOs, 

when dealing with an FRF airplane? 

•  Who is responsible on ground for generating the new flight plan for the FRF 

aircraft? 

Acknowledgment 

Juan  Alberto  Herrería  and  Jorge  Bueno  thank  the  SOFIA  Consortium  for  their  great 
commitment and excellent performance during the project. Without them,  the SOFIA 
project would have not been possible and never a success. 

Special  thanks  also  to  the  European  Commission  Project  Officers,  Mr.  Jean-Luc 
Marchand  and  Mrs.  Stephanie  Stolz-Douchet.  Without  their  always  correct  guidance, 
the SOFIA project could have not been developed in such an adequate way. 

References 

[1]  EC, FP6-2005-AERO-1 Aeronautics and Space Research Work Programme, 01/04/2005. 
[2]  ACARE, Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) Version 2, October 2004, 2001. 
[3]  SOFIA consortium, SOFIA Annex I Description of Work, 06/07/2006. 
[4]  SOFIA consortium, SOFIA D1.2 Definition of the FRF Procedures, 25/04/2007. 
[5]  SOFIA consortium, SOFIA D1.3 Regulatory and Certification Issues, 19/11/2007. 
[6]  SOFIA consortium, SOFIA D2.2.2 FRF Final System Safety Assessment (aircraft and airspace levels), 

30/05/2008. 

[7]  SOFIA consortium, SOFIA D2.3 FRF Functions Design, 12/12/2007. 
[8]  SOFIA consortium, SOFIA D2.4 FRF Databases Requirements, 29/01/2008. 
[9]  SOFIA consortium, SOFIA D3.2 Platform Adaptation Delivery Report, 22/09/2008. 
[10]  SOFIA consortium, D3.3 FRF Functions Delivery Report, 22/01/2009. 
[11]  SOFIA consortium, D3.4 FRF Data System Delivery Report, 22/01/2009. 
[12]  SOFIA consortium, D4.1 – SOFIA Validation Plan, 29/06/2008. 

About the Authors 

Juan-Alberto Herreria (10/03/1968, Madrid, Spain) is an Aeronautical Engineer from the Universidad 
Politecnica de Madrid (Spain) in 1995 
He is presently the SOFIA project coordinator 
Isdefe, c/Beatriz de Bobadilla, 3 
28040 Madrid (Spain) 
jherreria@isdefe.es 
www.isdefe.es 

Jorge Bueno (Tarancon, Spain) holds a Degree in Physics from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid 
(Spain) 
He is working at the Aircraft Operations and on-board devices at ISDEFE, where he is involved in several 
projects funded by the EU. 

 
Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-223

223

Weather Hazards for Aeronautics – How to 
Best Respond to This Challenge? 

Fabien DEZITTER 

Abstract.  The  European  WEZARD  project  (acronym  standing  for  Weather  Ha-
zards for Aeronautics) aims at preparing the future research community in the area 
of air transport system robustness when it is faced with weather hazards. Its pre-
cise  objectives  are  to  provide:  (i)  an  interdisciplinary  and  cross-sector  network 
comprising relevant experts; (ii) a state-of-the-art review of the on-going research 
actions; (iii) an analysis which will identify the shortcomings, areas for improve-
ments and the type of activity needed to limit the effects of disruptive events; (iv) a 
set of recommendations and a roadmap validated by the main stakeholders of the 
aeronautics community. 

Keywords. Weather, hazards, icing, volcanic eruptions, particles 

1. Background 

On  April  14th,  2010,  the  eruption  of  the  Eyjafjallajökull  volcano  in  Iceland  and  the 
accompanying cloud of volcanic ash forced most countries in northern Europe to shut 
their  airspace  between  15  and  20  April  15,  grounded  more  than  100,000  flights  and 
affected an estimated 10 million travellers. This event revealed to what extent our so-
ciety and economy rely on the availability of a safe and efficient air transport system 
and how fragile it still remains when faced with the complexity of atmospheric condi-
tions. 

Natural hazards that can severely impact the air transport system are not restricted 
to the results of volcanic eruptions as they also include other natural hazards involving 
particles  such  as  icing  (Supercooled  large  droplet,  mixed  phase  and  glaciated  icing 
conditions). 

The WEZARD project (CSA-SA WEather haZARDs for aeronautics, submitted to 
the FP7, 4th call) aims to support and contribute to the preparation of future community 
research  in  the  field  of  air  transport  system  robustness  when  it  is  faced  with  weather 
hazards. 

2. The Objectives 

The detailed objectives of WEZARD are to: 

−  Set-up  an  interdisciplinary  and  cross-sectoral  network  (comprising  expertise 
from  observation  and  measurement,  the  aeronautics  industry,  aircraft  opera-
tors, network managers, risk management specialists, scientists, etc.); 

−  Compile  a  list  of  the  main  weather  hazards  such  as  hazards  which  can  be 
spread over very large areas (e.g. volcanic ash clouds) or severe atmospheric 
conditions (e.g. icing: SLD, mixed phase or glaciated ice conditions); 

224

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Safety

−  Compile the technical consequences of these hazards on the aircraft (failures, 

damages, etc.); 

−  Compile  an  inventory  of  recent  and  ongoing  R&D  activities  within  relevant 
areas,  and  financed  through  different  programmes  at  EU  (FP5/6/7,  environ-
ment, space/GMES, aeronautics, etc.) as well as at national level, and within 
relevant institutions; 

−  Compare, analyse and validate the results of relevant projects and activities in 
a structured peer review process, and to propose the most mature and relevant 
new developments for concepts and methodologies, data sources and models, 
etc. for take-up in risk detection, assessment and risk management. In particu-
lar, WEZARD  will  propose and  promote  technological  solutions for  realistic 
on board integration in term of weight, cost, availability, performance, etc.; 
−  Develop on this basis a coherent approach to the validation of the relevant in-
put data, models, etc., targeted for the specific purpose of risk management in 
air transport; 

−  Finally, provide a R&D roadmap on further R&D and validation activities in-
cluding priorities, impact analysis and consequence on decision making. 

The  work  will  in  particular  cover  hazards  which  can  be  spread  over  very  large  areas 
such  as  volcanic  ash  clouds  or  severe  atmospheric  conditions  such  as  icing  (Super-
cooled Large Droplet (SLD), mixed phase or glaciated ice conditions). 

3. Concept and Work Plan 

Several  different  European  actors  are  simultaneously  involved  in  the  understanding, 
decision making and risk assessment process around the crisis management of an event 
which has a major impact on the Air Traffic System (ATS). 

Aircraft manufacturers are required to support the evaluation of the aircraft’s oper-
ating limits. Meteorological services define where it is safe to fly. The authorities au-
thorise  the  operators,  who  are  responsible  for  flying  the  aircraft,  to  fly.  These  same 
actors are also involved in improving the robustness of the ATS against future occur-
rences (Fig. 1): 

−  Aircraft  and  engine  manufacturers  will  support  the  evaluation  of  the  aircraft 
and engine operating limits, develop necessary instrument and equipment, and 
develop operating and maintenance instructions and relevant training for oper-
ators; 

−  Meteorological  services  will  support  the  collection  of  observation  data,  pro-
vide reliable and accurate weather forecast, and broadcast information; 

−  Authorities will establish safety standard and approved procedures. 

To  address  the  different  interdependent  topics,  WEZARD  will  be  structured  into  5 
work packages (WP): 

−  WP2  Aircraft  Exposure  &  Robustness  will  take  stock  of  the  knowledge  on 
weather  hazards  affecting  airframe,  engine  and  systems  and  will  identify  the 
needed technology and capability developments pathways; 

−  WP3  Meteo  will  compile  knowledge  on  the  collection,  processing  and  com-
munication of meteorological data related to weather hazards and will investi-

F. Dezitter / Weather Hazards for Aeronautics – How to Best Respond to This Challenge?

225

Figure 1. WEZARD project concept – competences’ sharing. 

Figure 2. WEZARD Work Breakdown Structure. 

gate  the  needed research on observation, forecasting  tools  and data  assimila-
tion and broadcasting to tackle these extreme aviation atmospheric conditions; 
−  WP4 Procedures will investigate the existing and needed evolution on safety 
standard and procedures necessary to ensure safe aircraft operation and to re-
duce the impact of weather hazards on the air traffic management; 

−  WP5 Scientific Support will project on the capacity of the scientific communi-
ty to better understand, observe (onboard sensor, Lidar, Radar, satellites, UAS, 

226

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Safety

etc.), reproduce and simulate on hazardous particles supporting the assessment 
performed in WP2, WP3 and WP4; 

−  WP1 Strategic Supervision will be in charge of ensuring momentum and stra-
tegic  guidance  to  the  project,  consolidating  the  WP2,  WP3,  WP4,  and  WP5 
contributions to a common roadmap, coordinating with other international ac-
tions of research or working groups. 

4. Consortium 

The WEZARD consortium has been built to best address above topics and to provide 
the  project  with  the  most  relevant  and  recognised  expertises.  It  is  the  synergy  of  13 
partners from 6 countries: 

−  4  research  centres:  ONERA  (FR),  DLR  (DE),  EADS  IW  (DE)  and  CNR-

IMAA (IT); 

−  1 meteorological offices network: EUMETNET (BE); 
−  1 test facility: DGA (FR); 
−  1 civil aviation authority: CAA (UK); 
−  6 industrial partners: Boeing Research & Technology (ES), Dassault-Aviation 
(FR),  Thales  Avionics  (FR),  Rolls-Royce  (UK),  SNECMA  (FR),  and  Airbus 
(FR). 

Furthermore, an Advisory Board gathering a panel of international experts in relevant 
disciplines and sectors will be set up to provide external advice to the WEZARD con-
sortium  on  the  vision,  priorities  and directions proposed  in  the project. The Advisory 
Board consisting of representatives and key members of major international organisa-
tions, working groups, research projects or aircraft operators, its members will actively 
facilitate and promote links and exchanges with the WEZARD consortium. The Advi-
sory board will be open to new membership all along the project in order to ensure that 
all relevant skills and expertise are represented. 

5. The Expected Results 

The results of this work will provide: 

−  An  interdisciplinary  and  cross-sector  network  comprising  expertise  from  ob-
servation  and  measurement,  aircraft  and  engines  manufacturers,  system  sup-
pliers, scientists, etc.; 

−  A state of the art review of the on-going research actions; 
−  An  in-depth  analysis  which  will  identify  the  shortcomings,  the  areas  for  im-
provements and the type of activity needed to develop a safer air transport sys-
tem and limit the effects of disrupting events; 

−  A  consolidated  recommendation  and  roadmap  report  validated  by  the  main 

stakeholders of the aeronautics community. 

Finally,  the  project  could  contribute  to  the  definition  of  the  next  Aeronautic  and  Air 
Transport  Work  Programme  by  identifying  and  proposing  activities  and  topics  to  be 
investigated.  Such  a  multi-year  plan  will  ensure  the  sustainability  of  the  WEZARD 

F. Dezitter / Weather Hazards for Aeronautics – How to Best Respond to This Challenge?

227

network at mid and long term and then will contribute to secure and re-enforce the Eu-
ropean expertise on atmospheric hazards. 

6. Conclusions 

The WEZARD project successfully passed all evaluation thresholds early 2011 and the 
negotiation for a Grant Agreement has been concluded with the European Commission. 
The project should start on 1st July 2011 and will last two years. 

The  first  spin-off  of  the  WEZARD  project  would  address  mixed  phase  and  gla-

ciated icing conditions: HAIC – High Altitude Ice Crystals. 

This proposal for a L2 project will be submitted in the 5th Call of the FP7 Cooper-
ation  work  programme  FP7-Aeronautics  and  Air  Transport  (AAT)-2012-RTD-1  and 
will specifically address the following topic: AAT 2012 3 5 -1 Integrated approach to 
safe flights under icing condition. 

7. Way Forward 

Commercial aircraft have been experiencing in-service events while flying in the vicin-
ity of deep convective clouds since at least the early 1990s. Heated probes and engines 
are the areas of aircraft most prone to mixed phase and glaciated icing threat. In antici-
pation of regulation changes according to mixed phase and glaciated icing conditions, it 
becomes  necessary  to  develop  the  associated  Acceptable  Means  of  Compliance  and 
appropriate  ice  particle  detection/awareness  technologies,  to  be  fitted  on  aircraft  and 
able to alert the flight crew when entering in these particular icing conditions. 

The technical objectives of the HAIC proposal are: 

−  Characterise,  optimise,  enhance  and  select  the  most  sophisticated  cloud  mi-
crophysics probes to measure mixed phase and glaciated icing conditions dur-
ing flight tests and to calibrate icing wind tunnels; 

−  Measure and characterise the microphysical properties of core or near-core re-
gions of deep convective clouds, including cloud liquid and ice water contents, 
particle size distributions and particle shapes; 

−  Upgrade  European  icing  wind  tunnels  to  allow  reproduction  of  mixed  phase 
and glaciated icing conditions to allow the European Aeronautical industry to 
perform equipment qualification; 

−  Understand  and  model  involved  physical  phenomena  and  develop  numerical 
tools to simulate the impact of mixed phase and glaciated icing conditions on 
aircraft  components  (mainly  engines  and  probes)  for  supporting  both  design 
and certification phases; 

−  Develop  and  validate  mixed  phase  and  glaciated  icing  conditions  awareness 
and detection technologies to alert the crew of flight in these particular icing 
conditions  or  to  adapt  the  flight  path  well  in  advance  in  order  to  avoid  such 
weather conditions. 

HAIC  should achieve high readiness  level (TRL5/6)  for  technologies  and  capabilities 
developed as part of the project. 

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Safety

Acknowledgement 

The author and WEZARD consortium would like to acknowledge the European Com-
mission for its support to the CSA-SA WEZARD project (285050). 

About the Author 

Fabien Dezitter is Leader Technology Product “Icing Phenomena & Protection Systems” at Airbus, 
Ice & Rain Protection department (EYAK5) 
Airbus – 316, route de Bayonne –  
F- 31060 Toulouse cedex 9 
fabien.dezitter@airbus.com 
www.airbus.com 

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-229

229

Crosswind Reduced Separations for 
Departure Operations 

Lennaert J.P. SPEIJKER 
(On behalf of the CREDOS consortium) 

Abstract. The NLR Air Transport Safety Institute (ATSI) is involved in develop-
ment and safety analysis of various concepts to reduce wake vortex separation mi-
nima.  This  paper  presents  Crosswind  Reduced  Separations  for  Departure  opera-
tions  (CREDOS),  an  EC  DG-RTD  6th  Framework  Programme  project,  co-
ordinated by EUROCONTROL. 

Keywords. Wake vortex, reduced separation, crosswind, departure operations 

1. Background 

Increases in air traffic over recent years have resulted in congestion at many airports. 
The  need  to  increase  airport  capacity  is  one  of  the  major  challenges  facing  ATM  re-
search  today.  Such  an  increase  could  be  achieved  by  reducing  the  current  separation 
minima while maintaining levels of safety. ICAO separation standards for landing and 
take-off  were  implemented  in  the  1970’s  to  protect  an  aircraft  from  the  wake  turbu-
lence of a preceding aircraft. However research has shown that the transport and persis-
tence  of  wake  vortices  are  highly  dependent  on  meteorological  conditions,  so  that  in 
many  cases  the  ICAO  standards  are  over-conservative.  By  developing  a  full  under-
standing of wake  vortex behaviour  in  all  weather  categories,  separations could  be re-
duced under certain suitable conditions. The FAA investigates Wake Turbulence Miti-
gations  for  Arrivals  and  Departures  as  part  of  the  FAA  Wake  Turbulence  Research 
Program.  The  CREDOS  project,  which  collaborates  with  the  FAA,  investigates  the 
operational feasibility of reduced separations by focusing on crosswind. The objectives 
of CREDOS are [8]: 

•  To evaluate the feasibility of a Concept of Operations allowing reduced sepa-

rations for Single Runway Departures under crosswind; 

•  To provide all stakeholders with the required information to facilitate the im-

plementation of this concept where appropriate in the near-term; 

•  To increase the body of knowledge concerning wake vortex behaviour during 

the initial climb phase of flight. 

CREDOS  delivers  an  operational  concept  for  reduced  separations  for  crosswind 
departures as baseline for further implementation at airports where benefits are identi-
fied [9], a support package for air traffic controllers and pilots, a database of wake vor-
tices recordings for departures including meteorological conditions from St. Louis and 
Frankfurt  airport,  models  of  wake  vortex  behaviour  in  different  weather  conditions 
[1,2], as well as methods for wake vortex risk assessment and safety case development 
[4–6,10]. 

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Safety

Figure 1. Data measurement campaign at Frankfurt airport. 

CREDOS provides a well documented application of the European validation me-
thod (E-OCVM) for the new reduced separations concept [11], including a Safety Case, 
Human Factors Case, Environmental Case, Business Case. 

2. What Problems Is CREDOS Addressing? 

The ability of the air traffic management network to handle demand is constrained by 
en-route  as  well  as  by  airport  capacity.  With  measures  to  increase  en-route  capacity 
producing increasingly significant results, the constraints arising from airport capacity 
shortfalls require urgent attention. Extending existing airport infrastructure is expensive, 
requires a long lead time and is often not an option due to environmental considerations. 
Methods of improving runway throughput using only the existing infrastructure are of 
increasing interest. The wake turbulence separation minima were introduced by ICAO 
to ensure that the spacing behind an aircraft of a heavier wake turbulence category is 
safe  for  the  following  aircraft.  Applying  such  minima  has  proven  to  be  effective  in 
avoiding  potentially  dangerous  wake  turbulence  encounters  but  they  reduce  runway 
throughput due to the additional distance to be maintained between certain aircraft pairs. 
CREDOS aims to replace the original, static, and hence often over-conservative, wake 
turbulence  separation  minima  with  lower  ones  based  on  actual  meteorological  condi-
tions, resulting in improved runway throughput. 

3. What Are the Expected Benefits? 

The  CREDOS  benefits  arise  from  a  temporary  increase  in  runway  throughput.  This 
increase  occurs  only  when  a  lighter  aircraft  directly  follows  a  heavier  one  and  the 
crosswind requirements are met… Only in this case is there a potential for reducing the 
spacing  between  that  aircraft  pair  compared  to  the  wake  turbulence  separation  that 
would otherwise have to be applied. The benefits are at maximum during peak periods 

 
 
L.J.P. Speijker / Crosswind Reduced Separations for Departure Operations

231

Figure 2. Simulated wake vortices of departing aircraft moving with crosswind. 

or when queuing create delays of departing traffic at the runway. An actual change in 
the declared runway capacity may only be published if a longer period of stable cross-
wind conditions is forecast. In a queuing situation the benefit for aircraft further down 
the queue can add up to a substantial reduction of waiting time even if the gain expe-
rienced by individual aircraft is limited. This translates into improved punctuality and a 
reduction of environmental impact. CREDOS’ use is not expected to create additional 
airport slots. The actual benefits are dependent on traffic composition, the usage of the 
runway and the Standard Instrument Departure (SID) structure. So far only the case of 
a single independent runway used for departures only has been explored but there is no 
reason to believe that benefits would not accrue also in a more complex situation. 

4. What Meteorological Basis Has CREDOS? 

When  an  aircraft  is  in  motion, wake  turbulence  forms  behind  it.  The  intensity  of  this 
turbulence  depends  on  a  number  of  factors,  including  the  mass  of  the  aircraft.  Wake 
turbulence includes various components, the most important of which are wingtip and 
flap  generated  vortices  and  jet-wash.  Those  vortices  are  relatively  stable  and  can  re-
main in the air longer after the passage of an aircraft. They represent the primary and 
most  dangerous  component  of  wake  turbulence.  The  hazards  of  wake  turbulence  are 
particularly significant during the landing and take-off phases of flight. Aircraft are in a 
configuration  that  creates  the  strongest  vortices  while  they  are  also  flying  at  a  low 
speed and low altitude. This leaves little margin for recovery in the event of encounter-
ing another aircraft’s wake turbulence. The behaviour of the vortices follows a pattern 
that  makes  their  position  predictable  if  the  conditions  in  the  air  mass  in  which  they 
were generated are known precisely enough. The CREDOS concept makes use of the 
lateral displacement of the vortices behind the generating aircraft as a result of the lat-
eral movement of the air mass concerned (crosswind). 

Aircraft take-off into the wind but few take-offs are executed without at least a de-
gree of  crosswind  component  being  present.  The  acceptable  crosswind  limit  is  set  by 
the aircraft operator and it depends on a number of factors, including aircraft type. The 
flight crew may not operate the aircraft on a runway where the prevailing wind condi-
tions exceeded the prescribed limits. Wake vortices generally persist in crosswind con-

 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Safety

ditions,  but  they  also  move  together  with  the  air  mass  in  which  they  were  generated. 
Investigations show that the wake vortices and with them the surrounding air mass ex-
hibit a substantial lateral motion well before the crosswind limit is reached for medium 
or heavy aircraft types. If a lighter aircraft is allowed to take-off behind a heavier one 
in crosswind conditions with spacing that allows the crosswind to transport the vortices 
out of the second aircraft’s path, the risk of a wake turbulence encounter is practically 
eliminated. The spacing required to achieve this, results in aircraft being able to take-
off  closer  together  than  under  current  wake  turbulence  separation  rules.  Runway 
throughput is increased as a result. 

5. What Changes Are Expected? 

The CREDOS concept assumes that departures are controlled in an ATS surveillance 
system environment and that ICAO radar separation minima are applied between air-
craft  after departure. It  is  also  assumed  that  the  Runway Controller  is responsible  for 
establishing  the  separation  minima  between  departing  aircraft.  The  initial  CREDOS 
concept is focused on accommodating a single independent runway used for departures 
only with aircraft on the same SID or different SIDs with the first 4 miles identical and, 
in both cases, also in a straight line. 

The idea of CREDOS is simple. Allow crosswind to blow away the vortices and 
the problem of wake turbulence is gone… While this is true, it must be ensured that the 
crosswind has actually done its job. Since visualizing the movement of vortices on and 
in the vicinity of an aerodrome is not practical, an indirect way of ascertaining that they 
are gone must be found. If the presence of crosswind within a range of prescribed di-
rections  and  of  sufficient  strength  is  ensured,  it  can  be  assumed  that  the  vortices  are 
gone… after a certain time. Wind on the aerodrome can be measured, but the higher or 
the further from the aerodrome, the less accurate the measurement will be. Additional 
sensors can help but costs set a limit to what can reasonably be done. The capability to 
accurately measure the crosswind conditions limits the volume of airspace in which the 
reduced spacing can in fact be applied. 

Figure 3. Reduced separation with crosswind. 

 
L.J.P. Speijker / Crosswind Reduced Separations for Departure Operations

233

Figure 4. Aircraft departing, vortices visible behind its wings. 

Depending on actually available measuring and forecasting capability, aerodromes 
using CREDOS will have to designate a volume of airspace around runways in which 
the reduced spacing can be applied. The volume must have assured wind measurements 
and  must  contain,  to  the  extent  required  and with  an  appropriate  buffer,  the  tracks  of 
departing  aircraft.  Wake  turbulence  separation  is  safely  suspended  when  required 
crosswind conditions are met. Outside the airspace volume, conditions are unknown, so 
there  ICAO  wake  turbulence  separation  minima  apply.  Suspension  depends  on  the 
wind measuring capability, and is terminated when any of the conditions are no longer 
being met. 

6. What Is Next? 

The different validation cases [3,7,9,10] have shown that, although there is clear poten-
tial from a Business Case, Environmental Case and Human Factors point of view, fur-
ther  work  in  the  area  of  safety  is  needed.  It  is  also  concluded  that  the  next  step  for 
crosswind concept validation should be aimed at performing one or more local imple-
mentation cases. 

As described earlier, the CREDOS project and hence the concept as it now stands 
is  focused  on  accommodating  a  single  independent  runway  used  for  departures  only 
with aircraft on the same SID or different SIDs with the first 4 miles identical. Neither 
take-off from an intermediate part of the runway nor super heavy aircraft like the Air-
bus 380 were considered. Future work will have to explore those areas as well as the 
case of aircraft on different SIDs and the potential for additional benefits. Concepts for 
crosswind  arrivals  have  a  large  potential  and  will  be  further  investigated  in  the  near 
future. 

 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Safety

References 

[1]  K. Dengler et al., CREDOS WP2 “Data analysis and wake vortex behaviour modelling”, Final Report, 

D2-6, 12 October 2009. 

[2]  K. Dengler, F. Holzäpfel, T. Gerz, A. Wiegele, I. De Visscher, G. Winckelmans, L. Bricteux, H. Fisch-
er and J. Konopka, Crosswind Thresholds Supporting Wake-Vortex-Free Corridors for Departing Air-
craft, Meteorological Applications, Article published online: 6 May 2011, DOI: 10.1002/met.261. 

[3]  L. Garcia and A. Urech, CREDOS Concept Business case, D4-13, 16-11-2009. 
[4]  S. Kauertz et al., CREDOS WP3 “Risk modelling and risk assessment”, Final Report, D3-11, 25 No-

vember 2009. 

[5]  F. Holzäpfel, J. Kladetzke, S. Amelsberg, H. Lenz, C. Schwarz and I. De Visscher, Aircraft Wake Vor-
tex  Scenarios  Simulation  for  TakeOff  and  Departure,  Journal  of  Aircraft,  Volume  46,  Number  2, 
March-April 2009, pp. 713–717. 

[6]  F. Holzäpfel and, J. Kladetzke, Assessment of Wake Vortex Encounter Probabilities for Crosswind De-

parture Scenarios, Journal of Aircraft, Volume 48, Number 3, May-June 2011, pp. 812–822. 

[7]  P. Lubrani and A. Urech, CREDOS Environmental case, D4-14, 27-03-2009. 
[8]  M.T. Meloni and A. Harvey, Crosswind reduced separations for departure operations: Validation of a 
concept of operations for the conditional reduction of Wake Turbulence Separation Minima, CREDOS 
Project in brief, Brochure, 2006. 

[9]  C. Morgan Chalon, CREDOS Human factors case, D4-10, June 2009. 
[10]  L.J.P. Speijker, A. Kurlanc and C.J.M. de Jong, CREDOS Preliminary Safety Case, D4-12, 10-11-2009. 
[11]  L.J.P. Speijker, A. Wennerberg, C. Chalon, P. Lubrani, L. Garcia, O. Desenfans, E. Isambert, D. Mit-
chell,  J.  Konopka  and  A.  Scharnweber,  CREDOS  WP4  “Operational  concept  and  validation”,  Final 
Report, D4-16, 30-11-2009. 

[12]  A. Wennerberg et al., Final concept of operations description, D4-11, 20-11-2009. 

About the Author 

Dr.ir. Lennaert J. P. Speijker is Senior R&D Manager at NLR 
NLR – Anthony Fokkerweg, 2 
NL- 1059 CM Amsterdam, Netherlands 
speijker@nlr-atsi.nl 
www.nlr-atsi.nl 
The public CREDOS deliverables are downlable at: 
http://www.eurocontrol.int/eec/credos/public/standard_page/deliverables.html 

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-235

235

Techniques and Tools for Model-Based 
Analysis of Pilot-Cockpit Interaction 

Andreas LÜDTKE and Denis JAVAUX 

Abstract.  This  paper  presents  the  European  R&TD  “HUMAN”  project  –  Euro-
pean Commission FP7/2007-2013 – the objective of which is to develop a metho-
dology with techniques and prototypical tools supporting the prediction of human 
errors in ways that are usable and practical for human-centred design of systems 
operating  in  complex  cockpit  environments,  in  fact  a  methodology  allowing  to 
detect potential pilot more accurately and earlier than today in the design and with 
reduced efforts. HUMAN is based on a  modelling approach. Model- and simula-
tion- based approaches are already well-established for the study, design and man-
ufacture  of  modern  aircraft.  HUMAN  extends  them  to  the  interaction  of  flight 
crews with cockpit systems. 

Keywords. Pilot-cockpit interaction, cognitive modelling, virtual simulation plat-
form, advanced flight management system, human errors, generic cockpit, crew 

1. General Background 

The  current  approach  of  analysing  systems  is  error  prone  as  well  as  costly  and  time-
consuming.  The  HUMAN  methodology  allows  to  detect  potential  pilot  errors  more 
accurately and earlier (in the design) and with reduced effort. 

The detection of errors is achieved by developing and validating a cognitive model 
of crew behaviour. Cognitive models are a means to make knowledge about characte-
ristic human capabilities and limitations readily available to designers in an executable 
form. They have the potential to automate parts of the analysis of human errors because 
they offer the opportunity to simulate the interaction with cockpit systems under vari-
ous conditions and to predict cognitive processes like the assessment of situations and 
the resulting choice of actions including erroneous actions. In this way they can be used 
as  a  partial  “substitute”  for  human  pilots  in  early  development  stages  when  design 
changes are still feasible and affordable. 

2. Approach 

The main research and development work in HUMAN is to produce key innovations on 
three complementary research dimensions: 

•  Cognitive  Modelling:  to  develop  an  integrated  cognitive  crew  model  able  to 
predict human error categories with regard to deviations from normative activ-
ities (Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and rules of good airmanship).  
•  Virtual Simulation Platform: to develop a high-fidelity virtual simulation plat-
form to execute the cognitive crew model in realistic flight scenarios in order 

236

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Safety

Figure 1. Physical and Virtual Simulation Platforms sharing the same core system. 

to analyse the dependencies (including the safety effect of likely pilot errors) 
between the pilots, a target system in the cockpit, the aircraft and its environ-
ment. 

•  Physical  Simulation  Platform:  to  thoroughly  investigate  pilot  behaviour  on  a 
physical simulation platform (comprising a full-scale flight simulator) to pro-
duce  behavioural  and  cognitive  data  as  a  basis  for  (1)  building  a  detailed 
knowledge base about cognitive processes leading to deviations from norma-
tive  activities  in  the  complex  dynamic  environment  of  modern  aircraft cock-
pits and for (2) validating and improving the predictions of the cognitive mod-
el generated on the virtual simulation platform. 

The general idea of the virtual and physical platform is to use the same core system for 
both in order to ensure the functional equivalence between the two platforms (Fig. 1). 
This equivalence is a fundamental precondition for validating the cognitive model by 
producing one the one hand, data sets for predicted crew activities (on the virtual plat-
form) and on the other hand, data sets for actual crew activities (on the physical plat-
form).  Predicted  and  actual  crew  activities  are  compared  to  assess  the  quality  of  the 
model predictions and to derive requirements for model improvements. 

The core system is the GEneric COckpit (GECO), a full scale simulator provided 
by  the DLR,  one of HUMAN’s  partners. In HUMAN  it  incorporates  a target  system, 
the AFMS (Advanced Flight  Management  System)  with flight  management  functions 
and crew interface functionality compatible with 4D flight planning and guidance and 
trajectory negotiation by means of a data link connection. In the project the system is 

 
A. Lüdtke and D. Javaux / Techniques and Tools for Model-Based Analysis

237

Figure 2. Basic Cockpit System design process shown in relation to overall engineering design process. 

extended towards issues pertaining to the future Air Traffic Management context, like 
trajectory negotiation. 

Two  experimental  cycles  have  been  performed  on  both  platforms  to  generate  a 
knowledge  base  on  pilot  behaviour  and  to  validate  and  improve  the  cognitive  crew 
model. In both cycles scenarios that involve the interaction with the AFMS have been 
flown by 15 airline pilots. The resulting data has been compared with data produced by 
the  cognitive  crew  model  according  to  gaze  behavior  [1,2]  (gaze  distribution,  dwell 
times  and  scanning  behavior),  temporal  behavior  (task  completion  time  and  reaction 
time),  multitasking  behaviour  (switching  between  flight  tasks)  and  human  error  [3,4] 
(learned carelessness and cockpit lockup). Preliminary results can be found in the ref-
erences given above. The final results have been recently published. 

3. Methodology for the Analysis of Human Error 

One of the main endeavors of HUMAN, beside the development, testing and tuning of 
a pilot and crew model, is to make the tools and methodologies developed within the 
project,  including  the  cognitive  model,  available  to  the  industry.  To  do  this,  we  have 
modeled  with  our  industrial  partners  the  system  design  process  for  cockpit  systems 
such as the ones we believe our tools and methodologies could be useful to. 

The process followed is similar in its successive steps to that indicated in the ARP 
5056 Flight Crew Interface Considerations in the Flight Deck Design Process for Part 
25 Aircraft. It however goes beyond ARP 5056, by paying more explicitly attention and 
effort to Man-Machine System (MMS) and Man-Machine Interactions (MMI) design. 
It  also  follows  elements  of  ARP  4754  Certifications  considerations  for  Highly-
Integrated or Complex Aircraft Systems. 

It involves five main, possibly iterative, steps (Fig. 2). 
The project delivers four tools: 
•  Virtual Simulation Platform for simulating crew behavior, predicting pilot er-

rors and testing safety nets; 

•  Editor for Normative Crew Activities (PED); 
•  Tool for automatic analysis of display ergonomics (UsabilityAdvisor);  
•  Tool for Data Analysis. 

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Safety

These  tools are  allocated  to individual steps  of  the  basic cockpit  design  process. One 
possibility is certainly to use the cognitive model and the virtual simulation platform to 
support system development at a very early design stage. The trend in modern aviation 
is to rely more and more on models of all aircraft systems and structure, and basically, 
the  only  missing  “system”  is  the  Human  element.  We  believe  that  a  model  such  as 
CASCas  can  play  this  role  and  therefore  allow  the  complete  virtual  simulation  of  an 
aircraft and its crew. This should allow test alternative cockpit system designs, includ-
ing their Human Machine Interfaces (HMI) but also related aspects such as the opera-
tional procedures foreseen for the systems. 

Acknowledgement 

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Commis-
sion Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n°21988 
Project HUMAN. 

References 

[1]  F.  Frische,  J.-P.  Osterloh  and  A.  Lüdtke,  Simulating  Visual  Attention  Allocation  of  Pilots  in  an  Ad-
vanced Cockpit Environment. In Modelling and Simulation (MODSIM) World Conference & Expo, 13–
15 October 2010, Hampton, Virginia, USA. 

[2]  F. Frische, J.-P. Osterloh and A. Lüdtke, Modelling and validating pilots’ visual attention allocation dur-
ing the interaction with an Advanced Flight Management Systems. In Proceedings of Human Modelling 
in Assisted Transportation (HMAT). Milano: Springer Verlag, 2010. 

[3]  A. Lüdtke and J.-P. Osterloh, Modeling Memory Effects in the Operation of Advanced Flight Manage-
ment Systems. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction in Aero-
nautics (HCI-Aero), 3–5 November 2010, Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA. 

[4]  A. Lüdtke, J.-P. Osterloh, T. Mioch, F. Rister and R. Looije, Cognitive Modelling of Pilot Errors and Er-
ror Recovery in Flight Management Tasks. In J. Vanderdonckt, P. Palanque and M. Winkler (eds.), Pro-
ceedings  of  the  7th  Working  Conference  on  Human  Error,  Safety  and  Systems  Development  (HESSD 
2009), LNCS 5962. Springer Verlag 2010. 

About the Authors 

Andreas Lüdtke 
OFFIS Institute for Information Technology 
Escherweg 2 
D-26127 Oldenburg, Germany 
luedtke@offis.de 
www.offis.de 

Denis Javaux 
Next Step Solutions 
Rue Daussoigne-Mehul 20 
B-4020 Liège, Belgium 
denis.javaux@skynet.be 

 
Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-239

239

SUPRA – Simulation of Upset Recovery 
in Aviation 

Eric GROEN and Lars FUCKE 

Abstract. Loss of control in flight is the leading cause of fatal accidents in com-
mercial  aviation  today.  Due  to  infrequent  nature  of  upset  events  in  operations, 
many commercial pilots have never experienced such a situation. So, aircrews may 
not be proficient in dealing with such events, a fact which calls for specific upset 
recovery  training.  For  many  reasons,  ground-based  simulation  of  these  extreme 
conditions might be the only viable option for effective and cost-efficient pilot in-
struction. Due to the lack of validated aircraft models outside the normal operating 
envelope current flight simulators do not adequately represent aircraft behavior at 
the edge of the envelope. The European FP7 project called “SUPRA” – Simulation 
of UPset Recovery in Aviation – aims at filling this gap by extending dynamic si-
mulation models beyond the current state-of-the-art. 

Keywords.  Loss  of  control  in  flight,  upset  recovery  training  aid,  motion  percep-
tion model, motion simulators, upset scenarios, types of upset regimes 

1. Introduction 

Loss of control in flight (LOC-I) is the leading cause of fatal accidents in commercial 
aviation today [1] (see Fig. 1 for most recent statistics). In the course of loss of control 
events,  the  aircraft  often  enters  into  unusual  attitudes  or  stalls,  also  called  upsets.  To 
prevent or timely exit a loss of control situation it is essential that the flight crew rapid-
ly recognizes the condition, initiates recovery action and follows appropriate recovery 
procedures.  However,  upsets  are  infrequent  events  in  today’s  operations  and  many 
commercial pilots have never experienced such a situation. Hence there is international 
consent that understanding, recognition and recovery from unusual attitudes and stalls 
need improvement. 

The FAA-Industry Airplane Upset Recovery Training Aid (URTA) was an impor-
tant step, using full flight simulators for demonstration and training of recovery tech-
niques  [2].  Due  to  the  lack  of  validated  aircraft  models  outside  the  normal  operating 
envelope, the URTA remains limited to maneuvers within this envelope. However, as 
analysis  of  LOC-I  accidents  shows  [3],  upset  events  take  aircraft  outside  the  normal 
envelope. Current flight simulators are not equipped to simulate these upset events in a 
reliable  way,  not  only  because  of  limitations  of  the  aircraft  model,  but  also  because 
conventional  hexapod-type  moving  bases  do  not  generate  the  representative  motion 
cues.  These  technological  shortfalls  justify  investing  R&D  effort  into  modeling  and 
simulation of these flight regimes.  

The  project  SUPRA  –  Simulation  of  Upset  Recovery 

in  Aviation  – 
www.supra.aero – aims at extending aerodynamic models and motion cueing solutions 
beyond  the  current  state  of  the  art.  The  project  is  investigating  the  feasibility  of  con-
ducting advanced upset recovery simulation on hexapod-type as well as on experimen-
tal simulators, such as the centrifuge-based DESDEMONA-device in the Netherlands. 

240

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Safety

Figure 1. Worldwide statistics of commercial jet airplane accidents by cause, 2000–2009 [1]. 

2. The Project at a Glance 

With  its  ten partnering organizations  from  the Netherlands (Netherlands  Organisation 
for  Applied  Research,  TNO;  National  Aerospace  Laboratory,  NLR;  Desdemona  Ltd., 
DES),  Austria (AMST  Systemtechnik), Germany  (Max Planck  Institute,  MPS), Spain 
(Boeing  Research  &  Technology  Europe,  BR&T-E),  Russia  (Central  Aerohydrody-
namic  Institute,  TsAGI;  Gromov  Flight  Research  Institute,  GFRI;  Dynamika,  CSTS) 
and  the  United  Kingdom  (De  Montfort  University,  DMU),  SUPRA  is  a  true  interna-
tional effort. In addition to the organizations participating directly in the project, SU-
PRA  is  supported  by  an  external  group  of  experts  providing  guidance  throughout  the 
project lifetime. The group is to ensure stakeholder buy-in and acceptance; it consists 
of test and airline pilots, representatives from aircraft manufacturers, pilot associations, 
training  organizations  and  simulation  and  modeling  experts.  Several  members  of  the 
expert  group  as  well  as  researchers  from  within  the  project  are  represented  in  other 
activities  in  the  field,  e.g.  the  Royal  Aeronautical  Society’s  (RAeS)  International 
Committee on Aviation Training in Extended Envelopes (ICATEE), ensuring coordina-
tion with relevant endeavors in the area of upset recovery simulation. The official start 
of  the  EUR  4.9  million project  was  September  2009.  The  project duration  is 3  years, 
and final conclusions of the SUPRA project will be available by end of August 2012. 

3. Technical Objectives 

Goal  of  the  SUPRA  project  is  to  develop  high-fidelity,  thus  effective  concepts  of 
ground-based  upset  simulation  to  aid  pilot  training  in  such  flight  regimes  and  further 

E. Groen and L. Fucke / SUPRA – Simulation of Upset Recovery in Aviation

241

Upset 

unusual attitudes

incorrect  
recovery 

speed/g-load 
limits 

late recovery 

incorrect  
recovery 

stall 

no  recovery 

spin 

Figure 2. Types of upset regimes. 

reduce the accident rates associated with today’s LOC-I events. In order to achieve this 
goal, SUPRA has set the following detailed technical objectives: 

•  Establish a set of SUPRA relevant upset scenarios, i.e. scenarios typically as-

sociated with LOC-I accidents or incidents; 

•  Development of a representative aerodynamics model covering upset regimes 
outside the normal envelope, i.e. approach to stall, stall departure and possibly 
spin; 

•  Extension  of  pilot  perception  models  to  better  understand  the  motion  envi-

ronments encountered during upset simulation; 

•  Development of advanced motion cueing solutions for hexapod-type and cen-

trifuge-type motion simulators; 

•  Development  of  guidance  material  detailing  technical  requirements  for  the 

conduct of improved upset simulation. 

4. Approach 

SUPRA  is  systematically  addressing  the  technical  objectives  set  at  the  get-go  of  the 
project and is involving the external expert group whenever a broad consensus has to 
be reached in order to make sure the SUPRA decisions are applicable across the indus-
try. Involvement of the expert group was essential when determining which upset sce-
narios to focus on within the project. 

4.1. Upset Scenarios 

The term upset comprises a multitude of flight regimes not typically encountered dur-
ing  normal  flight  operations  of  commercial  transport  airplanes.  As  shown  in  Fig.  2, 
stalls,  including  spins,  exceeding  of  maximum  airspeed,  Mach  number  or  structural 
limits as well as flight at unusual attitudes (pitch angles in excess of +25 / –10deg, bank 
angles  above 45deg)  are  typically  called  upsets.  Figure 2  also  visualizes  the  dynamic 
nature  of  upset  events:  depending  on  the  flight  crew  actions  an  upset  situation  can 
quickly  evolve  from  one  type  into  another.  In  cooperation  with  the  external  expert 
group it was decided early on in the project that upset recovery and awareness training 
should provide subject pilots with the necessary tools to recover at ideally any point in 

 
 
 
242

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Safety

Figure 3. Dynamic hysteresis: lifting coefficient as predicted by steady-state CFD (CL stat), unsteady CFD 
methods (CL dyn) and phenomenological model. 

time  of  a  dynamically  evolving  upset  event.  Consequently  SUPRA  decided  to  build 
upon the unusual attitude scenarios from the Industry Upset Recovery Training Aid and 
extend those by approach to stall and stall scenarios, including fully developed spin for 
demonstration purposes [4]. 

4.2. Aerodynamic Modeling 

SUPRA  is  going  new  ways  here.  Using  a  phenomenological  approach  previously  ap-
plied successfully to similar problems with military aircraft, supported by wind tunnel 
and  unsteady  Computational  Fluid  Dynamics  (CFD)  methods,  SUPRA  is  creating  a 
reconfigurable, aircraft class-specific model [5]. Other than previous efforts in the field 
which  have  developed  type-specific  models,  SUPRA  chose  to  develop  two  class-
specific models at a more generic level: a medium-sized airplane in T-tail configuration 
with  engines on  the  tail  and a  large-sized  airplane with  conventional  tail  and  two en-
gines under the wing. The model can be reconfigured rapidly to represent either aircraft 
class  and/or  different  stall  departure  characteristics.  Figure  3 gives  an  idea  of  the un-
steady effects covered by the phenomenological model. Other important effects include 
non-linear  behavior  for  high  angles  of  attack  and  side-slip  as  well  lateral-directional 
instabilities. 

4.3. Motion Perception Model and Advanced Cueing Solutions 

SUPRA is making use of a multitude of experimental facilities: the hexapod-type flight 
simulators PSPK-102 (TsAGI) and GRACE (NLR) as well as the centrifuge-type simu-
lator  DESDEMONA  (Fig.  4).  On  the  one  hand  the  project  is  to  demonstrate  that  im-

 
E. Groen and L. Fucke / SUPRA – Simulation of Upset Recovery in Aviation

243

Figure 4. The six degrees-of-freedom centrifuge-type motion simulator DESDEMONA (TNO/AMST). 

proved/optimized motion cueing is possible on standard hexapod platforms, on the oth-
er hand it is to explore the feasibility of upset simulation on advanced platforms. Both 
objectives  require  developing  optimized  motion  cueing  solutions  taking  into  account 
characteristics  of  the  respective  platforms  as  well  as  scenario-dependent  motion  pro-
files. More specifically the task of motion cueing can be described as reproducing the 
motion cues important to the pilot while minimizing false cues, i.e. cues that are simu-
lation  artifacts  and  would  not  exist  in  real  flight.  The  task  requires  a  detailed  under-
standing  of  pilot  motion  perception  in  the  specific  upset  environments  which  can  in-
clude elevated levels of sustained G-loads and high rotational rates. Further, the specif-
ics  of  centrifuge-type  simulators  bring  about  the  possibility  of  generating  sustained 
forces but, at the same time, may introduce additional false cues such as Coriolis-forces. 
SUPRA  has  identified  a  number  of  knowledge  gaps  which  have  been  directly  ad-
dressed performing psychophysical experiments on the above mentioned platforms [6] 
and on MPS’s robotic CyberMotion Simulator. Additionally, GFRI’s Tu-154 flying test 
bed  FACT  (Fig.  5)  is  at  SUPRA’s  disposal  to  perform  experiments  in  real  flight.  To 
complete the picture SUPRA is developing an integrated motion perception model fus-
ing traditional, describing function based ways of modeling perception with Bayesian, 
i.e. probabilistic approaches. 

5. Evaluation of the “SUPRA” Concepts 

Evaluation of the concepts developed by SUPRA naturally is not a trivial task as direct 
comparison  to  real  flight,  due  to  safety  reasons,  is  not  practical  except  for  a  very  li-

 
244

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Safety

Figure 5. Flight deck of the FACT flying test bed. 

mited sub-set of the upset situations. Hence, evaluation of the project success is mainly 
based  on  expert  acceptability.  SUPRA  can  draw  upon  a  number  of  assets  to  perform 
this  task.  From  within  the  project  GFRI  test  pilots,  familiar  with  upset  situations  on 
commercial transports are available. From outside the project, SUPRA is making use of 
pilots of the expert group. In preparation of the evaluation task all SUPRA components, 
i.e. optimized motion cueing algorithms and the advanced flight dynamics model have 
been integrated into the simulators involved into the evaluation task. Flight deck cha-
racteristics  including  displays  and  controls  have  been  brought  to  a  common  generic 
commercial  transport  standard  which  facilitates  comparison  of  evaluation  results  be-
tween  simulators.  Figure  6  is  showing  the  DESDEMONA  simulator  configured  in 
commercial airliner lay-out. 

6. Conclusion 

SUPRA is addressing a top-level need of commercial aviation safety: Loss of control in 
flight. Underlined by recent high profile events, there is broad consent in the aviation 
community  that  awareness  and  training  of  upset  prevention  and  recovery  needs  im-
provement  globally.  SUPRA  is  developing  detailed  guidelines  to  follow  in  order  to 
perform effective upset recovery simulation on current training-type simulators as well 
as advanced platforms capable of reproducing sustained G-forces. The project is coor-
dinating its activities with other international efforts in the field as well as keeping the 
regulators involved. An international expert group is ensuring acceptability to the oper-
ators and training organisations. 

 
 
 
E. Groen and L. Fucke / SUPRA – Simulation of Upset Recovery in Aviation

245

Figure 6. DESDEMONA simulator in SUPRA commercial airliner lay-out. 

References 

[1]  Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Statistical Summary of Commercial Jet Airplane Accidents, Worldwide 

Operations 1959–2009. 

[2]  Industry Airplane Upset Recovery Training Aid Team, Airplane Upset Recovery Training Aid, Rev. 2, 

November 2008. 

[3]  K. Cunningham, J. Foster, G. Shah, E. Stewart and R. Ventura, Simulation Study of Flap Effects on a 
Commercial  Transport  Airplane  in  Upset  Conditions,  AIAA-2005-5908,  AIAA  AFM  Conference  and 
Exhibit, San Francisco, CA, August 15–18, 2005. 

[4]  L.  Fucke,  V.  Biryukov,  M.  Grigoriev,  V.  Rogozin,  E.  Groen,  M.  Wentink,  J.  Field,  B.  Soemarwoto, 
N. Abramov, M. Goman and A. Khrabrov, Developing scenarios for research into upset recovery simula-
tion, AIAA Modeling and Simulation Technologies Conference, Toronto (ON), August 2010. 

[5]  M. Goman, A. Khrabrov and B. Soemarwoto, Aerodynamic model development for simulation of upset 
recovery  of  transport  airplane,  Aerodynamics  Conference,  Royal  Aeronautical  Society,  London  (UK), 
July 27–28, 2010. 

[6]  E.  Groen  and  W.  Ledegang,  Centrifuge-based  simulation  of  unusual  attitude  recovery  in  Desdemona. 

Journal of Aircraft (accepted). 

About the Authors 

Dr Eric Groen, Senior Scientist – Aerospace Physiologist – Scientific Coordinator of the SUPRA project 
TNO – Kampweg 5 – NL- 3769 DE Soesterberg, The Netherlands 
Tel.: +31 (0)888665926 
eric.groen@tno.nl 

Lars Fucke, Senior Engineer – Safety R&D – SUPRA Dissemination and Exploitation Lead 
Boeing Research and Technology Europe 
Avenida Sur del Aeropuerto de Barajas, 38, Edif. 4 – pl. 4a 
28042 Madrid, Spain 
Tel.: +34 91 768 84 34 
Lars.fucke@boeing.com 

 
 
246

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-246

“ALICIA”: All Conditions Operations 
and Innovative Cockpit Infrastructure 

Linda NAPOLETANO and Daniel DREYER 

Abstract. Low clouds and poor visibility are the most disruptive factors for avia-
tion. So, considering the expected growth of the air traffic over the next decades, it 
is  vital  to  reduce  the  impact  of  difficult  weather  conditions.  The  European  FP7 
project called “ALICIA” – All conditions operations and Innovative Cockpit Infra-
structure – here below described aims at developing new and scalable cockpit ap-
plications which can extend aircraft operations in degraded conditions and at pro-
viding the critical building blocks necessary to reduce delays in Europe associated 
with  bad  weather.  The  final  goal  is to  achieve  All  Conditions  Operations  (ACO) 
allowing aircraft to fly with the same safety and performance in almost every con-
ditions. 

Keywords.  All  conditions  operations,  head-up  display,  head  mounted  display, 
cockpit, synthetic vision system, enhanced vision system, combined vision system, 
taxiing, human machine interface (HMI) 

1. Introduction 

Today,  low  visibility  in  the  critical  phases  of  the  flight  is  one  of  the  most  disruptive 
factors in European aviation, and causes about 50% of arrival delays [1]. 

In  2007  alone,  at  London’s  airports,  more  than  57,000  flights  were  delayed  be-
cause of the weather. Delays cost about 1 billion Euros per year. Air traffic in Europe is 
expected to grow steadily over the next decade, and to support this growth, it is vital to 
increase the efficiency of the air transportation system, and reducing the impact of dif-
ficult weather conditions. 

ALICIA is an R&D project co-funded by the European Commission under the Se-
venth  Framework,  with  the  aim  of  developing  new  and  scalable  cockpit  applications 
which  can  extend  aircraft  operations  in  degraded  conditions,  and  provide  the  critical 
building blocks necessary to reduce delays in Europe associated with bad weather. 

The  All  Conditions  Operations  (ACO)  research  aims  at  enabling  a  robust  world-
wide  operations  capability  allowing  aircraft  to  use  airports  with  less  capable  ground 
based  approach  aids,  and  enhancing  aircraft  autonomy  such  as  the  anticipation  and 
avoidance of adverse weather in-flight or on the ground. Concepts such as ACO under-
pin  the  rationale  for  the  new  cockpit  architecture,  which  integrates  technologies  and 
applications for both fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft types.  

Information about weather and surrounding air traffic, from both ground and air-
borne  sources,  will  be  presented  on  touch  screens  and  “head-up”  displays,  3D  audio 
will  enable  the  crew  to  make  quick  and  effective  decisions,  while  dockable  displays 
will support pre-flight activities.  

ALICIA’s  goal  is  to  achieve  effective  All  Conditions  Operations:  this  means  al-
lowing  aircraft  to  fly  with  the  same  safety  and  performance  in  almost  every  weather 

L. Napoletano and D. Dreyer / “ALICIA”: ACO and Innovative Cockpit Infrastructure

247

condition with solutions envisaged to cover every phase of the flight, from taxiing, to 
cruising, approaching and landing. 

These advances will optimise crew workload whilst enhancing safety and improv-
ing  crew  situational  awareness.  The  development  of  solutions  in  ALICIA  takes  into 
account the different conditions in which different aircraft are flown, and the specific 
needs  of  helicopter  crews  and  missions  (e.g.  replacing  the  Head Up  Displays  used  in 
commercial aircraft with Head Mounted Displays). 

2. The Project 

The ALICIA project started in 2009 and will last until 2013. The project directly ad-
dresses the Vision 2020 goal of improved time efficiency in the air transportation sys-
tem  by  developing  new  cockpit  systems  that  can  deliver  significantly  more  aircraft 
movements than is possible today. ALICIA will couple the latest thinking in air traffic 
management (SESAR) with new cockpit concepts capable of providing improved mis-
sion performance whilst also enhancing situation awareness. Thus, the two key areas of 
technological advance will be an All Conditions Operations (ACO) system capable of 
delivering robust worldwide operations capability, allowing aircraft to use airports with 
less  capable  ground  based  approach  aids,  in  a  wider  range  of  degraded  flight  condi-
tions.  The  second  key  area  of  technological  advance  is  the  new  cockpit  architecture 
facilitating  the  introduction  of  new  cockpit  technologies  and  applications  capable  of 
driving  down  crew  workload  whilst  enhancing  safety  and  improving  crew  situational 
awareness. The rationale for the new cockpit architecture is borne of the certainty that 
within the next decade the cockpit design will be stressed by the introduction of a series 
of  new  concepts  such  as  ACO  and  those  being  developed  within  the  SESAR  pro-
gramme. 

The two overarching project objectives are: 
•  Development of an ACO capability to reduce weather-related delays by 20%; 
•  Development of a new cockpit architecture facilitating the introduction of new 

technologies and applications (Fig. 1). 

The  ALICIA  programme  provides  an  opportunity  for  many  key  stakeholders  in 
Europe  to  work  together  towards  a  new  approach  to  cockpit  design.  The  application 
focus within the project will be All Conditions Operations because the technology inte-
gration implicit in the implementation of this system will challenge the cockpit design. 
However, All Conditions Operations is just one element of a diverse range of new sys-
tems that will arrive in the next generation cockpit and the cockpit architecture must be 
flexible enough to support this. Accordingly, within ALICIA, new core concepts appli-
cable to all new flight-decks will be defined that facilitate the efficient introduction of a 
broad  and  expanding  range  of  operational  requirements,  whilst  achieving  the  lowest 
through life cost. 

The utility and scalability of the new concept will be demonstrated using simula-
tion/synthetic environments and bench testing to illustrate the feasibility of highly inte-
grated on board functions performing: 

•  Strategic Surveillance of the Aircraft Environment; 
•  Enhanced Navigation; 
•  Robust Worldwide Operations in demanding Flight Conditions. 

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Safety

Figure 1. New cockpit architecture. 

The  project  began  by  defining  operational  and  technological  requirements  of 
the cockpit of the future, and conducting a thorough recognition of existing and emerg-
ing  technologies  (Requirements  Capture,  Concept  Generation,  Technology  Selection/ 
Refinement). 

Selected  technologies  will  be  integrated  in  the  design  of  new  cockpit  prototypes, 
which will finally be evaluated through simulators (Application Development, Evalua-
tion in Cockpit Simulators). 

3. Results 

ALICIA  will  make  advances  in  the  design  of  next  generation  cockpits  using  an  ap-
proach that embraces the principles of increased commonality across multiple aircraft 
types. This aims at contributing to increase the re-use of European technology creating 
further competitive advantage whilst reducing time to market. Some of the key innova-
tions pursued within ALICIA include: 

•  Robust management of flight phases near and on the ground; 
•  Enhanced vision system and synthetic imagery;  
•  Holistic approach to HMI design and integration; 
• 
Integration with the future airspace infrastructure;  
•  Enhanced  use  of  synthetic  environments  to  support  concept  validation  and 

product certification; 

•  Novel display, control and audio concepts, e.g. head mounted displays, direct 
voice input, audio environment including 3D audio, large area/high resolution 
displays; 
Improved sensor technologies supporting all environment capabilities; 

• 
•  High integrity architectures and databases; 
•  Enhanced navigation techniques. 

L. Napoletano and D. Dreyer / “ALICIA”: ACO and Innovative Cockpit Infrastructure

249

The operational gains obtained include the decision height below 200 feet for all 
equipped aircraft on almost all runways/landing sites in low visibility/bad weather con-
ditions;  more  autonomous  taxiing  capability  in  low  visibility/bad  weather  conditions; 
and  optimized  flight  efficiency  and  safety  by  providing  an  accurate  picture  of  the 
weather situation around the aircraft and along its intended trajectory. 

4. The ALICIA Scenarios 

Although the ALICIA cockpit concept is still at an early phase of design definition, a 
number of candidate HMI philosophies and supporting technologies have been identi-
fied as strong contenders for the critical components that form the foundations for the 
design concept. 

In support of operations in degraded visual environments a greater use of computer 
generated graphics, to present a picture of the external environment to the crew is pro-
posed. This concept is typically referred to as Equivalent Visual Operations (EVO) and 
is endorsed through existing technologies such as Synthetic Vision System (SVS), En-
hanced Vision System (EVS) and Combined Vision System (CVS) although there are 
currently limitations to the operational use of these technologies.  

It is anticipated that the future for enhanced Equivalent Visual Operations will re-
quire the extended use of Head Up Display and Head Mounted Display technologies. 
These display mediums are capable of providing the crew with critical flight informa-
tion, and can present terrain and threat information using computer generated graphical 
formats using techniques such as conformal symbology.  

In  the  next  paragraphs  we  are  providing  some  high  level  scenarios  suggesting 

possible impact of the ALICIA flight deck. 

4.1. Flight Planning 

Dockable  displays  can  be  used  for  flight  planning  in  an  office  or  at  home.  Routes, 
weather  forecast  and  all  aspects  of  flight  preparation  can  be  generated  before  pilots’ 
arrival at the airport. This allows them to become familiar with the new route. Conse-
quently, this may lead to quicker procedures on board of the aircraft, which could have 
a positive influence on delays (Fig. 2). 

4.2. Taxiing 

Taxi operations now rely mostly on direct vision through the windscreen. In low visi-
bility  conditions,  pilots  cannot  easily  identify  obstacles  and  navigate  on  taxiway  and 
runway. Another consequence of traffic growth is increased risk of runway incursion. 
Information from the aircraft’s navigation and positioning system, digital maps of the 
airport area and brake & steering cues, can be presented on a Head-Up Display (HUD), 
a  transparent  surface  in  the  pilot’s  sightline  through  the  forward  cockpit  window 
(Fig. 3). 

4.3. Cruising 

While  flying  towards  bad  weather  real  time  information  is  presented  to  the  crew  that 
allows them to manage a large quantity of data coming from different sources, clearly 

250

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Safety

Figure 2. Simulation of a dockable display. 

Figure 3. Simulation of Head up Display. 

-

selecting, at any time, the data that are the most relevant for the crew. The system pre-
sents  to  the  crew  the  weather  conditions  around  the  aircraft,  and  detects  potential 
threats. Weather data are collected from different sources and tailored to the aircraft’s 
request and specific needs. The crew makes quick decisions based on these data, and 
re-plans  the  flight  when  necessary.  A  new,  safer  route  is  calculated  by  the  onboard 
computer, and sent to ground control for approval before being selected. While the pi-
lot looks through the display to see the outside world, the system can effectively make 
up  for  lost  visibility,  allowing  the  pilot  to  perceive  the  same  position  clues  he  would 
ordinarily receive by looking outside (Fig. 4). 

4.4. Landing 

The landing phase is particularly critical in bad weather conditions. As the aircraft ap-
proaches ground with low visibility, the pilot must be aware of potential obstacles such 
as high buildings, or wires. A Synthetic Vision System can be displayed on the cock-
pit’s Head-Up Display. It utilizes precise navigation sensor inputs, and data from ter-
rain, obstacle and runway databases to generate a synthetic, three dimensional view of 

L. Napoletano and D. Dreyer / “ALICIA”: ACO and Innovative Cockpit Infrastructure

251

Figure 4. Interactive re-planning of flight path due to bad weather on a touch screen. 

Figure 5. SVS as seen through a HUD. 

the  external  aircraft  environment,  leading  the  pilot  to  land  just  as  safely  as  he  would 
with perfect visibility (Fig. 5). 

4.5. Helicopters 

Helicopters pose specific requirements as they are often flown in extreme conditions, in 
particular when servicing offshore platforms, or when used for rescue operations dur-
ing  natural  disasters.  The  solutions  envisaged  for  commercial  airplanes  must  be 
adapted  to  the  specific  conditions  found  on  a  helicopter.  For  example,  Head-Up  Dis-
plays are replaced by Head-Mounted Displays, which give the same visual information 
with the necessary stability and allow the pilots to see the information presented even 
when they are not looking through the front windscreen. Active stick controls allow the 
pilot to have a sensory feedback about the forces applied on the aircraft. In addition 3D 
Audio  can  effectively  help  pilots  communicating  with  ground  stations  and  avoiding 
obstacles (Fig. 6). 

ALICIA will demonstrate the utility and scalability of the new concepts using si-
mulation/synthetic environments and bench testing to illustrate the feasibility of highly 
integrated on-board functions performing strategic surveillance of the aircraft environ-
ment, enhanced navigation and operations in demanding flight conditions. 

252

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Safety

Figure 6. Example of a Head Mounted Display. 

5. The Consortium 

To achieve its goals, ALICIA brings together all the key players in European avionics: 
19  industries,  7  research  centers,  11  small  and  medium  enterprises,  5  universities  are 
cooperating, preparing the future of European Air Transportation. Moreover, ALICIA 
involves  end  user  representatives  through  the  External  Expert  Advisory  Group,  from 
the  early  stages  and  during  the  life  of  the  project  to  deliver  operational  and  practical 
feedback to ALICIA’s Work Packages. This aims at ensuring that the developed sys-
tems will meet the stakeholders’ expectations and constraints. This group is made up of 
people who are not part of the ALICIA consortium, but who committed to contribute to 
ALICIA  through  their  relevant  expertise  as  Helicopter  &  Aircraft  operators,  Crew-
members, members of Airworthiness & Operational authorities, Representatives of Air 
Navigation  Service  Providers  and  Meteorology  experts.  At  all  stages  experts  are  in-
volved to advice on the best way to go towards marketable and certifiable products and 
systems. 

References 

[1]  Advanced Terminal Weather Products Demonstration in New York, Proceedings of the 11th Conference 

Aviation, Range and Aerospace Meteorology, 2004. 

[2]  Project web site: www.alicia-project.eu. 

About the Authors 

Linda Napoletano  
Deep Blue Srl 
Piazza Buenos Aires, 20 
Roma – 00198 Italy 
linda.napoletano@dblue.it 
www.dblue.it  

Daniel Dreyer 
EADS Innovation Works – Department IW-IC FD 
Advanced Industrial Design and Visualisation 
D-81663 Munich, Germany 
Daniel.Dreyer@eads.net 

 
Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-253

253

DELICAT – Demonstration of Lidar Based 
Clear Air Turbulence Detection 

Hervé BARNY 

Abstract. Atmospheric turbulence encounters are the leading cause of injuries to 
passengers  and flight  crews  in  non-fatal  accidents.  A  whole  class  of  turbulences, 
representing 40% of turbulence accidents and designated as Clear Air Turbulence 
(CAT),  cannot  be  detected  by  any  existing  airborne  equipment,  even  modern 
weather radars. The objective of the European project “DELICAT” – Demonstra-
tion  of  Llidar-based  Air  Turbulence  –  is  to  test  an  airborne  Lidar  developed  to 
detect  Clear  Air  Turbulence  (CAT)  ahead  of  an  aircraft,  thus  allowing  an  antic-
ipated reaction to mitigate the CAT effect. 

Keywords. Lidar, turbulence, detection, turbulence hazards 

1. Context 

Atmospheric turbulence encounters are the leading cause of injuries to passengers and 
flight crews in non-fatal airline accidents. The number of turbulence accidents has in-
creased by a factor of 5 since 1980 (Fig. 1). 

Figure  1.  Evolution  of  turbulence  accidents  for  US  air  carriers,  1980  to  2003.  FAA  Advisory  Circular 
AC120-88A, dated 19/01/2006. 

 
 
 
 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Safety

Figure  2.  Evolution of turbulence accidents per Mio departure. FAA Advisory Circular AC120-88A, dated 
19/01/2006. 

Part of  this progression  is  due  to  the  growing  traffic, but  the  rate of  accident  per 
million flight departures has also increased, by a factor of 3, since 1980 (Fig. 2). This is 
probably the result of load factor increasing in this period. 

For the aviation transportation industry, the total cost is estimated over 100 MUSD 
per year. U.S. Federal Aviation Administration statistics show an average of 58 airline 
passengers  being hurt  in  U.S.  turbulence  incidents  each  year.  The  situation  may  even 
worsen in future years, as newly designed aircraft are being designed to allow passen-
gers  to  circulate  freely  for  entertainment  and  exercise,  especially  during  long-haul 
flights. 

2. Turbulences Characteristics 

The atmospheric phenomena representing hazards for commercial aircraft, due to sud-
den changes of the aircraft aerodynamic conditions are sometimes conveniently labeled 
turbulence, wind shear and wake vortex. The CAT is presented in red in (Fig. 3). 

CAT can be defined as a changing air velocity pattern, which can give rise to ab-
rupt motion change in the flight path of an aircraft which has been directed through the 
turbulent patch, if left uncorrected. Turbulence affects the aircraft mainly through vari-
ations of vertical wind speed. 

While protection against Wake Vortices is ensured through aircraft separation, un-
der  the  responsibility  of  Air  Traffic  Management,  and  while  Wind  shear  protection 
equipment  (reactive  or  predictive)  is  now  mandatory  for  commercial  aircraft,  turbu-
lence hazard has not yet received a satisfying protection solution. 

H. Barny / DELICAT – Demonstration of Lidar Based Clear Air Turbulence Detection

255

Figure 3. Different types of turbulences. 

3. Operational Concepts for the Protection Against Such Turbulence Hazards 

•  Short-Range (50 m to 300 m) measurement of air speed ahead of the aircraft, 
and action on the aircraft flight controls to mitigate the effect of turbulence. 
•  Medium-Range (10 km to 30 km) detection of turbulence, securing of passen-
gers  and  crewmembers  by  anticipating  seat  belts  fastening.  The  DELICAT 
project addresses this domain of turbulence detection. 

•  Long-Range, by modifying the Flight Plan for example. This domain is out of 

the LIDAR range and thus is more related to weather forecasting. 

4. General Description of the DELICAT LIDAR System 

A LIDAR is an optical remote sensing system, which uses the properties of the back-
scattered  light  to  obtain  information  on  a  distant  target  or  on  the  atmosphere.  The 
knowledge  of the  exact  position of  the portion of  atmosphere under  analysis  with  re-
spect to the light emission can be obtained using the time of flight between emission 
and reception (Fig. 4). Alternatively, the optical system itself can be used to direct and 
focus the light to a specific place.  

LIDAR stands for LIght Detection And Ranging (same as RADAR but using Light 
instead of Radio). The basic difference between a LIDAR and a Radar system is that 
optical  wavelengths  in  the  ultraviolet,  visible,  infrared  parts  of  the  electromagnetic 

 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Safety

Figure 4. LIDAR backscattered light analysis principle. 

spectrum  are  used,  instead  of  radio  frequencies.  Since  the  wavelength  used  by  a  LI-
DAR is much smaller than the one used by the Radar (by a factor of 104 to 105), the 
LIDAR can detect much smaller objects than the radar, for example air molecules (N2 
or O2) or aerosols. Thus the LIDAR is well suited to analyze the clear atmosphere sur-
rounding  an  aircraft.  LIDAR  systems  use  laser  beams  to  take  advantage  of  the  high 
radiation density, coherency and the increased spatial (or angular) resolution available 
at the shorter optical wavelengths. 

5. The DELICAT Remote Airborne LIDAR Will Include 3 Sub-Assemblies 

1

1.  Beam Steering to 

direct the laser beam 
on the flight path; 
2.  Receiver (Telescope, 
Mie/Rayleigh 
separation, photon 
counting & analogue 
PMT); 

3.  UV Transmitter 

(Tripled Nd:YAG, 
10 W, 100 Hz). 

2

3

Figure 5. DELICAT LIDAR mock up. 

6. Test Aircraft Adaptation for DELICAT 

This adaptation requires five measures: 

•  Fairing to protect the folding mirror to direct the laser beam on the flight path 

(Fig. 6); 

•  Nose boom to measure accurately the wind direction; 
•  Aircraft floor to support the LIDAR; 

 
 
 
H. Barny / DELICAT – Demonstration of Lidar Based Clear Air Turbulence Detection

257

Figure 6. LIDAR installation on the flight test aircraft. 

•  Cabin windows to let the laser beam in and out; 
•  RVSM compliance demonstration. 

7. Participation of Meteorological Services and Research Institutes to the 

“DELICAT” Project 

CAT  are  rare  events  and  not  easily  predictable.  Indeed,  partners  from  meteorological 
services and research institutes are part of the team, and will support the trials predict-
ing the areas with most chances to encounter Clear Air Turbulences at the date of the 
flight tests (Fig. 7). It will help choosing the flight region and take the go/no go deci-
sions before each flight. 

8. The “DELICAT” Project 

The DELICAT Project is a 3 year-and-a-half project, partially funded by the European 
Commission in the frame of the 7th Framework Program FP5. It also takes advantage 
of previous FP5 AWIATOR and FP6 FLYSAFE projects. 

13 European Partners are involved in the DELICAT project: 
•  Thales Avionics (France) 
is coordinating the project 

• 
• 

•  CNRS (France) 
•  DLR (Germany) 
•  Hovemere Ltd. (England) 
•  Météo France (France) 
•  NLR (Netherlands) 
•  ONERA (France) 

INOE (Romania) 
Institute of Atmospheric Physics 
(IAP, Russia) 

•  Laser Diagnostic Instruments (LDI, 

Estonia) 

•  Warsaw University (ICM, Poland) 
•  EADS-Innovation Works (Germany) 
•  Thales Research & Technologies 

(TRT, France) 

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Safety

Figure 7. Meteorological support to predict the CAT areas. 

9. Main “DELICAT” Objectives 

•  The  main  objective  is  to  validate  an  advanced  and  new  technology  for  me-

dium-range detection of Clear Air Turbulence; 

•  The second objective is to analyse the integration of short-range and medium-

range functions; 

•  The  third  objective  is  to  improve  the  understanding  of  Clear  Air  Turbulence 

phenomenon, and the CAT forecasting capabilities. 

The validation will be based on the comparison of the information provided on the 
one hand by the remote airborne LIDAR and on the other hand by the aircraft sensors 
(acceleration, air speed, temperature). 

About the Author 

Hervé Barny 
DELICAT Technical manager 
Thales Avionics 
25 rue Jules-Vedrines 
26027 ValenceTel.: +33 4 75 79 85 11 
herve.barny@fr.thalesgroup.com 
www.thalesgroup.com 

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-259

259

Improving Turnaround Predictability: 
TITAN 

Developing a New Concept of Operations 
for the Aircraft Turnaround 

Laura SERRANO MARTÍN, Sara M. LUIS NUÑEZ, Ana C. SÁEZ SÁNCHEZ 
and Sebastian KELLNER 

Abstract.  Delays  in  the  turnaround  are  a  major  cause  for  low  predictability  in 
commercial  aviation.  The  Report  “ATM  Target  Concept”  issued  by  the  SESAR 
Consortium in September 2007 [1] describes the paradigm shift towards trajectory-
based operations. With a view to going further in the studies, a R&TD project was 
initiated  by  the  European  Commission  within  FP7:  “TITAN”,  acronym  standing 
for Turnaround Integration into Trajectory and Network.1 This project is proposing 
a concept of operations which integrates the turnaround of aircraft (the turnaround 
of aircraft comprises the sequence of ground operations required to service of air-
craft  from  the  in-block  to  off-block  time)  into  trajectory  and  network  based  on 
Collaborative  Decision  Making  (CDM)  and  System  Wide  Information  Manage-
ment (SWIM) principles. A major point of this concept is the definition of ten mi-
lestones in addition to the Airport Collaborative Decision Making milestones. The 
TITAN concept will be validated by innovative software and further, a CDM tool 
for airlines will be developed in order to clearly demonstrate its feasibility. 

Keywords.  Aircraft  turnaround,  trajectory,  bottleneck,  buffer  time,  airport,  ad-
vanced collaborative decision making 

1. Introduction 

In  2009,  turnaround  delays  constituted  around  70%  of  primary  delays  [2].  As  turna-
round  delays  were  beyond  the  scope  of  this  report  (the  focus  being  on  ATM  perfor-
mance), they had not been analyzed and the report just stated that local turnaround de-
lays  were  caused  by  airlines  (tight  scheduling,  technical,  boarding,  etc.),  airports 
(equipment, security, etc.) or other parties such as ground handlers. 

This  paper  directly  addresses  the  airport  operations  focusing  on  the  turnaround 
process and the associated delays. It describes a new advanced operational concept for 
this  process  fully  compatible  and  complementary  with  the  SESAR  ConOps  and  fully 
addresses  those  elements  which  are  not  considered  ATM-primary  elements,  such  as 
ground handling processes. 

Ground handling  is one of  the  main  processes  that determine  the on-time  perfor-
mance of the Flight Trajectory. It is not only the beginning and the end of the trajecto-
ry; it is also the connecting processes between two consecutive flights. The efficiency 
of  this  turnaround  process  determines  if  delays  increase  or  can  be  recovered.  The 

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Air Traffic Operations

ground process is involved in all phases of the trajectory, from business development 
through resource planning and allocation to the daily execution of operations. 

Turnaround  Integration  into  Trajectory  And  Network  (TITAN)  identifies  the  dif-
ferent processes which interact with the ground sector and how a change of these para-
meters will have an impact on it [3]. This is done by means of enlarging the Collabora-
tive  Decision  Making  (CDM)  scope  defining  new  milestones  related  to  the  handling 
processes during the turnaround phase, paying special interest to the hand-off processes 
and to the influence of external events like the landside processes. 

2. The Turnaround Process 

The turnaround of an aircraft comprises the sequence of ground operations and the set 
of services required to service the aircraft from the on block time to the off block time. 
Many different actors are involved in the process making it a complex operation with a 
large potential for inefficiencies. 

A  series  of  procedures  and  specifications  have  been  approved  by  IATA  Airport 
Services  Committee  (ASC) and  industry  standards.  These  standards have  been devel-
oped  by  specialist  groups  under  the  direction  and  approval  of  the  Airport  Services 
Committee as the most practical and economical standards which airlines, ground han-
dling companies and airports are recommended to follow. These groups are open to all 
IATA Members, IATA Ground Handling Council (IGHC) Members and IATA Strateg-
ic Partners [4]. 

Apart  from  these,  some  aircraft  manufacturers  as  Airbus  or  Boeing  [5]  develop 
their own documents for each airplane where a standardized format of airplane charac-
teristics  data  as  the  terminal  servicing  are  explained,  as  certain  services  must  be  per-
formed on the aircraft usually within a given time to meet flight schedules. 

2.1. Turnaround Service Sequence Diagram 

The  Turnaround  Service  Sequence  Diagram  (TSSD)  provides  a  figure  of  the  current 
turnaround process. It is the result of analyses of turnarounds focused on the situation 
at  European  airports.  The  TSSD  depicts  the  sequence  of  the  process,  names  the  in-
volved actors and describes the flow of information. In short, it shows who does what, 
when, and with what information. Collating all this information into the TSSD allows 
identifying  today’s  inefficiencies  and  structuring  the  development  of  solutions.  A 
graphical representation of a process has to go in line with a reduction of complexity 
while  preserving  the  cause-and-effect  chains.  The  following  paragraph  therefore  lists 
the assumptions underlying the TSSD and outlines important findings: 

•  Only the case where the aircraft stays at the same stand during the turnaround 
and prepares for a departure is considered; i.e. differences in the process of a 
flight that moves off stand or does not prepare for departure (e.g. going into 
maintenance) is not considered; 

•  Only  commercial  flights  are  considered.  Therefore  other  scenarios,  such  as 

smaller aircraft that use their own air stairs, are not developed; 
•  Decision of whether to use bridge or stairs is based on the stand; 
•  Refueling can be done via truck even if hydrant is available (fuelling company 

makes this decision); 

L. Serrano Martín et al. / Improving Turnaround Predictability

261

•  No real time communication about remaining fuel on aircraft; 
• 

It is assumed that fuel truck always contains at least the required quantity of 
fuel; 

•  Refueling  can be  done  with passengers on board  if  fire  department  has been 

• 
• 

notified; 
In some cases, cleaning can be performed by cabin crew; 
In some cases, some tasks may be omitted (e.g. no catering on low cost carri-
ers); 

•  Bridge or stairs and all baggage handling equipment remain in position for the 

duration of the turnaround process; 

•  Both cabin crew and passenger agent assist with the boarding process; 
•  Headcount and passengers on board reported from passenger agent match; 
•  No passenger is missed; 
•  Check-in gives passenger information to load control for the load sheet. With 
this information load sheet is done and it is given to flight dispatcher to deliver 
it to the cockpit crew; 

•  There are no changes in the load sheet; 
•  Provision of air starter has not been included within the TSSD. 

The  TSSD  is  composed  of  three  diagrams.  The  highest  level  is  marked  by  the 
TSSD  Overview  Diagram  (Fig.  1),  which  provides  an  overview  of  the  whole  turna-
round  process.  It  illustrates  those  activities  (dark  orange),  milestones  (green  rhombi) 
and  actions  (boxes  with  numbers  as  headlines)  which  do  not  require  a  separate  dia-
gram. 

The  next  more  detailed  level  is  the  TSSD  Activity  Diagram.  It  illustrates  the  ac-
tions in the activity, messages passed, completed actions and any completed milestones. 
At the same time it highlights parallel activities and clearly identifies the flows of ac-
tivities for each actors to complete the action. An example based on the Unload Bag-
gage/Cargo/Mail process (Fig. 2). 

The most detailed level is the TSSD Action Diagram. It further decomposes an ac-
tivity  with  multiple  subtasks  and  parallel  activities.  This  helps  in  identifying  missing 
information  flows  where  actors  should  share  information.  Figure  3  continues  the  de-
scription of the example of Unloading Baggage. 

Summarizing, the turnaround involves activities by different actors which are de-
pendent  of  each  other  or  may  run  in  parallel.  The  detailed  analyses  revealed  further 
dependencies on the action level. Obviously dependent actions require sufficient coor-
dination between the actors in charge of performing the actions. High resolution images 
of the complete TSSD are available in [6]. 

2.2. Actors 

Different  organizations  carry  out  the  turnaround  activities  through  individual  actors 
who have different roles and responsibilities in the turnaround process. 

The  main  actors  involved  in  the  turnaround  process  are  aircraft  operator,  ground 
handler, Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP) and airport operator. They have been 
defined taking into account European legislation on access to the ground handling mar-
ket [7] and the activities carried out within the process. 

 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Air Traffic Operations

.

m
a
r
g
a
i
D
w
e
i
v
r
e
v
O
D
S
S
T

.

1
e
r
u
g
i
F

 
 
 
 
 
L. Serrano Martín et al. / Improving Turnaround Predictability

263

Figure 2. TSSD Activity Diagram. 

In  addition,  they  have  been  classified  according  to  their  specific  roles  during 
the turnaround  process.  It  has  been  difficult  to  unify  these  because  depending  on  the 
country, the same role can be carried out by different actors. In these cases they have 
been pointed out. The following definitions apply: 

•  Actor:  an  actor  is  any  entity  that  interacts  with  the  Air  Traffic  Management 
(ATM) Network. It might be a human user, an organization or a computer sys-
tem. Actors are consumers or providers of services. 

•  Role: a role is an office or a function (i.e. a set of related activities or tasks) 

assumed by an actor. More than one role may be assigned to an actor. 

Table  1  below  exemplifies  the  different  notions  of  actor  and  role  by  describing 
the airport  operator.  The  organization  unit  employs  individuals  who  execute  different 
roles. 

2.3. Bottlenecks and Buffer Times 

(cid:2)(cid:3)(cid:4)(cid:3)(cid:5)(cid:3) Bottlenecks 

Airports are becoming the bottleneck of the air transport network since their resources 
cannot currently keep up with the air traffic demand due to its rapid growing. Airport 
delays are mainly addressed to the inefficiency of daily airport operations and the non-

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Air Traffic Operations

Figure 3. TSSD Action Diagram. 

availability  of reliable  information. All  airport partners  lack  current global  situational 
awareness due to inadequate information sharing or fragmented information flows. 

The  turnaround  for various  aircraft  in  an  airport  is  an  optimized  process  by  each 
stakeholder involved. They optimize their own resources to perform their tasks in the 
agreed time. However, they do not share a common view of aircraft evolution and use 
different  planning  data,  and  no  single  partner  has  a  complete  image  of  turnaround 
processes and resources. There is no integrated planning of the turnaround process it-
self, and therefore the precise predictability of the flight’s estimated off block time is 
generally poor. 

During  the  execution  phase,  delays  become  when  a  deviation  from  the  original 
schedule arises (not only delays, but also being early is not always desirable as it could 
cause blockage), mainly due to the unavailability of means which may lead to a chain 

L. Serrano Martín et al. / Improving Turnaround Predictability

265

Table 1. Actors and Roles – Airport Operator 

Individual 

Main Role(s) 

•  Update resources’ availability 
•  Updating data related to passenger (information from airport devices, 

Airport operator 

Marshallers and 
follow-me drivers 

De-icing staff 

Reduced Mobility 
assistance 
Automatic 
system/Load flow on 
terminal personnel 

Met office 
Security personnel 

e.g. cameras located to monitor passengers) 
Inform passenger where to collect luggage 

• 
•  Stand allocation 
•  Gate allocation 

Guide the aircraft to the stand allocated 

De-ice 

Assist to disabled passenger 
Locate ambulift 

Baggage security process 

Provide weather information reports and forecasting 
Passenger security control 

reaction of delays. Stakeholders take decisions separately and based on different infor-
mation instead of managing a single, unique set of information. 

In these circumstances the lack of information shared, or the provision of this in-
formation too late, does not let the involved actors to be adapted to the new scenario as 
soon as possible and leads to the late arrival of ground handling agents and equipment 
at the gate. 

The lack of continuous monitoring and update of the information during the execu-
tion  phase  is  mainly  due  to  two  facts:  insufficient  or  unreliable  information  among 
partners (relevant information exists somewhere around the airport in various systems, 
but  is  not  readily  available  to  all  partners)  and  restricted  information  sharing  (some 
partners are unwilling to share information because they consider some data “commer-
cially sensitive” or the sharing of the information demands extra work from them). Be-
sides,  the  use  of  different  codification,  tools  and  applications  by  each  stakeholder  to 
deliver their specific services and the use different terms do not facilitate this task. 

Passengers are also considered as an important source of turnaround delays. Their 
behavior cannot be predicted nor inside neither outside the aircraft, and their late arrival 
to the boarding gate could cause delays due to the short reactionary time. 

The increasingly trend of demand of security processes may also be a cause of bot-
tlenecks during turnaround processes. This issue is strictly dependant on security regu-
lations.  Airports  have  difficulties  in  complying  with  these  regulations  since  it  has  a 
direct  negative  influence  on  airport  operations  as  it  produces  additional  delays.  It  is 
something unfavorable for airports according to their goals of reducing aircraft turna-
round times. 

Overall poor information sharing and poor management prevents efficient coordi-
nation between all stakeholders resulting in a less effective use of available assets and 
therefore  increasing  the  hidden  costs  to  the  airspace  users  in  the  form  of  operational 
inefficiencies, such as a non-optimized turnaround process. It may cause inefficiencies 
in predictability, efficiency and cost effectiveness KPAs. 

266

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Air Traffic Operations

(cid:2)(cid:3)(cid:4)(cid:3)(cid:2)(cid:3) Buffer Times 

All turnaround processes are scheduled against the Scheduled Time of Arrival (STA) 
and,  by  assuming  a  dedicated  taxi-in  time,  against  the  in-block  times  at  the  assigned 
stand, (either remote or at the terminal building) according to the airport stand alloca-
tion  scheme.  All  disruptions  occurring  between  two  connecting  flights  unavoidably 
cause  some  damage  in  the  ground  operations  since  personnel  resources  are  tight  and 
tools  are  partly  specific  for  aircraft  types.  Therefore,  the  aircraft  turnaround  perfor-
mance relies on a robust stand and aircraft allocation scheme over the day. 

In  order  to  achieve  the  performance  targets  typically  introduces  buffer  time  cali-
brated by expert knowledge during the operation onto technical minimum gate times. It 
seems not to follow rigid rules or to apply a systematic concept. Furthermore, the tech-
nical minimum gate time itself is not a constant value per type of aircraft, as it is influ-
enced by other external aspects such as the type of flight, if the flight has or not any 
cargo, the number of passengers, internal procedures, etc. 

The  correct  calculation  of  buffer  time  can  minimize  system  costs  by  balancing 
trade-offs  between  schedule  punctuality  and  aircraft  utilization.  The  optimal  schedule 
time for a turnaround aircraft depends on the arrival pattern of inbound aircraft as well 
as the scheduling strategy of an airline. When the expected delay cost is relatively low-
er than the operating cost of an airline, the airline might choose to minimize the turna-
round time to reduce operating costs and to increase fleet productivity. 

To fully understand the concept behind buffer time, here is an example of its use: 
Given that the cleaning of the aircraft (task) will take y minutes while the whole clean-
ing process (plan) is scheduled to take x minutes. Then 

t = x – y 

(1) 

simply defines the time buffer t as difference between plan and task. 

The buffer time allows a slight delay in the start of the cleaning process or in the 
course  of  it.  The  maximum  delay  that  the  system  can  tolerate  without  compromising 
the termination of the subsequent processes in due time is t. Knowing that the cleaning 
process needs y time to be finished, if the delay at start exceeds t, the next processes 
(which is dependent on the previous one) will probably suffer a slip (unless it also has a 
time buffer that can be consumed in favor of the cleaning process). 

Unless  arrival delay  is  longer  than  the  scheduled buffer  time  in  turnaround  sche-
dules, it has been observed that the arrival lateness does not necessarily result in depar-
ture  delays.  The  schedule  buffer  time  could  be  used  to  absorb  arrival  delays,  unex-
pected  departure  delays  due  to  ground  handling  disruptions  and  to  accommodate  in-
evitable time gaps in flight schedules. 

According to queuing theory, the buffer depends on the delay magnitude of an in-
dividual turnaround but a late aircraft may need less buffer time than is expected due to 
an increased pressure to meet the schedule. 

Finally,  buffer  times  could  be  introduced for  the  turnaround  as  a whole  or,  more 
specifically, in between the processes along it. The question of the best time buffer to 
cope with both aspects is crucial. 

L. Serrano Martín et al. / Improving Turnaround Predictability

267

3. Stakeholders’ Needs 

Anyone that has any input to, or is in any way affected by the implementation of the 
proposed concept is a stakeholder. The co-operation and advice of stakeholders is vital 
to ensure that a good operational concept is developed and that it responds to their daily 
needs and concerns. In order to satisfy these needs, a stakeholder analysis identifying 
all  interested  parties  and,  a  discussion  of  the  level  of  involvement  they  wish  to  have 
regarding this analysis (stakeholder expectations), is required. 

3.1. Methodology 

To  identify  the  stakeholders’  expectations  several  information  sources  are  used.  The 
main source to collect the majority of stakeholders’ requirements is through interviews 
with  a  pre-defined  questionnaire  and  phone  calls.  The  interviewees  could  fill  in  the 
questionnaire and they sent them back via e-mail. To allow the stakeholders to freely 
express their opinion, the questionnaire, contained guided and open questions regarding 
the likely impact of the TITAN concept on the efficiency of the turnaround procedure. 
Some  other  sources  are  used  to  get  more  information  regarding  their  needs.  A  work-
shop was held, where external participants and consortium members discussed the is-
sues related to the turnaround process [8]. Representatives from all actors involved in 
the  turnaround  process  took  part  during  the  workshop  in  a  brainstorming  session  in 
which they helped to define an improved turnaround process, taking into account their 
necessities.  Also,  an  in-depth  analysis  of  available  documentation  was  performed  to 
provide an additional set of issues, gaps and necessities to be solved. 

After running the interviews, a methodology for analyzing the requirements is fol-
lowed. The received data is systemized and analyzed. The analysis also highlighted if 
the requirements are within the scope of TITAN or not, but in any case, the collected 
stakeholder  requirements  may  not  be  enough  for  the  scope  and  some  important  re-
quirements could be missed. 

In order to complete the list of requirements, it is also needed to start from the TI-
TAN scope and identify the main goals that need to be reached. In this way a bottom-
up approach from the analysis of the collected data and a top-down approach from the 
TITAN scope are converged in a unique list of requirements. 

The analysis, bottom-up methodology, allowed organizing the information, to eli-
cit  the  requirements,  to  complete  the  requirement  by  a  deep  understanding  of  the 
process and also to show the relation between different requirements. 

The TITAN scope, top-down approach, facilitates to create a final uses list. Also it 
is helpful to compare similar final uses according to its meaning. The general goals will 
be more specific and each requirement is attached to their related goal. 

Figure 4 illustrates the combination of approaches to develop the TITAN require-

ments. 

3.2. Short Summary of Requirements 

The  stakeholders  were  interviewed  through  questionnaires  about  the  turnaround 
process [9]. They were asked about the activities and resources they would like to mon-
itor and the actions they would be ready to collaborate with. They also expressed their 

268

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Air Traffic Operations

Figure 4. Approaches to TITAN requirements. 

ideas  regarding  the  changes  that  would  improve  efficiency  of  the  turnaround  process 
and they have the following conception: 

A better information exchange is required, and it could be reached by the applica-
tion  of  CDM  mentality,  or  with  collaboration  between  the  different  actors  involved 
sharing the information they have. Some of them have their information in their own 
database but an integrated central database would be a good way to get better results. 
Also  other  requirement  from  stakeholders  is  an  increase  of  communication  between 
ANSP and Ground Handling Agent during arrival and departure. They need more up-
to-date  information  about  gate  allocation:  it  was  mentioned  that  the  aircraft  type,  the 
time needed for fuelling and other actions as well as the stand limitations should match 
as well. 

To  improve  the  efficiency  of  the  turnaround  is  necessary  to  share  supplementary 
information. Passenger movement like passenger check-in or passenger trough security 
control or passport control is really valuable for Handling Agents and Aircraft Opera-
tors. Regarding disabled passengers and UMs, more punctual information would help 
the work of the Ground Handlers and this would also provide valuable data for the Air-
craft Operators. It was proposed to investigate the possibility to eliminate the rules that 
forbid baggage to travel alone, if and only if the passenger and the baggage come from 
a secure origin (and therefore have been already inspected) as the delayed passengers 
cause a lot of problems within the turnaround. 

In  order  to  facilitate  the  implementation  of  all  these  requirements,  stakeholders 
suggested  developing  information  systems  that  could  unify  the  mandatory  shared  in-
formation.  An  automated  decision  making  in  some  of  the  services  (e.g.  how  many 
check-in  desks  should  be  opened)  would  help  the  work  of  the  airlines  and  handling 

 
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269

agencies. To standardize the different systems, common interfaces for each stakeholder 
and updating policies to integrate check-in interfaces would help the work of the check-
in  agents  and  passengers  checking-in  at  self  check-in  kiosks.  The  actors  involved  on 
the  turnaround  process  could  have  easier  access  to  the  information  (hand  held)  if  the 
territory of the airport could be covered with Wi-Fi. 

Apart from these needs, they suggest to implement general policies focused on the 
overall  performance  of  the  turnaround,  the  use  of  GPS  systems  to  monitor  resources, 
such as passenger buses or containers (ULDs) and to improve situational awareness. 

3.3. Information Tree 

Information trees are predictive models, used to graphically organize information about 
possible options, consequences and end value. If the requirements and goals have been 
elaborated and structured, an information tree can be prepared. Due to the size of the 
TITAN information tree, the Fig. 5 below only shows an example of how it looks like. 

The information tree below shows how the requirements of the stakeholders can be 
matched to the TITAN goals and scope. In the centre of the information tree the scope 
of TITAN is described, while on the side branches the goals can be found.  

These goals are identified in such a way to ensure that the TITAN targets are ful-

filled. 

The goals derived from the scope of the project are: 

Increase predictability; 
Improve efficiency; 

• 
• 
•  Reduce operational costs (cost-effectiveness); 
•  Enhance situational awareness. 

Following a top-down approach, to be able to better identify detailed requirements 
linked to predictability and efficiency goals, requirements have been divided into Ac-
tion  and  Estimation  type  requirements.  One  information  tree  has  been  associated  to 
each type. Users information requests can be related to “know if something IS GOING 
TO happen in order to DO something” (action type requirements linked to “Efficiency” 
goal)  or  to  “estimate  the  PROBABILITY  OF  something  to  happen  in  order  to  be 
ready” (estimation type requirements linked to “Predictability” goal). 

4. The TITAN Concept of Operations 

The  Concept  of  Operations  describes  how  the  turnaround  process  will  be  performed 
from different perspectives: it identifies the functions and processes, and their corres-
ponding interactions and information flows; concerned actors, their roles and responsi-
bilities. 

The functional scope of this concept is build upon what has been implemented in 
Advanced-Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM) and it is delimited by the planned 
developments in SESAR IP2. Within those bounds, the ConOps proposes a CDM de-
velopment  that  fully  exploits  either  existing  capabilities  or  others  that  can  be  imple-
mented in the short term, one resulting in an expanded version of information sharing 
practiced in A-CDM. 

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Air Traffic Operations

Figure 5. Information tree. 

4.1. Needs for a New Concept 

Air traffic is growing so rapidly that the airport resources cannot keep up with the de-
mand and airports are becoming the bottleneck of the air transport network. However, 
airports are key nodes of the aviation network and their throughput is one of the main 
processes  that  determine  the  on-time  performance  of  the  RBT  (Reference  Business 
Trajectory). Particularly, the efficiency of turnaround processes determines if delays do 
increase or if they can be recovered. 

The  new  advanced  operational  concept  for  the  turnaround  process  is  expected  to 
unify and optimize the different aspects related to this process through the increase of 
predictability and efficiency, reduction of operational costs and enhance the situational 
awareness  of  the  stakeholders  involved.  The  concept  takes  into  account  the  relevant 
landside processes and is based on the principles of Collaborative Decision Making and 
System Wide Information Management. 

The  aircraft  turnaround  process  comprises  the  sequence  of  ground  operations  re-
quired to service the aircraft from the in-block to the off-block time. The scope of TI-
TAN shall encompass the processes included in the turnaround as well as those exter-
nal services, which have a direct influence on it. The concept identifies and describes 
the standard turnaround functions and processes, as well as their corresponding interac-
tions  and  information  flows;  concerned  actors,  their  roles  and  responsibilities.  There-
fore an extended handling view will be ensured by including processes hitherto not, or 
not fully, considered in the Collaborative Decision Making view. 

4.2. Processes Within the Turnaround 

This  section  categorizes  the  processes  included  in  the  turnaround  depending  on  their 
scope and lists those external services, which have a direct influence on it. In the scope 
of  this  paper,  “process”  is  defined  as  a  sequence  of  interdependent  and  linked  proce-
dures which, at every stage, consume one or more resources (employee time, energy, 
machines, money) to convert inputs (data, material, parts, etc.) into outputs. These out-
puts then should serve as inputs for the next stage until a previously established goal or 
end  result  is  reached.  We  consider  the  turnaround  as  a  process  composed  of  several 
sub-processes.  Its  final  objective  is  to  prepare  the  aircraft  and  achieve  the  AOBT  on 

 
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time following the agreed 4D trajectory. Each process produces or contributes to a spe-
cific service, most of them used as inputs for other sub-processes. Understanding a ser-
vice as something that is needed for the process to proceed, the subsequent delivery of 
services contributes forward the overall aircraft turnaround process completion. 

The grouping of processes bundles those with close relations. We consider the fol-

lowing five categories as helpful in understanding the proposed ConOps: 

•  Airside processes; 
•  Landside processes; 
•  Common processes; 
•  Off-Airport processes and 
•  Network processes. 

The first two categories differentiate between the movement area of aircrafts (air-

side) and mainly passenger related processes (landside). Airside processes are: 

•  Passenger  embarking/disembarking  (including  disabled  passengers  and  unac-

companied minors); 

•  Loading/unloading of baggage; 
•  Loading/unloading of cargo/mail; 
•  Location of air bridge and stairs; 
•  Refueling; 
•  Aircraft cleaning; 
•  Catering replenishment; 
•  Maintenance; 
•  Start-up and push-back; 
•  De-icing at stand; 
•  Stand allocation. 

The  landside  processes  deliver  the  passenger  to  the  boarding  gate.  Landside 

processes are: 

•  Check-in; 
•  Assistance to disabled passengers and unaccompanied minors; 
•  Passenger security control;  
•  Passenger passport control (if applicable); 
•  Passenger boarding/de-boarding; 
•  Baggage security process; 
• 
(Boarding) gate allocation. 

Common processes stretch across the boundary between airside and landside and 
provide information on the whereabouts of passengers. The process passenger tracking 
consists of the scanning of the boarding pass at process stations and generating an im-
mediate  warning  to  the  passenger  if  flight  departure  is  within  a  set  time  period.  This 
method  has  not  to  be  understood  as  permanent  passenger  monitoring.  A  similar  ap-
proach  applies  for  tracking of baggage  and  cargo/mail  by  scanning  of  tags  at  process 
stations. 

Off-airport processes are only incidentally connected with the turnaround but can 
have a major influence on operations. One example is the access to the airport facilities. 

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Air Traffic Operations

It  mainly  includes  ways  of  transportation  (e.g.  train,  motorways,  taxi  service,  under-
ground…), its availability and frequency. 

4.3. Services in Support of Process 

In order to be executed, the processes identified require various services. Conceptually 
the services in turn, support end-user applications which are the operational interface to 
the  outside  world  (for  humans)  or  to  external  environments  without  human  interven-
tion. Services in the TITAN concept of operation context include both operational and 
supporting  services  but  exclude  technical/IT  services.  All  services  use  the  shared  in-
formation space of the TITAN net-centric environment (TITAN Information Sharing) 
and as such are interrelated and do not work in isolation. 

The run of the processes generate information flows between the actors/entities of 
the turnaround process. Each process requires special information for the proper execu-
tion of the procedure and generates information which can feed other processes. This 
information is provided by different services. Conceptually, three main flows are dis-
tinguished: 

•  Passenger flow; 
•  Baggage flow; 
•  Cargo/mail flow. 

These  flows  meet  at  the  aircraft,  while  they  are  managed  and  connected  by  the 
end-user applications. In the following paragraph we explain the conception of the Pas-
senger Flow Information Service (PFIS). 

The passenger flow process is subject to several possible disturbances at different 
points of the flow. The effects of a disturbance depend to a large extent on the organi-
zation of the process which determines where the source of the disturbance is located. 
Tightened  security  or  a  scanner  failure  will  impact  the  process  differently  where  the 
passenger screening is centralized or is boarding gate based. 

The information generated by PFIS is published into the shared information space 
to be made use of by different end-user applications. Following this rationale, the pur-
pose  of  this service  is  to  provide real-time  information  on  the  passenger  flow on  and 
beyond  the  airport  as  an  enabler  for  warnings  (when  comparing  the  actual  and  the 
planned  information)  and  intelligent  applications  that  can  react  to  disturbances  in  the 
passenger flow with a view to mitigating their effect. 

PFIS requires the implementation of facilities that can monitor the passenger flow 
at different, required points, correlating the movement data and trends to generate the 
appropriate  conclusions.  It  is  important  to  remember  that  passenger  tracking  may  in-
volve  issues  related  to  the  need  for  protecting  personal  data.  Such  issues  are  out  of 
scope of this paper but will have to be addressed and properly resolved. 

The remaining two flows are covered by similar services providing detailed infor-
mation about the location of baggage, cargo and mail. As explained above, these three 
flows meet at the aircraft, which is the focal point of turnaround. Therefore an Aircraft 
Status Report Service (ASRS) is needed, collecting and forwarding the status and posi-
tion of the aircraft. The environment of the turnaround is covered by the Airport Infor-
mation  Report  Service  (AIRS)  providing  information  about  the  availability  and  loca-
tion of the airport facilities (e.g. boarding gates). It can serve as the primary trigger for 

L. Serrano Martín et al. / Improving Turnaround Predictability

273

users of  the  airport  to  consider  eventual  modifications  to  their  trajectories  taking  into 
account present and future considerations, such as meteorological conditions. 

4.4. Applications of Services 

The  TITAN  Information  Sharing  (TIS)  will  use  the  existing  infrastructure  at  airports 
and will be improved by combining data from different sources. However, adaptations 
of existing information systems might be required in order to include or correlate data 
that is not currently available. 

TIS is a virtual central data repository, where all scheduled, estimated, actual and 
target (when applicable) times are transferred to and distributed by the services. End-
user applications will be specifically designed to share this information with stakehold-
ers’ systems. 

Defined  rules  determine  responsibility  and  quality  of  information  at  each  stage. 
This provides all partners with a common overview of the real-time turnaround, as well 
as the expected progress of the planned operations. The result will be a common situa-
tional  awareness  of  the  involved  actors  resulting  in  an  efficient  use  of  the  available 
resources and in more predictable operations. 

4.5. Milestone Approach 

TITAN milestones are defined in order to support the tracking of the process progress, 
the  awareness  of  deviations  during  the  planning  or  progress  of  the  aircraft  trajectory 
and their impact on later parts of the trajectory at an early stage. 

TITAN Milestones Approach is expected to link air and landside processes in or-
der  to  improve  information  flows  and  to  predict  forthcoming  events.  Milestones  are 
defined during the planning as specific time objectives which have to be reached in a 
collaborative way and, in the case a deviation is anticipated, mitigation measures have 
to  be  agreed  among  involved  partners.  The  outputs  of  each  milestone  are,  in  case  of 
deviation  from  planning,  alert  messages  to  turnaround  partners  which  let  actors  react 
against changes.  

Milestone monitoring is a turnaround cooperative mechanism which improves vi-
sibility  of  the  process  progress  for  turnaround  actors  and  results  in  better  estimated 
times of subsequent events across the in-off (block) milestones. The goal is to allow re-
planning  turnaround  activities  among  involved  partners.  To  reach  this  objective  it  is 
needed to be able to anticipate changes and disseminate the information among all in-
volved partners as soon as possible. 

TITAN is aligned with and complements A-CDM through a better management of 
the turnaround. TITAN will use the procedures and rules established for A-CDM sup-
plemented by those specifically developed for the turnaround. Besides A-CDM miles-
tones as listed in [10], a set of specific turnaround milestones are defined to support the 
monitoring of the turnaround process progress as shown in Table 2. 

5. Alignment with SESAR 

The SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research) programme is one of the most am-
bitious research and development projects launched by the European Community. The 

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Air Traffic Operations

Table 2. TITAN milestones 

TITAN Milestone 

Rationale 

M17. Close check in 

M18. Last passenger crossing security 
control 

M19. Last passenger crossing passport 
control 

Boarding can start. 
Passengers and baggage list closed. 
Passengers monitoring. 
Means to know whether a passenger arrives to boarding gate 
on time or not. 
Passengers monitoring. 
Means to check whether a passenger has been rejected at 
passport control. 

M20. End of deboarding 

Ground handling activities on passenger cabin can start. 

M21. Last baggage delivery to hold 
baggage bay 

Baggage monitoring. 

M22. End of baggage unloading 

Baggage loading can start. 

M23. Close cargo doors 

Baggage monitoring. 

M24. Start of fuelling 

M25. Remove push back 

Inform firemen if needed. 
Specific processes have to be ready to start fuelling. 
Stand and gate available. 
Aircraft can move by itself. 

M26. End of de-icing 

Time for takeoff is limited. 

programme is the technological and operational dimension of the Single European Sky 
(SES) initiative to meet future capacity and air safety needs. 

This  TITAN  concept  is  intended  to  deliver  additional  benefits  to  those  available 
from A-CDM (to be implemented in SESAR IP1) during the early stages of the SESAR 
IP2. 

SESAR “Airport Operations” and this concept have several common areas of in-
terest  and  are  perceived  as  complementary  initiatives.  For  that  reason  a  coordination 
mechanism has been established to avoid potential overlapping: SESAR will not fully 
cover  non-ATM  processes  (e.g.  landside),  while  TITAN  directly  addresses  such 
processes. Considering a high level description of the SESAR AirPort Operations Cen-
tre (APOC),2 the puzzle is closer to completion (at an early stage) when this concept is 
in place as it ensures that monitoring of landside processes (passengers, baggage, cargo 
and mail) is in place (Fig. 6). 

Furthermore,  the  concept  elements  addressed  by  TITAN  can  be  seen  as  enablers 
for and facilitators of the achievement of the SESAR CDM objectives. This is achieved 
by: 

•  Building on a net-centric design principle; 
•  Using  trajectory  based  operations  as  the  means  to  integrate  airports  into  the 

ATM network; 

•  Defining services that act on the processes that are the subject of analysis fol-

lowing a Service Oriented Approach (SOA); 
•  Making use of CDM and SWIM principles. 

This approach is aligned to that used in SESAR, but limited to turnaround opera-

tions. 

L. Serrano Martín et al. / Improving Turnaround Predictability

275

Figure 6. APOC architecture and TITAN. 

TITAN is also aware of the existence of other ATM initiatives, such as NextGen in 
the USA. Both SESAR and NextGen represent key global initiatives on the air traffic 
system, and their compatibility is a must, carried out by agreements between UE and 
FAA  and  through  an  open  system  design  and  dedicated  international  activities.  FAA 
not  only  collaborates  with  Europe,  but  also  with  other  authorities  such  as  Canadian, 
Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Brazilian and Indian authorities in order to carry out simi-
lar initiatives. 

6. Next Steps 

The turnaround process is embedded into the airport operations with a major influence 
onto the air transport performance. The next step we focus will consist in validating the 
TITAN concept to assess its effect on the predictability and efficiency of airlines opera-
tions as well as its operational feasibility. This validation will be performed by gaming 
sessions and by innovative software that will be developed within TITAN project and 
which  will  model  the  turnaround  processes  of  the  different  aircraft  at  an  airport.  The 
results  from  these  validation  activities  will  be  analyzed  and  will  provide  feedback  to 
further improve and refine the operational concept, with particular attention to identify-
ing  the  warnings  raised  when  there  is  an  unacceptable  discrepancy  between  any 
planned and actual event. 

Further, a demonstrator for a CDM tool will also be developed to show the feasi-
bility of the model within TITAN project. The tool will allow for the negotiation and 
finalization  of  TITAN  milestones  as  well  as  the  publication  of  progress  information 
related to them. It is expected that the overall solution will be integrated in future CDM 
processes at an airport, taking into account the technological communication among the 
stakeholders. 

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Air Traffic Operations

Endnotes 

1 The work described herein has been cosponsored by the European Commission as part of FP7 and the 

TITAN consortium. 

2 The  APOC  that  will  be  developed  in  SESAR  is  a  physical  or  virtual  room  where  airport  actors  and 
stakeholders  collaborate  to  develop,  coordinate,  maintain  and  communicate  real-time  joint  plans  in  their 
individual area of responsibility. 

References 

[1]  SESAR Consortium, “Deliverable 3: The ATM Target Concept”, issued by the SESAR Consortium on 

September 2007. 

[2]  Performance Review Commission, “Performance Review Report 2009”, Eurocontrol, May 2010. 
[3]  TITAN Project homepage: http://www.titan-project.eu/. 
[4]  IATA, “Airport Handling Manual”, 27th Edition, 2007. 
[5]  Boeing Commercial Airplanes, “737 Airplane Characteristics for Airport Planning”, Boeing Commer-

cial Airplanes, Seattle, WA, 2010. 

[6]  TITAN Consortium, “Deliverable 1.4: TITAN Operational Concept”, issued by the TITAN Consortium 

on October 2010. 

[7]  Council  of  the  European  Union,  “Access  to  the  groundhandling  market  at  Community  airports”, 

96/67/EC, of 15th October 1996. 

[8]  TITAN  Consortium,  “Deliverable  7.7:  Report  on  Stakeholder’s  needs  Workshop”,  issued  by  the  TI-

TAN Consortium on June 2010. 

[9]  TITAN Consortium, “Deliverable 1.2: High Level User Requirements”, issued by the TITAN Consor-

tium on October 2010. 

[10]  Eurocontrol,  “Airport  CDM  –  The  Manual”,  Eurocontrol  July  2010,  p.  57.  Available  online  at: 

http://www.euro-cdm.org. 

About the Authors 

Laura Serrano Martín 
Head of Department of ANS European Projects 
INECO 
Avda. Del Partenon, 4-6, 4th floor 
28042 Madrid, Spain 
laura.serrano@ineco.es 
www.ineco.es 
Sara M. Luis Nuñez 
Department of ANS European Projects 
Same address as above 
sara.luis@ineco.es 

Ana C. Sáez Sánchez 
Department of ANS European Projects 
Same address as above 
ana.saez@ineco.es 

Sebastian Kellner – Department of Airport and Air Transportation Research –  
RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany 
kellner@airport.rwth-aachen.de 

                                                           
 
 
Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-277

277

SWIM-SUIT: The Baseline for the System 
Wide Information Management 

Giuliano D’AURIA, Dario DI CRESCENZO and Antonio STRANO 

Abstract. The management of different types of ATM (Air Traffic Management) 
information  has  until  now  evolved  independently  as  each  stakeholder  gathers  its 
own  data  independently  and  asynchronously.  As  a  result  of  this  bottom-up  ap-
proach,  today’s  ATM  information  systems  are  insufficiently  integrated,  resulting 
in organisational and institutional barriers which prevent the timely use of relevant 
information and the optimization of the entire system. It is in response to this fun-
damental challenge that the vision of SWIM (System Wide Information Manage-
ment) has been identified as a fundamental enabler for the ATM system of the fu-
ture. The need for SWIM is widely recognized and lies at the very heart of the fu-
ture  ATM  defined  within  both  the  SESAR  and  NEXT  Gen  initiatives.  The  main 
objective  of  SWIM  is  to  enable  a  seamless  information  sharing  between  the  air 
transport  stakeholders  as,  for  example,  airports,  airlines,  military  air  defence  and 
air  traffic  control  centres,  Air  Navigation  Service  Providers  (ANSP)  etc.  SWIM 
opens  up  a  collaborative  environment  within  a  highly  distributed  system  of  sys-
tems  including  the  most  diverse  ATM  players,  each  with  their  own  background 
and needs. It constitutes the future software infrastructure which will interconnect 
the multiplicity of stakeholder and systems which take part in the ATM domain. 

Keywords. System wide information management, ATM, SESAR, NEXTGEN 

1. What Is SWIM-SUIT? 

The recently completed SWIM-SUIT Project involved a large international consortium 
led  by  SELEX  Sistemi  Integrati,  with  the  objective  of  assessing  the  feasibility  of 
SWIM through the realization of a first prototype connecting stakeholder applications 
representative of the future SESAR’s environment.  

The SWIM-SUIT project has given the possibility to the project partners to have 
hands on experience in realizing a first SWIM prototype. This has provided a unique 
opportunity to test and experiment solutions and technologies capable of supporting the 
flexibility and decoupling mentioned above. 

The fundamental problem of enabling interoperability between a heterogeneous set 
of systems and stakeholders has been faced by structuring the analysis on a per “data 
domain”  basis  as  also  suggested by  the  SESAR  approach  [1].  The  establishment  of  a 
common dictionary in terms of data and services is, of course, one of the enablers for 
systems  interoperability.  Flight  and  Surveillance  data  domains  have  had  the  greatest 
attention  during  the  design  and  modelling  phases;  in  the  first  case,  the  work  has 
adopted as baseline the results of the ICOG2 project [2] which defined a “Flight Ob-
ject” model further extending the FOIPS [3] model, while in the latter an “ad hoc” dic-
tionary has been developed supporting the current ASTERIX CAT 62 [4] standard for 
surveillance information.  

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Air Traffic Operations

The determination of the data and service model has involved different stakehold-
ers (e.g. Airport Operation Centers, Airline Operators, Network Information Manage-
ment,  Air  Traffic  Control  Centers,  etc.)  leading  to  the  extension  of  the  Flight  Object 
structure  so  as  to  cover  stand  to  stand  information.  Of  course,  also  the service  model 
has been correspondingly extended enabling the interaction with stakeholders not con-
sidered in the ICOG scope. 

1.1. Swim Prototype Design Outline 

In order to instantiate and validate the applicability of the SWIM concept, during the 
course of  the SWIM-SUIT project  a  SWIM  prototype,  consisting of  a fully  decentra-
lized architecture, has been developed.  

The architectural solution developed by SWIM-SUIT is based on the Swim-Box®, 
which  represents  the  access  point  for  stakeholder  applications  to  enter  the  SWIM 
world.  

Swim-Box®  acts  as  gateway  towards  the  SWIM  collaborative  environment  and 
shields  the  applications from  the  details  and  complexities  of  the  SWIM  technical  im-
plementation, thus providing independence from SWIM technological choices.  

Swim-Box®  therefore  provides  an  entry  point  and  interface  for  the  most  diverse 
applications representing the air transport players to plug into SWIM, taking care of the 
complex communications patterns supporting the large distributed systems. This allows 
ATM stakeholder applications to focus on their key functions while leaving the man-
agement  of  communication  aspects,  including  security  and  data  distribution,  to  the 
Swim-Box®. 

The Swim-Box® high level architecture has been structured in basically two lay-
ers: a core layer offering a set of common services and components to the upper layer 
(e.g. security, data distribution, and registry) which was then in charge of offering spe-
cific domain services (e.g. subscriptions to flight data, notifications of incoming flight 
information, subscription to surveillance information etc). 

Only Swim-Box® instances are allowed to directly exchange data and invoke ser-
vices  over  this  network;  therefore  they  act  as  mediators  with  respect  to  the  external 
clients  (e.g.  Flight  Data  Processor  systems).  The  ATM  Systems  participating  in  the 
SWIM-SUIT  project  were  not  aware  of  the  services  and  functionalities  of  the  SWIM 
prototype  and  used  their  own  technology  to  exchange  and  represent  information.  For 
this reason, on each site the task of interfacing the “legacy system” to the Swim-Box® 
instance  was  assigned  to  an  “Adapter”  component.  Both  for  security  reasons  and  for 
ease  of  configuration,  the  different  Swim-Box®  nodes  have  been  connected  together 
via VPN (Virtual Private Network) connections. The resulting high level structure can 
be therefore illustrated (Fig. 1). 

The end to end interaction among ATM systems in a SWIM Network may there-

fore be depicted as in (Fig. 2). 

Each ATM system exchanges data and provides/consumes services via the media-
tion of the Swim-Box® component which assures a common dictionary for each of the 
data domains supported (e.g. meteo, flight data, surveillance, etc.) enforcing the respect 
of  security  policies  (e.g.  restricted  access  both  to  data  and  to  services).  The  Adapter 
architectural component shown in (Fig. 2) will probably be removed (or incorporated) 
in the future ATM systems which will be natively able to interact with the SWIM infra-
structure. 

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279

Figure 1. SWIM-SUIT prototype complete instance connections. 

Figure 2. SWIM-SUIT prototype end to end connection. 

1.2. The Swim-Box® Architecture 

The Swim-Box® has been designed to achieve maximum flexibility both to introduc-
tion of new data exchanges and to changes in the underlying technologies. 

The Swim-Box® supports the exchange of different kind of data (or Data Domains, 

according to the SESAR definition): 

•  Flight Data – represented according to the ED-133 EUROCAE standard (and 

supporting its CDM process); 

•  Surveillance Data – represented either in Asterix Cat.62 or custom XML; 
•  Aeronautical Data – provided by EAD (European Aeronautical Database) sys-

tem according to the AIXM5 standard. 

From  a  high  level  point  of  view,  the  Swim-Box®  can  be  internally  separated  in 

two layers. 

•  A  Data  domain  layer:  in  this  layer  reside  specific  components  specialized  in 
the support and exchange of each of the data domains that are managed by the 
Swim-Box®.  Each  of  those  components  are  independent  from  each  other 
(both at compile-time and at run-time) thus allowing easy and flexible confi-
guration and deployment. 

 
 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Air Traffic Operations

•  A core layer: in this layer reside components that are independent of the spe-
cific data that are managed by the Swim-Box®. Such layer provides “servic-
es” (or capabilities) to the components that belong to the upper layer. In this 
layer we can find components such as: 
(cid:2)  The Security Mediator: which provides encryption/decryption functionali-

ties, authorization/authentication etc.; 

(cid:2)  The  pub/sub  service:  which  provides  an  abstraction  of  the  underlying 
technologies and COTS that are used to implement the publish/subscribe 
pattern (thus allowing the system to easily exchange data using different 
COTS  implementation  or  even  changing  technology  from  DDS  –  Data 
Distribution System – to JMS – Java Messaging Service; 

(cid:2)  Shared  Data  Store:  an  abstraction  of  a  distributed  cache  that  is  used  to 
synchronize  limited  amount  of  configuration  data  among  the  network  of 
Swim-Boxes. 

This high level system design is depicted in Fig. 3, which also illustrates the inter-

nal decomposition of the Swim-Box® into its two layers. 

This logical decomposition may then result in different deployment schemas (each 
logical  component  may  be  deployed  as  a  library,  an  Enterprise  Java  Bean,  etc.).  Still 
referring to (Fig. 3), the uppermost external interfaces are dedicated to the communica-
tion with the “local” Adapter, while the bottom ones are dedicated to the interactions 
with  the  other  Swim-Box®  instances.  Only  Swim-Box®  instances  are  authorized  to 
directly consume services on these interfaces. 

The prototype has been designed with a modular architecture in such a way to ease 
the introduction of different specialized data domain components. Given this modular 
architecture each component may implement its own standard or technology. Of course, 
a  uniform  principle  has  been  followed  in  defining  the  technology  through  which 
the interfaces are exposed, but, also in order to empirically test different solutions, var-
ious standards have been adopted (e.g. Web Feature Service, Web Service Notification, 
etc.). 

1.3. Validations 

The Swim-Box® prototype has been integrated with a large number of systems during 
the SWIM-SUIT project as well as in subsequent trials. It has been even used to allow 
the exchange of flight and surveillance data among Europe and US systems thanks to 
the collaboration with Boeing which provided its own SWIM test bed geographically 
based in the US.  

Swim-Box® has been integrated with various SELEX Sistemi Integrati FDP sys-
tems (e.g. SATCAS and Coflight) as well as with Airport systems (e.g. Milan Malpen-
sa  and  NATS  Airport  CDM  systems),  Airline  Operating  centres  (e.g.  Air  France  and 
Alitalia LIDO) and even an Alitalia A320 simulator. 

2. Swim-Box® and SESAR 

Swim-Box® has been developed and designed in the course of the European Commis-
sion FP6 SWIM-SUIT project. The success and significance of the initiative has been 

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281

Figure 3. SWIM-SUIT high level system design. 

fully recognized by SESAR which dedicated one specific project (P14.1.1) to evaluate 
the results and define what could be reused. SESAR has of course also introduced some 
differences. In particular, one of the main innovations introduced in SESAR is the con-
cept of  “SWIM  Profiles” which  are basically  a  means  to  group  requirements  so  as  to 
implement them (and serve the corresponding business needs) more efficiently through 
specific SWIM solutions. As a result, multiple SWIM solutions will be present in order 
to better suit those different sets of requirement. Currently three SWIM Profiles have 
been defined in SESAR: 

•  ATC-ATC  profile:  where  Flight  Object  are  exchanged  according  to  the  ED-

133 standard; 

•  CFMU  B2B NOP  profile:  where business clients  can  access  the  CFMU  web 

services through internet; 

•  EAD B2B profile: where business clients can access aeronautical information 

provided by EAD through a generic publish/subscribe mechanism. 

Also within this framework Systems/Applications access the SWIM Infrastructure 

via a “logical” entity which, in this case, is named SWIM Node, as shown in (Fig. 4). 

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Air Traffic Operations

Figure 4. SESAR SWIM high level architecture from [5]. 

Figure 5. SESAR SWIM architecture with Profiles from [5]. 

Differently from SWIM-SUIT, the SWIM-Node can be either very light (e.g. a li-
brary on client side) or more complex as a mediator. This depends on which profile(s) 
the SWIM Node is supporting. 

Therefore  a  situation  like  the  one  in  Fig.  5  can  be  present  (and  has  been  experi-
mented in SESAR for Step1) where the different circles represent different SWIM pro-
files. The implementations (and the requirements) of the SWIM Nodes belonging to the 
different circles are different since they serve different needs. 

The  Swim-Box®,  according  to  the  SESAR  view,  can  therefore  be  seen  as  an  in-
stance of such a SWIM Node which is serving the SESAR ATC-ATC profile and sup-
porting the SESAR EAD B2B profile. 

 
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283

Swim-Box® has recently been successfully used in the first SESAR SWIM dem-
onstration (on November 16th 2011, in Bretigny, at Eurocontrol premises), in scenarios 
focused on the ATC-ATC and EAD B2B integration, demonstrating its interoperability 
with other SESAR partner implementations. 

Participation  to  this  first  SWIM  demo  event  is  evidence  of  SELEX  Sistemi  Inte-
grati’s  commitment  to  constantly  aligning  its  Swim-Box®  prototype  to  the  specifica-
tions and innovations coming from SESAR. 

References 

[1]  SESAR Consortium, The ATM Target Concept D3, pp. 36–38. 
[2]  ICOG IOP Interface Specification, Final Report 07/05/2008. 
[3]  FOIPS project homepage, www.eurocontrol.int/eatm/public/standard_page/foips.html. 
[4]  Eurocontrol,  ASTERIX  Cat  62  Ed.1.9,  http://www.eurocontrol.int/asterix/gallery/content/public/ 

documents/cat062p9ed19.pdf. 

[5]  SESAR Project P14.2.9, D03 deliverable “SWIM Technical Infrastructure Definition”, version 00.01.02. 

About the Authors 

Dott. Giuliano D’Auria is SELEX Contribution Manager for SESAR  
SELEX Sistemi Integrati 
Via Tiburtina Km 12.100 
00131 Rome, Italy 
Tel.:+39 0641504448 
gdauria@selex-si.com 
www.selex-si.com  

Eng. Dario Di Crescenzo is SESAR Work Package 14 co-leader and Technical Head of SELEX WPs 
B-8-14-16 
Via Circumvallazione di Napoli, loc. Ponterccio c/o SELEX Sistemi Integrati 
80014 Giugliano in Campania (NA), Italy 
Tel.:+39 0818180273 
ddicrescenzo@sesm.it 

Eng. Antonio Strano is SESAR WP14.1.4 project Manager 
Same address as above 
Tel.: +39 0818180247 
astrano@sesm.it 

 
 
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Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-284

Contract-Based Air Transportation System 
(CATS) – A New Way of Managing 
4D Trajectories 

Christoph RIHACEK 

Abstract. Contract-of-Objectives (CoO) is a specific tool in the context of trajec-
tory-based  Air  Traffic  Management  (ATM),  considering  mutually  agreed  objec-
tives between Air Traffic Control (ATC) entities, airlines and airports. This paper 
provides an overview of the CoO assessment performed during the CATS project 
and introduces the three Human-in-the-Loop (HIL) experiments carried-out in or-
der to evaluate the concept of operations. Sufficient data were collected during the 
three experiments  and analyzed in terms of system performance (i.e. safety, effi-
ciency, and capacity) and human performance (i.e. workload, situation awareness, 
and acceptability). Final results show that controllers and pilots tend to accept the 
concept of operations and they prefer the approach of  flying what was “planned, 
agreed  and  negotiated”  during  the  planning  phase,  over  the  current  principle, 
which is a “first come, first served” approach. Renegotiation of flight trajectories 
was  considered  as  manageable,  even  with  a  traffic  load  extrapolated  to  the  year 
2020, without impact on safety. All actors participating in the validation exercises 
have recognized that implementation of CoO increases the amount of collaboration 
between crew and ground, as they share not only the same data, but also the same 
stable  objective  during  the  entire  flight,  i.e.  the  objective  determined  at  strategic 
level  through  a  Collaborative  Decision  Making  process  (CDM).  Some  additional 
Human  Machine  Interface  (HMI)  improvements  are  needed  and  also  the  task  of 
calculating Target Windows (TWs) has to be refined. Airport and airline operators, 
as well as the network manager considered the renegotiation process to be feasible 
and acceptable. They acknowledge the principle of sharing the operational data of 
other  actors  as  a  great  improvement  in  the  way  the  decisions  are  made  and  vali-
dated. 

Keywords.  Contract  of  objectives,  punctuality,  airport,  destination,  target  win-
dows 

1. Introduction 

In  recent  years,  Air  Traffic  Management  (ATM)  has  permanently  been  on  the  move. 
However, there is one steady factor that will not change in the future: overall air trans-
port will continue to grow, which introduces new demanding challenges. Considering 
the current ATM system, there is a clear need for more capacity, more efficiency and 
more safety. 

As stated in the Single European Sky ATM Research programme (SESAR) docu-
ments  [1],  the  future  ATM  system  should  be  performance-based.  It  should  bring  to-
gether  the  ground  and  airborne  segments  more  closely,  should  respect  integrity  of 
schedules  and enhance  interoperability.  The  air  transport  supply  chain  involves  many 
different  service  providers,  who  very  often  are  not  aware  of  the  overall  target.  At 

C. Rihacek / Contract-Based Air Transportation System (CATS)

285

present, the main actors mostly optimize their own processes locally in accordance with 
their  own  constraints  and  business  objectives,  but  sometimes  not  considering  the  im-
pact of their actions on the global system. In consequence, they do not always share the 
same objectives and sometimes even clearly counteract to each other. The promotion of 
highly collaborative and system-wide approaches seems to be a promising strategy to 
achieve overall system optimization, with opportunities for having variables and con-
straints  that  can be  shared  across  the  system.  However,  further  R&D work  is  still  re-
quired in order to evolve from a high-level concept to real operations, and also to eva-
luate impacts and prove the potential for real benefits. 

2. Concept Overview 

The purpose of  the  CoO  is  to  create  an operational  link between  all  actors  in  the Air 
Transportation System (ATS) – airlines, airports and Air Navigation Service Providers 
(ANSP).  The  CoO  represents  a  formal,  collaborative  commitment  between  all  these 
actors. CoO defines the role as well as the tasks and responsibilities of each actor based 
on well-defined, agreed and shared objectives. These objectives represent the commit-
ment  of  each  actor  to  keep  a  particular  aircraft  inside  temporal  and  spatial  intervals 
denoted as Target Windows. These goals have to be agreed by all involved actors for 
specific transfer of responsibility areas, e.g. between two Air Control Centers (ACCs). 
As a consequence, each actor will be fully accountable for his own achievements. The 
ultimate  objective  of  the  CoO  is  therefore  increasing  punctuality  at  the  destination, 
while improving the system efficiency and predictability through enhanced collabora-
tion between air transport actors. 

For a formalization of the CoO and its refinement for each local actor, a concrete 
manifestation  of  the  CoO  is  proposed  through  the  TWs.  They  represent  a  kind  of  a 
common language between all the involved actors, and also between the planning and 
operational phases. 

Instead of precise 4D points, the TWs are expressed in terms of temporal and spa-
tial intervals. They are located at the transfer of responsibility areas (Fig. 1). Their sizes 
and positions reflect the outcome of previously negotiated objectives, considering con-
straints,  such  as  punctuality  at  the  destination,  runway  capacity,  congested  en-route 
areas or aircraft performances. TWs provide sufficient room for manoeuvres to manage 
conflicts  and  ensure  resilience  in  case  of  schedule  disruption  while  imposing  con-
straints  only  if  necessary.  Uncertainty  will  always  be  inherent  in  the  system  and  can 
never  be  entirely  erased.  The  CoO  concept  [3,4]  proposes,  instead  of  attempting  to 
completely  remove  this uncertainty,  to keep  it  under  control by  managing  the  disrup-
tion via adapting the sizes of the TWs, therefore limiting the side effects of any disrup-
tion.  Divergence  from  this  planning  (either  because  of  operational  issues  or  due  to 
uncertainty)  still  remains  possible,  but  such  divergence  would  just  trigger  a  specific 
decision-making process – called renegotiation – at system-wide level. 

These TWs are renegotiated utilizing a CDM process, aiming to achieve punctuali-
ty at the destination, while taking into account all actors’ constraints. The life-cycle of 
this negotiation process (Fig. 2) can be described as follows: 

•  Long-term planning phase (years to months): development of an initial sche-
dule,  not  overly  detailed,  comprising  TWs  at  departure  and  arrival  airports, 
taking into account infrastructural and environmental constraints; 

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Air Traffic Operations

Figure 1. Contract-of-Objectives. 

Figure 2. TW Life-cycle. 

•  Medium-term planning phase (months to days): development of business tra-
jectories  and  negotiation  of  TWs  through  an  iterative  process;  integration  of 
weather predictions; 

•  Short-term planning phase (days to minutes before the execution phase): con-

tinuous refinement of the TWs up to the CoO signature. 

The CoO provides the controllers and aircrew with a means required for managing 
the  imprecision  inherent  in  air  traffic  in  accordance  with  their  own  objectives.  Each 
crew’s  main  objective  is  to  adhere  to  an  arrival  schedule  defined  through  the  TWs. 

C. Rihacek / Contract-Based Air Transportation System (CATS)

287

Controllers, on the other hand, must ensure aircraft safety while keeping them within 
the envelope defined by the contract. 

If for any reason one of the TWs cannot be fulfilled, a renegotiation process has to 

be started, involving the impacted actors and resulting in a new CoO. 

Trajectory-based operations generally ensure that the actual trajectory flown by the 
airspace user is close to the planned one. The proposed Business Trajectory should go 
through these different TWs to ensure the system’s predictability and overall efficiency. 
The overall ATM system has to be optimized to handle future traffic, and this is what 
the CoO and associated TWs will offer. 

3. Validation Overview 

The  main  aim  of  the  CATS Project was  to  assess  the operational  impact  of  CoO  and 
associated TWs by involving the major actors in the supply chain. The CATS consor-
tium  has  been  set-up  to  involve  representatives  of  the  main  stakeholders  of  the  Air 
Transportation System.1 

The CATS concept assessment, following European Operational Concept Valida-

tion Methodology (E-OCVM) [5], comprised two different types of validation: 

•  Operational validation, which  analyzes  how  the proposed CoO  and  the  asso-
ciated  TWs  impact  the  operators’  performance  regarding  selected  Key  Per-
formance Areas (KPAs) as defined by SESAR [1]; 

•  Systemic validation, which highlights the CoO impacts for the overall ATS on 

safety and risk management, cost benefit, and legal consequences. 

The operational validation comprises three Human-In-the-Loop (HIL) experiments, 

which focuses on different validation objectives: 

•  HIL-1. Evaluation of the impact of the CoO between Air Traffic Controllers 

(ATCOs) [12]; 

•  HIL-2.  Evaluation  of  the  impact  of  the  CoO  between  ATCOs  and  aircrew 

[13]; 

•  HIL-3. Evaluation of the renegotiation process involving ATM actors (airlines, 

airports and ANSPs) [14]. 

4. Experiments 

The hypotheses validated in the course of the three assessments were: 

•  CoO implementation allows for safe operations; 
• 
•  CoO  is  still  manageable  even  with  increase  of  traffic  as  expected  in  2020 

Implementation of TWs ensures the respect of schedule; 

(with the same route structure); 

•  CoO  execution  and  renegotiation  do  not  impact  ATCOs’  and  aircrews’  per-

formance and workload; 

•  TWs integrate flexibility to cope with uncertainty; 
•  Working methods offered to ATCOs and aircrews, as a result of the CoO im-

plementation, are feasible and acceptable; 

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Air Traffic Operations

•  Renegotiation of TWs is manageable for airport, airline and network manager 

staff; 

•  Collaboration between ATCOs and aircrews is high. 

5. Experiment Variables 

Two  independent  variables  have  been  manipulated  and  monitored  during  the  experi-
ment: traffic loads and TWs (present/absent). 

Two  traffic  loads were used  during  the  experiments:  current 2008  traffic  level  in 

the simulated area and forecasted traffic to 2020. 

The reasons causing the renegotiation are manifold and may impact the extent and 
duration of the renegotiation process. For that reason, five different uncertainty events 
were  intentionally  introduced  during  HIL3  to  assess  the  renegotiation  process  (e.g. 
airport closure, swap of slots, windshield crack, …) [15]. 

6. Measurements 

During the experiments data were collected and subsequently analyzed regarding sys-
tem performances and human performances. 

The  aim  of  the  system  performance  evaluation  was  to  assess  whether  the  CATS 
benefits  are  delivered  as  proposed.  From  the  stakeholders’  concerns  and  the  SESAR 
performance framework [6], four of the SESAR KPAs were identified as being poten-
tially improved by CoO introduction: capacity, safety, efficiency, and predictability. 

The aim of the human performance evaluation was to validate whether the contri-
bution of the human to the overall system performance is within its capabilities (work-
load,  situation  awareness,  working  methods,  feasibility,  acceptability,  etc.)  and  does 
not reach human limits. Human performance could be seen as an enabler to reach sys-
tem performance. 

Different  methods  and  techniques  were  used  to  post-process  the  recorded  data, 

such as observations, questionnaires and self-assessments. 

7. Experimental Environment 

The  airspace  chosen  for  the  experiments  comprised  two  en-route  sectors  (Milan  MI1 
and  Geneva  KL1)  (Fig.  3).  Five  airports  were  selected  for  the  renegotiation  process. 
These  airports  were: Geneva,  Zurich,  Milano,  Marseille  and Lyon.  The  selection  was 
endorsed by the team of experts within the project. 

Controllers and pilots participated in the experiments. During the third experiment 
one  network  manager,  one  airline  operational  staff  member  and  one  airport  operator 
staff member additionally participated in the experiment. 

The simulation environment (Fig. 4) was composed of two coupled simulators and 

a CDM platform: 

•  ATM simulator: specific HMI for TWs display and associated tools were de-

veloped in the course of the project. 

C. Rihacek / Contract-Based Air Transportation System (CATS)

289

Figure 3. Measured Sectors. 

Figure 4. HMIs and Simulation Room Display. 

•  Two  A320  cockpit  “flight  simulator  2004”:  specific  HMI  for  TWs  display 

were developed on the Navigational Display. 

In  each  run,  four  “flight  simulator  2004”  aircraft  were  piloted  by  the  two  pilots. 
The other aircraft were handled by automatic pseudo pilots that automatically executed 
the controller instructions. 

•  A  CDM  platform  was  designed  for  the  renegotiation  assessment.  Specific 
mock-ups of an airline operational centre, airport command centre, and ANSP 
command centre were developed. 

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Air Traffic Operations

8. Results and Conclusion 

The CATS project assessed a new ATM paradigm based on an innovative operational 
concept, the so-called Contract-of-Objectives. The CATS concept proposes a transition 
from means-based management of flights to performance-based management (through 
a contract-based system). 

This paper explained the set-up and the evaluations made in the course of the three 
operational validation  exercises  in general. It did  not  addresses  the detailed results  of 
the operational validation [12–14] and systemic validation [7–11]. 

CATS selected a representative operational context for performing the three opera-
tional  validation  activities,  involving  representatives  from  key  ATM  players.  A  well-
known and tested set of validation techniques and methods was selected and thus en-
sured confidence in reliability of the obtained results. 

The objectives of the three HIL experiments were to assess the CoO concept and 
associated TWs,  to  investigate  the  impact  of  the  CoO  concept  on  controllers’  and pi-
lots’ tasks and working methods, and to evaluate the operational acceptability from the 
actors’  point  of  view  (airport  and  airline  operators,  network  manager)  and  operators 
(controllers and pilots). 

The  recorded  data  were  then  analyzed  regarding  human  (i.e.,  workload,  situation 
awareness and acceptability) and system performances (safety, efficiency, capacity and 
predictability). 

The results demonstrated that the concept was perceived feasible and acceptable by 
the  controllers  and  pilots,  and  the  TWs  were  manageable,  even  with  the  2020  traffic 
load, without jeopardizing safety. The potential benefits proved to be more relevant for 
airlines  and  the  Air  Transport  System  as  a  whole  than  for  the  individual  actors.  All 
actors recognized that implementation of the CoO concept will increase the collabora-
tion between crew and ground, as they share not only the same data, but also visualize 
the  same  objective  all  along  the  flight.  Actors  and  operators  found  the  renegotiation 
concept fully manageable without major impacts on their activity. 

Actors  clearly  acknowledged  that  having  a  CoO  and  the  renegotiation  process  in 
place  would  improve  the  efficiency  of  the  transportation  system.  All  participants  do 
agree  on  the  principle  of  flying  what  was  planned,  agreed  and  negotiated  (or  re-
negotiated), as opposed to the “first come first, served” approach. However, some addi-
tional HMI improvements are required to strengthen and optimize the proposed concept, 
mainly regarding the renegotiation process. 

As a conclusion, the HILs results [12–14] showed that the CATS concept could be 
seen as a possible driver for implementing the SESAR Business Trajectory [2]. Moreo-
ver,  the  CoO  assessments  performed  within  the  CATS  project  contributed  to  getting 
detailed understanding of the validation required for such complex concepts. 

Endnote 

1 The  consortium  comprises  the  following  members:  Frequentis  AG,  EUROCONTROL  Experimental 
Centre, Air France Consulting, L’Ente Nazionale Assistenza al Volo (ENAV SpA), Zurich Airport, Universi-
ty of Leiden, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Laboratorio di Ricerca Operativa Trieste University and 
Skysoft ATM. 

                                                           
C. Rihacek / Contract-Based Air Transportation System (CATS)

291

References 

[1]  SESAR Definition Phase, Deliverable 2. Air transport framework – the performance target, www.sesar-

consortium.aero. 

[2]  SESAR Definition Phase, Deliverable D3. The ATM target concept, www.sesar-consortium.aero. 
[3]  CATS Concept of Operations, D1.2.2, www.cats-fp6.aero. 
[4]  S. Guibert, L. Guichard, C. Rihacek, L Castelli and A. Ranieri, 2008, Contract-based Air Transporta-
tion System to fulfill the arriving on time objectives, in Proceedings of 26th International Congress of 
the Aeronautical Sciences, Anchorage, Alaska. 

[5]  EUROCONTROL.  European  Operational  Concept  Validation  Methodology  (E-OCVM)  Version  3, 

www.eurocontrol.int/valfor/public/standard_page/OCVMSupport.html. 

[6]  Episode3, April 2008. Performance Framework, www.episode3.aero. 
[7]  CATS  Report  on  the  Selection  of  safety  critical  and  risk  sensitive  case  studies,  D2.2.1.1,  www.cats-

fp6.aero. 

[8]  CATS Report on modeling and quantitative risk analysis, D2.2.1.2, www.cats-fp6.aero. 
[9]  CATS Report on Human in the Loop Effects, D2.2.1.3, www.cats-fp6.aero. 
[10]  CATS Report on Cost-Benefit Analysis, D2.2.2, www.cats-fp6.aero. 
[11]  CATS Report on Legal Assessment, D2.2.3, www.cats-fp6.aero. 
[12]  CATS HIL1 results analysis, D2.1.1, www.cats-fp6.aero. 
[13]  CATS HIL2 results analysis, D2.1.2, www.cats-fp6.aero. 
[14]  CATS HIL3 results analysis, D2.1.3, www.cats-fp6.aero. 
[15]  S. Guibert and L. Guichard, 2010, 4D Trajectory management through Contract of Objectives, in 9th 

Innovative Research Workshop & Exhibition, December 2010, Brétigny-sur-Orge, France. 

About the Author 

Christoph Rihacek 
Senior Project Manager and CATS Project Coordinator 
Frequentis AG 
Innovationstrasse 1 
1100 Vienna, Austria 
Christoph.Rihacek@frequentis.com 
www.frequentis.com 

 
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Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-292

Managing Complexity 

David PÉREZ 

Abstract. The complexity of integrating different nodes, like airports, in a network 
paradigm shows that, in our society, an increasing number of socio-technical sys-
tems are formed by a large number of elements that need to interact with each oth-
er in a non-linear fashion to achieve a successful system performance. This kind of 
systems is called “Complex Systems”, and their main characteristics are that they 
exhibit  system-wide  behaviours  that  emerge  from  the  interactions  and  cannot  be 
understood  just  from  the  information  stored  at  individual  level.  Studying  the  air 
transport  in  general,  and  air  traffic  management  (ATM)  in  particular,  from  the 
“Complex  System”  point  of  view,  using  new  technologies  and  techniques,  will 
help to understand different insights of the system performance. 

Keywords.  Complex  systems,  techno-social  systems,  complexity  science,  resi-
lience, disturbance propagation, system stability, system agility 

1. Why Complexity Is Becoming an Important Research Thread to Techno-Social 

Systems? 

Complex Systems Science is one of a number of names given to the study of Complex 
Systems, also known as Complexity Theory, Complex Systems Theory or Complexity 
Science. This kind of systems can be defined as the collection of a high number of parts 
(elements, individuals, agents…) that interact in a nonlinear fashion, such that the sys-
tem  exhibits  behaviours  at  the  system-wide  level  that  emerge  from  the  combined  ac-
tions of individuals within the system (emergent behaviour) and cannot be understood 
only  from  the  information  stored  at  the  individual  level.  Complexity  Science  tries  to 
understand  how  these  interactions  can  create  that  collective  emerging  behavior;  and 
this  is  not  a  trivial  task,  as  emergence  carries  with  it  the  additional  implication  that 
these  phenomena  typically  cannot  be  predicted  by  examining  the  individuals’  beha-
viour  alone.  Complexity  Science  provides  us  with  methodologies  and  tools  aimed  to 
understand  the  mechanisms  that  govern  such  emergent  behaviors,  and  to  reduce  their 
negative impact, while taking into account the role of uncertainty: where it arises, and 
how it should be taken into account. 

To  better  illustrate  this  concept,  the  reader  may  think  on  those  many  natural  and 
man-made systems, working for significant periods of time close to a critical point. For 
instance, the power transmission network: from time to time, blackouts occur, in some 
cases affecting millions of peoples [2]. Or the transportation networks of many cities: 
during peak hours, jams frequently block the movements of cars and buses [3]. These 
two systems, as well as many others, share a number of characteristics, the most impor-
tant  one  being  that  system  failures  are  usually  a  consequence  of  small  and  localized 
problems, which spread across the entire network (for instance, an overloaded low vol-
tage  line,  or  a  single  car  accident).  The  air  transport  network  suffers  similar  issues. 
Technical problems, or adverse weather, may generate delays at one airport of the net-
work, which then propagate to other airports and result in a major disruption in the Eu-

D. Pérez / Managing Complexity

293

ropean  Air  Transport  Network.  This  feature,  which  is  in  most  cases  undesirable,  is 
called self-organized criticality: forces inside the system interact to drive it to a situa-
tion close to a critical point; and this global behavior, that is, this self-organized criti-
cality, is indeed the result of the interactions between all the elements of the system: in 
other  words,  an  emergent  behavior.  In  those  systems,  any  external,  but  also  internal, 
disturbance can lead the system beyond that critical point, generating a major disrup-
tion [4]. 

Human minds are not good at accepting uncertainty and system complexity aggra-
vates  uncertainty.  Many  scientists  have  operated  under  the  false  belief  that  their  ma-
thematical tools could eliminate uncertainty, but, from the complexity science perspec-
tive, this cannot be achieved. The study of complexity will not lean on a single theory, 
but is, on the contrary, highly interdisciplinary and encompasses a set of ideas, metho-
dologies and tools from different fields, such as nonlinear dynamics, statistical physics 
and numerical simulation. 

The field of complex systems was for the first time recognised as such in the ar-
ticle “More is Different”, written by the Nobel laureate physicist Philip W. Anderson in 
1972, whose title refers to the concept of emergence [1]. Anderson maintains that the 
traditional reductionist view of science is incomplete, because complex systems show 
behaviours  that  are  qualitatively  new  and  different  from  those  of  the  sub-units  from 
which they are made. Moreover, it is not possible to predict the behaviour of a complex 
system starting from a knowledge of its constituents (e.g. from the behaviour of a small 
number of electrons it would be impossible, or at least impossible in practice, to predict 
in  advance  the  experimental  observation  of  the  phenomenon  of  superconductivity, 
which  occurs  only  with  very  large  numbers  of  electrons).  Nevertheless,  it  was  in  the 
90’s  when  the  development  of  computer  science  boosted  the  study  of  Complex  Sys-
tems and Complexity Science began to be applied to the study of a broad range of large 
socio-technical systems. 

2. Air Transport Complexity 

The  air  transport  system  contains  a  huge  number  of  elements  or  agents  that  interact, 
e.g. tenths of thousands of daily operations in Europe, heave fragmentation in processes 
throughout  the  network,  a  fairly  complex  information  flow,  a  very  large  number  of 
stakeholders  involved  in  the  decision  making  process  and  pervasive  heterogeneity  in 
users goals and business requirements. 

Most effort done so far in air traffic modelling and design has not taken into ac-
count this paradigm, and thus it has failed to model such emergent behaviour. Complex 
systems  techniques  can  provide  a  new  insight  into  the  understanding  of  these  pheno-
mena and help overcome some of the limitations of the current models. A number of 
recent,  novel  approaches  to  ATM  modelling  are  currently  borrowing  tools  and  tech-
niques  from  the  Complex  Systems  field.  However,  the  literature  in  this  field  is  still 
scarce. 

3. The ComplexWorld Research Network 

ComplexWorld  (www.ComplexWorld.eu)  is  a  research  network  within  SESAR  WP 
(Work  Package)-E  and  led  by  The  Innaxis  Research  Institute  (www.innaxis.org)  that 

294

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Air Traffic Operations

aims to organise the research on the applicability of state-of-the-art Complex Systems 
Science methodologies with the main general objective of advancing in the understand-
ing  of  the  behaviour  of  the  ATM  system,  as  a  necessary  step  prior  to  improving  its 
overall performance. 

The Network also counts the Universities of Seville, Westminster, and Palermo as 
well as DLR and NLR as members and has signed up more than 70 organisations com-
ing from industry, research and academia. This multi-disciplinary group is tackling the 
following Specific Research Challenges: 

2. 

1.  Understand  how  Complexity  Science  can  contribute  to  understand  the  ATM 
system behaviour and evolution that emerges from the complex relationships 
between its different elements. 
Identify  relevant  sources  of  uncertainty  in  the  ATM  system,  which  includes 
the  analysis  of  its  different  scales,  and  understand  the  propagation  of  uncer-
tainty through the different scales. 

3.  Research how Complexity Science can improve the overall performance of the 
system in different key performance areas, in particular, learn how this could 
bring new methodologies to manage uncertainty and increase predictability. 
4.  Study  the  propagation  of  undesirable  events  through  the  network,  designing 
strategies to minimize the impact of such perturbations and ensure a customer-
friendly degradation of mobility inside Europe. 

5.  Understand  how  to  design  a  more  agile  system,  through  the  development  of 
new methodologies to the implementation of new technologies, easing transi-
tion phases, optimizing performance during those transitions and enabling in-
novation. 

4. Making a Difference in Air Traffic Management 

The scientific revolution made us feel that we were in possession of tools that would 
allow us to grasp the future, however, the limits that non-linearities put on forecasting 
in air transport needs to be researched at different scales. In particular, the sensitivity to 
initial  conditions  is  an  important  field  to  understand  the  variability  of  ATM  perfor-
mance along different days of operations with small variations in the initial conditions. 
Some  behaviors  will  remain  unpredictable  and  therefore  we  need  to  adjust  our  exis-
tence, rather than naively try to predict extreme events. 

5. Resilience, Analysis of Disturbance Propagation and System Stability and 

Agility 

Complexity  Science  research  has  applicability  in  a  number  of  ATM-related  subjects. 
Resilience, robustness and analysis of disturbance propagation and system stability and 
agility is one are in which the ComplexWorld network is looking into. 

The Air Transport System is constantly influenced by internal and external events. 
Every day, several times each day, and in different locations at the same time, the oper-
ation  of  the  system  is  perturbed  by  the  small  disturbances.  Even  worse,  these  distur-
bances may interact with each other, creating a cascade of adverse events that may span 
over different spatial and time scales, from affecting only one aircraft or a crew, up to a 
group of airways crossed by a thunderstorm; but, at the same time, they usually have 

D. Pérez / Managing Complexity

295

small impact in the overall performance of the system, thanks to its own Adaptability – 
aircraft and crews may be rescheduled, flights may be rerouted, and so forth. 

A complementary problem is represented by those events that push the dynamics 
of the Air Transport System far away from its normal point of operation. For instance, 
a large strike, the eruption of a volcano, or the closure of an airport dramatically affect 
the  performance  of  the  system.  Note  that  these  events  are  not  small  disturbances,  af-
fecting a single or a limited number of aircraft: they have system-wide consequences; 
moreover, these events were not predicted nor expected, and the process to go back to a 
normal operation is not trivial. Luckily, these black swan events are quite rare: but this 
low probability of occurrence also makes any analysis more difficult. 

6. Conclusion 

The Air Transport and ATM have experienced an important and fast evolution in the 
last decades, with a constant growth in the number of flights, aircraft and airports. Al-
so, the market itself has changed significantly: from being composed by a small num-
ber of national airlines, up to the recent appearance of many companies with new busi-
ness models. 

In  this  context,  the  optimisation  of  common  airspace  resources,  along  with  more 
strict safety regulations, has reduced the ability of some actors to optimise their opera-
tions, thus reducing the adaptability of the system. Even the definition of which events 
are “normal”, that is to say, taken into account in the design of the system, is not a tri-
vial problem: and this is worsened by the ever changing nature of the ATM – an event 
may be extremely rare today, but not so rare tomorrow. 

References 

[1]  Anderson, Science 4 August 1972, Vol. 177, No. 4047, pp. 393–396, DOI: 0.1126/science.177.4047.393. 
[2]  B.A. Carreras, D.E. Newman, I. Dobson and A.B. Poole, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: 

Regular Papers, Sept. 2004, Vol. 51, No. 9, pp. 1733–1740. 

[3]  K. Fourrate and M. Loulidi, The European Physical Journal B – Condensed Matter and Complex Sys-

tems, 2006, Vol. 49, No. 2, pp. 239–246. 

[4]  W.I.  Newman1  and  D.L.  Turcotte,  A  simple  model  for  the  earthquake  cycle  combining  self-organised 
complexity with critical point behavior, Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics, 2002, Vol. 9, pp. 453–461. 

About the Author 

David Pérez is Director of the Innaxis Research Institute 
Velasquez 157, Ibercenter 
28002 Madrid (Spain) 
dp@innaxis.org 
www.innaxis.org/dp 

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D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-296

Advanced Flexible Automation Cell 

Philip WEBB and Seemal ASIF 

Abstract. The “FLEXA” (FLEX AUTOMATION CELL) project here below pre-
sented aims to overcome the reasons for which there is so far relatively little use of 
automation in aerospace manufacturing. How? By combining a number of differ-
ent technologies and  methodologies, specifically: system  architecture and design, 
knowledge engineering, virtual verification and quality assurance, cell integration, 
human integration and restart. 

Keywords.  Automation,  manufacturing,  flexible  manufacturing,  programmable 
logic controller, service-oriented architecture 

1. Introduction 

There is relatively very little use of automation in aerospace manufacturing when com-
pared  with  other  industry  sectors  such  as  automotive,  pharmaceutical  or  white 
goods [1]. There are a number of reasons for this. The product volumes tend be rela-
tively small but the product lifecycles may be in excess of 30 years. The parts used are 
usually required to be to a very high standard of quality and all the associated processes 
need to be traceable and verifiable [2]. The variety of parts is also very high and this 
low  volume  / high variety  mix  means  that a  large number of  conventional  automated 
systems  would  be  required  but  each  would  then  have  a  very  low  utilisation  rate  and 
therefore be uneconomical. A further and significant complication is that in operations 
such  as  turbine  blade  repair  the  manufacturing  requirements  are  not  known  until  the 
process has started. The FLEXA (Flexible Automation Cell) project aims to overcome 
these problems by combining a number of different technologies and methodologies to 
the problem. Specifically: 

•  System architecture and design; 
•  Knowledge engineering; 
•  Virtual verification and quality assurance; 
•  Cell integration; 
•  Human interaction and restart. 

The  work  described  in  this  paper  focuses  on  the  knowledge  engineering  theme 
within the project that enables the deployment of multiple machines or resources in a 
flexible and reconfigurable environment. 

2. Background 

The Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) was developed to overcome some of these 
issues through the integration of automated component storage, tool delivery and CNC 

P. Webb and S. Asif / Advanced Flexible Automation Cell

297

Figure 1. Large Scale Part Assembly Cell. 

Figure 2. Small Scale Part Assembly Cell. 

machines with an overall computer control unit to support and monitor the performance 
of the system. In many cases these FMS installations have been very successful; how-
ever in some cases the flexibility has been very low when trying to produce a wide va-
riety of changing components within existing cells. For example in a blade repair facili-
ty  there  is  both  a  wide  variety  of  parts  and  the  actual  process  route  required  is  not 
known until the process has started and the blades have been inspected. In the case of 
aero-structure assembly the problem becomes even more complex. Because of the very 
large parts and assemblies involved the automation (robots) must be moved to the part 
rather than the conventional approach of moving the parts between individual cells or 
along a flow-line. This means that multiple processes are likely to be performed using 
the  same  processing  equipment  but  in  different  locations;  to  enable  this,  a  new  ap-
proach  to  cell control  and organisation  is  required.  For  example  a  robot  may  be used 
for drilling in one part of the factory and then used later for applying sealant in a com-
pletely  different  part  of  the  factory.  Examples  of  large  and  small  scale  part  assembly 
cells are shown in Figs 1 and 2 respectively. 

3. The FLEXA Cell Coordinator Architecture 

The heart of the control architecture proposed is the FLEXA Cell Coordinator (FCC). 
The methodology for control and organisation being developed makes two assumptions 
about the process and the production resources being used. They are as follows: 

•  Production is assumed to be chaotic due to the number of processes and the li-
kelihood  of  concessions  needing  to  be  cleared  and  in  the  case  of  repair  the 
process sequence is not known until the part has been inspected; 

•  The resources (robots, machine tools etc.) can be used in different sequences 
for  different  operations  either  by  physically  relocating  them  or  changing  the 
root of a part through the resources. 

The issues noted above mean that the use of a conventional control methodology 
using a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) and a number of machines (resources) 
physically coupled together running preloaded programmes is impractical as in the cas-
es above the individual cells would need to be physically reconfigured for each opera-
tion. A new way of approaching this problem is to use a central cell controller which is 
capable of producing any number of virtual controllers each of which can take control 

 
298

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Cost Efficiency

of local groups of machines to form virtual cells which then behave like conventional 
physical cells. These sub-coordinators are software applications tied to their resources 
using a common interface. The overall cell controller is responsible for decoding reci-
pes  (which  contain  all  the  process  information),  allocating  and  scheduling  resources 
and  launching  and  destroying  instances  of  the  sub-controllers  when  required.  It  also 
contains a database which is used to store status information to allow recovery of sys-
tem status in the case of an equipment or process failure. In summary: 

•  The use of a software Programmable Logic Controller (Soft PLC) means that 

there is no longer any physical hardware associated with the cell; 

•  All  the  production  systems  for  example  machine  tools,  robots  or  measuring 
systems  are  classed  as  networked  resources  which  have  a  common  interface 
which allows them to be interrogated and identified automatically; 

•  When  a  particular  production  sequence  is  identified  a  ‘recipe’  is  generated 
from  which  the  required  resources  can  be  identified,  allocated  and  program-
ming information loaded; 

•  The resources are co-ordinated using a soft PLC which is connected to the re-
sources over a network and has no exclusive hard wired links to any of the re-
sources;  

•  The overall control is provided by a cell co-ordinator which allocates a virtual 

sub co-ordinator for each cell; 

•  Once the task is finished then the virtual cell sub-coordinator is closed down 
and all the resources are freed up and made available for other tasks that may 
be waiting for resources. 

A diagram showing the structure of the cell coordinator is shown in Fig. 3. The in-

dividual elements have the following functions: 

3.1. Application Manager 

The  Application  Manager  is  responsible  for  the  control  of  the  FCC.  The  Application 
Manager has responsibility to activate the FCC and communicate between the FCC’s 
components. The Application Manager also has responsibility to communicate with the 
rest of the world via the web services layer. 

3.2. FLEXA Scheduler 

This  is  needed  to  schedule  the  task  among  resources.  The  Scheduler  will  be  able  to 
identify the available resources and will allocate the task to them according to the reci-
pe  (sent  from  FDB).  The  Scheduler  will  also  be  able  to  resolve  and  avoid  conflicts 
(Deadlocks, etc.). 

3.3. Status Data Base & Monitor 

The Cell coordinator status database is used to record the status of the resources and the 
availability of resources (if they are free for handing over to a task). The status database 
monitor has active two way connection with the status database monitor which moni-
tors all the activities of the resources and records the status of all the current recipes. 

 
P. Webb and S. Asif / Advanced Flexible Automation Cell

299

Service Oriented Architecture

(cid:2)

FLEXA Cell Coordinator

Web Services

Application 
Manager

Recipe 1
Recipe 2
Recipe 
Queue
.
.
.
Recipe n

Scheduler

Status 
Database 
Monitor

W
e
b
S
e
r
v
c
e
s

i

FLEXA Cell Sub-Coordinator

Program 
Manager

Virtual / 
Soft PLC

Status 
Database

W
e
b
S
e
r
v
c
e
s

i

Resources

Web Services

Web Services

Figure 3. Flex Cell Coordinator Structure. 

3.4. Recipe Queue 

The Recipe Queue accepts the request from the Application Manager to execute a par-
ticular recipe, if there is one present. The recipes will be sent out for execution by the 
scheduler on first come first serve basis. 

3.5. Cell Sub-Co-Ordinator 

The Cell Sub-Coordinator is comprised of a Program Manager and the Soft PLC. The 
program manager receives the recipe from Scheduler and delivers programs to the re-
sources(s).  The  Soft  PLC  also  takes  its  program  from  Program  manager  and  controls 
the  resource(s)  accordingly. There  can  be multiple  FLEXA  Cell  Sub-Coordinators  all 
of  which  will  be  controlled  by  the  Application  Manager.  One  sub-coordinator  will 
work with one set of resources and each other one will use a different set of resources. 

4. Design of the Cell-Coordinator 

The biggest challenge in designing a flexible control system with varying cell resources 
is  to  design  a  loosely-coupled  structure  without  losing  efficiency  and  yet  the  system 
should  also  be  easy  to  reconfigure  and  extend.  Since  the  cell  resources  usually  come 
from different manufactures and use different platforms and communication protocols 
the  traditional  distributed  computing  technologies  such  as  COM  (Component  Object 
Model),  could  lead  to  too  tightly  a  coupled  relationship  between  cell  resources.  Any 

 
 
 
300

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Cost Efficiency

changes to the system such as a newly installed metrology system may need some alte-
rations within the original software which significantly reduces flexibility and reconfi-
gurability [3]. 

It  was  therefore  proposed  that  a  service-oriented  architecture  (SOA)  would  be 
more  efficient.  An  SOA uses  a  web  service  as  the basic  element.  This was  originally 
designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network [4]. 
A  web  service  is  platform-independent  as  it  uses  the  standardized  Simple  Object 
Access Protocol (SOAP) as its communication protocol [6] and the XML format as its 
message exchange format. As a result, any device that supports TCP/IP communication 
can be programmed to provide a web service which greatly reduces the complexity of 
communicating with different platforms and environments. 

Web  services  perform  functions  and  actions  which  can  be  anything  from  simple 
function requests to complicated processes requests. Once a Web service is deployed, 
other applications (and other Web services) can discover and invoke the deployed ser-
vice  which  makes  service-oriented  architectures  naturally  support  plug-play.  As  web 
services are loosely coupled and have a generic communication protocol and data for-
mat,  they  can  be  easily  deployed  within  a  distributed  system.  Therefore  a  Service 
Oriented Architecture has been used to realise the FCC. 

5. Cell Co-Ordinator and Testing 

The  core FLEXA  Cell  Sub-Coordinator  has  been  fully  realised  using web-services  in 
C#.NET and its basic functionality demonstrated using Comau robots as resources. The 
system has so far been shown to be capable of decoding a loaded recipe and: 

•  Selecting from the available web services which resources are needed for the 
recipe  (further  work  is  in  progress  to  use  advanced  algorithms  within  the 
scheduler to optimise this process); 

•  Selecting the program needed to be run on the resource, detecting the resource 

and transferring the program on the specified resource; 

•  Continuously monitoring the resources for any information being fed back to 

other resources; 

•  Checking that the program has been successfully transferred to the resources 

and run. 

6. Conclusions 

So far the FLEXA Cell co-ordinator has been demonstrated using fairly simple scena-
rios based on robots and metrology. Within the next stage of the project the controller 
will  be  linked  with  a  database  and  scheduling  software  being  developed  elsewhere 
within the FLEXA project. When this is completed the controller will be tested using 
much more complex and demanding scenarios. Further web services are being written 
to support a wider range of production resources to allow more complex recipes to be 
executed. 

P. Webb and S. Asif / Advanced Flexible Automation Cell

301

References 

[1]  N. Jayaweera and P. Webb, “Adaptive robotic assembly of compliant aero-structure components”, Ro-

botics and Computer Integrated Manufacturing, Vol. 23, No. 2, 2007, pp. 180–194. 

[2]  N.  Jayaweera,  P.  Webb  and  C.  Johnson,  “Metrology  Assisted  Assembly  of  Fabricated  Aero-engine 

Components”, Assembly Automation, Vol. 30, No. 1, 2010, pp. 56–65. 

[3]  J.N. Pires and J.M.G. Sá da Costa, “Object-oriented and distributed approach for programming robotic 
manufacturing cells”, Robotics and Computer Integrated Manufacturing, Vol. 16, No. 1, 2000, pp. 29–42. 
[4]  T. Aphrodite and P. Thomi, “An overview of standards and related technology in Web Services”, Distri-

buted and Paralleled Databases, Vol. 12, No. 3, 2002, pp. 135–162. 

About the Authors 

Professor Philip Webb 
Cranfield University, Cranfield 
MK 43 Oal Bedfordshire, UK 
p.f.webb@cranfield.ac.uk 
www.cranfield.ac.uk 

Seemal Asif 
Cranfield University, Cranfield 
MK 43 Oal Bedfordshire, UK 
seemal.asif@cranfield.ac.uk 
www.cranfield.ac.uk 

 
302

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-302

ACCENT: Adaptive Control of 
Manufacturing Processes for a New 
Generation of Jet Engine Components 

Ignacio FERNANDEZ 

Abstract. High responsibility of critical parts are those whose failure could lead to 
the lost of the aircraft. Manufacturing of critical parts for aero-engines turbines in-
volves additional requirements in order to preserve the lifing of the part. Basically, 
the driver of these requirements is to maintain the characteristics of the parts used 
during  the  certification  of  the  engine,  in  such  a  way  that  materials  properties 
and/or testing employed will be applicable during the whole life of the engine. The 
European Commission has funded several projects within various Framework Pro-
grams in order to achieve competitive manufacturing methods increasing the safe-
ty of the parts at the same time. The ACCENT project, here after presented, is one 
of them. 

Keywords.  Manufacturing,  engine  components,  surface  integrity,  lifing,  failure, 
LCF (Low Cycle Fatigue) 

1. Introduction 

The current scenario for the aviation gas turbines market is based on Flight Hours Ser-
vice (FHS) contracts, where the benefit for the manufacturer comes from the number of 
maintenance  free  flight  hours  instead  of  the  aftermarket.  This  new  scenario  gives  an 
additional importance to the lifing of the components, especially those which define the 
total life of the engine. 

Now,  the  aim  of  the  design  is  to  extract  more  cycles  from  the  component  under 
study, at each new engine generation requirements are driving a reduction in the margin 
for the error, as parts cannot stand any drop in properties. Thus, the lifing procedures 
are refined by means of new models or additional specific testing for limiting features 
to increase the life of the components; however the scatter in material properties will 
also be reduced to always maintain safety. 

Conventional  machining  can  modify  the  LCF  (Low  Cycle  Fatigue)  curve  of  the 
components,  and  therefore  the  scatter, when  abusive  machining  is  present  either  by  a 
wrong selection of the parameters or anomalies occurring during the process. This situ-
ation can produce hazardous failures of critical aero engine component during their life. 
The Pensacola event in 1996 was the result of such a failure (Fig. 1). Subsurface dam-
age  caused  by  a  drilling  defect  resulted  in  the  loss  of  2  lives  and  one  serious  injury. 
Had this failure occurred in flight the consequences would have been disastrous? 

The  Federal  Aviation  Authority  sponsored  project  ROMAN  recommends  the  use 
of process monitoring for the manufacture of high length/diameter ratio holes. A sub-
sequent European GROWTH project MANHIRP, investigated the production of manu-

I. Fernandez / ACCENT: Adaptive Control of Manufacturing Processes for a New Generation

303

Figure 1. MD88 Pensacola accident – 1996. 

facturing induced anomalies. These projects however fail to deliver the necessary tech-
nological step required by the aero engine manufacturers in order to manufacture their 
most  critical  aero  engine  components  whilst  being  faced  with  an  ever  increasing  de-
mand for engine performance, better engine efficiency, more environmentally friendly 
products, and lower cost of manufacture given today’s competitive environment. 

Nowadays, the previous demand will be satisfied delivering the necessary technol-
ogical step required by the aero engine manufacturers in order to face the current ramp 
up in production and lower cost of manufacture given today’s competitive environment. 

2. Who, Where and When Is “ACCENT”? 

In ACCENT  are  present  the main  European  OEM  of AERO  gas  turbines,  as well  as, 
universities and institute across Europe (Fig. 2). In general, the universities are matched 
with an OEM to perform the different machining trials and experimentation, although 
other universities provide a global support in very specific matters such as mathemati-
cal modelling and analysis. Another interesting point is within the OEMs leaders, there 
is  a  balancing  between  persons  coming  from  manufacturing  and  those  others  coming 
from  materials  side.  This  also  provides  completely  different  perspectives  of  the  same 
problem. Regarding the timing, initially it  was a three year project starting in July of 
2008, however, set up was complicated for some operations (broaching) and long time 
consuming in other operations (turning) and it was request for a 9 – month extension to 
properly finish the work. Besides extensive metallurgical and signal processing, longer 
than expected, is required to obtain reliable correlations. 

3. What Is “ACCENT”? 

ACCENT  can be  explained  as  the  natural extension  of  MANHIRP,  Manufacturing  to 
Produce  High  Integrity  Rotating  Parts  for  Modern  Gas  Turbines  which  was  a  5th 
framework project. MANHIRP provided very worthwhile information about the penal-
ties in terms of LCF drop of properties due to unsuitable machining conditions. MAN-
HIRP in summary provided us with two very important lessons: 

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Cost Efficiency

Figure 2. Participants in ACCENT. 

•  Non  standard  machining  conditions  affect  Surface  Integrity  (SI)  of  the  parts 
which leads to a substantial penalty in LCF properties. This changes the lifing 
of the parts. 

•  Despite what many people think, peening is not the magic operation which re-
covers all the possible machining damage. In fact, where machining has gen-
erated  heavily  sub-surface  damage,  peening  accelerates  the  initiation,  com-
pared to the same conditions without peening, and therefore reduces the LCF 
life. 

A couple of terms have been mentioned that are very important in the context of 
both ACCENT and MANHIRP, Surface Integrity and Lifing. So, let looking a little bit 
deeper at these terms: 

The parts of a gas turbine are usually classified in several categories according to 
two factors, the probability of the failure and the consequence of the failure. Each com-
pany has its own rules but by simplifying it they be divided in three groups; class A or 
critical parts where the failure could lead to the loss of the aircraft, class B or sensitive 
parts, which failure could lead to loss of the engine power and the rest which can be 
grouped into class C or unclassified parts. ACCENT is focused in class A parts because 
of the criticality of the failure and therefore the manufacturing conditions are controlled 
more tightly. The lifing of the part is the key aspect in the design, and the whole manu-
facturing  process  needs  to  be  aligned  in  order  to  achieve  the  declared  life.  Although 
other  aspects  such  as;  creep,  integrity,  etc.…,  need  to  be  checked,  the  discs  are  de-
signed against fatigue which is the failure mode. This is the reason why the LCF prop-
erties mentioned before are so important for these components. 

The  lifing  of  parts  coming  from  spin  rigs  and/or  sub-components,  needs  to  be 
guaranteed  along  the  whole  production  life  for  each  specific  part  number,  this  is 
checked through the Surface Integrity of the parts. The Surface Integrity is a wide term 
to put together all features which can affect the LCF properties of the component, basi-
cally;  surface  roughness,  micro-structural  analysis  and  residual  stress  distribution. 
Some of them can be analyses by means of NDT, however others require the cut up and 
destruction of the part and therefore cannot be evaluated in all production parts. 

 
I. Fernandez / ACCENT: Adaptive Control of Manufacturing Processes for a New Generation

305

Figure 3. Relationship between Lifing, Surface Integrity and Signals. 

ACCENT will try to find an indirect way to control the quality of each production 
part by monitoring the process. The focus of the study is the relationship between Sur-
face Integrity and signals, together with the knowledge coming from Manhirp the loop 
can be closed and it is possible to predict the life of the parts from the signals captured 
(Fig. 3). 

4. Why “ACCENT”? 

Surface Integrity of the testing for certification needs to be guaranteed in all the parts 
manufactured against this standard. However, the current methodology to demonstrate 
compliance  with  certification  along  the  part  life  it  is  based  on  fixing  the  Method  of 
Manufacture  (MoM)  used  during  certification.  Those  machining  conditions  will  be 
called frozen parameters. This methodology shows two main problems: 

•  From a manufacturing point of view, changes require costly validation trials. 
So this leads to old machining conditions in production because the change is 
not economically viable due to the trials. In other occasions, inserts are so old 
that they do not exist in the market anymore and it is compulsory for to manu-
facturer to go through the validation process. So, in summary machining con-
ditions are not always the best practices in the market. 

•  From  safety  point  of  view,  it  is  impossible  to  ensure  that  validation  part  is 
equivalent  to  all  the  future  machining  parts  of  the  same  standard  because  of 
the destructive validation method used. It is true that scatter factors deal with 
the differences within the standard machining conditions, however undetecta-
ble abusive conditions could be present within the manufacturing, such as; ex-
cessive  insert  degradation,  machining  disturbances  …  etc.,  which  could  lead 
to unacceptable Surface Integrity. 

Being aware of these premises, the current solution is to move away from the ab-

usive machining conditions that generate such damage. 

The proposed methodology is based on defining a safety window in which varia-
tions  will  be  within  an  equivalent  surface  condition  during  the  validation  stage.  Fur-
thermore, trials will be monitored in order to identify the relevant signals which reveal 
anomalous behavior from a Surface Integrity point of view. These will be captured to 
monitor  the  production  parts,  and  whenever  a  problem  during  production  appears,  it 
can  be  identified  it  and  corrected,  changing  parameters  within  the  safety  window  in 
order  to  obtain  an  acceptable  part.  Even  though  correction  would  not  be  feasible,  the 
fact of removing defective parts from engines is in itself a great benefit. 

 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Cost Efficiency

Certification authorities already recognize Monitoring as NDT, which provides an 
extra credit in lifing calculation whenever is put in place in production. Currently, it is 
focus in power monitoring during hole making operations. ACCENT main purpose is 
to obtain a full understanding, with the current techniques of the monitoring capability. 

5. How Is “ACCENT” Carried Out? 

A suitable set up for each machining operation will be established in order to measure 
forces, accelerations and acoustics emissions, as well as internal signals coming from 
the machine such as power, torque… In some cases additional sensors have also been 
applied  to  measure  temperatures  for  example.  A  good  arrangement  of  the  sensors  is 
vital for a reliable data. The creation of the operating window is another key point, as 
there is not a method to establish the limits of a safety zone and window, thousands of 
trials could be required until a final solution can be found. A key point is to perform 
trials at both sides of the border to check whether the system is reliable to capture the 
differences.  On  this  subject,  each  partner  has  followed  their  own  strategy  in  order  to 
find out which could be the best approach in this point. Thus, from DoE to modified 
COM methods have been proved. 

The success of the project is based on being able to develop a two-way relationship 
between the signals and the Surface Integrity. Trials have been carried out with combi-
nations  of  different  machining  operations  (turning,  milling,  drilling  and  broaching) 
with different materials (Inco718, Ti64, Udimet720 and Ti6242). 

Apart  from  that,  it  is  also  researching  the  effects  of  the  different  machining  pa-
rameters on the Surface Integrity, which will provide a better understanding of the ma-
chining  process  from  a  lifing  perspective.  Regarding  prediction  models,  different  at-
tempts have been tried but Neuronal Network has finally been selected. 

Finally, all the research should be contained in a procedure, which defines an ap-
propriate method to carry out the trials, the inputs required for the trials and the analy-
sis of the results, in order to work with signal monitoring as a method which can im-
prove the lifing of the parts and/or reduce the amount of destructive testing required. 

About the Author 

Ignacio Fernandez works at Industria de Turbopropulsores (ITP) in the Material and Process Department as 
specialist in machining of critical parts 
Ignacio.fernandez@itp.es 
www.itp.es 

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-307

307

The European Project “Aircraft Integrated 
Structural Health Assessment II” 

Detection of Corrosive and Hydraulic Liquids 

by Gauges Based on the Collapse 
of Percolation Conductivity 

Helge PFEIFFER and Martine WEVERS 

Abstract.  Nowadays  aircraft  inspection  procedures  are  well-elaborated,  but  also 
expensive  in  many  cases.  The  reason  is  that  scheduled  inspections  are  time-
consuming  and  they  seldom  provide  information  on  actual  structural  damage. 
“Structural Health Monitoring (SHM)” would be an interesting option to tailor in-
spection to the real needs of aircraft operations. Within the so-called “AISHA II” 
project,  advanced  solutions  are  being  developed  and  a  special  focus  is  on  devel-
opment of solutions with a relatively high technology readiness level. The perma-
nent sensor networks proposed are based upon ultrasonic and upon electrical and 
electromechanical  impedance  measurements. They are  described in this paper, as 
well  as  a  new  sensor  developed  at  the  Department  of  Metallurgy  and  Materials 
Engineering, Leuven, Belgium, which uses the loss of percolation conductivity in 
a composite. 

Keywords.  Structures,  health,  monitoring,  percolation,  conductivity,  ultrasonic 
measurements, electrical & electromechanical impedance measurements 

1. Introduction 

In general terms, a SHM system is a permanent sensor network for detecting structural 
damage  that  is  embedded  on  or  into  structural  components  of  engineering  structures. 
Whereas,  some  related  commercial  applications  already  exist  for  military  airplanes 
(acoustic emission and strain monitoring), real SHM in civil aircraft is still in an expe-
rimental phase. There are different obstacles that have prevented an implementation so 
far. The main reason is that a complex research and implementation effort is required 
and expertise from many disciplines is needed that has to be coordinated in interdiscip-
linary  projects.  Thus,  during  the  last  two  decennia,  different  SHM  solutions  for  civil 
aircraft were developed, but most of them just on laboratory scale. 

Within the European project “Aircraft Integrated Structural Health Assessment II” 
(AISHA II) advanced solutions for SHM in aircraft are developed and a special focus is 
on  the  development  of  solutions  with  a  relatively  high  technology  readiness  level 
(TRL). The permanent sensor networks proposed are working on the base of ultrason-
ics as well as on electrical and electrochemical impedance measurements. For the case 
of  ultrasonics,  guided  waves  are  used.  For  the  reliable  defect  detection  with  guided 
ultrasonic waves, such as Lamb waves, mode conversion effects are applied and detec-
tion is performed by dedicated sensor arrays. An interesting option is accurate time-of-

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Cost Efficiency

flight detection of Lamb waves using the chirp technology. The sensor networks based 
on  ultrasonic  technologies  were  implemented  in  helicopter  tailbooms,  slat  tracks  and 
aluminium sheet structures. Another concept, already successfully applied, is the inter-
ruption  of  conducting  wires  by  fatigue  cracks  (slat  tracks  and  aluminium  sheet  struc-
tures)  or  by  leaking  liquids  (floor  beams  and  hydraulic  tubes).  Furthermore,  electro-
chemical  and  electric  impedance  measurements  are  used  to  detect  corrosion  in  floor 
beams  and  cracks  in  doubler  repair.  For  alls  technologies  proposed,  investigations  of 
durability and robustness is a major concern. 

When preparing the AISHA II project, the AISHA consortium (a SHM-project in 
the 6th Framework Program) was extended by 7 new partners in order to include new 
complementary  expertise,  especially  from  departments  of  maintenance,  repair  and 
overhaul (MRO). The consortium is now co-ordinated by the K.U.Leuven and the part-
ners are METALogic (Belgium), DLR (German Aerospace Centre), Cedrat Technolo-
gies  (France),  Eurocopter-Marignane  (France),  Riga  Technical  University  (Latvia), 
CTA  (Spain),  Meggit-Ferroperm  (Denmark),  ASCO  (Belgium),  Fraunhofer  Institute 
IFAM  (Germany),  University  of  Leipzig  (Germany),  University  of  Basque  Country 
(Spain), Free University of Brussels (Belgium) and Lufthansa Technik (Germany). 

A more detailed report is given on a sensor developed at MTM that uses the loss of 
percolation  conductivity  in  a  composite.  Using  this  sensing  material  a  sensor  for  the 
floor structure was developed in order to detect corrosive liquids. The strong enhance-
ment  of  resistance  after  the  ingress  of  liquids  can  be  recorded  in  different  manners. 
Finally,  after  all  feasibility  tests  performed  in  the  lab,  the sensor network  was  imple-
mented in an operational airliner of Lufthansa. 

2. Full-Scale Parts for the “AISHA II” Project 

Relevant full-scale structural parts were selected to develop SHM systems with a high 
chance for final implementation. In this context, it is important to focus on real struc-
tural  hot-spots  where  damage  is  very  likely  to  occur.  Focussing  on  hot-spots  is  also 
necessary because monitoring of very big surfaces like integral fuselages is not yet be 
feasible with the technologies available so far. 

2.1. Slat Tracks of AIRBUS A320 and A380 

The  task  of  the  slats  is  to  increase  the  wing  area  of  aircraft  to  provide  additional  lift 
during  take-off  and  landing  when  the  plane  moves  at  relatively  low  air  speeds.  Slats 
tracks are the moving beams that enable the load transmission and movement between 
wings and moving slats. Slat tracks are under high fatigue loads when transferring lift 
and drag from the slat to the fixed wing, moreover, many kinds of environmental de-
gradation (salt, sand and dust, kerosene, hydraulic fluids, etc.) will affect the structural 
parts. Two concepts for crack detection are essentially followed within the AISHA II 
project, the analysis of ultrasonic waves (especially Rayleigh waves) that have passed 
the  crack  area  [1],  and  the  interruption  of  electrical  contacts  in  implemented  crack 
propagation gauges. In contrast to the commercially available crack propagation gauges 
that allow the determination of various crack sizes, the AISHA II sensors are optimised 
to give information on those selected crack sizes when safety relevant dimensions are 
reached. At the moment the sensor is optimized concerning sensor length, crack gauge 
material and implementation procedure. 

H. Pfeiffer and M. Wevers / The European Project “AISHA II”

309

2.2. The Tailboom of the Helicopter Mil 8 

The  tailboom  of  a  helicopter  is  used  to  connect  the  fuselage  with  the  fenestron.  The 
tailboom  of  helicopter  Mil  8  is  manufactured  from  aluminium  alloy  sheets,  and  it  is 
assembled  by  traditional  stringer/stiffener  constructions.  The  crack  detection  here  is 
successfully  done  using  the  attenuation  of  Lamb  waves  passing  the  crack  area  at  hot 
spots. A major concern here was the durability of the attachment of the piezoceramic 
actuators and sensors during a complete fatigue life cycle, but that challenge that was 
successfully tackled [2]. 

2.3. The Tailboom of the Helicopter EC 135 

It is manufactured from sandwich composite (CFRP). Here, SHM networks are focus-
ing on barely visible impact damage. One option is to analyse the attenuation of guided 
waves, i.e. Lamb waves. In the focus of our research is the mode conversion from the 
so-called symmetric S0 into the anti-symmetric A0 mode [3]. 

2.4. Floor Structures 

The floor in the cabin area of various types of aircraft is covered by floor panels that 
are  mostly  made  from  composites.  These  floor  panels  are  mounted  on  the  so-called 
floor  beams.  The  floor  beams  are  partially  equipped  with  seat  tracks,  and  beams  and 
seat  tracks  are  frequently  made  from  aluminium  alloys.  When  aqueous  liquids  are 
spilled, corrosion can occur that is able to heavily damage the aluminium alloy struc-
ture. Percolation sensors allow the detection of aqueous liquids and this is a simple way 
of avoiding corrosion at a very early stage (see later section in this contribution). 

2.5. Double Repair 

The repair of aluminium sheet structures that were damaged by e.g. an impact, is usual-
ly performed by doubler repair. Especially the outer rivet row is subjected to high stress 
loads that can lead to fast crack growth. A reliable SHM system detecting crack propa-
gation between rivets would establish an interesting option. Hidden (subsurface) cracks 
are a major challenge in non-destructive testing. An interesting technology here is the 
application of flat coil sensors that are directly mounted in the primer coating. Reliable 
indication of crack growth is thus possible by monitoring the change of impedance (Pi-
tropakis et al.). 

3. Detecting Liquids by Percolation Sensors 

In a wet surrounding it is always necessary to prevent corrosion. A typical example is 
the  floor  structure  of  an  aircraft.  The  floor  beams  are  protected  by  coatings,  and  the 
gaps  between  floor  plates  are  equipped  with  dedicated  sealing  systems,  such  as  sili-
cone, isolating tapes and rubber mats. But during aircraft operations, coatings and seal-
ings  can  be  damaged  which  gives  spilled  liquids  the  possibility  to  cause  corrosion. 
Another  aspect  is  related  to water  that  can  enter  sandwich  composite  panels.  Famous 
hot-spots  here  are  the  galley  and  lavatory  area.  Penetration  of  liquids  will  thus  cause 
heavy corrosion of floor beams and seat tracks. Unfortunately, the inspection of floor 

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Cost Efficiency

Figure 1. By percolation, conductive pathways are formed in a composite. 

beams is performed only after relatively long time intervals (D-check 5–7 years), and 
so, a starting corrosion problem will remain undiscovered for a long time. Appropriate 
liquid sensors to be interrogated on e.g. a weekly basis could definitely help to avoid 
unnecessary maintenance and repair activities for floor structures. In this way, a reduc-
tion  of  the  number  of  inspections  is  possible  and  is  it  possible  to  save  costs  for  re-
placement of floor structure elements. 

The sensor system reported here is based on the disappearance of percolation con-
ductivity in electrically conducting hydrophilic composites. Those composites contain 
conducting particles that are embedded in a liquid-absorbing matrix. Percolation in this 
context means the interconnection of the conducting particles within the composite. 

The principle of percolation conductivity is shown in (Fig. 1), here the embedded 
conducting  particles  are  represented  by  spheres  that  are  surrounded  by  the  insulating 
matrix. When the volume fraction of the conducting particles is increased, the probabil-
ity for an establishment of conducting pathways between the between the electrodes is 
also increasing. This is usually accompanied by a certain threshold, the so-called perco-
lation threshold of conductivity. At his point, the material turns from an isolator into a 
conductor. 

The  variation  of  the  electrical  resistance  at  this  percolation  threshold  can  go 
beyond 16 orders of magnitude [4]. Because the percolation threshold depends strongly 
on the volume fraction, all physical quantities related to volume fractions would have a 
dramatic influence on resistance. Therefore, percolation sensors can provide interesting 
options for non destructive testing of leakage of liquids. 

4. A percolation Sensor for Floor Structures 

A  specific  organic-ceramic  composite  was  developed  to  obtain  an  appropriate  sensor 
for  floor  structures.  Ceramic  powders  are  normally  not  used  in  sensing  applications. 
According  to  a  recent  literature  research,  no  similar  applications  were  reported,  but 
here,  they  are  interesting  candidates.  In  most  cases,  conducting  ceramic  powders  are 
applied for manufacturing of conducting ceramics. Those ceramics can be machined by 
spark erosion. In our case, the chemical stability of ceramic powders is most interesting, 
including fire and corrosion resistance. Metal powders in conducting polymers would 
be susceptible to corrosion when not using gold powder. As a liquid absorbing matrix 
material, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) was selected. It is hygroscopic and it has a known 
swelling  behaviour.  Furthermore,  its  chemical  compatibility  is  excellent.  The  volume 

H. Pfeiffer and M. Wevers / The European Project “AISHA II”

311

Figure 2. Details of the organic-ceramic composite revealed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). 

fraction of the conducting components was selected so that the system is relatively far 
away from the percolation threshold. In this way, baseline variations (variations of hu-
midity at normal operations) do not show a significant influence. 

Advanced structural analysis was performed to study the microstructure of the hy-
drophilic composite. Scanning Electron Microscopy provided pictures of the conduct-
ing ceramic particles situated in the PVA matrix (Fig. 2). The conducting ceramic par-
ticles have an average size of a few micrometers. 

5. The Sensor and the Implementation in an Operational Airliner 

When embedding sensors in floor structures, an important problem is established by the 
limited  space  available  between  floor  panels.  The  width  of  the  gap  is  in  the  range  of 
one millimetre, and sharp bends challenge the bending performance of the sensor. Fur-
thermore, the sensor needs to be extended with a length that reaches up to 3 m. The last 
property limits the “spatial resolution” of the sensor but for many applications, the ex-
act location of spilled liquid is not really important to know. In a case of a liquid prob-
lem,  sealings  can  be  inspected  for  an  extended  area  without  any  problems.  Finally, 
large  floor  plate  segments  have  to  be  removed  anyway  in  case  essential  amounts  of 
liquid have to be removed. 

Aqueous dispersions of the organo-ceramic composite were prepared that were de-
termined  in  previous  test  series.  Finally,  a  nylon  cord  was  equipped  with  a  standard 
wire, i.e. it was mounted inside the core of the cord. After this, the surface of the nylon 
cord was  impregnated with  the  aqueous dispersion  of  the organic-ceramic  composite. 
During the drying process, the sensor became conductive. Sectional images of the inte-
rior of the sensor can be obtained by Microfocus X-ray imaging (µ-CT) (Fig. 3). 

For testing the performance, the sensor was deposited in a tube that simulates con-
ditions  comparable  to  the  gap  between  floor  panels.  The  system  was  connected  to  a 
digital  multimeter  and  software  was  developed  for  analyzing  the  readings.  When  e.g. 
0.7 ml of a liquid spilled in an aircraft (cola in that case) was “spilled” on the sensor, a 
characteristic response was measured that is shown in Fig. 4. 

The  interactions  between  the  components  in  the  composite  after  contact  with  the 
liquid  can  be  understood  as  follows,  when  the  liquid  enters  the  composite  the  local 
concentration of water increases until the percolation point is reached, the sharp steep 
in  resistance  (Fig. 4)  thus  represents  a  time-depending,  diffusion-driven  percolation 

 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Cost Efficiency

Figure 3. µ-CT picture (microfocus X-ray imaging) of the sensor, the diameter is approximately 1 mm. Left 
picture: The white pixels at the surface of the nylon cord present the conducting ceramic powder. Right pic-
ture: The white dots indicate the Cu wire in the core of the nylon cord. 

Figure 4. Recorded signal after water ingress. 

threshold.  The  liquid  finally  came  in  contact  with  the  sensor  over  a  length  of  about 
5 cm. The liquid itself is also modestly conductive (usually, those liquids are electro-
lytes).  But  it  is  clear  from  Fig.  4  that  the  remaining  conductivity  is  essentially  lower 
than the initial conductivity in the composite at dry conditions. Another interesting per-
formance of the sensor is related to its buffer capability, i.e. absorbed spilled water is 
no longer available for corrosion. 

For the present case, the resistance has increased by a factor of about 5000. This 
exceeds  the baseline variations by  many  orders of  magnitude. In  this way,  the  sensor 
gives  a  good  answer  to  the  challenge  related  to  many  SHM  sensor  concepts,  i.e.  the 
problem to distinguish between baseline variations and damage-related signals. 

The current sensor system keeps its state for a sufficiently long time due to the li-
mited space where the sensor is deposited and due to the hydrophilic nature of the ma-
trix material itself. In this sense; the sensor represents a kind of a fuse. This is definite-

 
 
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313

Figure  5.  Boeing  737-500  Left  picture:  The  extended  sensor  (black  wire)  is  deposited  in  the  gap  between 
floor panels. Right picture: Partially re-sealed floor in the galley area. 

ly a major advantage because there is no need to implement additional electronics into 
the airplane. This also helps reducing certification efforts. For the daily practice, it has 
been proven to be sufficient to measure the resistance in time intervals of several days 
using a low-end multimeter. In a later stage a data connection to the ARINC bus of the 
airplane could be established and information on wet floor structures would be directly 
fed into the maintenance computer present in many airplanes. 

In the meanwhile, the sensor was implemented in an operational airliner after all 
required  certification  steps  were  followed.  As  hot-spots,  the  galley  and  the  lavatory 
area as well as the space below the doorstep of the galley door were selected (Fig. 5). 
The implementation was done on a Boeing 737-500 (at the moment of implementation 
it had app. 40000 flight hours) from Lufthansa during the D-check. The total length for 
all sensors is 4 m. Reading out of the resistance data is performed in time intervals of 
about 100 flight hours. Data are now collected and analyzed. First results were obtained 
that give more insight in the microclimate present in the gaps between composite floor 
plates  and  those  result  might  already be  the  reason for  the  improvement  for  mainten-
ance procedures. 

Finally, the concept of a percolation sensor was extended to different liquids fre-
quently used in an aircraft. An important application is e.g. the detection of hydraulic 
liquid (SKYDROL® to be used for hydraulic tubes), or mineral oils (e.g. to be applied 
in jet engines) and kerosene. For all those liquids, appropriate sensors were developed 
and implementation is partially under preparation. 

 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Cost Efficiency

Acknowledgement 

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Commu-
nity’s  Seventh  Framework  Programme  [FP  7/2007-2013]  under  grant  agreement 
n°212912 (Project: Aircraft Integrated Structural Health Assessment II – AISHA II). 

We want to thank Gregory Pyka for performing the SEM analysis and Johan Van-
hulst  for  establishing  the  data  logging  facilities.  Furthermore,  a  special  thank  to  Kim 
Vanmeensel and Wout Veulemans for the support with the ceramic powder technology. 

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sonic Detection of Uniform Corrosion in thin AI2024-T3 Sheets”, in EU Project Meeting on Aircraft In-
tegrated Structural Health Assessment (AISHA), Vol. 13 (10), www.ndt.net, Leuven, Belgium. 

[3]  W. Hillger and A. Szewieczek, “Impact Detection in a Composite Tail Boom Structure with Ultrasonic 
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Testing, Moscow, 2010, June 7–11, http://www.ndt.net/2010. 

[4]  M. Kupke, H.P. Wentzel and K. Sculte, “Electrically conductive glass fibre reinforced epoxy resin”, Ma-

terials Research Innovations, Vol. 2, 1998, pp. 164–169. 

About the Authors 

Dr. Helge Pfeiffer, Project Manager at KU Leuven 
Prof. Dr. MartineWevers, Lecturer at KU Leuven 
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven 
Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering (MTM) 
Kasteelpark Arenberg 44 Bus 2450 
3001 Leuven, Belgium 
Tel.: 0032/16/32 12 32, 0032/16/32 13 03 
helge.pfeiffer@mtm.kuleuven.be 
martine.wevers@mtm.kuleuven.be 
www.aisha2.eu 

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-315

315

MAAXIMUS – Delivering Innovation 

Jocelyn GAUDIN and Ralf HERRMANN 

Abstract.  Even  though  composite  materials  are  more  and  more  used  in  modern 
airframes, many significant improvements are still achievable. The substitution of 
the assembly of many small composite parts by one-shot larger part may provide 
additional  weight  and  recurring  cost  reduction  by  removing  rivets  and  holes.  Se-
condly,  the  final  assembly  line  process  must  be  adapted  to  composite  properties 
(lack  of  ductility,  stiffness)  in  order  to  secure  a  high  assembly  rate  of  composite 
sections and ensure a high production rate. At last, if the appropriate level of con-
fidence  and  cycle  time  was  available,  Simulation-based  design  would  provide  a 
faster and less expensive path to find the optimal structures than the current devel-
opment process, which relies on intensive physical test campaigns. MAAXIMUS 
was set up to explore composite solutions that go beyond traditional black  metal 
approach. 

Keywords.  Composite  materials,  airframes,  optimal  structures,  right-first-time 
structure 

1. Project Description 

The aim of MAAXIMUS (More Affordable Aircraft structure through eXtended, Inte-
grated, & Mature nUmerical Sizing) is to demonstrate the fast development and right-
first-time  validation  of  a  highly-optimised  composite  airframe.  This  will  be  achieved 
through coordinated developments on: 

•  A physical platform, to develop and validate the appropriate composite tech-

nologies for low weight aircraft; 

•  A virtual structure development platform, to identify faster and validate earlier 

the best solutions. 

Figure 1. Fast Development & Right-First Time Validation of a highly-optimized New Generation Compo-
site Fuselage by a Simulation-based design. 

 
316

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Cost Efficiency

The dual approach of simultaneously working on virtual and physical enablers is 
absolutely necessary to develop both platforms with their specific and dependent needs, 
and  to  cross-validate  their  respective  achievements.  This  project  constitutes  a  unique 
chance to demonstrate the efficiency of virtual structure development in the context of 
a real innovative composite airframe structure development. This approach is expected 
to introduce a “cultural change” in the way airframes will be developed in Europe. 

It will enable for the airlines, aircraft with lower acquisition and operating costs, a 
reduced  Time-to-Market  and  a  reduced  environmental  impact.  MAAXIMUS  strongly 
contributes to strengthen the European aeronautical industry. 

The  MAAXIMUS  objectives  related  to  the  highly-optimised  composite  airframe 

are: 

•  To enable a high-production rate with 50% reduction of the assembly time of 
large composite sections by an increased use of robotics for assembly automa-
tion and tolerance management and to demonstrate this achievement through 
the  assembly  of  two  composite  sub-components  representative  enough  of 
composite fuselage final assembly context; 

•  Reduce the manufacturing and assembly recurring costs by 10% compared to 
the ALCAS equivalent reference, as a result of more integrated structures; 
•  Reduce the structural weight by 10%. Acoustics, lightning strikes, thermal ef-
fects,  production  ramp-up  and  rate,  increased  maintenance  interval  will  be 
considered together with weight. 

The MAAXIMUS objective related to a faster development is to: 
•  Reduce by 20% the current development timeframe of aircraft structures from 
preliminary  design  up  to  full-scale  test  (ALCAS  reference),  and  by  10%  the 
corresponding  non-recurring  cost,  by  a  much  higher  integration  of  structure 
disciplines, with a higher fidelity and confidence in the virtual assessment of 
structural behaviour during the numerical optimisation process. 

The MAAXIMUS objectives related to the right-first-time structure are to: 
•  Additionally reduce the airframe development costs by 5% compared with the 
equivalent development steps in an industrial context (number and description 
of tests performed, man-hours for design, sizing and manufacturing), through 
the  delivery  of  a  predictive  virtual  test  capability  for  large  composite  struc-
tures up to failure with a quantified level of confidence. This capability will be 
assessed and validated through an exhaustive comparison with a pre-existing 
full-scale  physical  test  of  a  composite  fuselage  barrel.  A  new  Certification 
Philosophy, based on Virtual Testing, will be also assessed. It will also con-
sider the structure as it is actually manufactured and assembled and not only 
as it is designed; 

•  Avoid late and costly changes due to unexpected test results. Virtual Testing 
will be a major asset to freeze a trouble–free design earlier than today. It will 
provide more mature aircraft to the customers at Entry Into Service, with few-
er  Service  Bulletins  or  post-entry  into  service  modifications.  This  will  be  a 
key asset for airliner satisfaction. 

The Consortium of 57 partners from 18 countries is made up of aircraft manufac-
turers,  material  behaviour  specialists,  software  developers,  computational  mechanics 
experts and test centres, both from industry and Academia institutions. The combina-

J. Gaudin and R. Herrmann / MAAXIMUS – Delivering Innovation

317

Figure 2. The MAAXIMUS map: 57 partners from 18 countries. 

Figure 3. ‘Multi-skill integration framework’ theme into Sub-projects. 

tion  of  such  experience  and  know-how  ensures  proper  capitalisation  of  results  from 
past and current national and international projects. 

The project is organized in a kind of matrix with 5 thematic hubs as they are Vir-
tual  Aircraft  Structure  Engineering  and  Manufacturing,  Numerical  Technologies  for 
Optimisation  and  Analysis,  Multi-skill  Integration  Framework,  Advanced  Composite 
Technology and Fuselage Design & Sub component Demonstration on one hand and 6 
Sub-Projects for cross-thematic skills like Project Management, Aircraft Requirements, 
Design, Analysis, Manufacturing & Assembly, Non-Destructive Investigation, and Test 
& Correlation on the other hand. 

 
318

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Cost Efficiency

2. Project Achievements 

Several milestones have now been reached: 

•  Composite  Fuselage  operational  requirements  and  relevant  metrics  are  com-

pleted; 

•  Virtual  Development  Challenges,  Virtual  testing  certification  requirements 

and metrics are completed; 

•  Preliminary Barrel Design, including the detailed lay-up design performed and 

limitations identified; 

•  The advanced Panel Concept has been delivered; 
•  Requirements and specifications for the MultiSkill Integration Framework, in-

cluding NDI, HPC and Test disciplines has progressed; 

•  The Reference Model for the barrel Gigadof challenge is available and opera-

tionally used by partners; 

•  Design of coupons/details/panels is finalized; 
•  Materials and processes are selected. 

The  relatively  low  loads  in  fuselages  for  business  jets  and  small  commercial  air-
crafts  and  current  design  principles  may  lead  to  very  thin  composite  structures.  Such 
thin composite skins and stiffeners may be much more prone to manufacturing defects 
and  robustness  issues  than  metallic  ones.  Also  the  composite  recurring  cost  is  also 
higher with the foreseen design principles than for metallic solutions. 

This is valid for both small commercial aircrafts and business aircraft. 
The current status versus the MAAXIMUS target is like this: 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

–10% Weight; 
–10% Manufacturing and assembly recurring cost; 
–50% Section Final Assembly Line time; 
–20% Development time; 
 –15% Development cost. 

Figure 4. Current status versus target. 

 
J. Gaudin and R. Herrmann / MAAXIMUS – Delivering Innovation

319

This means that more innovation would needed to reach the MAAXIMUS target. 
The next steps will be to validate the advanced damage and failure models at material 
level and panel level, to further explore more innovative design solutions and architec-
tures  to  find  better  weigh-cost  solutions  and  to  secure  High-Performance  Computing 
capabilities and integrate them into an industrial framework. 

Finally  the  benefits  of  MAAXIMUS  innovation  have  to  be  demonstrated  at  full-

scale level. 

3. Conclusion 

The main expected impact from MAAXIMUS is the higher competitiveness of the Eu-
ropean  aircraft  industry,  obtained  by  a  reduced  time-to-market  of  better  (lighter  and 
trouble-free) aircraft. Since the airframe manufacturers represented in MAAXIMUS are 
world actors of business jet, regional and commercial aircraft industry this ensures that 
the benefits from MAAXIMUS research and technological developments will be easily 
available for the airframe industry, with lower transfer time or industrial bottlenecks. 

The positive impact on the competitiveness of the European aircraft industry will 
be turned into direct positive employment impact by securing the overall sector situa-
tion. The project will also especially secure high-education employment, with a major 
effort  in  the  virtual  development  capabilities  (information  technology,  computational 
mechanics, and mathematics) on top of airframe related skills. This will help to develop 
careers with attractive high-tech content and will help to strengthen the quality of fu-
ture jobs in the aircraft industry. 

MAAXIMUS is a key enabler of Fast Development of Right First Time innovative 

aircraft: 

•  Major step in design robustness and predictive capabilities; 
•  Leap forward in the aircraft structure optimisation foundations; 
• 
Integrated CAD-CAM-CAE framework for aircraft Development; 
•  Targeting demonstration on a full-scale composite fuselage section. 

About the Authors 

Jocelyn Gaudin 
MAAXIMUS Project Coordinator 
Airbus Operations SAS 
316, route de Bayonne – BP M0121/3 
F- 31060 Toulouse Cedex 9 
jocelyn.gaudin@airbus.com 

Ralf Herrmann 
MAAXIMUS Project Coordinator 
Airbus Operations GmbH 
Airbus-Allee 1 
D-28199 Bremen 
Ralf.Herrmann@airbus.com 

 
320

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-320

Improved Material Exp oitation 
of Composite Airframe Structures 
by Accurate Simulation of Collapse  

l

The “COCOMAT” Project 

Richard DEGENHARDT 

Abstract. European aircraft industry demands for reduced development and oper-
ating costs, by 20% and 50% in the short and long term, respectively. Supported 
by  the  European  Commission,  the  research  project  called  “COCOMAT”  which 
started in January 2004 and finished in 2008 contributed to this aim. The objective 
was to allow for a structural weight reduction by exploiting considerable reserves 
in primary fibre composite fuselage structures through an accurate and reliable si-
mulation  of  post-buckling  and  collapse.  This  paper,  after  having  recalled  the  de-
tailed objectives of the project, gives an overview about the major results obtained. 

Keywords. Composite airframe structures, safe design, collapse, accurate simula-
tion, adaptive systems 

1. Introduction 

COCOMAT,  which  started  in  January  2004  and  was  finished  October  2008,  contri-
buted significantly to reduced development and operating costs. COCOMAT stands for 
Improved MATerial Exploitation at Safe Design of COmposite Airframe Structures by 
Accurate  Simulation  of  Collapse.  The  project  was  co-ordinated  by  DLR,  Institute  of 
Composite Structures and Adaptive Systems. It aims at allowing for a structural weight 
reduction  by  exploiting  considerable  reserves  in  primary  fibre  composite  fuselage 
structures  through  an  accurate  and  reliable  simulation  of  postbuckling  and  collapse 
[1,2]. 

The  COCOMAT  project  builds  up  on  the  results  of  the  FP5  POSICOSS  project 
which is the acronym of Improved Postbuckling SImulation for Design of Fibre COm-
posite Stiffened Fuselage Structures. POSICOSS developed improved, fast procedures 
for postbuckling analysis of fibre composite stiffened panels, created experimental data 
bases and derived design guidelines [3,4]. 

The COCOMAT project extends the POSICOSS results and goes beyond by a si-
mulation of collapse. That requires knowing about degradation due to static as well as 
low  cycle  loading  in  the  postbuckling  range.  It  is  well-known  that  thin-walled  struc-
tures  made  of  carbon  fibre  reinforced  plastics  are  able  to  tolerate  repeated  buckling 
without any change in their buckling behaviour. However, it had to be found out, how 
deep  into  the  postbuckling  regime  the  loading  can  be  extended  without  severely  da-
maging the structure, and how the behaviour can be predicted by fast and precise simu-
lation  procedures.  This  issue  was  dealt  with  by  COCOMAT.  COCOMAT  improved 

R. Degenhardt / Improved Material Exploitation of Composite Airframe Structures

321

Current  design scenario
Current  design scenario

Future design scenario
Future design scenario

Load
Load

Collapse (CL)
Collapse (CL)

Load
Load

III
III

Not allowed
Not allowed

III
III

Safety region
Safety region

Allowed under 
Allowed under 
operating flight 
operating flight 
conditions
conditions

II
II

I
I

Onset of
Onset of
degradation (OD)
degradation (OD)

Ultimate Load (UL)
Ultimate Load (UL)

Limit Load (LL)
Limit Load (LL)

First Buckling Load (1. BL)
First Buckling Load (1. BL)

II
II

I
I

CL
CL

UL
UL

OD
OD

LL
LL

1. BL
1. BL

Figure 1. Current and future design scenarios for typical stringer stiffened composite panels [4]. 

Shortening
Shortening

Shortening
Shortening

existing slow and fast simulation tools, created experimental data bases and set up de-
sign guidelines for stiffened panels taking skin stringer separation and material degra-
dation into account. 

The consortium merges knowledge from industrial partners (AGUSTA-Westland, 
AERNNOVA, HAI, IAI and PZL), 2 Small and Medium Enterprises (SAMTECH and 
SMR), 3 research establishments (DLR, FOI and CRC-ACS) and 5 universities (Poli-
tecnico  di  Milano,  RWTH  Aachen  and  University  of  Karlsruhe,  TECHNION  and 
Technical University of Riga). 

2. Objectives and Results 

COCOMAT mainly strives for accomplishing the large step from the current to a future 
design  scenario  of  typical  stringer  stiffened  composite  panels.  Figure  1  demonstrates 
the  aspired  achievements  by  means  of  a  simplified  load-shortening  curve  including 
buckling,  postbuckling  behaviour  and  collapse.  The  left  graph  illustrates  the  current 
industrial design scenario. 

Three different regions can be specified. Region I covers loads allowed under op-
erating flight conditions and is bounded by Limit Load (LL); region II is the safety re-
gion and extends up to Ultimate Load (UL); region III comprises the not allowed area 
which  reaches  up  to  Collapse.  In  aircraft  design  Ultimate  Load  amounts  to  150%  of 
Limit  Load.  There  is  still  a  large  unexploited  structural  reserve  capacity  between  the 
current Ultimate Load and Collapse. The right graph of Fig. 1 depicts the design scena-
rio aspired in future, where Ultimate Load is shifted towards Collapse as close as poss-
ible. Through that move the onset of degradation appears no longer in the not allowed 
region III but already in the safety region II. This is comparable to metallic structures 
where plasticity is permitted in the safety region. However, it must be guaranteed that 
in any case the onset of degradation must not occur below Limit Load. Moreover, the 
extension requires an accurate and reliable simulation of Collapse, which means to take 
into  account degradation under  static  as well  as under  low  cycle  loading  to  assure  its 
limited progression. 

 
322

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Cost Efficiency

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

]

N
k
[

d
a
o
L

0

0

Not correct because 
1) Degradation is not considered
2) Sensitive for modelling of the lateral boundary conditions

Collapse

Experiment P12
Abaqus, Nominal, No Imperfections
SOL 106, Compdat, No Imperfections
SOL 106, Compdat, With Imperfections
SOL 600, Compdat, No Imperfections
LS-Dyna, Compdat, No Imperfections

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

Shortening [mm]

Figure 2. Selected results on benchmarking [6]. 

The project results comprise a data base on material properties and on collapse of 
undamaged  and  pre-damaged  statically  and  cyclically  loaded  structures,  degradation 
models,  improved  slow  and  fast  computation  tools  for  statically  loaded  structures  as 
well as design guidelines, which take skin stringer separation and material degradation 
into account. The experimental data base was indispensable for validation of the analyt-
ically developed degradation models, which were implemented into the new tools and 
for verification of the computed results as well. 

3. Selected Results 

This section shows an overview about some main results. A list of papers already pub-
lished by the partners can be found at www.cocomat.de. 

3.1. Benchmarking 

The  partners  selected  two  panel  tests  from  the  POSICOSS  project  as  benchmarks  on 
undamaged structures. In order to obtain test results of a comparable pre-damaged pan-
el one panel from the POSICOSS project was refurbished, a minor damage was fixed, 
and then the panel was pre-damaged by IAI and tested by TECHNION. In addition, the 
consortium  exchanged  test  results  of  pre-damaged  benchmark  structures  with  Airbus 
Germany. The partners applied different finite element tools on the benchmarks in or-
der  to  simulate  the  structural  behaviour  up  to  collapse.  They  identified  abilities  and 
deficiencies  of  simulating  the  degradation.  Some  detailed  results  on  the  two  unda-
maged benchmarks were published in [5]. As an example Fig. 2 shows the load short-
ening  curve  of  an  undamaged  axially  loaded  CFRP  panel  provided  by  DLR  and  the 
comparison  with  simulations  by  means  of  the  commercial  tools  ABAQUS  and  NA-
STRAN. 

There is a good agreement of all curves from the pre-buckling region up to the first 
global buckling (at 1.4 mm shortening) where the stringers buckle. From that point on 
there  is  still  a  good  agreement  between  most  of  the  numerical  simulations.  However, 

 
 
R. Degenhardt / Improved Material Exploitation of Composite Airframe Structures

323

Figure 3. Family of slow certification computational tools. 

they deviate from the experimental results which is not unexpected because the numer-
ical simulation did not take degradation (e.g. material degradation, skin-stringer separa-
tion  or  the  delamination  in  the  stiffener  blade)  into  account.  This  demonstrated  the 
needs  for  improving  the  simulation  tools  to  include  the  effect  of  the  most  important 
types of degradation. In addition, the lateral boundary conditions largely influence the 
results in the far postbuckling region. Consequently, the boundary conditions must be 
modelled with great care. More details can be found in [6]. 

3.2. Improvement of Computational Tools 

This  main  workpackage  deals  with  the  improvement  of  slow  and  fast  computational 
tools, which take degradation into account. Very accurate but necessarily slow tools are 
required for the final certification, whereas reliable fast tools reducing design and anal-
ysis time by an order of magnitude, will allow for an economic design process. Finally, 
all  tools  are  validated  by  means  of  the  experimental  results  obtained  from  the  other 
workpackages. 

The first task concentrates on the improvement of slow simulation tools. The part-
ners adopted different approaches. Figure 3 gives an overview about the slow certifica-
tion tools considered and approaches for modelling the degradation. For simulating the 
skin-stringer separation of composite structures DLR developed an ABAQUS user sub-
routine and applied it to calculate the structural behaviour of panels up to collapse [5]. 
The  second  task  concentrates  on  the  improvement  of  design  procedures  for  the  fast 
simulation of collapse behaviour of stringer stiffened fibre composite panels. The tools 
are faster at least by a factor of 10 than respective Finite Element (FE) simulations at 
accuracy, which is sufficient for design purposes. 

A  diagram  representing  overall  precision  and  computing  time  of  fast  simulation 

procedures with degradation developed by the different partners is presented in Fig. 4. 

DLR considered the iBUCK which was developed in a previous project. iBUCK is 
a tool for the fast simulation of the postbuckling behaviour of aerospace structures [7]. 
The model is based on the Donnell type shell equations for thin, slightly curved shells 
that undergo large deflections. Stringers are considered as structural elements with in-
dependent degrees of freedom and are not “smeared” onto the skin. Continuity in terms 
of  rotation  at  the  interface  skin/stiffeners  and  in  terms  of  end-shortening  is  enforced. 
Local  and  global  buckling  modes  are  superposed,  where  local  buckling  is  defined  as 

324

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Cost Efficiency

SMRSMR
SMR

UKAUKA
UKA

Full FEM
Full FEM
Full FEM

RTU
RTU
RTU

Training
Training
Training

DLR
DLR

n
n
o
o
i
i
s
s
i
i
c
c
e
e
r
r
P
P

RTU
RTU
RTU

Fast tool
Fast tool
Fast tool

RWTH
RWTH

TECHNION
TECHNION

Seconds
Seconds

Minutes
Minutes

Hours
Hours

Days
Days

Computing Time
Computing Time

Figure 4. Family of fast design computational tools. 

Figure 5. Postbuckling shape obtained by iBUCK [7]. 

skin buckling and skin-induced stiffener rotation within a bay. During local buckling, 
the  stiffeners  themselves  are  not  allowed  to  deflect  in  out-of-plane  direction.  During 
global buckling, that is, buckling across several bays, the stringers may deflect in out-
of-plane direction, whereas the frames, being much heavier than the stringers, are fixed 
in out-of-plane direction. The panel may be loaded axially and bi-axially. In addition, 
one load case that is of special interest for the aircraft industry is included: the loading 
by an external bending moment in circumferential direction which may act in an open-
ing or closing mode. All external loads may be applied individually or in combination. 
In COCOMAT iBUCK was further developed to include composite materials and skin-
stringer separation. Figure 5 illustrates one postbuckling shape obtained by iBUCK. 

3.3. Panel Tests 

The main objective of the panel testing is the extension of the experimental data base 
on collapse of undamaged and pre-damaged stringer stiffened composite panels under 
static  and  low  cycle  loading.  19  undamaged  and  24  pre-damaged  panels  were  tested 
under different load cases (e.g. compression or shear) or load scenarios. The panels are 
grouped  into  6  different  designs  which  were  selected  from  a  design  pool  of  over  70 
panels designed at the beginning of the project. The design process for the panels de-
signed by DLR is described in detail in [6]. To study the degradation process experi-
mentally some panels were tested cyclically by several thousands cycles until a certain 

 
 
R. Degenhardt / Improved Material Exploitation of Composite Airframe Structures

325

level  (e.g.  70–95%  of  the  expected  collapse  load)  and  finally  until  collapse.  Cyclic 
loading  is  understood  here  as  repeated  static  loading.  To  measure  the  degradation 
process  (e.g.  skin-stringer  separation)  already  during  the  tests  advanced  measurement 
systems as thermography, ARAMIS and lamb waves are used. Details to the asurement 
systems used by DLR for selected panel tests were published in [8]. 

3.4. Design Guidelines 

All  project  results  were  summarised  in  design  guidelines  [9].  The  analysis  guidelines 
cover FE types and meshing, damage mechanisms, degradation models, recommenda-
tions regarding interface elements in the damage zone and ply failure models. Compar-
ison between various analysis codes is also provided. 

Lessons learned concerning testing of structures in the buckling regime were con-
cluded. The sensitivity of conventional design to damage of various sizes has been in-
vestigated,  and  conclusions  are  drawn  regarding  design  criteria.  Israel  Aerospace  In-
dustries  (IAI)  selected  two  structural  applications  for  industrial  validation,  where  the 
above-mentioned guidelines were successfully applied. 

4. Summary 

The main objective of the finished COCOMAT project is the future design scenario for 
stringer  stiffened  CFRP  panels  (Fig. 1).  COCOMAT  considers  simulation of  collapse 
by taking degradation into account. The results comprise an extended experimental data 
base, degradation models, and improved certification and design tools as well as design 
guidelines. The project demonstrated successfully that the postbuckling region can be 
further exploited for the industrial design applications. This paper deals with the main 
objectives and gives an overview about the main results of the project COCOMAT. A 
list of published papers by the partners can be found at www.cocomat.de. 

References 

[1]  R. Degenhardt, R. Rolfes, R. Zimmermann and K. Rohwer, “COCOMAT – Improved MATerial exploi-
tation at safe design of COmposite airframe structures by accurate simulation of COllapse”, Composite 
Structures, Vol. 73 (2006), pp. 175–17. 

[2]  www.cocomat.de. 
[3]  R.  Zimmermann  and  R.  Rolfes,  “POSICOSS  –  Improved  postbuckling  simulation  for  design  of  fibre 

composite stiffened fuselage structures”, Composite Structures, Vol. 73 (2006), pp. 171–174. 

[4]  www.posicoss.de. 
[5]  A.C.  Orifici,  R.S.  Thomson,  A.J.  Gunnion,  R.  Degenhardt,  H.  Abramovich  and  J.  Bayandor,  “Bench-
mark  finite  element  simulations  of  postbuckling  composite  stiffened  panels”,  11th  Australian  Interna-
tional Aerospace Congress, Melbourne, Australia, 13–17 March, 2005. 

[6]  R. Degenhardt, A. Kling, K. Rohwer, A.C. Orifici and R.S. Thomson, “Design and Analysis of Stiffened 
Composite Panels Including Postbuckling and Collapse”, Computers and Structures (paper in print, 2007, 
doi:10.1016/j.compstruc.2007.04.022). 

[7]  P.  Bürmann,  R.  Rolfes,  J.  Tessmer  and  M.  Schagerl,  “A  semi-analytical  model  for  local  postbuckling 
analysis  of  stringer-  and  frame-stiffened  cylindrical  panels”,  Thin-Walled  Structures,  Vol.  44  (2006), 
pp. 102–114. 

 
 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Cost Efficiency

[8]  R. Degenhardt, A. Kling, H. Klein, W. Hillger, Ch. Goetting, R. Zimmermann, K. Rohwer and A. Gleiter, 
“Experiments  on  Buckling  and  Postbuckling  of  Thin-Walled  CFRP  Structures  using  Advanced  Mea-
surement  Systems”,  International  Journal  of  Structural  Stability  and  Dynamics,  Vol.  7,  No.  2  (2007), 
pp. 337–358. 

[9]  G. Ghilai, E. Feldman and A. David, “COCOMAT Design and Analysis Guidelines for CFRP-Stiffened 
Panels  in  Buckling  and  Postbuckling”,  International  Journal  of  Structural  Stability  and  Dynamics, 
Vol. 10, No. 4 (2010), pp. 917–926. 

About the Author 

Richard Degenhardt 
DLR – Institute of Composite Structures and Adaptive Systems 
Lilienplatz 7 
D-38108 Braunschweig, Germany 
Richard.degenhardt@dlr.de 
www.dlr.de 

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-327

327

DOTNAC – Development and 
Optimization of THz NDT on Aeronautics 
Composite Multi-Layered Structures 

Marijke VANDEWAL 

Abstract.  Modern  aircraft  structures  have  to  comply  with  severe  requirements: 
they have to be light as well as safe. These requirements lead to an increased use 
of  composite  materials  in  the  aircraft  industry.  However,  new  materials  also  re-
quire new techniques in order to inspect aircraft components during production in 
a non-destructive  way. The European research programme “DOTNAC” proposes 
to develop a fast, high resolution, non-invasive and non-contact inspection system 
for  assessing  aeronautic  composite  parts  during  production.  The  THz  spectrum 
covers a frequency spectrum from the far to the mid-IR. 

Keywords. Terahertz (THz) detection, non-destructive testing, non-invasive com-
posite inspection, non-contact composite inspection 

1. Introduction 

Composite materials containing aramid fibres, glass fibres, carbon fibres, poly-urethane 
foam,  and  others,  used  in  specific  structures  such  as  honeycomb  and  sandwich  struc-
tures,  are  recognized  for  their  high  strength  to  weight  ratios,  and  have  found  use  as 
structural  components  in  demanding  applications  such  as  aircrafts.  Despite  these  ad-
vantages they have vulnerabilities that are most exposed during the manufacturing and 
maintenance  phases.  During  manufacturing,  problems  may  occur  during  the  layer 
build-up  stage  when  foreign  object  debris  (FOD)  parts  of  metal,  plastic,  backing  ma-
terial and/or other parts of fabrication-related debris can become embedded within the 
layers of uncured composite material. Such and other defects de-crease the integrity of 
layer adhesion and overall strength of a composite component leading to high rejection 
rates.  To  support  the  high  standards  of  composite  part  construction  and  repair,  new 
non-destructive  techniques  are  necessary  to  improve  the  efficacy  of  composite  part 
inspection, when existing techniques fail to. To meet this need, DOTNAC is develop-
ing a non-invasive, non-contact inspection system for assessing composite part condi-
tion. 

2. Added Value of a THz NDT Tool 

Over the past several years, there has been a significant interest in the potential of tera-
hertz (THz) detection for imaging of concealed weapons, explosives and chemical and 
biological  agents.  There  are  two  major  factors  contributing  to  this  interest:  (1)  Tera-
hertz radiation is readily transmitted through most non-metallic and non-polarized me-

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Cost Efficiency

Figure 1. Example of a calibration object to be tested with the THz NDT tool as well as the established NDT 
tools  such  as  RT,  UT,  and  IRT.  In  the  above  figure  the  material  can  be  fiberglass  or  quartz  laminates,  or 
sandwich structures. The red areas represent different types and sizes of inclusions. 

dia,  thus  enabling  THz  systems  to  ‘see-through’  materials,  (2)  THz  radiation  is  non-
ionizing and poses no health risk to the system’s operator. By taking advantage of these 
unique  radiation  properties,  THz  imaging  can  be  used  for  NDT  purposes:  FOD  and 
other defects such as delaminations, voids and heat damage can be identified in a varie-
ty of pre-cured and in-service composite structures. 

As optical techniques have been deployed widely for surface inspection and super-
ficial  flaws  and faults detection,  time  has  come  for  THz  systems  to  be  customized  to 
look deep into the aeronautical structure. Since the use of X-ray includes strict handling 
procedures, due to its danger to human exposure, and ultrasound NDT can lack preci-
sion, the possibility to detect deep into the structure is being advertised by THz remote 
sensing. THz measurement techniques can therefore be important for NDT as a com-
pleting solution to others. 

Nowadays not much research is being performed and hence very few publications 
exist on THz imaging in air transport NDT, and little is known on how typical compo-
site material defects such as delamination, porosities and inclusions can be de-tected by 
THz waves. 

3. Objectives 

The  main  goal  of  the  DOTNAC  project  is  to  de-velop  a  fast,  high  resolution,  non-
invasive  and  non-contact  inspection  system  for  assessing  aeronautic  composite  parts 
during production. The developed NDT tool will be easy to integrate in industrial facil-
ities  and  will  fill  in  the  performance  gaps  that  are  still  present  amongst  the  existing 
NDT tech-niques; it will therefore be an extremely useful tool in NDT in terms of sen-
sor  fusion.  Indeed,  as  often  in  the  domain  of  NDT,  this  new  method  will  not  replace 
directly  the  existing  NDT  tools, but will  deliver  complementary  results  which  can  be 
some-times more precise for some defects (like delamina-tion or water ingress). 

To achieve this overall goal, several underlying objectives will be set and conse-
quently achieved: the assessment of aeronautic relevant composite materials and occur-
ring  defects  (Fig.  1),  the  creation  of  two  fast,  non-mechanical  THz  imaging  systems 

 
M. Vandewal / DOTNAC – Development and Optimization of THz NDT

329

Figure  2.  For  the  demonstration  of  the  proof  of  concept  at  the  end  of  the  project,  a  radome-like  object  as 
shown in this figure will be tested in-situ with the developed THz NDT tool. 

(one  using  pulsed  signals  and  optical  fibre  coupling,  the  other  one  continuous  wave 
signals  and  electrical  cable  coupling),  the building  of  a 3D  scanning  system  enabling 
the THz imaging systems with associated command, control and data processing soft-
ware, the final integration of the two THz systems (separately) and the 3D scanner will 
allow  the  DOTNAC  project  maximum  liberty  of  movement  to  scan  the  object  under 
inspection  (Fig.  2),  and  the  according  optimization  of  2  complementary  signal 
processing and imaging software. 

To finally achieve the main goal, the above developed hard- and software will be 
integrated and optimized, the THz NDT tool will be used to image the initially defined 
composite  materials  and  structures,  and  the  results  will  be  compared  with  well-
developed NDT systems. Finally, a global assessment of the THz system performances 
with respect to the composite materials and defects relevant in air transport will be per-
formed. 

4. Non Destructive Testing 

A high-performance NDT tool should combine a number of characteristics such as res-
olution,  penetration  depth,  flexible  measurement  set-up  (trans-mission  and  reflexion 
measurements)  and  easy  industrial  integration.  Additionally  an  NDT  tool  should  be 
preferably  contact-free  and  safe.  Established  non-destructive  methods  for  the  quality 
inspection and control of composite materials are ultrasonic testing (UT), radiographic 
testing (RT), millimetre wave (MMW) imaging and infrared thermography (IRT). Re-
garding  actual  NDT  capabilities,  there  is  a  need  of  innovative  systems.  The  main  re-
quested improvements are the following ones: 

•  Sensor resolution increase: defects are currently considered during parts calcu-
lations,  through  specific  margins.  So,  if  the  resolution  is  improved  (coupled 
with  good  results  regarding  critical  defect  size  characterization,  through  me-
chanical studies), one can assume to generate weight saving; 

 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Cost Efficiency

Table 1. The principal characteristics of the main NDT methods used in aeronautical materials and compo-
nents (limited to non-metallic materials and sub-surface and/or in-depth defects 

Test type 

Applied to 
non-metallic 
materials 

X-Rays 

Very good 

Ultrasound  Very good 

IRT 

Very good 

Defect types 

Superficial and 
internal 
Superficial and 
internal 
Superficial and 
sub superficial 

Application 
time 

Slow 

Slow / Me-
dium 
Medium/Fast 

Observations 

Requires installation and special 
handling 
Requires installation and specific 
techniques 
Requires installation and specific 
techniques (cheaper than ultrasound) 

• 

•  Measurement  speed  improvement:  the  measurement  of  large  parts  requires  a 
lot of time. A significant improvement of control speed is very interesting for 
industry (for cost saving and capability increase); 
Integration  improvement:  systems  such  as  RT  and  UT  water  jet  systems  are 
very complicated to integrate into facilities and require complex maintenance. 
New  systems  have  to  be  cheaper  in  terms  of  investments  costs  (acquisition, 
maintenance and facility integration) and should have advanced on site capaci-
ties. 

Table 1 [1] shows the principal characteristics of the main NDT methods used in 
aeronautical  materials  and  components  (limited  to  non-metallic  materials  and  sub-
surface and/or in-depth defects). 

5. THz Systems 

Terahertz  (THz)  wave  radiation  is  defined  as  the  far-infrared  (FIR)  electromagnetic 
radiation between 0.1 and 10 THz (1 THz = 1012 Hz) as shown in Fig. 3. Inefficient 
generation  techniques  and  high  atmospheric  absorption  constrained  early  interest  and 
funding for THz science.  

Over  the  last  decade,  the  THz  domain  has  been  opened  up,  and  it  has  become  a 
rich field for fundamental physics and technological application. Two main approaches 
exist: pulsed and continuous-wave (CW) THz systems and both can be used as a sens-
ing or imaging tool. This project will use a pulsed THz system also referred to as a time 
do-main  (TD)  system  [2],  as  well  as  a  frequency  modulated  continuous  wave  system 
(FMCW).  

In recent years, THz wave pulsed systems and applications have been oriented to 
spectroscopy  and  imaging.  The  generated  pulses  are  either  reflected  or  transmitted 
through a sample (both transmission and reflection mode are possible) and detected in 
amplitude and phase. Typical experiments aim at  measuring absorption, refractive in-
dex or conductivity of a sample at THz frequencies [3]. Further intriguing possibilities 
lay in the three-dimensional visualization of echoes of THz pulses from internal inter-
faces enlightening the internal structure of a sample. 

Frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) techniques are ideal when avail-
able  transmitter  power  is  limited  and  high  detector  sensitivity  is  needed  [4].  For  the 
signal generation a transmitter uses a chirped signal centered at a certain frequency. Up 
till now FMCW up to 100 GHz is quite standard, but only a few papers are known at 

M. Vandewal / DOTNAC – Development and Optimization of THz NDT

331

Figure  3. Definitions of the THz spectral band and comparison with the spectral band of RT, IRT, MMW 
and visual inspection. 

Figure 4. Transmission images for detection of porosity within ceramic (left) and of inhomogeneous distri-
bution of functional additives in plastics matrix (right) using TD-THz (©Fh-IPM). 

300 GHz and 600 GHz. For DOTNAC three different frequencies will be used in one 
setup: 100 GHz, 300 GHz and 830 GHz. The latter one is very novel and corresponds 
to the high end of the components. One of the major advantages is that the systems are 
all  electronic  systems.  There  is  no  mechanically  moving  part  and  no  laser  is  needed. 
Therefore  these  systems  promise  to  be  industrial  grade  systems.  They  can  be  easily 
integrated  into  systems  or  on  scanners,  because  the  transceiver  and  detector  are  con-
nected to the base unit by electrical cables only. Despite the known NDT applications 
(Fig.  4),  only  a  few  works  of  using  THz  technique  for  NDT  in  aviation/space  are 
known [5]: 

•  The most famous one is the control of the foam isolation of the external fuel 
tank  of  the  space  shuttle.  During  the  NASA  program  “Return  to  flight”  the 
THz  technique  was selected above other  methods during the  technology  dis-
covery phase; 

 
 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Cost Efficiency

•  Carbon fibre composites have been tested in order to detect structural defects 
at the surface caused by temperature in excess of 200 °C. These damages are 
often not obvious upon visual inspection. Even when there are visible signs of 
damage, it is difficult to judge the ex-tent of the damage. The THz technique 
was able to determine the structural integrity of the carbon fibre component. 

6. Conclusions 

The DOTNAC THz-NDT tool will be tested and validated on a representative variety 
of composite materials used in aeronautics and this for a range of commonly occurring 
defects. A global assessment of THz system configuration with respect to a certain de-
fect in a specific composite material will become available. 

Because  of  the  rapidly  increasing  use  of  composites,  especially  in  critical  parts, 
nearly  any  industry  (civilian  and  military)  that  fabricates  and/or  maintains  composite 
structures can benefit – both in terms of cost savings and part integrity. Among a few 
potential  applications  are  the  non-destructive  inspection  of  composite  radomes,  ship 
hulls, rudders and propellers. 

7. DOTNAC Consortium 

Innov Support – Belgium; 

−  Royal Military Academy (RMA) – Belgium; 
−  Verhaert New Products & Services – Belgium; 
− 
−  Technische Universität Kaiserslautern (UNI-KL) – Germany; 
−  Fraunhofer Gesellschaft e.V. (Fh-IPM) – Germany; 
−  CNRS – France; 
−  Centro de Tecnologias Aeronauticas (CTA) – Spain; 
−  Applus+ LGAI Technological Centre S.A. – Spain; 
−  CIMNE – Spain; 
− 

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) – Israel. 

References 

[1]  D. Roach, “An inspector calls”, Aerospace Testing International, 2005. 
[2]  F.  Ellrich,  T.  Weinland,  D.  Molter,  J.  Jonu-scheit  and  R.  Beigang,  “Compact  fiber-coupled  terahertz 
spectroscopy system pumped at 800 nm wavelength”, Rev. Sci. Instrum., Vol. 82, 2011, p. 053102. 
[3]  R. Yahiaoui, H. Nemec, P. Kuzel, F. Kadlec and P. Mounaix, “Broadband dielectric terahertz metamate-

rials with negative permeability”, Optics Letters, Vol. 34, No. 22, November 2009. 

[4]  G.  Chattopadhyay,  K.B.  Cooper,  R.  Dengler,  T.E.  Bryllert,  E.  Schlecht,  A.  Skalare,  I.  Mehdi  and 
P.H. Siegel,  “A  600  GHz  Imaging  Radar  for  Contraband  Detection”,  Proceeding  of  19th  International 
Symposium on Space Terahertz Technology, 2008, pp. 300–303. 

[5]  A.  Redo-Sanchez,  N.  Karpowicz,  J.  Xu  and  X.C.  Zhang,  Damage  and  defect  inspection  with  terahertz 
waves, The 4th International Work-shop on Ultrasonic and Advanced Methods for Nondestructive Test-
ing and Material Characteriza-tion, N. Darmouth, MA, 2006, pp. 67–78. 

[6]  R.F. Anastasi and E.I. Mandaras, Terahertz NDE for metallic surface roughness evaluation, in: The 4th 
international workshop on ultrasonic and advanced methods for nondestructive testing and material cha-
racterization, 2006, pp. 57–62. 

M. Vandewal / DOTNAC – Development and Optimization of THz NDT

333

About the Author 

Dr-Ing. Marijke Vandewal is Associate Professor at: 
Royal Military Academy 
Department CISS 
Hobbemastraat 8 
B-1000 Brussels (Belgium) 
Tel.: +32 2 742 6563 
marjke.vandewal@rma.ac.be 
www.rma.ac.be 

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Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-334

Modular Joints for Composite Aircraft 
Components 

Llorenç LLOPART PRIETO 

Abstract.  Modular  Joints  for  composite  aircraft  components  (MOJO  –  Modular 
Joints) European research project was set to introduce a material driven design for 
aeronautics  composite  components.  Composites  are  associated  with  integration, 
complexity,  manufacturing  risk,  weight  savings  and  high  costs.  Cost  savings  are 
achieved with out-of-autoclave infusion processes and tailored preforms  made of 
high performance textiles. Adhesive bonding, as the most compatible joining me-
thod  for  composite  parts,  provides  also  significant  cost  and  weight  savings.  The 
challenge  was  to  create  synergy  between  preform  infusion  and  adhesive  bonding 
processes supporting differential design principles. This last allows the decrease of 
highly integration and reduces the manufacturing risk. 

Keywords.  Aircraft  components,  3D-woven  preforms,  compacting  techniques, 
modular joints 

1. The Principle of “MOJO” 

The principle of MOJO lays in the design of Carbon Fabric Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) 
joining elements for pure shear load transfer, avoiding peel stresses. The shapes of the 
joining  elements  are  defined  by  a  number  of  standard  attachment  situations.  Highly 
loaded  shaped  joints  are  integrated  into  the  skin  using  3D-reinforcements  in  order  to 
take  up  out-of-plane  loads.  Simplified  structural  elements  are  subsequently  inserted 
into the joints and bonded using adhesives. 

MOJO focused on Pi-, H-, L- , and T-profiles (Fig. 1). The preforms were manu-

factured in a direct performing process using weaving and other direct technologies. 

From the scientific point of view the focus is laid on the application of especially 
3D-Woven  preforms  in  order  to  alter  the  failure  mechanism  in  favour  of  higher  limit 
loads and overall improved mechanical performance (Fig. 2). 

World’s  first  industrial  3D-weaving  machine  became  operational  on  21  January 
2009 heralding a major breakthrough in 5000 years of weaving history. Set to weave on 
a positive note, it directly wove a profile using carbon fibres in a flawless manner. This 

Figure 1. Modular joining elements developed and manufactured in MOJO. 

 
 
L. Llopart Prieto / Modular Joints for Composite Aircraft Components

335

Figure 2. Possibilities of 3D-Woven performs. 

Figure 3. Preforming using compacting techniques. 

first industrial 3D-weaving machine was jointly developed by Biteam AB and Depart-
ment of Lightweight Structures, KTH, Stockholm, under MOJO. The 3D-weaving ma-
chine, based on the technology invented by Dr Nandan Khokar, is aimed to be gradual-
ly  employed  to  produce  advanced  and  complex  profiles.  It  is  designed  to  process  a 
maximum of 3600 warp yarns in a 60 columns x 60 rows arrangement. Accordingly, 60 
vertical wefts and 60 horizontal wefts can be inserted into the sheds of their respective 
directions. To produce a profile, only the necessary number of warp yarns are arranged 
and fed in accordance with the required profile’s cross-section and the dimensions [1,2]. 
Different tooling, heating and cooling concepts were analysed and a preform pro-
duction  line  was build  at DLR  in  Brauschweig  (Fig. 3). With  the preform  production 
line it is now possible to manufacture H-shaped preforms in a continuous manner and 
fully  automatically.  While  using  a  new  heating  technology  (“inductive  heating”),  the 
cycle time can drastically be reduced [3]. 

 
 
 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Cost Efficiency

Figure  4. Types of connections, 3D-reinforced joints, and design concepts, analysed in MOJO. These alter 
the failure mode improving the mechanical performance. 

Figure 5. Determination of Mechanical performance of Modular Joints. 

Stitching  technology  was  applied  in  order  to  implement  the  necessary  3D-
reinforcement. An integrated Velcro pin stripe (VPS) for laminate reinforcements in z-
direction has been developed and manufactured as an alternative technique to the dif-
ferent existing stitching methods. The functionality of the VPS and the potential of z-
pinning  with  micro  carbon  rods  (MCR)  placed  in  a  flat  carrier  material  have  been 
shown (Fig. 4). 

The infiltration was tried in a direct process using pultrusion. The assembly of pre-
forms and cured parts required new strategies and methods, which have been addressed 
in the development of new rigs. Methods were investigated and developed in order to 
safely apply adhesive bonding on modular join elements to ensure cost savings [4–6]. 
The  mechanical  performance  was  determined  with  an  extensive  testing  programme 
according to the Rouchon pyramid also called building block approach (Fig. 5). 

All developments and tasks were supported by means of modelling and simulation: 
To  Support  adhesive  bonding  process  &  on  Woven  structures  as  well  as  analyse  the 
Failure on different structure level testing. Detailed analysis descriptions can be found 
on the referenced publications [7–15]. 

 
 
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337

Figure 6. Choice of the demonstrator by means of the strategic industrial application of modular joints. 

Figure 7. The MOJO – Demonstrator winner of the 2010 JEC Innovation award on Process. 

The activities were complimented with an effects-of-defect research task in order 

to assess structural consequences of most common manufacturing damages. 

The proof of the design concept has been performed by means of a full size aero-
space  application  that  featured  within  all  MOJO  developed  elements  (Fig.  6).  It  has 
been  evaluated  from  manufacturing  to  the  mechanical  test.  Furthermore,  it  has  been 
shown that cost savings and weight savings are achieved at magnitudes of 60% in serial 
production study and 50%, respectively. The results have been published as guidelines 
and  design  rules  including  a  catalogue  of  engineering  elements  supplied  at  European 
level. 

The MOJO demonstrator is one of the very first representative aeronautical struc-
tures  designed  for  assembly  by  structural  adhesive  bonding,  which  provides  damage 
tolerance characteristics (Fig. 7). 

It  will  ultimately  find  use  in  different  domains  by  different  end-users,  including 
SABCA, Dassault-Aviation, Premium Aerotec, Cassidian and Eurocopter. Applications 

 
 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Cost Efficiency

will  include  stiffened  wing-skin  panels,  vertical  and  horizontal  tail  planes,  flap-track 
beams, cargo and pax doors, cargo- and pax-door surroundings, as well as unmanned 
air vehicles. The main components of this closed beam were manufactured with out-of 
autoclave infusion processes such as Resin Transfer Moulding (RTM) for the top and 
side panels, and Vacuum Assisted Resin Infusion (VARI) process for the lower panel. 
The project could not be carried out as quickly and efficiently without a strong in-
terdisciplinary European consortium. Indeed, it required capabilities and expertise that 
are spread over several countries, and all of these were necessary to gain the maximal 
benefit of the project: Design and preliminary production experience of 3D woven pro-
files and loom design and manufacture expertise are in Sweden by Biteam and Royal 
Institute  of  Technology.  Preforming,  infusion  and  bonding  capabilities  are  mainly  in 
Germany  and  France,  where  corresponding  experience  and  investment  already  exist. 
Cassidian,  Dassault  Aviation,  EADS  Innovation  Works,  Eurocopter,  German  Aero-
space  Center,  Premium  AEROTEC,  S.A.B.C.A  and  SECAR  Technology.  Analysis 
took place in Greece by University of Patras and in Australia by the Co-operative Re-
search Centre for Advanced Composite Structures and testing at the Czech Republic by 
Aeronautical  Research  and  Test  Institute  in  organisations,  which,  with  lower  hourly 
rates,  delivered  more  output  for  money.  SME’s  are  regarded  as  potential  suppliers  of 
woven profile preforms and consolidated profiles for follow on commercialisation. The 
project started in 2006 and was completed in 39 months. 

Structural bonding is still not a widely accepted alternative to riveting. Therefore, 
demonstration  projects  like  MOJO,  leading  to  the  cost  and  performance  benefits  de-
scribed, will help change minds and gain a wider acceptance, opening the way to “ri-
vetless” CFRP structures. 

References 

[1]  Biteam’s Press Release was published in a number of trade journals relating to composite materials in 

2009. 

[2]  N.  Khokar,  Developing a Family of Generic Profiled  3D Textile Pre-form for Modular Construction, 

Airtec 2007. 

[3]  T. Stroehlein, S. Niemann, M. Frauenhofer, L. Herbeck and K. Dilger, Continuous Inductive Preform-
ing  for  RTM-Production,  2nd  International  CFK-Valley  Stade  Convention,  The  Expert  Forum  for 
Lightweight Construction. 

[4]  J.  Cinquin,  H.  Voillaume,  T.  Stroehlein  and  R.  Ruzec,  Modular  joining  of  B-stage  cured  composite 
element with forming process and film adhesive for structural application, ICCM17, Edinburg, 27–31 
July 2009. 

[5]  10/08/2007: FR0705810, WO 2009 021885. J. Cinquin, Methodes of manufacturing of complex struc-

tures made of composite by assembling rigid components. 

[6]  18/08/2009:  FR0955699.  J.  Cinquin,  H.  Voillaume,  Procédé  de  fabrication  de  pièces  composites  per-

mettant une réparabilité desdites pièces. 

[7]  K.I. Tserpes and G.N. Labeas, Mesomechanical Modeling of Non-Crimp Fabric Composite Structural 

Parts, Composite Structures, accepted for publication (2008). 

[8]  F. Stig and S. Hallström, Assessment of the Mechanical Properties of a new 3D Woven Fibre Compo-

site Material, Composites Science and Technology, accepted for publication (2008). 

[9]  P. Burka, X. Liu, J. Sheridan and M Thompson, Adhesive Flow in Composite Pi-Joints, submitted to 
ACCM6 the Sixth Asia-Australasian Conference on Composite Materials 23–26 September 2008, Ku-
mamoto Japan. 

[10]  K.I. Tserpes and G.N. Labeas, Mesomechanical analysis of non-crimp fabric composite structural parts, 

Composite Structures 87, 358–369. 

[11]  P. Ll.  Llopart,  K.I. Tserpes and G.N. Labeas, Experimental and theoretical investigation of the influ-
ence  of  imperfect  bonding  on  the  strength  of  non-crimp  fabric  double-lap  shears  joints,  Composite 
Structures, 92, 2009, 1673–1682. 

L. Llopart Prieto / Modular Joints for Composite Aircraft Components

339

[12]  K.I. Tserpes, Sp. Pantelakis and V. Kappatos, The effect of imperfect bonding on the pull-out behavior 

of non-crimp fabric Pi-shaped joints, Computational Materials Science, 50(4), pp. 1372–1380. 

[13]  K.I.  Tserpes  and  G.N.  Labeas,  Numerical  failure  analysis  of  a  flap-track  beam  made  of  novel  non-
crimp fabric composites, in: Proceedings of the Composites 2009 Conference (1–3 April 2009, London, 
UK), Edited by S. Pinho, 2009. 

[14]  Sp. Pantelakis, V. Kappatos and K.I. Tserpes, Ultrasonic inspection of imperfect bonding and its effects 

on the mechanical behavior of NCF Pi-shaped joints, presented in: EUROMAT2009, 2009. 

[15]  Sp. Pantelakis, K.I. Tserpes and V. Kappatos, The effect of imperfect bonding on the mechanical per-
formance of non-crimp fabric Pi-shaped joints: A numerical study based on ultrasonic C-scan data, pre-
sented in: ICWMM19, 2009 

About the Author 

Dr Llorenç Llopart Prieto 
Development Engineer at Premium AEROTEC GmbH 
Composite Materials & Processes (PETM) 
Haunstetter Strasse 225 
D- 86179 Augsburg 
Tel.: +49 821 801 63727 
llorenc.llopart@premium-aerotec.com 
www.premium-aerotec.com 

340

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-340

Structural Health Monitoring Systems 
in Airbus Military 

Javier GÓMEZ-ESCALONILLA, Jorge CABREJAS and Jose I. ARMIJO 

Abstract.  Systematic  monitoring  of  the  health  and  the  usage  of  the  airframe  is 
considered essential for continued airworthiness in most military regulations [1–3]. 
Although  initially  applied  to  fighters,  it  is  now  common  practice  for  most  Air 
Forces to require a structural monitoring program to be in place by the time every 
newly acquired military aircraft enters operational service, in order to increase op-
erational availability, and to reduce costs of ownership. 

Keywords. Airbus military, health monitoring, structures, usage monitoring func-
tion, operational loads monitoring functions, usage-based maintenance 

1. The Aim of a Structural Health Monitoring System 

From a practical point of view, the aim of a structural health monitoring system is to 
provide information about the usage of individual aircraft and the impact on the corres-
ponding fatigue damage consumption of the airframe, to: 

•  Assess if each individual aircraft is being operated within the design usage as-

sumptions; 

•  Enable structural assessments based on actual individual aircraft usage; and 
•  Maximise aircraft’s reliability and minimize the cost of ownership, by avoid-
ing unscheduled expensive inspections or component changes or repairs, with 
the associated reductions in fleet availability. 

2. About Monitoring Systems Architectures 

There is no standard architecture for monitoring systems. Instead, a case-by-case analy-
sis is conducted by the air forces to select the most appropriate system for each particu-
lar platform, based on both the size and cost of the fleet, and the expected variability in 
usage. Over the years, the military industry has provided a range of different technical 
solutions  of  increasing  accuracy  and  complexity  to  meet  the  different  requirements. 
The  simplest  monitoring  system  involves  recording  –  in  many  cases  with  a  manual 
process based on crew forms – only several significant parameters, such as flying hours 
or flight cycles for each aircraft. This concept is particularly appropriate for long-range 
transport  aircraft  where  the  operational  role  is  well  defined.  When  operational  roles 
vary, the former approach is expanded to record other significant parameters that may 
contribute to fatigue damage, for example, weight and stores configuration. 

However, probably the most popular structural monitoring system is still the ‘fati-
gue meter’. This device just registers counts of the acceleration in the vertical axis at 

J. Gómez-Escalonilla et al. / Structural Health Monitoring Systems in Airbus Military

341

the aircraft centre of gravity, which is useful to define the loading the airframe is sub-
jected to. To relate component stresses to loads, the output of the fatigue meter is com-
bined with the collection of the significant parameters explained before. 

It must be pointed out that the ‘fatigue meter’ is only good for measuring loads in 
components where there is good correlation between ‘g’ levels and stresses in the struc-
ture, basically  the  inner wing  and  parts of  the  centre fuselage. However,  this  concept 
takes no account of rolling or yawing, nor does it provide data to measure the loading 
in structure which is not related to vertical accelerations at the centre of gravity, so the 
assessment of elements such as the rear fuselage or the tail plane has to be performed in 
terms of flight hours or flight cycles only. 

The  collection  of  basic  flight  data  and  the  fatigue  meters  are  complemented  in 
some cases by Operational Loads Monitoring (OLM) programs. The objective of these 
programmes  is  to  obtain  time  history  records  of  strain  data  so  that  the  actual  loading 
can be determined for the critical areas of the airframe. A representative sample (e.g., 
10 or 20%) of operational aircraft is usually instrumented for this purpose. OLM pro-
grams  are  usually  not  permanent,  being  conducted  with  a  predefined  periodicity  or 
reintroduced when the changes in operational usage that may affect the loading envi-
ronment are identified. 

3. The Structural Health Monitoring System (SHMS) Developed by Airbus 

Military 

In recent years, all these approaches have been progressively replaced by modern flight 
recorders capable of collecting both flight and strain data. With these devices, structural 
loads can be derived directly from the data obtained from a fleet-wide instrumentation 
while the flight data provides the ability to identify typical operational profiles of the 
fleet,  useful  to  investigate  usage  patterns.  However,  the  great  capability  of  such  sys-
tems is at the same time their main drawback, as they are costly to develop and support. 
The  Structural  Health  Monitoring  System  (SHMS)  developed  by  Airbus  Military  for 
the C-295 – a high wing, pressurised, twin turboprop tactical transport aircraft capable 
of operating from short, unpaved runways – and the A330-MRTT – Multi Role Tanker 
Transport, a conversion of the civil A330-200 platform into a tanker version – are an 
evolution of this family of systems, in an attempt to keep their major advantages while 
minimizing their own life cycle costs [5]. 

3.1. The Architecture 

The  SHMS  is  essentially  a  combination  of  sensors,  data  acquisition  technology  and 
algorithms (Fig. 1). It is composed of a fleet-wide recorder for the collection and sto-
rage of flight data from the avionics of the aircraft, and a centralized ground unit capa-
ble of analyzing and reporting aircraft usage, and of performing a periodic calculation 
of fatigue damage consumption for individual units of the fleet. The system has also a 
range  of  mechanisms  to  detect  malfunctions  and,  within  reasonable  levels,  correct 
them. 

The  architecture  of  the  SHMS  consists  of  two  main  functions.  On  one  side,  the 
Usage Monitoring Function (UMF), which is based on the acquisition and assessment 
of pertinent flight data (e.g., velocity, accelerations, altitude, fuel usage, etc.) to identify 
changes in the usage pattern of individual aircraft from that originally planned. 

342

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Cost Efficiency

Figure 1. Structural Health Monitoring System concept. 

Figure 2. Virtual sensors arrangement in C-295 and A330-MRTT. 

On the other side, the Operational Loads Monitoring Function (OLMF) aims at the 
acquisition of the information necessary to define the actual loads experienced by the 
aircraft structure. Unlike in other systems, the OLMF is not based on physical sensors, 
but on a set of virtual strain gauges derived from either analytical models or by using 
Artificial  Neural  Networks  [4].  This  solution  overcomes  the  main  disadvantages  of 
other modern structural monitoring systems, because the virtual sensors minimize the 
installation and maintenance costs, reduce to a minimum the list of embodied elements 
therefore minimizing the costs, and maximize the reliability of the sensors. 

The initial number and location of those virtual sensors has been determined after 
an analysis of the structural components that must be monitored for airworthiness rea-
sons. Additional sensors have been included in order to have flexibility to monitor, for 
example, future structural modifications due to the installation of new systems, which 
is a quite usual practice in military aircraft. The virtual strain gauges can also be used 
to track structural repairs, or components or structure which would benefit from a mon-
itoring program due to their time and cost of replacement. The result is a dense network 
of sensors covering all the main load paths in the different components of the aircraft 
(Fig. 2). 

J. Gómez-Escalonilla et al. / Structural Health Monitoring Systems in Airbus Military

343

The  information  collected  by  the  virtual  sensors  is  processed  in  terms  of  fatigue 
damage consumption and crack growth rates in the selected locations. The outputs are 
provided  in  the  form  of  updated  inspection  thresholds  and  intervals  for  the  relevant 
tasks of the maintenance program. 

3.2. The Usage-Based Maintenance Concept 

The capabilities of the SHMS enables the Usage-Based Maintenance (UBM) concept, 
in which customized actions can be taken for individual aircraft operating at a different 
than  anticipated  scenario,  thus  optimizing  the  operating  costs  and  preventing  further 
costly damages. This concept represents a major improvement with respect to the static 
current practices and significantly improves the reliability and availability of the fleet, 
while allowing a tailored management of the safety. Thus, the damage tolerant structure 
of  the  C-295  and  A330-MRTT  –  cleared  by  an  inspection-based  regime  –  can  have 
more accurately defined inspections, allowing actions not achievable with the standard 
approach, such as tailored periodicity of inspections for each individual aircraft or par-
ticular management of inspections during deployments. 

Although in the literature is usual to identify the term ‘Structural Health Monitor-
ing’ (SHM) with the development of techniques and systems for damage detection to 
report the condition of aircraft, the UBM concept can be considered already as a true 
SHM  technique  in  the  sense  that  in  the  military  aviation  it  is  preferred  a  complete 
prognostic capability in order to understand how the operational roles – either current 
or future – of the aircraft impact on the fatigue damage accrual of each individual air-
craft, and how a tailored maintenance and fleet  management can help to preserve the 
aircraft to its planned withdrawal date without unforeseen unit retirements. 

4. Future Developments 

The current functions of the SHMS explained above (i.e., Usage Monitoring Function 
and Operational Loads Monitoring Function) could be complemented in the future with 
a third one called Condition Monitoring Function (CMF), by means of the installation 
of sensors having the capability to automate the structural inspections. The incorpora-
tion of these sensors will be highly selective, initially focused on components prone to 
accidental damage, in elements needing temporary frequent inspections or in locations 
in  which  standard  inspections  are  costly.  With  this  new  function,  the  Usage-Based 
Maintenance (UBM) approach will be evolved to achieve the Usage+Condition Based 
Maintenance (U+CBM), in which the combination of diagnostic and prognostic capa-
bilities of the system will represent a new paradigm for structural maintenance of the 
Airbus Military products. 

5. Conclusion 

The Structural Health Monitoring Systems developed by Airbus military for the C-295 
and the A330-MRTT have been conceived to be the essential part of a routine reporting 
framework  about  the  structural  life  of  individual  aircraft  and/or  aircraft  components, 
while minimizing at the same time the development and maintenance costs of the sys-
tem  itself.  The  design  of  the  outputs  enables  the  Usage-Based  Maintenance  (UBM) 

344

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Cost Efficiency

concept,  providing  sufficient  feedback  to  both  engineering  and  operational  staffs  for 
structural integrity and fleet management purposes, respectively. 

References 

[1]  Australian Air Publication 7001.054, Airworthiness Design Requirements Manual, 06 Jun 2007. 
[2]  DEF STAN 00-970, Design and Airworthiness Requirements for Service Aircraft, Part 1, 31 Jan 2011. 
[3]  MIL-STD-1530, Aircraft Structural Integrity Program (ASIP), issue C, 01 Nov 2005. 
[4]  J.  Gómez-Escalonilla,  J.  García,  M.  Andrés  and  J.I.  Armijo,  Strain  predictions  using  Artificial  Neural 
Networks for a full-scale fatigue monitoring system, 6th DSTO International Conference on Health and 
Usage Monitoring, Melbourne, Australia, 2009. 

[5]  J. Gómez-Escalonilla, J. García, J. Cabrejas and J.I. Armijo, A full scale parametric-based fatigue moni-
toring  system  using  neural  networks,  24th  International  Committee  for  Aeronautical  Fatigue  (ICAF) 
Symposium, Naples, Italy, 2007. 

About the Authors 

Javier Gómez-Escalonilla 
Javier.Gomez-Escalonilla@military.airbus.com 
Jorge Cabrejas 
Jorge.Cabrejas@military.airbus.com 
Jose I. Armijo 
Jose.Armijo@military.airbus.com 
Airbus Military 
Fatigue and Fracture Mechanics Department 
P° John Lennon s/n 
28906 Getafe (Madrid), Spain 
www.military-airbus.com 

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-345

345

LTCC: A Packaging Technology Suitable 
for High Density Integration and 
High Temperature Applications 

Conor SLATER 

Abstract.  The  objective  of  the  European  research  project  “CREAM”  –  Compact 
and  Reliable  Electronic  in  Actuators  and  Motors  –  is  to  reach  new  high  perfor-
mance and reliability capabilities of Electro-Mechanical Actuators (EMA) in harsh 
thermal  environmental  conditions  for  use  in  All-Electric  Aircraft  (AEA).  High 
Thermal  stability,  the  ability  to  package  a  high  density  of  components  and  inter-
connects, the possible integration of thick film resistors and a variety of high tem-
perature  component  attach,  and  interconnect  technologies  make  LTCC–  Low 
Temperature Co-fired Ceramic – a suitable candidate for the packaging of control 
electronics for high temperature applications. 

Keywords. Electro-mechanical actuators, all electric aircraft, low temperature co-
fired ceramic, compact electronics 

1. Introduction 

The current political, environmental and economic trends applied to air transport will 
cause a shift in aircraft design to the All Electric Aircraft (AEA). The goal of this con-
cept is to eliminate as many hydraulic power sources and complicated circuitry of high-
pressure hydraulic lines as possible and use Power By Wire (PBW) to provide electric-
al power straight to the actuators. This design approach would reduce the weight and 
complexity of commercial aircraft thus reducing the fuel consumption and maintenance 
costs. 

However the maturity of PBW technology is lagging behind. As a matter of fact, 
reliable  electric  actuators  are  one  of  the  technical  bottlenecks  for  realizing  this  ambi-
tious  technological  vision  of  all  electrical  aircraft.  The  real  challenge  is  the  develop-
ment of compact, reliable, Electro-Mechanical Actuators – EMA (flight control actua-
tors, braking system, landing gear actuators, propulsion inverters, various pumps, vari-
ous auxiliary actuators). The “Compact and Reliable Electronic Integrated in Actuators 
and Motors” (CREAM) project objective is to reach new high performance and reliabil-
ity capabilities for Electro-Mechanical Actuators (EMA) in harsh thermal environmen-
tal conditions for use in all-electric aircraft. 

For this global objective, the target is to develop an advanced, smart, miniaturised 
and  reliable  electronic  technological  platform  (Fig.  1)  integrating  new  compact  tech-
nologies,  advanced  components  and  assembly  methods  able  to  substantially  improve 
the drive and control electronic modules and the EMA motors in order to provide com-
pact electronics, thermal management above 200°C with enhanced reliability. 

346

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Cost Efficiency

Figure 1. CREAM-Electromechanical actuator with exploded view. 

Figure 2. CREAM multi chip power module. 

The subsystems of the EMA have to be capable of operating in an extreme envi-
ronment, with low and high temperatures ranging from –65 to +200°C. The constraints 
set do not allow the use of active cooling methods, therefore the technology developed 
must  be  able  to  operate unassisted  in  this  temperature  range.  In  addition  to  this  chal-
lenge the lifetime of the actuator should be in the order of 100,000 hours. Due to the 
compact design, the power and control electronics are mounted together (Fig. 2) sub-
jecting  the  control  module  to  harsh  temperature  conditions.  The  substrate  required  to 
package the electronics for this module must have mechanical stability, good thermal 
conductivity and low dielectric loss at temperatures up to and over 200°C and down to 
–65°C. The next criterion is the ability to mount a high density of components of differ-
ent types and route complex network of interconnections. 

 
C. Slater / LTCC: A Packaging Technology Suitable for High Density Integration

347

Figure 3. The LTCC process: (a) Collation of screen printed sheets; (b) Lamination; (c) Firing and compo-
nent population. 

Low Temperature Co-Fired Ceramic (LTCC) is a technology where thin dielectric 
tapes  are  laminated  together  and  fired  to  create  a  monolithic  ceramic  substrate.  The 
post fired product remains stable at temperatures up to 450°C and as it is a multilayer 
technology a high density of conducting tracks can be routed [6]. The great advantage 
of  LTCC  substrates  is  the  ability  to  integrate  passive  components,  such  as  resistors, 
capacitors and inductors between the dielectric layers which allows for compact mod-
ules to have a high degree of functionality. 

2. LTCC Manufacture 

The raw LTCC is manufactured as a tape which consists of glass frit, alumina powder 
and an organic binder. The tape is cut to the correct size and has vias and cavities cut 
into it by either shearing, punching, direct milling or laser ablation to form the different 
layers of the LTCC module. Next the vias are filled by screen printing conductive filler 
into the holes cut into the LTCC, and then each layer is screen printed with conductive 
tracks and resistive elements. Each of the LTCC layers can be fabricated separately up 
to  this  point  in  the  process,  it  is  only  at  the  lamination  step  that  all  the  layers  are 
brought  together,  aligned  and  stacked,  and  then  pressed  together  (Fig.  3).  The  entire 
assembly is then fired at a temperature between 800 to 1000°C to sinter LTCC module. 
Standard thick film methods can then be used to post fire additional conductive layers 
and resistors on the surface, after which discrete components can be mounted on top. 

3. Integrated Passive Components 

Thick  film  resistors  integrated  into  the  substrate  have  proven  to  be  a  key  feature  of 
LTCC.  Furthermore  these  resistors  show  good  stability  at  temperatures  up  to  200°C, 
but there is a limit to the precision mainly due to drift caused by diffusion of the con-
tact  metal  into  the  resistor  [5].  The  resistors  have  a  simple  construction  consisting  of 

348

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Cost Efficiency

Figure 4. Integrated passive component. 

two  contacts  between  which  the  thick  film  resistor  is  screen  printed.  The  resistor  is 
printed on a single layer of LTCC after which it can be stacked as in (Fig. 4) with other 
layers before lamination. After firing, the resistor is ‘buried’ within the substrate which 
gives  it  interesting  properties  in  terms  of  high  temperature  resistance.  Research  has 
shown that burying the resistor between layers of LTCC enhances the stability of the 
resistive material due to the LTCC layer protecting the resistor from oxidative effects 
which would be more pronounced at high temperatures [2]. 

Capacitors and inductors have seen less success but it is still possible to integrate 
these components directly into the substrate. Capacitors are assembled by screen print-
ing  electrodes  on  two  separate  LTCC  layers  and  stacking  them  on  top  of  each  other. 
For high capacities the construction requires special LTCC tape with high permittivity 
so they are not widely used. Inductors are problematic as well since they require fine 
dimensions for the conductor and special high permeability LTCC layers. 

4. Component Packaging Methods 

The materials required to mount the module components will have to undergo extreme 
conditions  and  survive  thousands  of  temperature  cycles  with  extreme  high  and  low 
temperatures  while  the  EMA  is  operating.  This  causes  fatigue  in  the  joints  and  with 
high temperatures causing the material to degrade over a long period of exposure. It is 
clear that the substrate to mount them will have to be flexible enough to accommodate 
the packaging technology peculiar to each type of component. Components for the con-
trol module fall into the categories of either a mounted passive component, such as a 
multilayer ceramic capacitor or a metal thin film resistor, or an integrated circuit in the 
form of a silicon die. 

Discrete passives (Fig. 5) have two contacts which can be composed of a variety of 
materials. The component is mounted between the terminations and bonded to the con-
tact  material.  The  material/technique  used  for  bonding  must  provide  mechanical  at-
tachment  and  electrical  contact.  It  must  also  not  stress  the  component  mechanically 
causing it to fail or to damage its metallisation. 

The die attach has a vertical planer construction as in Fig. 6. Starting at the sub-
strate a metallisation layer is placed on top, then there is the bond material followed by 

C. Slater / LTCC: A Packaging Technology Suitable for High Density Integration

349

Figure 5. Discrete passive component. 

Figure 6. Mounted Die. 

the  metallisation  on  the  underside  of  the  die.  The  metallisations  are  not  necessary  if 
they are not required by the bond material to form an attachment. Whichever configura-
tion is used the bond must provide mechanical attachment of the die and have sufficient 
thermal conductivity dissipate the power consumed by the die. 

The most common method for attaching electronic components is by use of a sold-
er alloy. The alloys used have melting temperatures that range between 90 and 450°C, 
which  implies  that  a  suitable  solder  can  be  found  for  mounting  components  in  the 
CREAM EMA. However many of the high temperature solders contain valuable metals 
such as gold and can be prohibitively expensive with the exception of high lead solders 
(>85% Pb), which are commonly used as high temperature die attach methods. If prop-
erly employed the solders can form very strong bonds and can have excellent electrical 
and thermal conductivity. The main cause of failure is due to thermo-mechanical crack 
growth  along  the  solder  joint  weakening  its  bond  strength  and  reducing  its  thermal 
conductivity. Growth of the crack can be exacerbated by creep at high temperatures and, 
to  a  much  greater  extent, by  CTE  mismatch of  the  materials  in  combination with  ex-
treme  temperature  variations.  Furthermore  the  solder  alloy  itself  can  be  weakened  by 
the growth of brittle intermetallics causing crack growth to increase which in turn re-
duces the lifetime of the joint [1]. 

 
350

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Cost Efficiency

Figure 7. Wire bond. 

Transient  liquid  phase  (TLP),  also  known  as  diffusion  soldering,  is  a  method 
where a thin interlayer is clamped between the metals to be joined. The system is then 
heated up to the temperature where the interlayer melts, at which point it inter diffuses 
into the metals forming intermetallic compounds. These intermetallics are solid at the 
melting  temperature  of  the  interlayer,  which  means  the  joint  solidifies  isothermally. 
The end effect is a joint that has a higher melting temperature than its processing tem-
perature.  This  process  differs  from  diffusion  bonding  in  that  the  interlayer  has  “tran-
sient liquid phase” which allows voids to be filled in. The advantage of TLP is that the 
bond  is  made  by  forming  intermetallic  compounds  which  give  the  joint  its  strength. 
However,  the  difficulty  is  to  choose  the  right  combination  of  metals  to  satisfy  the 
process  criteria,  and  that  do  not  form  brittle  intermetallics.  Once  formed  though,  the 
bond  holds  its  strength  even  after  long  term  high  temperature  storage,  and  can  even 
increase in strength as the intermetallics continue to form and bond becomes more ho-
mogenised over time [7]. 

Polymers being organic materials are generally not suited to high temperature ap-
plications, but there are a few exceptions such as silicones and epoxies that can operate 
in  the  200°C  to  300°C  range.  These  materials  used  excel  in  situations  where  compo-
nents of different CTEs are to be mated and this is owed to their flexibility. However, 
polymers  have  very  poor  thermal  conductivity  so  are  not  suited  to  mounting  compo-
nents which dissipate large amounts of power unless they are filled with thermally con-
ducting materials. In addition they also have no inherent electrical conductivity which 
means they have to be modified by filling with conductive materials if they are to form 
contacts for components. 

Silicon  components  with  logic  functions  such  as  in  the  control  module  for  the 
CREAM  EMA  usually  have  a  large  number  of  interconnections  that  are  densely  ar-
ranged. This makes interconnection technologies such a flip-chip not feasible due to the 
small size of the pads and the narrow pitch between them. Wire bonding is traditionally 
used for providing a high density of interconnects but it can be problematic at tempera-
tures above 200°C (Fig. 7) shows the construction of a wire bonded interconnect from a 
silicon die to the metallisation on the substrate. The three materials of concern are the 
surface metallisation of the die, the wire material itself and the metallisation material of 
the substrate. 

In wire bonds, failure of the bond is caused by fatigue cracking which is brought 
on thermal cycling and the CTE mismatch of the die and the wire material. This failure 
mechanism  can be  made  worse due  to  the formation of brittle  intermetallics  and  Kir-

C. Slater / LTCC: A Packaging Technology Suitable for High Density Integration

351

kendall  voids  at  high  temperatures.  For  example,  Gold-Aluminium  systems  quickly 
form  brittle  intermetallics  when  exposed  to  temperatures  above  200°C  which  would 
leave them unsuitable [8]. Conversely Al-Al wire bonds, being of the same material, do 
not form intermetallics and thus show good high temperature performance. Aluminium 
bonds can also be given enhanced resistance to fatigue induced by thermal cycling by 
integrating  a  molybdenum  strain  buffer  which  reduces  the  effect  of  the  CTE  mis-
match [3]. 

Common  to  all  the  packaging  techniques  stated  is  the  need  for  the optimum  ma-
terial at the bond interface. As LTCC is compatible with thick film processes there is a 
wide selection of materials to choose from such as noble metals (e.g. Platinum, Gold, 
Silver and Palladium). With LTCC it is possible select the best material for the applica-
tion. For example selecting the best pad material for a solder joint to reduce the forma-
tion of intermetallics or in the case of TLP select the correct material to form the joint. 
Other advantages of LTCC is that its coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) is close to 
that of silicon and the ceramics used in discrete passive components which reduces the 
stresses  on  the  mounted  component  and  the  material  used  to  attach  it,  which  would 
reduce the effect of reliability issues such as cracking in solder joints. 

Despite the variety of materials available use of non-noble metals such as alumi-
nium can be problematic due to oxidation of the conductor during firing. If aluminium 
wire  bonds  are  used  there  is no  contact  material  that  is directly  compatible  with both 
LTCC  and  the  wire  material.  Alternatives  such  as  Gold-Palladium  pastes  show  good 
performance  with  aluminium  wires but  a  feature of LTCC  is  that  it  can be  combined 
with  thin  film  processes  to  create  barrier  layers.  High  temperature  Aluminium-Silver 
wire  bonds  were  demonstrated  by  depositing  a  thin  Nickel-Gold  barrier  layer  on  the 
silver pad before  the  aluminium  wire  was bonded.  This  allowed  for  long bond  life  at 
temperatures up to 250°C [4]. 

5. Conclusion 

The CREAM EMA presents many challenges it terms of performance at high and low 
temperatures  and  reliability  over  long  periods  of  time.  Particularly  where  the  control 
electronics are involved as this subsystem consists of a high number of components of 
varying  types.  This  large  variety  of  technologies  requires  a  highly  flexible  substrate 
technology to integrate them into a functional and reliable module. LTCC being a mul-
tilayer technology allows a high level of complexity and integration. This coupled with 
its high temperature stability make it an ideal technology for a high temperature control 
module. 

The flexibility of LTCC and its compatibility with a wide array of materials also 
allow  it  to  be  used  with  a  large  variety  of  components  each  with  their  own  unique 
packaging problem. Solders and adhesives are readily compatible and even in the case 
of  wire  bonds  the  compatibility  of  LTCC  allows  for  realistic  workarounds.  If  future 
systems such as actuators for aircraft that operate in harsh environments are to become 
increasing smart, LTCC will have a key role in securely packaging their complex con-
trol electronics. 

352

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Cost Efficiency

Acknowledgements 

This  work  is  funded  by  the  European  Union  Seventh  Framework  Programme 
(FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement AAT.2008.4.2.4-234119 CREAM 

References 

[1]  N. Duan, J. Scheer, J. Bielen and M. van Kleef, The influence of Sn-Cu-Ni(Au) and Sn-Au inter- metal-
lic compounds on the solder joint reliability of flip chips on low temperature co-fired ceramic substrates, 
Microelectronics Reliability, 43(8):1317–1327, 2003. 

[2]  A.  Dziedzic,  L.  Golonka,  M.  Hrovat,  J.  Kita,  M.  Kosec  and  D.  Belavi,  Some  remarks  about  relations 
between processing conditions and microstructural, electrical as well as stability properties of LTCC re-
sistors, in: European Microelectronics and Packaging Symposium, Prague, Czech Republic, 2004. 
[3]  A. Hamidi, N. Beck, K. Thomas and E. Herr, Reliability and lifetime evaluation of different wire bond-
ing technologies for high power IGBT modules, Microelectronics Reliability, 39(6–7):1153–1158, 1999. 
[4]  R. Johannessen, F. Oldervoll and F. Strisland, High temperature reliability of aluminium wire- bonds to 
thin  film,  thick  film  and  low  temperature  co-fired  ceramic  (LTCC)  substrate  metallization,  Microelec-
tronics Reliability, 48(10):1711–1719, 2008. 

[5]  R. Johannessen, F. Oldervoll, F. Strisland and P. Ohlckers, Performance of thin and thick film resistors 
exposed  to  high  temperature  and  high  pressure  (200°C  @  1000  bar),  in:  HITEN  2007,  Oxford,  UK, 
pp. 678–682, 2007. 

[6]  B.  McPherson,  J.  Horberger,  J.  Bourne,  A.  Lostetter,  R.  Schupbach,  R.  Shaw,  B.  Reese,  B.  Rowden, 
A. Mantooth, S. Ang, J. Balda, K. Okumura and T. Otsuka, Packaging of high temperature 50 kW SiC 
motor drive modules for hybrid- electric vehicles, Advancing Microelectronics, 2010. 

[7]  H.A. Mustain, W.D. Brown and S.S. Ang, Transient liquid phase die attach for high-temperature silicon 
carbide power devices, Components and Packaging Technologies, IEEE Transactions on DOI – 10.1109/ 
TCAPT.2010.2046901, 33(3):563–570, 2010. 

[8]  E. Philofsky, Design limits when using gold-aluminum bonds, in: Reliability Physics Symposium, 1971, 

9th Annual DOI – 10.1109/IRPS.1971.362502, pp. 114–119, 1971. 

About the Authors 

Conor Slater, B. Eng, M. Eng, 
Doctoral Assistant 
Laboratoire de Production Microtechnique 
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne 
Station 17 
CH-1015 Lausanne (Switzerland) 
Tel.: +41 (0)21 693 78 98 
conor.slater@epfl.ch 

Paul Vassy 
Programme Manager – CREAM Project Coordinator 
SAGEM Groupe SAFRAN- Etablissement François Huguenot 
100, rue de Paris 
F- 91344 Massy Cedex (France) 
Tel.: +33 (0)1 58 11 35 81 
paul.vassy@sagem.com 

 
Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-353

353

Towards the More Electrical Aircraft 

Etienne FOCH 

Abstract.  Taking  benefits  from  breakthroughs  in  the  rapidly-expanding  power 
electronics  market,  the  European  Aerospace  Industry  developed  a  full  suite  of 
more  electronic  technologies,  for  a  More  Electrical  Aircraft.  Tests  at  vendor  and 
air-framer facilities demonstrated that the fully-integrated system worked and per-
formed  as  intended.  Major  test  objectives  were  successfully  passed.  Conceptual 
design  studies  concluded  that  the  concept  may  readily  deliver  aircraft  benefits  in 
terms  of  maintenance,  operational,  flexibility  and  technology  growth  potential. 
Furthermore,  as  more  electrical  technology  is  friendlier  for  the  environment,  the 
“MOET” (More Open Electrical Technology) concept appears as a key enabler for 
future aviation development, and as in other industry sectors, it is step by step be-
coming the new standard for onboard aircraft systems. 

Keywords. All-electrical concept, micro-hybrid, more-electrical technology, elec-
trical networks 

1. Introduction 

The move to More Electric technology in the automotive industry is not easy. Solutions 
range  from  micro-hybrid  to  all-electric.  Environmental  benefits  are  emphasized.  All-
electric  cars  have  a  limited  range  compared  to  vehicles  with  a  conventional  internal 
combustion engine. Investment costs are huge. 

The  rationalization  of  energy  sources  aboard  100-plus  passenger  aircraft  and  im-
provements in More Electric technology are leading the aeronautical industry to tackle 
the all electric aircraft challenge. This change will only occur if the proposed solutions 
offer advantages over existing solutions, which are simple and mature. As in the auto-
motive industry, this change will require a complete redesign of the architecture of on-
board power generation systems, from the design phase to industrialization, never los-
ing sight of the end user needs, namely, the airline. 

2. What Does “All-Electric” Aircraft Mean? 

All aircraft systems require electrical power and are becoming more and more electric. 
The main power generators produce 180kVA on an A320 and 600kVA on an A380, i.e. 
approximately 1kVA per passenger. 

The  aim  of  an  aircraft  commonly known  as  “all-electric”  is  not  to  replace  power 
plants by electric motors driving fans whose power would be in the range of 10MW. 
This  highly  prospective  idea  is  not  covered  in  this  article  as  we  are  staying  on  much 
more concrete ground. 

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Cost Efficiency

Figure 1. The consequences of electrification of these power networks depend on their type. 

The “all-electric” concept consists in the electrification of all aircraft systems. Cur-

rently, the systems are supplied by four power networks of a very different nature: 

•  The  avionics  system,  some  pumps,  the  fans,  the  lighting  and  the  furnishings 

systems in cabin use electrical power; 

•  The cabin pressurization and air conditioning systems use air bleed from the 
engine compressor stages after recycling in an air  conditioning pack. Hot air 
bleed at the engine outlets is also used for wing de-icing. Pneumatic power is 
also used for engine starting. These are the largest power consumers; 

•  The  flight  control  and  landing  gear  systems  are  actuated  by  hydraulic  actua-
tors  supplied  by  engine-driven  pumps,  or  by  electric  pumps  supplied  by  the 
electrical network; 

•  Fuel supply to the engines, as well as lubrication, are provided by pumps dri-

ven by the engines via a mechanical shaft. 

Figure 1 shows what an “all-electric” aircraft energy chain could look like. 

2.1. Replacement of the Pneumatic Network 

Cabin  air  no  longer  comes  from  the  engines  but  from  specific  air  inlets  that  supply 
electrical  air  compressors  supplying  two  packs  (Air  conditioning  pack  on  preceding 
figure).  Wing  de-icing  (Electrical  wing  de-icing)  uses  heater  mats.  The  engines  are 
started electrically by generators acting as starter/generators (main power supply). 

The power required is multiplied by four compared with current aircraft. This level 
of power requires increased voltage values and the introduction of power electronics to 
control the electrical compressors, engine starters, and also ensure temperature control 
of the wing de-icing mats. Boeing addressed this challenge on their latest B787 aircraft. 

E. Foch / Towards the More Electrical Aircraft

355

2.2. Replacement of the Hydraulic Network 

Aircraft usually have three hydraulic systems in order to meet the certification criteria 
as regards redundancy and segregation. Hydraulic power has a very high power density 
and  is  well  suited  to  confined  areas  such  as  the  stabilizers  and  wing  ends.  The  flight 
control and landing gear systems must respond rapidly to high power demands during 
landing gear extension or retraction, or for certain manoeuvres commanded by the pilot. 
In electrical solutions, the hydraulic actuators are replaced by electro-hydraulic or 
electro-mechanical actuators driven by power electronics (Flight control electric actua-
tors). These new actuators are bigger and more difficult to install, however, they allow 
rigid  hydraulic  pipes  to  be  replaced  by  electrical  circuits  whose  installation  is  more 
flexible. The dynamic performance of these actuators is comparable to that required of 
hydraulic actuators. 

This stage was already partially reached by Airbus on its A380 on which a hydrau-
lic  system  among  three  was  replaced  by  a  set  of  electro-hydraulic  actuators  powered 
from the electrical network. 

The  removal of  the hydraulic  network will, by nature,  eliminate  the need for  hy-

draulic fluid that is harmful to the environment. 

2.3. Replacement of the Mechanical Network for the Fuel and Oil Pumps for the Engine 

This  network  is  a  simple  mechanical  shaft  usually  driven  by  the  engine  HP  turbine, 
which drives an accessory gearbox. It drives the pumps and also the electrical genera-
tor(s), hydraulic pump(s) and air starter. The accessory gearbox is attached to the en-
gine. The deletion of this shaft requires integration of the starter/generators in the en-
gines to supply all accessories via power electronics and electric motors. 

A demonstrator of this solution was produced and tested by Safran and Thales as 
part of the POA European project on a Rolls-Royce Trent 500 engine. The economic 
performance is not demonstrated. 

3. Electrical Network Challenges 

The challenges related to replacement of pneumatic and hydraulic networks are a good 
opportunity to rethink the electrical architectures of aircraft. 

3.1. Current A320 Network 

An A320 type network includes two main generators of 90kVA/115VAC-400Hz, each 
one driven by an engine. This network supplies all the electrical loads of the aircraft. 

If the main electrical generation is lost in flight, a standby generator supplies pow-
er to the electrical systems for continued safe flight operation. This standby generator 
receives hydraulic power from a Ram Air Turbine (RAT) that also supplies power to 
the flight control actuators. 

An “all-electric aircraft” concept will involve changes in this network, through the 
application of strategies adapted to replacement of the pneumatic and/or hydraulic net-
works. 

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Cost Efficiency

3.2. Replacement of the Pneumatic Network 

The power required and the control of large electric motors using power electronics to 
be integrated in an aircraft constitutes the challenge. 

The  choice  of  a  higher  voltage  adversely  affects  compatibility  with  the  existing 
ground  power  units,  or  standard  equipment,  especially  in  the  cabin,  however,  this 
represents  an  opportunity  for  the  creation  of  a  new  standard.  230VAC  is  a  standard 
which  has  been  selected  by  some  last  aircraft  development.  By  definition,  an  aircraft 
flies  and  the  partial  discharge  phenomena  must  be  understood  and  mastered  as  they 
increase as the voltage increases and the pressure decreases with altitude. 

It is also advisable to consider +/–270VDC high voltage directly obtained via recti-
fication of 230VAC. The arc rupture capability using HVDC electromechanical contac-
tors has been demonstrated by Zodiac. The issues related to stability, quality and selec-
tivity of protections have been examined with research laboratories. No deadlock was 
identified. 

Power electronics is a key technology. A power density of 5kVA/kg already seems 
established through research work, however, full integration including filters and cool-
ing system could reduce this density to 2kVA/kg. Research work on high temperature 
components and thermal management is a determining factor to achieve a better overall 
performance. 

3.3. Replacement of the Hydraulic Network 

The  challenge  is  twofold:  reliable  uninterrupted  supply  of  electrical  power  and  in-
creased risk of jamming due to the introduction of electro-mechanical actuators. 

According to the aviation regulations, the probability of losing power supply to the 
flight controls for a few seconds must remain extremely low. Therefore, there must be 
an electrical transition between the loss of the normal power supply and the start of the 
standby power supply lasting for several seconds. A battery or supercapacitor-type sto-
rage would be compatible with the flight control requirements. This storage can also be 
used to meet high power demands from the flight controls, so as to optimise the rat size. 
Integration of these functions is facilitated by an hvdc network. 

Experience shows that, while a hydraulic actuator never jams, an electromechani-
cal actuator is more vulnerable to this type of failure. The use of adequate materials and 
monitoring devices to anticipate jamming could limit the risk without fully eliminating 
it. Therefore, architectures that are tolerant to this type of failure must be developed. 

3.4. Other Electrical Sources 

Fuel cells are among the other electrical sources studied. Replacement of the standby 
generator is technically feasible. This solution has already been tested on an A320. 

Replacement of the APU requires a large amount of power involving either the use 
of large capacity hydrogen tanks or a fuel reformer, hence a significant weight penalty. 
The benefits would be clean operation on ground. It is also to be noted that by nature, a 
fuel  cell  can  be  connected  more  easily  to  HVDC  network  than  to  HVAC  that  would 
require addition of inverters. 

Note. The APU (Auxiliary Power Unit) is an onboard turbine that supplies power 
to the aircraft systems when the aircraft is on ground with its engines stopped. 

E. Foch / Towards the More Electrical Aircraft

357

4. Assessment at Aircraft Level 

In an “all-electric” aircraft, simple and mature systems with low progress capability are 
replaced by more complex, better suited systems with a larger progress capability. 

4.1. Assessment of Savings on a Typical Mission 

The aircraft mission is well characterized and starts with flight preparation, then take-
off, climb, cruise, descent, landing and return, up to engine shutdown. Assessment of 
fuel consumption is complex, and depends on system weight, drag induced for renewal 
of cabin air and the impact of electrical consumption on the engines. 

The expected savings mainly concern fuel consumption and they are both econom-
ic  and  ecological.  To  give  an  approximate  idea,  on  a  Paris-Toulouse  flight,  1%  fuel 
saving  represents  25kg.  This  represents  500  tons  of  fuel  for  20,000  flights  (i.e.  one 
year’s operation for the Paris-Toulouse shuttle). It is therefore difficult to give a precise 
assessment of the savings as the impact of bleed air or mechanical/electrical off-takes 
on the engine has a different effect depending on the engine type. Moreover, in the en-
gine idle phases on ground or in descent, the type of off-takes can have a direct impact 
on the idle rate and therefore on the fuel consumed during the mission. 

4.2. Addressing the Ground Phases 

On  a  short-medium  range  aircraft,  fuel  consumption  during  the  ground  phases  is  not 
negligible. An APU consumes 100kg/h. If we consider that there is about half an hour’s 
operation between each flight, the consumption is 50kg, i.e. 2% of the fuel used for a 
Paris-Toulouse  flight.  The  ground  power  units  are  often  used.  By  adding  one  or  two 
power units depending on aircraft size, it could be possible to stop the APU, hence an 
immediate fuel saving.  

Savings can become more significant if electric motors are installed in the aircraft 
wheels for taxiing on APU power with engines stopped. The power demand is in the 
range of 100kW and compatible with power generation of the More Electric Aircraft. 

4.3. Other Potential Savings 

The electrical systems will not increase reliability, however, they should have a posi-
tive effect on dispatch thanks to their capacity to anticipate failures, isolate faults and 
reconfigure networks. A leak on a hydraulic equipment item results in loss of the sys-
tem  and  requires  a  repair  action  before  the  next  flight.  In  aeronautical  language,  the 
fault is said to be “NOGO”. 

If an electrical equipment item is defective, it is isolated by its line circuit breaker. 

Generally, the systems are fault tolerant. The fault is said to be “GO”. 

The  fault  “equivalent”  to  the  loss  of  a  hydraulic  system  is  the  loss  of  a  busbar 
whose probability is less by approximately two orders of magnitude. This results in a 
better overall dispatch reliability of the aircraft. 

As regards failure anticipation, monitoring of the electrical parameters associated 
with  system  behaviour  models  will  provide  a very  accurate  view  of  system  condition 
and help in making a decision on whether it is advisable to repair immediately or wait 
for the best opportunity. 

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Cost Efficiency

Typically, thanks to reflectometric devices, it is possible to locate an electrical de-
fect  on  the  wiring  with  one-meter  accuracy.  Even  if  these  studies  are  only  at  the  re-
search stage, they show what can be expected from more electric systems. 

It is also to be noted that an initial analysis of the life cycle shows that out of the 
six criteria considered such as the materials used, storage or end of life, the all-electric 
aircraft is better or at least equivalent to conventional designs. 

5. Conclusion 

Research is very active and pushed by major actors such as Airbus, Liebherr, Safran, 
Thales  and  Zodiac.  The  European  project  MOET  has  permitted  a  significant  step  to-
wards  the  all-electrical  aircraft  concept,  which  is  pursued  in  European  Clean  Sky 
project. Significant support from the Research laboratories is an essential element con-
sidering the extent of the change. This is also a very strong research theme in the Unit-
ed States.  

The  expected  benefits  are  improved  fuel  consumption,  rationalized  onboard  sys-
tems and improved maintenance for the airlines, however, the performance of the solu-
tions proposed still has to be improved. 

Aviation should also benefit from automotive components as the required perfor-

mance is very similar. Electric technology is a fast changing world. 

The all-electric aircraft is technically feasible. Partial solutions are already opera-

tional. This is an opportunity to rethink the electrical architectures of aircraft. 

The technological rupture induced by the all-electric aircraft is a credible goal for 

the next generation of aircraft. 

About the Author 

Etienne Foch 
Airbus Operation SAS – M30 
316, route de Bayonne 
F- 31060 Toulouse Cedex 9 
etienne.foch@airbus.com 
www.airbus.com 

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-359

359

Transmission in Aircraft on Unique 
Path WirEs 

Sébastien KIM 

Abstract.  Within  the  framework  of  ACARE  (Advisory  Council  for  Aeronautics 
Research in Europe), Safran Engineering Services is working on several  projects 
regarding EWIS (Electrical Wiring Interconnection System) issues. It is presently 
coordinating  the  European  research  project  named  “TAUPE”  (Transmission  in 
Aircraft on Unique Path wirEs), the objectives of which are to reduce the weight of 
the wiring and to simplify the wiring system as well as its maintenance. The inter-
nal Safran work programme’s goal is to demonstrate a high rank maturity for two 
technologies: Power Line Communication (PLC) on the one hand and Power over 
AFDX (PoAFDX) on the other hand. This research action was launched in 2008. 
Results obtained are presented here after. 

Keywords. Transmission, unique path, power line communication, power over da-
ta, wires 

1. Context 

The  aeronautical  sector  is  facing  several  challenges  nowadays  regarding  its  perfor-
mances  and  its  environmental  footprint.  In  order  to  address  these  challenges,  several 
tendencies are being observed, among which: 
•  The More Composite Aircraft; 
•  The More (or even All) Electric Aircraft; 
•  The Integrated Modular Avionics evolutions. 

The  installed  electrical  power  is  increasing  with  time  and  programs:  from  a  few 
tens of kW in the Caravelle for instance, we are today facing around 1MW in the Boe-
ing 787. Those tendencies have several electric issues, for instance: 

• 
• 
• 

Increase in the wires mass; 
Increase in the wires numbers and thus in the required volume to install them; 
Increase in the system complexity. 

In order to counterbalance those evolutions, technical solutions shall be found. One 
of these solutions is to decrease the number of wires used and to simplify the architec-
tures of the systems by merging power and communication networks together using: 

•  PLC (PowerLine Communication) technology; 
•  PoD (Power over Data) technology. 

Those technologies exist already in the day to day life. Indeed, PLC networks can 
be deployed at home to provide Internet through the electrical plugs and architecture of 
the house. At the office, many telephones are plugged to a single data cable providing 

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Cost Efficiency

Figure 1. Typical current architecture and evolution towards PLC and PoD implemented architectures. 

them with data and power at the same time. However, these technologies are not used 
today in the aircraft. Indeed, their implementation in this sector raises several issues: 

•  For PLC technology, the available data rate is dependent on the signal to noise 
(S/N) ratio. In order to improve this S/N ratio, one can either increase the sig-
nal level sent or decrease the noise on the line. However, the authorized level 
of  emission  is  driven  by  the  avionic  standards  (DO-160)  in  order  to  comply 
with  the  conducted  and  radiated  EM  requirements.  Regarding  the  noise,  it  is 
mainly  coming  from  the  other  cables  routing  together  in  the  same  harness 
(cables  that  might  have  PLC  signal  as  well).  Hence  the  challenge  for  PLC 
technology will be to have enough S/N ratio to transmit the data at a correct 
rate in the aircraft environment; 

•  For PoD technology, the challenge is quite different. Indeed, the cable used is 
a  data  cable;  as  a  consequence  few  problems  of  EM  compatibility/ 
susceptibility  are  expected.  However,  the  main  challenge  will  be  to  transmit 
enough power for the load, taking into account the voltage drop, the thermal 
constraints and the protection of the power line. 

Those  technologies  and  those  challenges  are  the  core  activities  of  the  European 

TAUPE (Transmission in Aircraft on Unique Path wirEs) project. 

2. PLC, PoD, What Is It? 

The definition of a typical architecture and its evolution with the introduction of PLC 
or PoD technology is presented on Fig. 1. On typical current architectures, equipments 
are  powered  by  a  Power  Distribution  Box  (a  Secondary  PDB  in  the  example)  with  a 
dedicated cable (violet cable) and communicate with a calculator through another dedi-
cated cable (green cable). When PLC technology is implemented, the data cable can be 
removed and the data is modulated on the power cable. In the TAUPE project, 28VDC 
and  115VAC  networks  are  used  for  the  power  and  the  data  is  modulated  at  around 
30MHz, based on the OPERA protocol. On the contrary, when PoD technology is used, 
the power cable can be removed and the power is just added on the data cable cores. In 

S. Kim / Transmission in Aircraft on Unique Path WirEs

361

Figure 2. TAUPE partners. 

Figure 3. Timeframe of the project. 

the TAUPE project, the AFDX network will be used and the power will be added based 
on the 28VDC network. 

3. Framework of the Project 

The TAUPE project was launched in September 2008 for a 3.5-year duration. The con-
sortium  consists  in  17  partners  coming  from  6  different  European  countries  (France, 
Germany,  Netherlands,  Switzerland,  Spain  and  Romania).  The  17  partners  are  pre-
sented in Fig. 2. TAUPE is a level 1 project, with a total budget of 5.5M€ funded by 
the  European  Commission  under  the  7th  Framework  Program.  The  project  is  coordi-
nated  by  Safran  Engineering  Services  (subsidiary  of  Labinal,  SAFRAN  Group).  The 
timeframe of the project is also illustrated on Fig. 3. It can be divided into 2 main parts: 
•  Requirements, Modelling, Simulation & Architecture Definition: this first part 
lasted 18 months and was dedicated to the expression of the requirements. The 
objective was to define the targeted architectures, to model and simulate them 
in order to perform an optimisation. Measurements were also made in order to 
validate the models and the simulations. Last but not least, the Verification & 
Validation (V&V) plan was initiated; 

 
362

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Cost Efficiency

Figure 4. Low power bench (Labinal facilities). 

•  Mock-up and Components Development and Adaptation; Integration & V&V 
Activity:  this  second  part  is  really  dedicated  to  the  demonstrations  in  them-
selves. The objectives are to develop the required components, to integrate the 
demonstration benches and to perform the V&V test plan in order to assess the 
performances of the technologies with respect to the requirements identified in 
the first part. 

The main objectives of the project are two-fold: there are global objectives and in-

ternal objectives. 

The global objectives are to address the ACARE SRA by: 
•  Reducing the weight; 
•  Simplifying the cabling maintenance; 
•  Simplifying the cabling system; 
•  Making possible a cost effective retrofit; 
•  Strengthening competitiveness of European stakeholder. 

The internal objectives are: 

•  To demonstrate a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 4 (Component and/or 

breadboard validation in laboratory environment), using: 
−  The Cabin Lighting and Communication System (Diehl Aerospace) on a 

Cabin Mock-up (EADS-IW) for the PLC technology; 

−  The  Cockpit  Display  System  (Thales  Avionics)  on  the  A380  CDS  test 

bench (Thales Avionics) for the PoD technology. 

4. Achievements of the First Part 

At first, the architectures and aeronautical environment of the current existing applica-
tions were described. 

Regarding PLC technologies, a modelling/simulation activity was performed. Ini-
tial  models  were  used  to  simplify  the  system  architecture  in  order  to  build  a  “low-
power”  bench  that  is  representative  of  the  targeted  applications  in  a  laboratory  envi-
ronment (Fig. 4). The validation of the models was done using extensive measurements 

S. Kim / Transmission in Aircraft on Unique Path WirEs

363

Figure 5. Activities performed during the first part of the project. 

on  the  bench  and  on  a  real  aircraft  (A340).  After  having  validated  the  models  used, 
extensive simulations were made to better understand the propagation channel, its key 
drivers  and  the  associated  ElectroMagnetic  Compatibility  (EMC)  issues.  The  mea-
surement campaigns were also used on the noise aspect and its inputs were statistically 
analysed.  The  noise,  the  modelling  and  the  measurement  information  were  used  to 
build a simulation tool to predict the feasibility and performances of a PLC link. Figure 
5 illustrates the process that was followed during this first part of the project. 

It  appeared  that  with  a  “common  mode”  excitation,  i.e.  between  1  wire  and  the 
ground a Bit Error Rate (BER) below 1E-4 for range below 30m and a bit rate below 
15 Mbit/s is achievable. Whereas in “differential mode” excitation, i.e. between the 2 
conductors of a twisted pair, a BER below 1E-4 for range below 30m and a bit rate of 
30  Mbit/s  could  be  achieved  (60Mbit/s  might  even  be  reached  except  for  the  longest 
lines).  Based  on  those  conclusions,  the  “bifilar”  approach  was  adopted.  In  terms  of 
mass savings, the first assessment performed showed a 29% saving on the cables mass 
and 18% on the overall system. 

Regarding PoD technologies, PoAFDX was chosen (after discarding the PoCAN). 
Initially 96VDC was considered but after inquiring further, the 28VDC was technically 
possible (in terms of voltage drop and thermal behaviour) and was lighter in terms of 
mass: the first assessment showed a 19% saving on the cables and impacted hardware. 
Based  on  the  whole  modelling/simulation  activities,  new  architectures  were  pro-
posed and optimised (PLC will be used on the CLS/CCS system and PoD on the CDS 
system);  requirements  for  modems  and  chipset  were  also  produced.  Based  on  those 
requirements, chipset and modem selection was done and the firmware modified to be 
optimised and to enable the integration of the chipset with the modem. 

Demonstration benches designs have been updated and production of modified or 

new elements was on-going. 

Safety activity and preparative Verification & Validation activities were also per-

formed to prepare the final V&V activity that will end the project. 

 
 
364

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Cost Efficiency

Figure 6. Cabin Mock-up layout. 

5. Developments Made in the Second Part and Way Forward 

The overall PLC system concept has been elaborated to meet the requirement specifica-
tions for: 

•  System performance for reference applications; 
•  Applicable EMC standards (DO 160); 
•  Weight saving requirements; 
•  Detection of wire fault and/or bad contacts; 
•  Safety aspects. 

Additional hardwares have also been developed to make the demonstration possi-
ble. Concerning the Cabin Mock-up, it has been updated, especially in terms of wiring, 
in order to welcome the technological demonstrations. Figure 6 shows the overall Ca-
bin  mock-up  layout.  Regarding  the  A380  CDS  Bench,  it  has  been  modified  and  the 
integration tests have already begun. 

Last but not least, the detailed planning for V&V has been initiated and the facili-

ties booked. 

At  the  day  of  the  Aerodays  2011  Conference  presentation  (Madrid  30  March  – 
1 April 2011), the project was not over yet and activities were still to be performed. On 
the demonstration side, the Cabin Mock-Up still needed to be integrated. The optimiza-
tion/adaptation of the chipset/modem to the project requirements and the development 
of the additional modules were not finished yet. Once the benches would be integrated, 
integration tests should be performed to assure their availability for the V&V campaign. 
On the V&V activity side, the V&V test plan needed to be finalised, the tests on 

the demonstrators to be performed and the corresponding reports to be written. 

S. Kim / Transmission in Aircraft on Unique Path WirEs

365

6. Conclusion 

The expected performances are quite promising after the first part of the project. Those 
performances  are  being  confirmed  by  experimentation.  A  Dissemination  Event  will 
also be organised at the end of the project, in February 2012, to present the final results 
and to draw the corresponding conclusions regarding the applicability of PLC and PoD 
technologies in the aircraft. 

About the Author 

Sébastien Kim 
R&TD Project Manager 
LABINAL/Safran Engineering Services 
2, Avenue du Président Roosevelt 
31340 Villemur-sur-Tarn 
France Tel.: +33 (0)5 62 22 70 27 
sebastien.kim@safran-engineering.com 
www.safran-engineering.com 

366

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-366

A Technical Vision of Sustainable 
Commercial Air Transportation in 2030 

Alan H. EPSTEIN 

Abstract. In the last few years, concern for climate change coupled with high and 
uncertain prices for petroleum based fuels has stimulated aerospace R&D around 
the world. Even without this recent stimulus, over the  past 50 years, the  fuel per 
seat km burned by a commercial jet has dropped by over 80%, at compounded rate 
of about 2% per year since 1970. This tremendous progress has been made without 
deviating  from  the  fundamental  architecture  of  the  Boeing  707,  introduced  into 
service  in  the  late  1950s.  While  modern  aircraft  are  much  more  refined  in  their 
aerodynamics,  structures  and  materials,  subsystems  and  engines,  they  retain  the 
same tube-fuselage, low-swept wing, and underwing-pylon engine mount configu-
ration introduced over 50 years ago. European ACARE and NASA N+2 goal set-
ters concurred that this rate of fuel burn improvement can continue at least through 
the  end  of  the  next  decade  if  R&D  resources  are  available.  Significant  gains  in 
noise and NOX emissions are desired as well. Pratt & Whitney has worked on ad-
vanced engines architecture and in conjunction with the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology and Aurora Flight Science has examined a wide range of options in-
cluding aircraft designs, engine designs, enabling technologies, and fuels as part of 
the NASA N+2 studies [1]. The studies included engine technology, aircraft archi-
tectures, and aviation fuels. 

Keywords.  Sustainable  commercial  air  transportation,  new  aircraft,  new  engine 
architecture, new technologies, future fuels 

1. A Combination of New Aircraft and Engine Architectures Underpinned with 

New Technologies 

The studies which have been conducted suggest that ACARE and NASA N+2 goals of 
70% fuel burn reduction can be met for entry into service by 2030 with a combination 
of new aircraft and engine architectures underpinned with new technologies. Historical-
ly, engine fuel burn has improved at about 1% per year. In order to continue at this rate, 
both  thermal  and  propulsive  efficiencies  must  improve.  Engine  thermal  efficiencies 
will improve in much the same manner as before – primarily better materials and cool-
ing  technology,  increased  compression  ratio,  and  improved  component  performance 
(although  the  details  of  the  technologies  needed  to  realize  these  improvements  will 
evolve). 

One such new aircraft architecture aimed at the narrow body segment, called D.8 
may reduce fuel burn by about 50% using relatively near term technologies (Fig. 1a). 
Additional  technologies  which  could  be  ready  by  2030  may  enable  an  additional  20-
30% fuel burn reduction. Reaching such an aggressive goal requires many changes and 
innovations,  the  most  important  of  which  are  shown  (Fig  1b).  The  two  largest  im-
provements  result  from  an  architecture  change.  The  first  is  so-called  double-bubble 
lifting  fuselage  which  significantly  reduces  the  wing  area  needed  and  the  overall  net 
drag. 

A.H. Epstein / A Technical Vision of Sustainable Commercial Air Transportation in 2030

367

b) Fuel burn improvements delivered by design features and technologies for a 180 passenger D8 configura-
tion 

Figure 1. 

The  second  largest  improvement  stems  from  mounting  the  engines  at  the  rear  of 
the  fuselage  such  that  their  propulsors  ingest  the  top  surface  boundary  layer.  This 
enables  the  well  known  wake  cancelation  effect  which  reduces  drag  still  further.  To-
gether,  these  the  drop  the  fuel  burn  by  25%  compared  to  aircraft  in  service  today. 
Another 6-8% can be realized by re-optimizing the configuration, especially the lifting 
surfaces for a lower maximum flight speed, M = 0.72~0.75, assuming this is commer-
cially viable. It is to be noticed that in this study, configuration optimization for lower 

 
 
368

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Pioneering the Air Transport

a) 

b) 

c) 

Figure 2. An evolution of bypass ratios (BPR) in sustainable engine configurations. 

flight speed that minimizes fuel burn, preclude flight at higher Mach numbers. An addi-
tional 20+% would come from engine improvements. 

Propulsion in this configuration is more highly integrated with the airframe than is 
common today, which imposes constraints on engine design. In particular, energizing 
the fuselage boundary layer with the engine propulsors requires (a) that engine propul-
sors  be  ducted  (precluding  open  rotors),  and  (b)  that  the  bypass  ratio  be  sufficiently 
large that the accumulated low momentum boundary fluid can pass through the bypass 
duct and not enter the core, where it would decrease thermal efficiency. Numerically, 
the studies showed that bypass ratios (BPR) of 13:1 or above are needed. The Geared 
Turbofan™  engines  that  will  be  entering  service  in  2013–2015  have  about  12:1  BPR 
(Fig. 2). 

The studies showed that new materials to reduce weight and cooling requirements 
such as improved polymer matrix composites in the fan module, ceramic matrix com-
posites in the high compressor and turbine, and increased use of metal matrix compo-
sites  can  be  important  contributors.  Improved  component  efficiencies  enable  by  new 
materials  and  manufacturing  technologies  can  also  be  expected.  Taken  together,  this 
means that ultra-high bypass ratio, ducted Geared Turbofan™ engines are a key enabl-
ing technology. 

In addition to reducing fuel burn and therefore CO2, the improved efficiency com-
bined with advanced combustor technology can reduce NOX by 70–90% below today’s 
CAEP/6  standard.  The  change  in  aircraft  architecture  combined  with  quiet,  Geared 
Turbofan  engines  may  reduce  cumulative  noise  by  40  dB.  Additional  aircraft  level 
noise reduction techniques may be developed by 2030 to reduce the noise level by an 
additional 20 dB. 

In regards to future fuels, the study confirmed that liquid hydrocarbons remain the 
fuel of choice for minimum fuel burn. Thus, aircraft configuration need not change to 
accommodate a different fuel. The low density of liquid cryogens such as LH2 and me-
thane render them a poor choice for high speed aircraft. The recent extension of jet fuel 
standards to include fuels derived from biomass shows that current jet fuel types need 
not be fossil based. Progress will now be measured by sustainability of the sources and 
the  net  carbon  saving  of  the  entire  production  and  distribution  process  of  alternative 
fuels. 

To justify the investment, each all new airplane model must deliver an operating 
cost  advantage  of  10~15%  over  current  models,  with  a  concomitant  improvement  in 
fuel  burn  and  engine  efficiency.  The  current  aircraft  configuration,  two  engines 
mounted under a low wing, is favored by aircraft designers because it appears to deliv-
er the best value to airline customers at most aircraft sizes. This study implies that by 

 
A.H. Epstein / A Technical Vision of Sustainable Commercial Air Transportation in 2030

369

Figure 3. The demands for the increased propulsor area needed to improve fuel burn will force an increased 
number of engines or all new aircraft configuration by 2030. 

2030 new low-wing twins will no longer be able to deliver that value. A new configu-
ration  will  be  needed,  driven  by  the  fundamental  need  to  improve  sustainability  and 
aircraft economics (Fig. 3). 

While  many  improvements  in  thermal  efficiency  can  be  implemented  “under  the 
hood”  of  an  engine,  the  only  way  to  significantly  improve  propulsive  efficiency  and 
noise  at  constant  thrust  is  to  reduce  the  propulsor  exhaust  velocity  and  therefore  its 
pressure ratio. This means that propulsor area must increase, which usually means the 
diameter must increase. At some diameter, the current low-wing, twin-engine configu-
ration is no longer viable; the engines simply do not fit. This point may be reached by 
the middle or end of the next decade. If a low wing is desired, then adding more en-
gines could provide the area needed. Certainly aircraft can be viable with four engines 
(A380, B-747) or even eight (B-52). Alternate engine placements offer another solution, 
above the wing (Honda Jet), at the rear (DC-9, Mercure, Trident), above the fuselage 
(D8, blended wing bodies) are all possibilities.  

Whatever the solutions adopted, the next two decades will be an exciting one for 
aviation and a rewarding one for the world’s economies as technology is developed to 
enable increasing sustainable and affordable commercial aviation. 

References 

[1]  E.M. Greitzer et al., “N+3 Aircraft Concept Designs and Table Studies, Final Report”, NASA CR 2010-

216794, 2010. 

About the Author 

Alan H. Epstein 
Vice President, Technology and Environment 
Pratt & Whitney, East Hartford, CT 06108, USA 
Tel.:+1 (860) 565-7774 
alan.epstein@pw.utc.com 

 
370

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-370

CREATE – A European Initiative 
for Stimulating Ideas and Incubating 
Upstream Research Projects 
in Air Transport 

Romain MÜLLER, Patricia PELFRÈNE, Adriaan de GRAAFF, Dieter SCHMITT, 
Gernot STENZ, Guy GADIOT, Gerben KLEIN LEBBINK, Chris BURTON, 
Surinder KOONER, John KIMBER, Trevor TRUMAN and Peter PHLEPS 

Abstract.  The  CREATE  project  was  initiated  following  an  earlier  path-finding 
project called “Out of the Box” [2]. The rationale for Out of the Box was that the 
generation of ideas for radically changed concepts and technologies for the future 
Air  Transport  system  needs  to  be  stimulated  and  ideas  need  to  be  collected  on  a 
European scale. The CREATE project studied and tested a process that includes all 
the steps necessary to bring these ideas for radical changes in air transport into ac-
tual research. 

Keywords. Stimulating ideas, upstream research projects, creative workshops 

1. Introduction 

The  CREATE  process  is focused  on  step  changes  in  aviation. It  does not  seek  to  ad-
dress all kinds of research but a relatively narrow, important part of the whole: the high 
risk  research  with  potentially  high  benefits  in  the  longer  term  future.  It  does  not  dis-
place any more incremental routes to innovation but augments them. 

It aims to stimulate step changes to the aviation system with particular attention to 
those that are cross-sector, transformational in their implications, and is concerned with 
the long-term future aviation system. 

R. Müller et al. / CREATE – A European Initiative

371

The project showed that high benefit and innovations of high risk effectively have 
no mechanism by which they can be studied for potential use in the long term future. 
The project concluded that a new process is required – one which will address this par-
ticular set of innovations and allow them to be studied and tested for validity as poten-
tial elements in a future air transport system. 

2. The CREATE Process 

The CREATE project identified process mechanisms to encourage concepts and ideas 
to be put forward, by providing assistance for their development and extension, by al-
lowing additional data and constructive views to be brought to their support, by trans-
forming ideas into research proposals that would be assessed independently and to in-
cubate the idea until it is mature enough to compete with other research proposals that 
aim at more incremental improvements. 

Most novel ideas face hostility. Given the radical nature of some of the ideas it is 
likely  that  they  would  face  premature  and  negative  decisions.  To  overcome  this,  the 
key process element is seen to be an “incubation” stage. This is comparable to a nur-
sery  for  children;  the  child  is  allowed  to grow  in  a  protected  environment,  to  acquire 
greater  knowledge  free  of  demands  for  performance.  Eventually,  of  course,  the  child 
must meet the demands for performance, competition and choice but the period in the 
nursery equips them to meet these forces. Incubation as a concept is a parallel to this. It 
will provide a protected environment where the viability of an idea can be studied, ex-
panded and developed to the level where it can provide comparable credibility to estab-
lished evolutionary ideas. In one respect, however, the incubation stage is unlike a nur-
sery.  If  the  work  to  develop  the  idea  shows  that  it  cannot  work  then  the  incubation 
should be stopped. 

The  CREATE  project  set  out  to  define,  test  by  demonstration  and  refine  a 
CREATE process except that it was never the intention to carry out a trial of the incu-
bation process given the cost and length of time that this would take. 

Five mechanisms were tested during the project: Creative Workshops, an Innope-
dia  web-based  discussion  platform,  Technology  Watch  to  identify  new  technological 
developments in other domains, the IDEA Portal to assist originators to develop their 
ideas and the Assessment process for impartial evaluation. 

The  workshop  resulted  in  a  large  number  of  creative  ideas  (more  than  130).  As 
usual  only  a  limited  number  of  ideas  were  deemed  to  be  worthwhile  to  follow  up.  A 
limited number of ideas were used to test some of the CREATE other process elements. 
The need for the IDEA Portal to further develop initial ideas into a research pro-
posal was well established. During this activity several elements of ideas selected were 
further developed. 

A new set of evaluation criteria was developed for the proposal assessment phase. 

These criteria were tested in a workshop and found to be suitable. 

In two areas it was concluded that the elements should not be further developed: 
the  establishment  of  the  wiki-based  Innopedia  and  a  Technology  Watch.  The  work 
done on Innopedia and Technology Watch (TW) pressed hard to develop processes that 
would realize the aspiration of the project for them. In the case of Innopedia the process 
was exhaustively tested but failed to demonstrate that enough people from around the 
aviation community were sufficiently interested in the topics of step change innovation 

 
372

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Pioneering the Air Transport

to sustain the process at the level hoped. Technology Watch was originally seen as an 
alert  based  system  that  would  inform  interested  groups  within  aviation  of  technology 
developments  of  potential  being  adopted  in  other  domains.  This  did  not  prove  to  be 
economically  viable.  The  use  of  Technology  Watch  for  providing  specific  search  re-
sults  is  recommended  as  commercial  activity  for  which  systems  already  exist.  The 
Commission may, however, want to assist SMEs to use these commercial TW instru-
ments. 

In  the  area  of  incubation  no  test  has  been  carried  out,  as  this  was  beyond  the 
CREATE  project  remits.  However,  the  conditions  for  incubation  contracts  and  the 
management of incubation have been studied in the project. CREATE recommends to 
facilitate feasibility studies during the incubation phase of a research project. 

R. Müller et al. / CREATE – A European Initiative

373

3. Conclusions and Recommendations of the Project 

The  CREATE  process  is  to  be  established  as  a  stable,  long-term  mechanism  that  can 
satisfactorily address the gap in the innovation chain. 

The  principal  steps  that  need  to  be  secured  before  this  stability  can  be  achieved 

are: 

•  Establishing the support and participation of the aviation stakeholders; 
•  Securing an enduring mechanism for funding the process. 

If  these  can  be  addressed  successfully  then,  along  with  the  process  development  that 
has been the subject of the CREATE project, a stable process can be established as a 
long term mechanism for providing, over time, a portfolio of innovative, important, and 
cross  sector  ideas  which  are  needed  with  greater  force  and  with  greater  speed  as  the 
challenges facing the world develop. 

Each of the steps – Creative Workshops, the IDEA Portal, and Assessment – were 
developed and defined for potential use and are recommended as part of the process for 
implementation. 

It  has  initial  stakeholder  support,  a  process  for  placing  incubation  contracts  has 
been developed, the provision of creative, developed and rigorously reviewed ideas has 
been proven through tests and the mechanisms for introducing this into use and accu-
mulating  a  portfolio  of  incubated  ideas  for  the  future  of  aviation  have  been  identi-
fied [1]. 

Two key issues remain to be determined: the provision of the funding stream for 
incubation contracts and the mechanisms by which the European Commission and the 
Member States wish this to be applied to incubation contracts. 

b) 

The conclusions of the CREATE project are clear on these two issues. 
a)  The  objective  of  an  implemented  CREATE  based  innovation  mechanism 
should be to accumulate, over a 10-year period, a portfolio of incubated ideas 
addressing major innovation schemes for air transport; 
Incubation contracts should be funded with 95% public funding for the feasi-
bility studies in incubation phase; 

c)  This funding should be found from within the European Commission research 
budget  and  it  is  recommended  that  implementation  of  the  CREATE  process 
should begin in FP7; 

d)  The mechanisms recommended for stimulating, extending and assessing ideas 
and  monitoring  the  progress  of  their  incubation  contracts  may  be  carried out 
by  the  European  Commission  or  by  sub-contracting  or  by  a  mixture  of  both 
approaches. 

Estimates of the cost of operating the total CREATE Process including incubation (€ 3 
million  annually)  have  also  been  compiled.  The  cost  is  remarkably  small  when  set 
against the potential importance of the ideas that may emerge from it – only about € 3.5 
Million per annum in total. Work on the early stages of an idea is not expensive and, in 
most  cases,  feasibility  studies  will  not  require  any  costly  test  items  or  facilities  to  be 
built. The majority of the work will be in developing comprehensive, multidimensional 
(economic,  technical,  operational,  regulatory,  environmental  and  social)  models  and 
describing each idea and its implications. This will, in most cases be sufficient to take 
the idea forward to TRL 1 or 2 and, if the idea still appears promising, allow technolo-
gy development to be taken forward thereafter with confidence. 

374

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Pioneering the Air Transport

Given the work done during the CREATE project the specific steps recommended 
by the CREATE project team for the implementation of this important innovation sti-
mulus were as follows: 

a)  Make a start on inviting submissions for incubation funding within FP 7 using 

the FET-Open scheme as a model; 

b)  Support the total CREATE process by European funding at about €3.5 million 

per annum; 

c)  Decide how the operational management of the process (described here as the 
CREATE process) should be managed, entirely by the European Commission 
or with some functions carried out under contract to them; 

d)  Develop the further extension of the scheme for Horizon 2020 using the model 
of management decided upon and inviting submissions through an annual se-
ries of carefully constructed open calls (95% funding and a two stage evalua-
tion); 
In conjunction with the planned report for a Vision 2050 to launch an aviation 
community  publicity  campaign  to  inform  stakeholders  in  the  future  of  air 
transport on how proposals for this closely defined area of innovation will be 
received, used and integrated into the research programme. 

e) 

4. Recent Developments 

The  European  Commission  has  accepted  the  need  to  implement  a  CREATE  type  of 
process and intends to allocate € 10 million in total for incubation during the last two 
calls  of  Framework  Programme  7  theme  Transport  (including  aeronautics).  These 
projects will be known as Level 0 projects. 

References 

[1]  CREATE,  Creating  innovative  air  transport  technologies  for  Europe,  Final  Report  of  the  CREATE 
project (Grant Agreement 211512) of FP7 under designation “AAT-2007-7-4: Stimulating radical tech-
nological changes”, ASD, Brussels, Belgium, October 2010. 

[2]  A. de Graaff and T. Truman, Out of the Box – Ideas about the future of air transport (Part 2), European 

Commission, November 2007. 

About the Authors 

Romain Muller and Patricia Pelfrène 
ASD 
Tervuren Avenue, 270 
B-1150 Brussels (Belgium) 
patricia.pelfrene@asd-europe.org www.asd-europe.org 

Drs Adriaan de Graaff 
AD Cuenta B.V. 
adgraaf@hetnet.nl  
www.Adcuenta.com 

 
 
 
R. Müller et al. / CREATE – A European Initiative

375

Dieter Schmitt 
ARTS 

Gernot Stenz 
Bauhaus Luftfahrt 

Guy Gadiot and Gerben Klein Lebbink 
NL Agency 

Chris Burton, Surinder Kooner and john Kimber 
QinetiQ 

Trevor Truman 
Consultant 

Peter Phleps 
TU Munich 

 
 
 
 
 
376

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-376

Small Aircraft Transport as a New 
Component of the European Air 
Transport System 

Krzysztof PIWEK 

Abstract.  A  visionary  European  Transport  system  should  be  based  on  an  envi-
ronmentally sustainable, cost efficient, seamless and co-modal passenger friendly 
system aiming at ensuring mobility and cohesion for the Europeans. The challenge 
is to create a new component of European transport by wider use of small aircraft 
using  regional  airports,  to  enable  access  to  more  communities  in  less  time.  The 
FP6 “EPATS (European Personal Air Transport System) Study” showed that 7% 
of the future car travel in 2020 could be shifted to Small Aircraft Transport Sys-
tems  (SATS).The  FP7  study  called  “SAT  –  Roadmap”  will  set  out  a  technology 
roadmap for the research actions necessary to implement such a transport system. 

Keywords. Small aircraft, small airports, regional airports, personal air transport 

1. A Vision of the European Transport System 

Different scenarios can be envisaged for the future European Transport System depend-
ing on many factors (social needs, economy, fossil oil price and availability, environ-
mental concerns, climate change, political choices and stability). A possible visionary 
European  Transport  System  should  be  based  on  an  environmentally  sustainable,  cost 
efficient, safe, seamless and co-modal passenger friendly system aiming to ensure mo-
bility and cohesion for the European citizens while enabling economic growth. 

“More  people  and  greater  economic  affluence  mean  more  mobility  and  more 
transport. Some studies suggest that the number of cars in the world will increase from 
around 700 million today to more than 3 billion in 2050, creating serious sustainability 
problems  unless  there  is  a  transition  towards  lower  and  zero-emission  vehicles  and  a 
different  concept  of  mobility  is  introduced  in  an  environmentally  friendly  way”.  Ac-
cording  Communication  from  the  European  Commission:  “A  sustainable  future  for 
transport: towards an integrated, technology-led and user friendly system” Brussels, 17 
June 2009 [1]. 

One future element of such an advanced transport system will be transportation us-
ing small aircraft and small/regional airports. This new transport mode will enable fast 
travel in areas of Europe where high speed trains or traditional airline connections are 
unavailable and will alleviate road congestion problems in a customer – and environ-
mentally friendly way. 

“General  and  business  aviation  complements  regular  air  transport  performed  by 
commercial  airlines  and  thus  provides  specific  social  and  economic  benefits  such  as 
increasing  the  mobility  of  citizens,  the  productivity  of  businesses  and  regional  cohe-
sion”.  According  European  Parliament  Resolution  of  3  Feb  2009  on  an  Agenda  for 
Sustainable Future in General and Business Aviation [2]. 

K. Piwek / Small Aircraft Transport as a New Component of the European Air Transport System 377

2. What is the Small Aircraft Transport System – SATS? 

The  challenge  is  to  create  a  new  mode  of  European  transport  by  wider  use  of  small 
aircraft using small and regional airports, enabling access to more communities in less 
time. 

SATS aims at the segment of the transport market that is not served by scheduled 
air transport or high speed trains, which today results in a substantial need for road tra-
vel for short to medium distances, to answer the specific needs of business and other 
users  The  small  aircraft  transport  mode  can  fill  a  gap,  which  exists  between  Surface 
Transport and regular mass Air Transport. 

The  main  idea  is  to  shift  a  part  of  medium/long  distance  passenger  car  trips  to 
small  aircraft  to  improve  the  efficiency  of  passenger  transport,  relieve  the  congestion 
on roads and thus reduce the environmental impact. Taking into account the travel cost 
and  the value of  time  saved by  air  travel, SATS will  offer  an  attractive  alternative  to 
travel by car for distances greater than 200 kilometers. 

The  Small  Aircraft  Transport  responds  to  trends  in  society  that  are  serious  chal-
lenges for transport system i.e. spending less time in travel and creating better condi-
tions for traveling, while meeting the following conditions: 

Increase safety and security; 

•  Use less energy; 
• 
•  Reduce pollution; 
•  Reduce costs; 
•  Exploit more efficiently the exis-ting infrastructure; 
•  Deploy intelligent transport system to achieve efficiency and easy of services 

reservations. 

The Small Aircraft Transport System will use small 4 to 19 seater aircraft, single pilot 
crew  and  automated  control  &  guidance,  flying  IFR  operations,  with  propulsion 
systems  that  are  tailored  to  the  missions,  using  the  network  of  regional  airports,  sup-
ported by appropriate ATM-ATC systems and an ICT infrastructure (Information and 
Communication  Technology)  to  provide  an  easy  reservation  system  and  per-seat  on-
demand air travel and enable more effective operational and administrative procedures 
[3,4,13,14,20]. 

The FP6 project EPATS-STUDY (European Personal Air Transportation System – 
Study) showed that the currently available airport infrastructure (2570 airports and air-
fields  in  Europe)  is  sufficient  to  provide  easy  access  to  all  European  communities. 
About  60%  of  the  European  population  is  living  within  a  distance  of  20  kilometers 
from the nearest regional airport, whilst for 95% of the European population the nearest 
regional airport is within a distance of less than 40 kilometers. 

The existing airport infrastructure will be sufficient (SATS will use satellite CNS 

and satellite based landing aids). 

3. Affordability 

Calculations show that small aircraft transportation is cost effective compared to road 
traffic over distances greater than 200 km. Using modern mass-produced small aircraft 
based on advanced technology and an intelligent transport business model, SATS will 

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Pioneering the Air Transport

be affordable, and once full maturity is reached, costs will be similar or less than car 
travel [4,14,15]. 

4. Impact on the Environment 

The environment remains the main policy area where further improvements are neces-
sary. 

The  impact  of  different  mode  of  transport on  environment  is  usually  assessed  by 
costs externalities measurements. Many researches were made to compare road and air 
transport. In all cases, the impact of air transport on the environment is much friendly 
than in the case of road transport; it concerns noise pollution, local air pollution, traffic 
congestion, crash and others [13]. According to European Environmental Agency Road 
transport – the largest share of both passenger and freight  mobility volumes – is also 
the largest contributor to total external costs. Road transport modes also have relatively 
higher  average  costs  per  passenger-kilometer  and  tonne-kilometre  than  other  mod-
es [21]. 

As fuel consumption per passenger/km is lower for aircraft, than the emission of 
harmful gases and particles per passenger kilometer are less than in cars. Implementa-
tion of the Clean Sky will also benefit SATS [1,2,15]. 

In relation to 1 passenger-km road transport needs many times more land than the 
air  transport  [16].  Given  the  use  of  existing  airports  SATS  implementation  does  not 
require new land. 

The  noise  level  of  SATS  aircraft  is  already  regulated.  It  is  expected  that  current 
noise levels can be lowered significantly in future thanks to new technologies and pro-
cedures.  

Although small piston aircraft use mainly 100LL aviation fuel now, there is a need 

for replacing Avgas by more friendly to environment, such as unleaded, or biofuel. 

 
K. Piwek / Small Aircraft Transport as a New Component of the European Air Transport System 379

5. The Potential Market of Sats 

EPATS-STUDY  showed  that  small  aircraft  transportation  is  beneficial  for  business 
travel in Europe, especially in southern France, Spain, Portugal and Italy, as well as in 
Eastern Europe [8], adding a new relevant market towards the current business aviation 
market which is currently more mature between London and Milano. 

The EPATS project showed that 7% (96 billon pas.km) of the future car travel (by 
means  of  affordable  operating  costs)  in  2020  could  be  shifted  to  SATS.  This  would 
require  a  fleet  of  89  000  small  aircraft  (4  to  19  seats),  and  generate  up  to  43  million 
flights per year [3,4,10,11]. 

The  project  participants  expect  that further studies  will  address  interregional  mo-
bility in the EU, to better identify passenger flows to better estimate the future demand 
for small aircraft transportation. 

6. Business Aspect 

The business cases are generated by straight forward choices, but have complex opera-
tional  characteristics.  Operational  characteristics  and  elements  of  the  business  cases 
include: 

•  Totally on-demand: the passenger is free to choose the final airport destination 
and the flight time. He always flies without other non-related passengers; 
•  Semi  on-demand:  the  passenger  is  bounded  in  his  departure  and  destination 

airport choice, but is able to choose its own flight time; 

•  Per seat on-demand (net-centric case): the passenger is free to decide his de-
parture and destination airport; other non-related passengers may accompany 
the original passenger to the same destination. Consequentially the passenger 

380

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Pioneering the Air Transport

can  choose  a  flight  time  interval  for  departure,  whereas  the  operator  decides 
the ultimate intermediate departure time of all passengers. The higher the in-
terval the lower the charter price. Passengers are free to choose different air-
craft type according to their demands. 

The SATS should operate in the frame of centralised Information and Communication 
Technology system. ICT solutions will be developed to support better management and 
integration of transport flows. The structure of the SATS network, planning and service 
management  are  aimed  at  reducing  empty  flights  legs,  increasing  fleet  effectiveness 
and fuel efficiency, to minimize transportation costs [4,13,14]. 

7. Safety 

Using professional pilots for small transport aircraft operating (both under Parts 91 and 
135 of the FAR or EU OPS) SATS will have a far lower accident rate than road trans-
port. The challenge to SATS is to reach safety levels similar to those of current com-
mercial  air  transport.  Improved  small  aircraft  will  be  based  on  new  technologies  that 
facilitates pilot situation awareness and flying in poor weather, which will help to reach 
the  projected  safety  levels.  Additionally  the  small  aircraft  will  be  supported  by  new 
training systems [7]. 

8. Aircraft Pilot Issues 

Using small aircraft means that the pilot costs will have to be shared by a lower number 
of passengers so, it is crucial to reduce the crew to one pilot, replacing the second by 
automatic system. SATS will be characterized by efficient pilot management, comply-
ing with the rules addressing flight time limitations and required rest periods. 

9. The Technology Roadmap 

The 7th FP SAT-Roadmap CSA project will set out a technology roadmap projecting 
the  necessary research  activities  for  the  implementation  and  maintenance  of SATS  in 
Europe.  Technology  challenges  which  will receive  extra  attention  are  the  aircraft  and 
propulsion  efficiency,  all  weather  operations,  single  pilot  operations,  noise  and  emis-
sion reduction, safety and security, cabin comfort as well as net-centric IT systems to 
support different business models. SATS development should be linked to SESAR en-
suring compatibility with the SWIM environment of SESAR. Additionally the roadmap 
will  also  address  future  regulation  necessary  to  fulfill  the  pre-defined  set  of  require-
ments. 

The following topics will be addressed: 
1.  High Level System Requirements. This relates to Airports – ATM/ATC – Net-
Centric  Management  Centre  –  SATS  Aircraft  Family  –  Service  –  Environ-
ment; 

2.  The  Business  Model.  To  develop  affordable  and  suitable  business  model  for 

SATS; 

K. Piwek / Small Aircraft Transport as a New Component of the European Air Transport System 381

3.  Advanced ICT. To develop Information and Communication Technologies for 
the SATS network with the purpose of the system to work on the basis of SE-
SAR’s  System  Wide  Information  Management  (SWIM),  integrating  SATS 
aircraft into high volume airspace operations. Eventually Airports can operate 
with virtual control towers; 

4.  Resistance to weather hazards. To develop methods and approaches to assure 
reliable and safe flight operations during poor weather conditions and perform 
landings at minimally equipped airports; 

5.  Single-pilot ability. To develop means to safely replace the second pilot using 
fail safe systems and more automation (using the results of the Sofia, P-Plane 
and others projects); 

6.  Efficient Systems and Propulsion for Small Aircraft through dedicated R&TD; 
7.  Small-Size Aircraft Configurations. Dedicated R&D on new types of aircraft 
that  should  constitute  the  mainstay  of  SATS  (based  on  CESAR,  ESPOSA, 
Clean Sky, SESAR, EPATS and others); 

8.  Friendly Legal Environment. Review and update of EASA regulation to pro-
vide  differentiation  of  regulations  affecting  different  categories  of  undertak-
ings and airspace users. Current regulations intended to govern the operation 
of highly complex commercial aircraft place a disproportionate financial and 
regulatory  burden  on  operators  of  small  aircraft,  therefore,  one-size-fits-all 
regulatory  approaches  and  the  uniform  enforcement  of  rules  across  different 
aviation sectors have proven inappropriate; 

9.  Comfort and others. 

10. Next Steps 

The Resolution by the European Parliament from February 3rd 2009, emphasized the 
relevance of SATS and the importance of supporting the existing, competitive capabili-
ties which will enable SATS and encouraged the development of innovative aircraft in 
the European Member States. 

It is highly appropriate that policy makers and stakeholders recognize the potential 
of this new mode of transport and support appropriate actions to develop such a system 
to its full potential. 

Legal Notice 

SAT-Rdmp support action is co-funded under the EU’s 7 Framework Programme. The 
views expressed in this publication are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not 
necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission. 

References 

[1]  Communication  from  the  European  Commission.  A  sustainable  future  for  transport:  towards  an  inte-

grated, technology-led and user friendly system. EC 2009. 

[2]  European  Parliament  Resolution  of  3  Feb  2009  on  an  Agenda  for  Sustainable  Future  in  General  and 

Business Aviation. European Parliament 2009. 

382

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Pioneering the Air Transport

[3]  D3.1 EPATS ATM General requirements & related issues to be solved. EPATS Consortium – EURO-

CONTROL 2008. 

[4]  D5.2 EPATS Roadmap. EPATS Consortium 2008. 
[5]  System  Transportu  Małymi  Samolotami  (STMS)  w  Polsce.  R2.1  Analiza  porównawcza  parametrów 
transportowych i oddziaływania na otoczenie pojazdów lądowych i statków powietrznych. (Small Air 
Transport System in Poland. Transport and environmental performances of car and small aircraft com-
parison). Instytut Lotnictwa 2009. 

[6]  STMS. UR2.1.1 Analiza porównawcza czasu i kosztów podróży służbowej samochodem i samolotem 

osobowym – Przykład obliczeń. Instytut Lotnictwa 2009. 

[7]  EPATS D1.1 Report on European Business & Personal Aviation Database and Findings. Chapter 4 To-

tal and fatal accidents rate by aircraft type and Operators. EPATS Consortium 2007. 

[8]  EPATS T1.2 Airports and Facilities Data Base. EPATS Consortium 2007. 
[9]  ESPON European Spatial Planning Observation Network, www.espon.eu. 
[10]  EPATS D2.1 Potential transfer of passenger demand to personal aviation by 2020. EPATS Consortium 

2008. 

[11]  EPATS T2.2.1 Synthesis of the EPATS estimation method and results. EPATS Consortium 2008. 
[12]  EPATS T5.3 Small Aircraft Requirements & Potential Demand. EPATS Consortium 2008. 
[13]  Koncepcja funkcjonowania Systemu Transportu Małymi Samolotami w Polsce (The concept of SATS 

functioning in Poland). Institute of Aviation 2009. 

[14]  Intelligent Personalized Air Transportation System A. Baron – IPATS. Transactions of the Institute of 

Aviation Scientific Quarterly 3/2010. 

[15]  EPATS D4.2 Operating Costs Analysis Report. EPATS Consortium 2008. 
[16]  Air Transport Efficiency and its Measures. Transactions of the Institute of Aviation Scientific Quarterly 

3/2010. 

[17]  Annual Energy Outlook 2006 with Projection to 2030. 
[18]  Analiza ekologii Systemu Transportu małymi Samolotami (STMS). Etap 1. Karol Ekert. (SATS Eco-

logical analysis). Institute of Aviation 2009. 

[19]  Evaluation  of  the  air  transport  efficiency  definitions  and  their  impact  on  the  European  Personal  Air 
Transportation System development. Jozsef Rohacs. Transactions of the Institute of Aviation Scientific 
Quarterly 3/2010. 

[20]  The Challenge of mobility in Europe. A. Baron, M. Mączka, K. Piwek. Transactions of the Institute of 

Aviation Scientific Quarterly 3/2010. 

[21]  European Environment Agency – TERM 2002 25 EU – External Costs of Transport. 

About the Author 

Krzysztof Piwek 
EPATS & SAT – Rdmp Project Coordinator 
Instytut Lotnictwa (Institute of Aviation), al. 
Krakowska 110/114 
02-256 Warsaw (Poland) 
Tel.: +48 22 868 56 81 
khp@ilot.edu.pl 

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-383

383

Novel Tiltrotor Concepts – An Overview 
of the “NICETRIP” Project 

Alessandro STABELLINI 

Abstract. During the last ten years, Tilt Rotor research in Europe has had a signif-
icant boost. In October 2006, a new project started: “NICETRIP” (Novel Innova-
tive  Competitive  Effective  Tilt  Rotor  Integrated  Project).  The  latter,  coordinated 
by AgustaWestland, is still running. Its main objectives are to integrate the results 
of the previous technological studies and to validate the full feasibility of the fu-
ture European Tilt Rotor “ERICA”. 

Keywords. Tilt-rotor, rotorcraft, enhanced rotorcraft 

1. Historical Background 

Between  2001  and  2006  six  EU  funded  projects  dedicated  to  studies  on  a  number  of 
critical  technologies  were  launched.  These  studies  were  dedicated  to  the  definition, 
evaluation, and validation of new technologies to be developed for and integrated into 
the European Second Generation Tilt Rotor, ERICA (Enhanced Rotorcraft Innovative 
Concept Achievement) the concept of which was developed by AgustaWestland, at the 
beginning of the year 2000, with the aim of filling the gap that existed between the US 
and European Industries in this technology area: 

•  RHILP (handling qualities); 
•  TILTAERO (aerodynamic interactions);  
•  ADYN (dynamics and noise); 
•  DART (rotor hub design and testing); 
•  TRISYD (drive system design and testing); 
•  ACT-TILT (flight control system). 

At the end of the above studies, in October 2006, NICETRIP (Novel Innovative Com-
petitive Effective Tilt Rotor Integrated Project) started; a research program funded by 
the European Union under FP6. The project, which is still running, is coordinated by 
AgustaWestland  with  the  main  objectives  of  integrating  the  results  of  the  previous 
technological  studies  and  of  validating  the  full  feasibility  of  the  future  European  Tilt 
Rotor, ERICA. The organisation and resources proposed to achieve the project objec-
tives include a 54 month work plan made of 7 Work Packages and a consortium of 29 
participants, fully representing the required skills and capabilities. 

2. The “ERICA” Concept 

The proposed ERICA concept (Fig. 1), in its basic version, is a 12 tonne, dual use, mul-
tipurpose  un-conventional  Tilt  Rotor  aircraft,  for  the  transportation  of  passengers  or 

384

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Pioneering the Air Transport

(cid:2)

Figure 1. The ERICA concept. 

cargo. Its scalable architecture is fully tailored to accomplish all the emerging require-
ments in the medium-large Tilt Rotor market segment (19–30 pax). Compared to exist-
ing  Tilt  Rotor  configurations,  the  ERICA  architecture  features  the  tilting  of  the  out-
board portions of the wing independently of the nacelle to improve the hover efficiency 
and optimisation of the angle of attack of the outer part of the wing according to flight 
condition. The latter is undertaken during takeoff and landing according to the speed of 
the aircraft and the wake of the rotor in order to reduce, the required runway length, to 
minimise  buffeting  and  to  increase  the  efficiency  and  comfort  during  the  conversion 
from rotor to wing borne flight. Another notable characteristic of the ERICA configura-
tion  is  its  ability  to  take-off and  land  in  aircraft  mode  which  is  made  possible  by  the 
reduced diameter of the rotors. The advanced aerodynamic design of the rotors through 
their  un-conventional  shaping  and  solidity  factor  guarantees  high  stall  margins  in  the 
low-speed regime. This coupled with an unconventional continuous structure to effect 
nacelle  rotation  assures  the  lowest  weight  and  higher  standards  of  performance  and 
safety compared to previous concepts. 

3. Progress Status 

At  the  current  stage  of  the  NICETRIP  project,  all  the  design  studies  have  been  com-
pleted, the aircraft general architecture has been defined and the aircraft specification 
has been frozen. 

In particular the engineering activities relevant to the definition of the vehicle ar-
chitecture  have  been  successfully  completed:  conceptual  design  of  the  principal  sys-
tems  and  dynamic  components;  validation  of  analytical  tools,  weight  estimation,  per-
formance  estimation,  flight  mechanics  evaluation  (HQ);  loads  evaluation  and  the  air-
craft aerodynamic and dynamic assessment. 

The  definition  of  the  major  aircraft  subsystems  has  also  been  completed  and  in-
cludes the preliminary structural design of the fuselage, wing and nacelles, the detailed 
design  of  rotor  hub,  blades  and  transmission  and  the  preliminary  design  of  the  flight 
controls, hydraulic, electrical and fuel systems. 

 
 
A. Stabellini / Novel Tiltrotor Concepts – An Overview of the “NICETRIP” Project

385

With regard to the testing activities, an aerodynamic test campaign (Force Model) 
was carried out in 2008 in the Politecnico of Milan wind tunnel on a 1:8 scale aircraft 
model. During the next months a test activity on an air intake model will be completed 
in the wind tunnel at the University of Liege. To enhance safety, a lubrication test and a 
functional test on a full scale prop-rotor gearbox were performed in April 2011 at the 
AgustaWestland facilities. A further aerodynamic test campaign is planned in 2012, in 
the DNW and ONERA wind tunnels. These tests will involve a dedicated 1:5 scale full-
span,  fully  actuated  and powered  model  that  has  been designed  and  manufactured by 
the Dutch National Aerospace Laboratory NLR. 

Within the activities dedicated to the introduction of Tilt Rotors in the Air Traffic 
Management  system,  a  real  time  simulation  in  a  realistic  scenario  was  conducted  in 
February  2010.  This  activity  connected  SICTA  facilities  with  the  flight  simulators  in 
Eurocopter, NLR and University of Liverpool. 

The NICETRIP Project is planned to be complete by December 2012. 

4. What Next? 

Following conclusion of the above described activities and based on the experience and 
the knowledge acquired during the last ten years the feasibility and the compliance to 
the design specification of the ERICA concept shall be considered demonstrated. The 
next step will then be the completion of the detailed design of some of the key subsys-
tems, their integration at aircraft level and the launch of the complete design and manu-
facturing of a demonstrator aircraft. 

This will, of course, involve a significant effort both in terms of skills and funding 
and to be successful should be sustained in a joint programme by the major European 
Aeronautical and High Technology Industries. In other words, to exploit the significant 
effort  and  competences  acquired  within  the  research  activities  centred  on  the  ERICA 
concept, a full flight demonstration program would be envisaged as a natural continua-
tion of the project. 

About the Author 

Alessandro Stabellini 
NICETRIP Project Manager 
AgustaWestland 
Via G. Agusta, 520 
21017 Cascina Costa (Italy) 
alessandro.stabellini@agustawestland.com 
www.agustawestland.com 

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Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-386

Future High Altitude High Speed Transport 
Concepts 

Johan STEELANT 

Abstract.  Pioneering  the  aviation  for  the  second  half  of  the  century  is  a  theme 
which the European Commission is actively supporting since the FP6 and contin-
ued doing so within the FP7. Several activities were initiated by ESA in this field 
which are related to hypersonic cruisers, i.e. LAPCAT [1] and ATLLAS [2] or to 
suborbital  flights,  i.e.  FLACON  [3]  and  FAST20xx  [4]  These  projects  are  co-
funded by the EC and a large group of about 30 different partners from industries, 
SMEs,  research  institutions  and  academia.  Though  these  activities  are  mainly 
technology  driven  programs,  the  specifications  and  requirements  for  the  research 
and  development  are  driven  by  conceptual  studies  on  hypersonic  and  suborbital 
vehicles. Different hypersonic cruiser concepts have been devised so far for differ-
ent cruise velocities ranging from Mach 3 to 8 while maximizing the range. Antip-
odal ranges such as Brussels to Sydney seem feasible but more detailed studies are 
now  required  along  with  flight  experiments.  For  suborbital  flights,  concepts  are 
laid out leaving the atmosphere and providing a view to earth from space, without 
going into orbit but still providing a wide variety of potential ranges. 

Keywords. High-speed cruiser, suborbital flights, hypersonic vehicles 

1. High-Speed Cruisers 

Reducing  travel  times  by  going  supersonic  has  only  sense  on  long-distance  flights. 
Range is hence an important figure of merit to evaluate high-speed aircraft concepts. It 
is strongly dependent on total available fuel mass and its consumption throughout the 
itinerary, i.e. from taxiing, speed-up cruise and final descent manoeuvres. Among these 
different parts, cruise represents a major portion of the needed fuel. The range achieved 
during cruise can be easily derived from the Bréguet range equation: 

=

R

η

H
g

L
D

ln

⎡
⎢
1
⎣

1

−

/
WW
F

⎤
=⎥
⎦

V
∞
sfcg

L
D

ln

⎡
⎢
1
⎣

1

−

/
WW
F

⎤
⎥
⎦

(1)

The range depends linearly on the energy content H in the fuel which can be increased 
with a factor of 2.7 by switching e.g. from kerosene to hydrogen. Despite its lower den-
sity requires larger volumes impacting negatively drag, it’s still very worthwhile to do 
so seen the global performance increase. The aerodynamic performance given by L/D 
depends primarily on the Mach number and is decreasing asymptotically to a value of 4 
to  6  with  increasing  flight  Mach  number.  This  decrease  of  aerodynamic  performance 
would inherently exclude long-range supersonic flight as it would be economically not 
viable. However, the overall propulsion efficiency η increases with Mach number for 
turbojets and ramjets. The factors η and L/D have reverse dependencies on flight Mach 
number and for a first assessment the cruise efficiency ηL/D can be considered to be 

J. Steelant / Future High Altitude High Speed Transport Concepts

387

Figure 1. Cruise efficiency as a function of A3/A1 (nozzle/air capture area ratio) for Mach numbers between 
3 to 6 [5]. 

constant,  i.e.  a  value  of  about  3  to  4.  An  optimization  analysis  integrating  both  the 
aerodynamics and the propulsion unit on a two-dimensional conceptual design showed 
a potential cruise efficiency factor ηL/D beyond 4 for flight Mach numbers above 3.5 
(Fig. 1). This means that the range is more or less independent of the flight speed and is 
then only determined by the relative fuel fraction WF/W or the structural efficiency. 

These  promising  feasibility  results  as  well  as  the  remaining  open  questions  with 
respect  to  variable  engine  cycles,  materials,  engine-airframe  integration,  thermal  pro-
tection  etc.…  justify  the  need  for  more  in-depth  studies  and  analyses  related  to  these 
disciplines.  The  LAPCAT  project  (Long-Term  Advanced  Propulsion  Concepts  and 
Technologies) has been set up to focus mainly on technologies related to engines and 
their  integration  into  the  airframe  [1,7].  Material,  structures  and  thermal  protection 
technologies  are  addressed  within  ATLLAS  (Aero-Thermodynamic  Loads  on 
Lightweight  Advanced  Structures)  [8].  Both  projects  incorporate  preliminary  designs 
of supersonic and hypersonic cruisers with flight Mach numbers ranging from Mach 3 
to  8.  Detailed  discussions  and  related  references  about  the  different  vehicle  concepts 
including the revisiting of American concepts can be found in [1,8]. Here, only the pre-
sently  retained  European  vehicle  concepts  are  highlighted.  A  conceptually  optimized 
Mach 3 flight vehicle was configured in ATLLAS which allows countering the known 
lift drop at high speeds by expanding the engine exhaust over an as wide area as possi-
ble. The analysis indicated that venting the exhaust in the lee of the wing and base of 
the  fuselage  may  enable  a  supersonic  aircraft  with  cruise  efficiency  competitive  with 
their subsonic rivals, whilst offering significant potential to reduce sonic boom. A ve-
hicle  configuration  has  been  developed  featuring  a  circular  fuselage  with  nose  intake 
and an internal high bypass turbofan (Fig. 2). Exhaust is ducted to the wing and fuse-
lage bases. The wing has a high aspect ratio for good subsonic performance while drag 
due to thickness is eliminated by exhausting approximately two thirds of the propulsive 
stream from the wing trailing edge. 

Another  design  approach  maximized  rather  the  thermodynamic  engine  efficiency 
by exploiting the liquid hydrogen fuel on board as lowest sink temperature (20K) in the 

 
 
 
388

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Pioneering the Air Transport

Figure  2.  M3  Configuration  with  fuselage  and  wing skins  off.  Cyan:  air  flow  path;  blue:  wing  nozzle  and 
thrust surfaces; red: fuel tanks; magenta: cabin. 

Figure  3. LAPCAT A2: Mach 5 hydrogen based vehicle (top) with precooled turbofan-ramjet Scimitar en-
gine. 

cycle. The hydrogen powered LAPCAT A2 vehicle flying at Mach 5 indicated that a 
400 ton, 300 passenger vehicle could achieve antipodal range. The concept is particu-
larly  interesting  for  this  mission  requirements  as  a  trajectory  optimization  allowed  to 
fly  almost  continuously  over  sea  and  avoiding  sonic  boom  impact  when  flying  over 
land. 

The proposed aircraft configuration A2 is shown in Fig. 3. The vehicle consists of 
a  slender  fuselage  with  a delta  wing  carrying 4  engine  nacelles  positioned  at  roughly 
mid length. The vehicle is controlled by active foreplanes in pitch, an all moving fin in 
yaw  and  ailerons  in  roll.  This  configuration  is  designed  to  have  good  supersonic  and 
subsonic  lift/drag  ratio  and  acceptable  low  speed  handling  qualities  for  takeoff  and 
landing. 

The conceptual designs for a Mach 8 civil transport aircraft within LAPCAT II are 
all based upon dual mode ramjet to achieve these high cruise speeds. Still, as shown in 
Fig. 4, these preliminary design processes resulted so far in three quite different con-
cepts:  a  TBCC  design  from  ONERA/ULB/UNIROMA  based  on  the  PREPHA  re-
usable launch vehicle [9,13], an axi-symmetric design from MBDA combining RB- & 
TBCC  [10],  and  a  TBCC based  wave-rider  concept  from  ESTEC  [11,12].  So  far,  the 
waverider concept has been put forward for the ground-testing phase. A further review 
of the ground test results and nose-to-tail computations of the different configurations 
should finally result into the definition of a flight configuration. 

 
 
J. Steelant / Future High Altitude High Speed Transport Concepts

389

Figure 4. Layouts of 3 remaining Mach 8 vehicle concepts: PREPHA derived vehicle from Onera (top), axi-
symmetric design from MBDA (middle) and waverider based design from ESA-ESTEC (bottom). 

2. Suborbital Flights 

The FAST20XX project, triggered by the FLACON outcome [3], aims at exploring the 
borderline  between  aviation  and  space  by  investigating  suborbital  vehicles.  The  main 
focus is the identification and mastering of critical technologies for such vehicles rather 
than the vehicle development itself. In principal, two main scenarios can be considered 
in suborbital flight depending on the required energy, i.e. low- and high-energy trans-
portation. 

The  low-energy  suborbital  transportation  concept  is  based  on  a  space  plane 
launched from an airplane offering essentially a ballistic flight experience using hybrid 
propulsion. This concept called ALPHA is comparable to the American SpaceShipOne 
vehicle.  The  possibility  is  foreseen  to  further  develop  this  space  plane  envisioned  to 
evolve into suborbital point-to-point long distance transport in very short term by using 
high  energy  propulsion  (EVE-concept).  An  alternative,  vertically  launched  two-stage 
rocket  space  vehicle  system  concept,  SpaceLiner,  is  used  to  identify  technologies  re-
quired for suborbital long-range transport. 

Though  the  low-energy  ALPHA  configuration  [14–17]  follows  somehow  the  de-
sign of SpaceShipOne, it is rather driven by the successfully flown German RLV de-
monstrator Phoenix for which a large database is available. After a first design iteration 
loop, the size of the vehicle is 1.3 times the Phoenix vehicle, giving space to 2 passen-
gers, one pilot and to host the propulsion and all subsystems (Fig 5). Based on the tra-
jectory  data,  the  g-loads  during  the  individual  mission  phases  are  given  in  (Fig.  6a). 

 
390

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Pioneering the Air Transport

Figure 5. ALPHA vehicle structural concept. 

Figure 6a. ALPHA reference trajectory 

During descent from 100 km to round about 30 km altitude high Mach numbers reflect 
the conversion of potential energy into kinetic energy. The reference trajectory at reen-
try implies moderate levels of acceleration up to a maximum of 3.2g (Fig. 6b). 

The high-energy concept, SpaceLiner, was originally introduced by DLR [18] and 
is  now  maturing  within  the  FAST20XX  project  [16,19].  It  consists  of  a  vertically 
launched two-stage rocket space vehicle system carrying 50 passengers over long dis-
tances at very short time (Fig. 7). Most promising routes are between Western Europe 
and  Australia,  but  a  lot  of  other  interesting  routes  exist  which  might  be  served  with 
some adaptations of the vehicle, e.g. a single stage concept for Europe-America routes. 
Hydrogen rich staged combustion cycle engines with a moderate chamber pressure are 
assumed  for  the  propulsion  system.  In  a  first  step,  major  subsystems  like  the  active 

 
 
J. Steelant / Future High Altitude High Speed Transport Concepts

391

Figure 6b. ALPHA reference trajectory. 

Figure 7. SpaceLiner “orbiter”. 

cooling system, passenger capsule rescue system, the avionics and control systems, the 
life-support  and  pressurised  cabin  system,  and  vehicle  health-monitoring  are  concep-
tually designed. So far, the SpaceLiner baseline has a total propellant mass of 987 tons 
and a lift-off mass of 1,238 tons [16]. 

A typical SpaceLiner trajectory is shown in Fig. 8, where initially a skipping tra-
jectory (black line) was selected to maximize the range of the “orbiter”; the accelera-
tion during the skips varies between 0 and 1.1g. By adapting slightly the flight route a 
non-skipping trajectory (green line) can be realised (Fig. 8, right) at a small cost of a 
0.3%  higher  fuel  consumption.  As  it  increases  the  passengers’  comfort,  the  non-
skipping trajectory is now considered as the SpaceLiner reference trajectory. 

3. Critical Technologies 

Apart  from  providing  the  characteristics  and  claimed  performances  of  these  vehicles, 
also the required technologies to achieve these goals are gradually developed including 

 
 
 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Pioneering the Air Transport

Figure  8.  SpaceLiner  trajectory  (left)  and  load  factors  (right):  initial  skipping  trajectory  (black),  optimised 
non-skipping trajectory (green). 

the constraints imposed by the environmental impact. The technologies address specific 
needs of: 

•  Advanced combined engine cycles able to operate over a wide speed range; 
•  The characterization of high-temperature light-weight metallic, composite and 

ceramic materials; 

•  Active and passive cooling systems for internal and external thermally loaded 

components; 

•  Different storable and cryogenic fuel types; 
•  Multi-disciplinary and multi-physics optimization tools; and 
•  Finally the need of experimental campaigns at real flight conditions for valida-
tion  with  respect  to  high-speed  aerodynamics  and  combustion,  designed  by 
existing European ground test facilities and state-of-the-art multi-dimensional 
and multi-physics numerical models. 

The environmental issues entail not only the emissions of CO2 or NOX but also the ef-
fect of contrails, sonic boom and impacts on the stratosphere. Preliminary results indi-
cate  the  feasibility  of  achieving  fuel  consumption  and  emission  rates  reaching  nearly 
the same level as conventional aircrafts. Furthermore research is carried out on system 
safety  design  aspects.  In  addition  non-technical  aspects  are  addressed  such  as  legal, 
regulatory and licensing topics as well as medical questions such as human limitations 
with respect to health risks and comfort. 

References 

[1]  http://www.esa.int/techresources/lapcat_II. 
[2]  http://www.esa.int/techresources/atllas_II. 
[3]  J. Starke, J.-P. Belmont, J. Longo, Ph. Novelli and W. Kordulla, “Some considerations on Suborbital 
Flight in Europe”, AIAA-2008-2525, 15th AIAA International Space Planes and Hypersonic Systems 
and Technologies Conference, Dayton, April 28 – May 1st, 2008. 

[4]  http://www.esa.int/fast20xx. 
[5]  T.  Cain,  M.  Zanchetta  and  C.  Walton,  “Aerodynamic  Design  of  the  ATLLAS  Mach  3  Transport”, 

CEAS 2009 European Air and Space Conference, Manchester, UK, 2009. 

[6]  J.  Steelant,  “Sustained  Hypersonic  Flight  in  Europe:  Technology  Drivers  for  LAPCAT  II”,  16th  Int. 
Space  Planes  and  Hypersonic  Systems  and  Technologies  Conference,  October  19–22,  2009,  Bremen, 
Germany, AIAA-2009-7206. 

    
J. Steelant / Future High Altitude High Speed Transport Concepts

393

[7]  J.  Steelant,  “Sustained  Hypersonic  Flight  in  Europe:  Mid-Term  Technology  Achievements  for  LAP-
CAT II”, 17th Int. Space Planes and Hypersonic Systems and Technologies Conference, April 11–14, 
2011, San Francisco, USA, AIAA-2011-2243. 

[8]  J. Steelant, “Achievements obtained on Aero-Thermally Loaded Materials for High-Speed Atmospheric 
Vehicles within ATLLAS”, 16th Int. Space Planes and Hypersonic Systems and Technologies Confe-
rence, October 19–22, 2009, Bremen, Germany, AIAA-2009-7225. 

[9]  L. Serre and S. Defoort, “LAPCAT-II: towards a Mach 8 civil aircraft concept, using advanced Rocket/ 
Dual-mode ramjet propulsion system”, 16th Int. Space Planes and Hypersonic Systems and Technolo-
gies Conference, October 19–22, 2009, Bremen, Germany, AIAA-2009-7328. 

[10]  F. Falempin, M. Bouchez and V. Perrillat, “LAPCAT 2 – Axisymmetric Concept for a Mach 8 Cruiser 
– Preliminary Design and Performance Assessment”, 16th Int. Space Planes and Hypersonic Systems 
and Technologies Conference, October 19–22, 2009, Bremen, Germany, AIAA-2009-7437. 

[11]  N.  Murray  and  J.  Steelant,  “Methodologies  involved  in  the  Design  of  LAPCAT-MR1:  a  Hypersonic 
Cruise Passenger Vehicle”, 16th Int. Space Planes and Hypersonic Systems and Technologies Confe-
rence, October 19–22, 2009, Bremen, Germany, AIAA-2009-7399. 

[12]  N.  Murray,  J.  Steelant  and  A.  Mack,  “Design  Evolution  for  Highly  Integrated  Hypersonic  Vehicles”, 

Space Propulsion 2010, San Sebastian, Spain, 3–6 May 2010. 

[13]  S. Defoort, M. Ferrier, J.L. Pastre, P. Duveau, L. Serre, D. Scherrer, C. Paridaens, P. Hendrick, A. In-
genito and C. Bruno, “LAPCAT II : conceptual design of a Mach 8 TBCC civil aircraft, enforced by 
full Navier-Stokes 3D nose-to-tail computation”, 17th AIAA Int. Space Planes and Hypersonic Systems 
and Technologies Conference, April 11–14, 2011, San Francisco, USA, AIAA-2011-2137. 

[14]  H.  Adirim  and  N.  Pilz,  “Propulsion  Options  for  Air-Launch  Vehicles”,  Deutscher  Luft-  und  Raum-

fahrtkongress 2010, Hamburg, 31 August – 2 September 2010. 

[15]  H.  Adirim,  N.  Pilz,  M.  Marini,  P.  Hendrick,  M.  Schmid,  R.  Behr,  T.  Barth,  F.  Tarfeld,  A.  Wiegand, 
D. Charbonnier, R. Haya Ramos, J. Steelant and A. Mack, “Overview of Suborbital Human Transporta-
tion Concept ALPHA”, 7th Aerothermodynamics Symposium, Brugge, Belgium, 9–12 May 2011. 
[16]  A. Mack and J. Steelant, “FAST20XX: First Progress on European Future High-Altitude High-Speed 
Transport”, AIAA, 17th AIAA International Space Planes and Hypersonic Systems and Technologies 
Conference, San Francisco, CA, 11–14 April 2011. 

[17]  A.  Mack, J. Steelant and W.  Kordulla, “FAST20XX:  Future High-Altitude High-Speed Transport for 

the Next Decades”, Space Propulsion 2010, San Sebastian, Spain, 3–6 May 2010. 

[18]  M. Sippel, “Introducing the SpaceLiner Vision”, 7th International Symposium on Launcher Technolo-

gies, Barcelona, Spain, April 2–5, 2007. 

[19]  M.  Sippel  and  A.  van  Foreest,  “SpaceLiner  Rocket-Powered  High-Speed  Passenger  Transportation 
Concept Evolving in FAST20XX”, 61st Int. Astronautical Congress, Prague, September 27 – October 1, 
2010. 

[20]  M.  Sippel,  A.  van  Foreest  and  C.  Bauer,  “System  Investigations  of  the  SpaceLiner  Concept  in 
FAST20XX”,  17th  AIAA  Int.  Space  Planes  and  Hypersonic  Systems  and  Technologies  Conference, 
San Francisco, 11–14 April 2011. 

[21]  A. Kopp, A. Van Foreest, M. Sippel, M. Dalenbrink and R. Jarlås, “Investigation of Structure for the 
Hypersonic Transport System SpaceLiner”, 17th AIAA Int. Space Planes and Hypersonic Systems and 
Technologies Conference, San Francisco, 11–14 April 2011. 

About the Author 

Johan Steelant 
Section of Aerothermodynamics and Propulsion Analysis 
ESA/ESTEC 
Keplerlaan 1 
NL- 2200 AG Noordwijk (The Netherlands) 
Tel.: +31 71 565 5552 
johan.steelant@esa.int 
www.esa.int 

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Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-394

Opening the Airspace for UAVs – 
ASTRAEA Progress Report 

Nigel MILLS 

Abstract. The ASTRAEA – Autonomous Systems Technology Related Airborne 
Evaluation and Assessment – Programme is a collaborative UK initiative drawing 
on the expertise of some of the world’s aerospace companies to establish the ne-
cessary technology, procedures and regulations to enable the routine operation of 
unmanned air systems (UAS) in all classes of airspace. This presentation describes 
the systems approach and virtual certification process being adopted, the progress 
that has been achieved to date and sets out some key milestones in the future pro-
gramme. 

Keywords. UAV, UAS, airspace 

1. The Challenge 

Regulations for manned aviation have matured over the past 100 years as technology 
has  been  developed  and  lessons  have  been  learnt.  There  is  an  implicit  assumption  in 
such regulations that the pilot of the aircraft is on board. In the case of an unmanned air 
vehicle (UAV) where the pilot is situated remotely this assumption is incorrect. Unfor-
tunately there is no agreed interpretation of the regulations for unmanned air systems 
(UAS).  However,  the  authorities  have  provided  guidance  that  the  operations  of  UAS 
should be transparent to other airspace users, the systems and rules should be equiva-
lent and it should be no less safe that manned aviation. In the absence of formal speci-
fications there is a “Catch 22” situation where regulators require an example system to 
certify but Industry cannot make the business case to develop one in the absence of a 
solid specification. 

A second challenge is the perception of both professional aviators and the general 
public with whom we need to build trust that UAS are safe, have economic and societal 
benefit and improve European security. 

2. The ASTRAEA Approach 

The  UK  ASTRAEA  programme  was  established  in  2006  as  a  jointly  funded  Indus-
try/Government initiative to bring regulators and Industry together (Fig. 1) so that UAS 
regulations  could  be  matured  and  technology  could  be developed.  The objective  is  to 
enable the routine use of UAS in all classes of airspace without the need for restrictive 
or  specialised  conditions  of  operation.  This  is  being  achieved  by  a  whole  system  ap-
proach which will develop and demonstrate the key technologies and operating proce-
dures required to open up the airspace. 

N. Mills / Opening the Airspace for UAVs – ASTRAEA Progress Report

395

Figure 1. ASTRAEA Partners and Associates. 

Figure 2. Parc Aberporth SE Integrated Demonstration – 2008. 

Key activities are: 
•  Engagement of the regulatory authorities; 
•  Visualisation and experimentation in synthetic environments (SE) with valida-

tion of certain key technologies in flight tests; 
•  Collaboration with other international bodies. 

The first phase of the programme ran from 2006 until 2008. It culminated with a 
synthetic environment demonstration at Parc Aberporth in Wales of an end-to-end UAS 
mission in which two UAVs were operated in a search and rescue scenario (Fig. 2). It 

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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Pioneering the Air Transport

was performed in front of a wide range of stakeholders including regulators, potential 
users, service providers and funding bodies. 

The focus on performing an end-to-end demonstration had the benefit of eliciting 
concepts of operation, exercising the individual technologies and ensuring the integra-
tion had no undesirable emergent properties. It also established multi-company valida-
tion and synthetic laboratories. 

3. Transition from SE to Flight 

Phase  2  of  the  programme  has  been  running  since  2009  and  comprises  two  main 
projects as described below. Both projects are undertaking a series of trials and demon-
strations  and  are  contributing  to  the  development  of  regulations  by  engagement  with 
the  UK  Civil  Aviation  Authority  (CAA)  in  a  Virtual  Certification  exercise  described 
further. 

3.1. Separation Assurance and Control 

This project covers technology development in the areas of sense and avoid (to replace 
the pilot’s see and avoid responsibilities), ground operations and human systems inte-
raction (a key aspect to ensure the remote pilot has adequate situation awareness) and 
communications systems and spectrum (to ensure that the command, control and payl-
oad links are secure, have high integrity and have access to adequate RF spectrum). 

The  SE  trials  from  phase  1  of  the  ASTRAEA  programme  have  transitioned  into 
flight.  A  manned  Flying  Test  Bed  (FTB)  is  being  utilised  as  a  surrogate  UAV.  Key 
technologies are used in flight to direct the FTB aircraft via the on-board flight naviga-
tion system whilst the flight deck crew (pilots) remain in charge at all times and pro-
vide the “See and Avoid” (human eye) capability required by current regulations. Use 
of the FTB in this manner allows the technologies to be safely flight tested and demon-
strated outside segregated airspace without recourse to special airspace clearances. 

Evidence from the 12 month period of flight trials which commenced in February 

2011 is that the system performs at least as well as the flight crew. 

3.2. Autonomy and Decision Making 

This project covers autonomy, decision making and contingency management (to sup-
port the remote pilot in the event of comms failure, time critical decisions or emergen-
cy situations) and operational utility and affordability (to understand the business case 
for civil use of such systems). 

The  architecture  and  operational  concepts  from  the  first  phase  of  the  programme 
have been matured to the point that the systems requirement is documented. Integrated 
AI modules (agents) and reasoning toolsets have been developed to implement the ma-
chine  intelligence  necessary  to  optimise  task/sensor  suite  performance  and  maximise 
efficiency of operation. 

Two key modes of decision making are proposed: 
•  Human in the loop (data link present  and non-time critical decisions) having 
full system functionality. The UAV pilot is in the command and control loop 
and authorises every decision; 

N. Mills / Opening the Airspace for UAVs – ASTRAEA Progress Report

397

Figure 3. Virtual certification process. 

• 

• 

2.  Machine  based  decisions  (data  link  not  present  or  time  critical  decisions) 
with reduced decision making set focussing on safety functions; 
Integration  trials  of  autonomous  mission  management  and  a  ground  control 
station have  taken place  in  2011  and  this  is  expected  to  transition  to  a flight 
trials in 2012. 

4. Virtual Certification 

A  recent  innovation  within  ASTRAEA  has  been  the  concept  of  Virtual  Certification. 
This  is  a  process  in  which  the  consortium  is  creating  and  agreeing  a  generic  system 
architecture for a UAS which is then used as the basis for structured discussion with the 
CAA to provide guidance on an acceptable technical and regulatory framework leading 
to certifiable solutions. This process will expose the salient issues to allow any novel or 
UAS specific aspects to be considered beyond conventional CS23 or CS25 codes. The 
outcome will be a route to certification plan, a strategy of how to achieve this, and sug-
gested adaptations of regulations (Fig. 3). 

5. User Group 

An  important  aspect  for  the  government  and  industry  funders  of  the  ASTRAEA  pro-
gramme  is  the  establishment  of  a  successful  UAS  market.  Therefore,  the  programme 
has established a user group to which interested parties are invited to contribute their 
requirements.  A  questionnaire  has  been  developed  which  is  being  used  to  stimulate 
discussions  with  the  users  so  that  the  business  constraints  can  be  taken  into  account 
when devising system solutions to the UAS operations and equipment. Users are being 
sought across a wide range of applications including many different types of data ga-
thering, airfield services and support to manned operations. 

 
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II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Pioneering the Air Transport

6. Conclusions 

ASTRAEA  is  a  unique  programme  which  will  enable  a  new  branch  to  the  aerospace 
industry and enable new services to meet the requirements of a wide range of end users. 
ASTRAEA  will  create  opportunities  for  manufacturing  and  service  industries  in 
the emerging UAS market and related intelligent technology applications and will give 
industry the knowledge and confidence to develop certifiable products and services to 
address these markets. 

The technologies developed in ASTRAEA are potentially capable of broad appli-
cation in other sectors and provide the confidence for further investment in UAS prod-
uct development. 

About the Author 

Nigel Mills, Technical Director Air Technology Insertion, QinetiQ 
Cody Technology Park, Ively Road, Farnborough, Hants, UK, GU 14 0LX 
Tel.:+44 1252 394 594 
njmills@qinetic.com 
www.qinetic.com 

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-399

399

The Greening of Aerostructures – 
Challenges Ahead 

Miguel Á. CASTILLO ACERO 

Abstract. Aernnova, as a consolidated aerostructures Tier 1 company, is constant-
ly improving more eco- friendly design and manufacturing solutions for the Aero-
structures  Life  Cycle.  This  is  not  only  about  the  reduction  of  harmful  chemical 
treatments  or  the  efforts  to  provide  better  aircraft  architecture  features  to  reduce 
noise, emissions and increase efficiency, but also, the different research and devel-
opment  efforts  to  use  materials  in  general,  and  composites  in  particular,  to  save 
weight and improve aerodynamics at their full capacity. 

Keywords.  Contamination,  chemical  treatments,  greening  aero-structures,  smart 
materials 

1. Characterisation of the Contamination Related Drivers 

Let us start with the Product Development- Design activities. To reduce the impact of 
design  activities  on  the  environment  is  quite  obvious  that  a  simplistic  approach  con-
cludes  that  it  is  required  an  improvement  on  the  efficiency  by  reducing  the  develop-
ment cycle time. The Parameter to monitor is the reduction of energy consumed by the 
design engineers and their machines, mainly computers, to define the product. 

On  the  other  hand,  a  good  design  enables  among  others,  the  following  benefits 

along the Product Life Cycle of the aerostructure: 

•  The reduction of energy consumption during production; 
•  The elimination of harmful toxic contaminants; 
•  A better materials disposal, waste disposal, ability; 
•  The reduction of maintenance cycle time; 
•  The  reduction  of  drag  to  reduce  fuel  consumption  and  therefore  the  carbon 

footprint; 

•  The reduction of weight, also for fossil fuel consumption minimization; 
•  The complete elimination of CO2 emissions by non carbon fossil fuelled air-

frame design concepts, i.e. hydrogen solutions. 

The balance, from environmental perspective, is in the side of performing a better 
design  against  the  principle  of  reducing  developments  cycle  time.  The  benefits  along 
the  aero-structures  life  cycle  overtake  the  penalties  on  the  energy  wasted  during  the 
development phase by far. 

This new design environmentally oriented paradigm must be harmonized with the 
intrinsic  “safety  first”  aerospace  principle  together  with  business  and  competitiveness 
oriented way of working. 

400

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Pioneering the Air Transport

From pure Manufacturing point of view, aviation industry is working on raw mate-
rials optimization and handling, the reduction on the water consumed along the differ-
ent production processes and proper ways for composites disposal. 

Also,  in  conjunction  with  product  development,  there  are  efforts  on  reducing  the 

energy consumption on production and the elimination of harmful toxic contaminants. 
Regarding the Maintenance and End of Life Cycle Contamination, the situation to-
day  is  clearly  targeted  for  improvement.  Only  a  little  more  than  50%  of  the  airframe 
metallic materials are re-cycled and the rest is stored in desert areas with little control 
on soil contamination. There is a need to cascade down ISO 14001 requirements for the 
end of commercial airplanes life cycle. 

The two main commercial aircraft manufacturers, Boeing and Airbus, are working 
to define the most efficient way for the end of aircrafts life cycle. Airbus is working in 
the program Pamela- Life and Boeing in the initiative AFRA. Both OEMs are demon-
strating their implication on the development of industrial profitable solutions together 
with their supply chains. 

The main aircraft emissions during Operation are listed below together with their 

key characteristics: 

•  CO2  is  directly  linked  to  fuel  consumption  also  proportional  to  weight  and 
drag.  It  is  greenhouse  gas.  Its  effect  is  global  extension  and  long  term  dura-
tion; 

•  NOX. It is caused by the engines. Its effects are located at high altitude (ozone 
destruction) and in the airports vicinity, low air quality. It is a mid- term dura-
tion impact type; 

•  Sulphur and other solid particles. They affect the air quality and they are short 

term duration type of contamination. 

2. Air Transport Boundary Conditions: Growth and Actions 

According to all validated sources and based on data logs, air transport growth between 
4 and 5% per year. In the other hand, Statistics show a historical trend of a minimum 
1.5% efficiency improvement per year. 

The direct conclusion is that in order to maintain current impacts on environment 
we  need  to  increase  minimum  2.5  %  the  efficiency  to  make  air  transport  sustainable. 
Therefore, the Sector needs actions at all levels [2,7]. 

In the engine specific consumption reduction, research and innovation framed in-

side some key elements aspects: 
•  New engines concepts: 
−  Open rotor; 
−  High by pass ratio; 
−  Geared fan. 

•  Development of new materials for high temperature applications. 

In the field of airframe design and to include the most relevant areas for technolo-

gy development, we can highlight the Drag and Weight reduction efforts. 

There  are  also  actions  identified  in  the  field  of  operational  procedures,  with  new 
ATM (Air Traffic Management) technologies enabling Flex-Airways, Approaches and 
Take off paths with less environmental impacts. Efforts on airports improvements. 

M.Á. Castillo Acero / The Greening of Aerostructures – Challenges Ahead

401

Finally, we have to remember the contamination mitigation through using alterna-
tive fuels, bio-fuel and the development of technologies to enable the safe use of alter-
native fuels like hydrogen. 

3. Greening Aero-Structures – Design 

The Greening Efforts must start with an aeronautics classic and traditional issue which 
is the weight. 

Current big trend is to use composite materials but we have to remember first the 
research of Lighter Metallic  Materials with enhanced characteristics. The selection of 
the right metallic material is in the base of a light design success. For example, the se-
lection of aluminum alloy depends on enhanced mechanical properties required for the 
structural application, critical failure mode, sizing loads environment, etc.… 

Today there are new aluminum alloys, i.e. aluminum-lithium with less density than 
current  aluminum  alloys  and  mechanical  properties  improved.  These  mechanical  en-
hanced properties together with weld ability enablers might be a winner in future air-
craft  structures.  Research  and  innovation  on  aluminum  and  titanium  alloys  are  in 
progress and may show results in the coming years. Just to name some of the current 
Research  Lines,  we  can  identify  the  laser  beam  welding  technologies,  friction  steer 
welding; improve industrialization efforts, integration of inspection and welding opera-
tions, and automation and robotization. 

The  star  materials  in  aerostructures  domain  are  the  composites  and  in  particular 
Carbon Fibre Reinforced Composites. There has been a continuous growth of their uti-
lization achieving by large the 50% of the overall structure of the latest models: Boeing 
787  and  Airbus  A3  50  XWB.  The  demand  now  is  to  enhanced  composites  essential 
properties. 

There  are  several  Research  and Innovation paths  to  improve  Composites  Utiliza-
tion  in  Aero-  structures.  One  of  the  main  efforts  in  Aernnova  is  through  the  use  of 
Structural Health Monitoring Systems. This type of Systems allows detecting impacts 
and defects on the aircraft structure in real time. The Potential Benefits on Installing a 
SHM on an aircraft Structures are huge: 

Increase structure availability at minimum cost; 
Increase and improve transport safety; 
Increase quality assurance of final products; 
 Integrity monitoring of damage tolerant structures; 

•  Reduce direct maintenance costs of structures; 
•  Eliminate all common non-destructive inspections; 
•  Simplify and optimize future maintenance procedures and strategies; 
•  Make possible real Condition Based Maintenance of structures; 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•  Optimize for shape & mass future structures based on Fully Stressed Design; 
• 
•  Structures with autonomous and automated maintenance; 
•  Reduction of Time to Market (TTM); 
•  Make easier identification of real causes of possible structural damages; 
•  Have the information of structure consumed & remaining life at all moment. 

Identification of critical areas of structures during their service; 

402

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Pioneering the Air Transport

Aernnova  is  currently  developing  its  own  SHM  system,  called  PAMELA  SHM 

TM. 

Just to include other composite- enhancements aero-structures Research and Inno-

vation efforts we can highlight: 

•  Multifunctional materials; 
•  Niño technology for mechanical enhancements: nanotubes and similar; 
•  Electrical enhancements; 
•  Parts integration into one shot features; 
•  Thermoplastics; 
•  Technologies out of autoclave. 

Regarding new Research and Technology trends we can remark efforts on Innova-
tive Conceptual Design at a/c level, to Develop New Architectures, New Engine inte-
gration, Tailless design and other revolutionary concepts. In particular we can highlight 
Loads alleviation technologies, with Smart Materials and Morphing Structures. 

4. Greening Aero-Structures – Manufacturing 

There are different areas on Manufacturing side where to put attention on the definition 
of a greener manufacturing way than current situation. Just to name the main areas to 
focus on we can identify five big Research and Innovation lines: 

•  Manufacturing  specialization  on  product  types:  composites,  metallic,  assem-

bly to optimize operations; 

•  Simulation precedes actions at industrial lay outs; 
•  Energy management; 
•  Waste management; 
•  Concurrent design to minimize scrapped materials. 

In particular, in Aernnova, the Materials and Process down selection is performed 
in full concurrency with the Design office and then provides better results. The consid-
eration of environmental requirements starts at the beginning. Also this way of working 
produces a closer look on the raw materials availability, their costs and what are going 
to be the environmental effects and the energy consumption during the cycle. 

5. Aernnova Is Associated to CLEAN SKY/ SFWA 

Aernnova is a proud Clean Sky associate. Aernnova is collaborating in the Smart Fixed 
Wing Aircraft Integrated Technology Demonstrator called BLADE: Breakthrough La-
minar Aircraft Demonstrator in Europe. The accelerated research process up to Tech-
nology  Readiness  Level  (TRL)  6  that  Clean  Sky  offers  to  a  company  like  Aernnova 
represents an unprecedented opportunity for rapid progress in the introduction of green 
technology into aviation. Clean Sky SFWA will demonstrate and validate the technolo-
gy  breakthroughs  that  are  necessary  to  make  major  steps  towards  the  environmental 
goals. The SFWA ITD, with the BLADE demonstrator, will work towards the goal of 
reducing the medium- and long-range aircraft fuel burn and emissions by around 10% 

M.Á. Castillo Acero / The Greening of Aerostructures – Challenges Ahead

403

to 20% and noise by 5 to 10dB. Furthermore, it will enhance the comfort and safety of 
future transport including aircraft agility and flight trajectory flexibility. With the fore-
seen increase in air traffic in mind these goals will not be reached without a step change 
in aircraft technology, which is precisely the challenge for the BLADE project. 

The objective of the SFWA ITD is not to start up new research, but to take existing 
research  much  further  on  the  TRL  level.  Technologies  that  have  been  developed 
through  research, partly  funded  by  the European  Commission,  over  the last  20  years, 
will be matured and enhanced to a TRL that can be implemented on the next generation 
of civil aircraft. 

The SFWA, the Clean Sky ITD where Aernnova is one of the associates, aims to 
develop and test an all new “smart wing” design that makes use of passive and active 
flow  and  load  control  technologies  and  will  help  to  reduce  the  drag  of  the  wing  in 
cruise. This concept will increase overall aircraft fuel efficiency. The architecture of the 
smart wing will enable the application of the most advanced passive and active loads 
control  strategies,  which  are  reducing  the  loads  in  turbulence  not  only  acting  on  the 
wing, but also on the entire aircraft. One key exercise in the SFWA will be not to de-
velop  the  “smart  wing”  so much  as  an  individual  component, but  rather  to  pursue  its 
full optimization and integration into the overall aircraft concept. This will include all 
disciplines  traditionally  involved  in  aircraft  design:  flight  physics,  structure  and  sys-
tems. 

Aernnova together with Airbus [5], Saab [6] and the rest of this Smart Wing Clean 
Sky BLADE project partners, will demonstrate the concept feasibility by a Flight Test 
Bed (FTB) Demonstrator in an A340. The selected technology is the Natural Laminar 
Flow (NLF) because is most cutting energy. To achieve this NLF wing more than usual 
challenging  requirements  must  be  fulfilled.  Aernnova  is  either  collaborating  with  the 
rest of associates and partners or directly working in the following topics: 

•  Rivet less upper surface and Very Tight surface waviness, roughness, see ref-

erences [1,3,4,8–10]; 

•  Very high Quality Assembly Tooling Computer-Aided Assembly CAA (with 

Integrated Metrology); 

•  Manage, Predict and Control all the parameters that affect the Assembly from 
the smallest detail to the biggest in order to industrialize the NLF Wings (Nu-
merical Simulation), see references [11–19]; 

•  Metrology  capabilities,  the  current  technology  is  not  capable  of  measure  the 

tight waviness with guarantee; 

•  Development of advanced mechanical bonding; 
•  Development of post-assembly finishing and coating alternatives. 

The fulfilment of all these requirements is not easy they are at levels not seen be-
fore in commercial aviation. The new wing has to be smoother than current state of the 
art solutions. The development of new ways to design and build the wing oriented to 
achieve  this  extra  requirements  performance  will  enable  larger  natural  laminar  flow 
region on the aerodynamic wing profile. 

Regarding  overall  wing  configuration  after  the  inclusion  and  fulfillment  of  all 

these requirements, the result will not look like nowadays´ commercial aircraft wings: 

•  The leading edge will be reduced, height and curvature; 
•  The wing overall sweep angle will also be reduced. 

404

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Pioneering the Air Transport

Just to name the main areas on current Technology Development in Aernnova to 
cope with the BLADE SFWA Clean Sky project we can highlight the efforts on simu-
lation, 3D modeling, robust and integral structural analysis, virtual testing and design 
reliability.  In  the  field  of  aerodynamic  performance,  there  are  Technology  Develop-
ment efforts on using Composites for complex aerodynamics shapes with anti- erosion 
enhancements  like  thinning  metal  foil  and  challenge  these  with  nano-technology  en-
hancements. 

6. Conclusions 

The  combination  of  the  Air  Transport  growth  and  the  Emissions  historical  improve-
ment trend concludes a yearly deficit between 2 and 3 %. This situation frames a real 
need to advance on the technologies utilize along Aviation Sector.  

In particular, for Aero-structures, these greening requirements combined with safe-
ty and economics defined the new paradigm to succeed. The OEMs, Tier 1 like Aern-
nova and all “Extended Enterprise” Players, are developing technologies to cope with 
this new paradigm. The Natural Laminar Flow Wing and the Structural Health Moni-
toring systems are good candidates to be successful on these new grounds. Integrated 
Projects like BLADE SFWA Clean Sky provide a way to mature these rising technolo-
gies to an adequate level before commercial utilization. 

References 

[1]  “Wing Leading Edge Joint Laminar Flow Tests”, Aaron Drake, Russell V. Wetphal, Fanny A. Zuniga, 

Robert A. Kennelly Jr. and Dennis J. Koga, NASA, 1996. 

[2]  “Environmentally Responsible Aviation (ERA) Program”, Tony Strazisar, NASA, 2009. 
[3]  “The Next Decade in Commercial Aircraft Aerodynamics (A Boeing Perspective)”, Mark Goldhammer, 

KATnet II Conference on Key Aerodynamic Technologies, Bremen, Germany, 2009. 

[4]  “Challenges  for  Aerodynamics  Engineers  for  Future  Aircraft  Design  (An  Airbus  Perspective)”,  Be-
hrooz Barzegar, KATnet II Conference on Key Aerodynamic Technologies, Bremen, Germany, 2009. 

[5]  “New Technologies from Airbus”, John Blanchfield, OMEGA Conference, London, 2008. 
[6]  “Green Aircraft Technologies (Saab Perspective), Göran Bengtsson, Green Aircraft Conference Torino, 

2009. 

[7]  “Innovation in Flight”, Joseph R. Chambers, NASA, 2005. 
[8]  “Roughness  and  Waviness  Requirements  for  Laminar  Flow  Surfaces”,  Clifford  J.  Obara  and  Bruce 

J. Holmes, NASA, 1985. 

[9]  “Design Considerations of Natural  Laminar Flow Airfoils for Medium-Speed Regional Aircraft”, Jan 

Roskam, Kansas University-NASA Grant, 1984. 

[10]  “Optimized Natural-Laminar-Flow Airfoil”, J. Driver and D.W. Zingg, University of Toronto, 2006. 
[11]  “Variation  simulation  of  fixture  assembly  processes  for  compliant  structures  using  piecewise-linear 

analysis”, Michael Leon Stewart, Master Thesis, Brigham Young University, 2004. 

[12]  “Tolerance  Analysis  of  2-D  and  3-D  Mechanical  Assemblies  with  Small  Kinematic  Adjustments”, 

K. Chase and S. Magleby, Department of Mechanical Engineering Brigham Young University, 1996. 

[13]  “Tolerance Stack Analysis Methods. A Critical Review”, F. Scholz, Research and Technology Boeing 

Information & Support Services, 1995. 

[14]  “Mechanical Tolerance Stack-Up and Analysis”, Bryan R. Fisher, Ed. Marcel Dekker. 
[15]  “Review  of  statistical  approaches  to  tolerances  analysis”,  S.D.  Nigam  and  J.U.  Turner,  Computer-

Aided Design, Vol. 27, No. 1, 1995. 

[16]  ”A review of tolerance analysis of mechanical assemblies”, C. Mavroidis, Department of Mechanical 

and Aerospace Engineering, Rutgers University, 2002. 

[17]  “An  Introduction  to  Tolerance  Analysis  of  Flexible  Assemblies”,  K.G.  Merkley,  K.W.  Chase  and 

E. Perry, Brigham Young University Report. 

M.Á. Castillo Acero / The Greening of Aerostructures – Challenges Ahead

405

[18]  “An integrated methodology for statistical tolerance analysis of flexible assemblies”, Alan J. Mortensen, 

Master Thesis, Brigham Young University, 2002. 

[19]  “Finite element modeling and optimization of load transfer in multi-fastener joints using structural ele-

ments”, J. Ekh and J. Schön, Composite Structures, 2008. 

About the Author 

Miguel A. Castillo Acero 
Vice President Technology Development AERNNOVA 
Avenida de Manoteras, 20, 5th Floor 
28050 Madrid (Spain) 
Tel.: +34 913827844 
miguelangel.castillo@aernnova.com 
www.aernnova.com 

406

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-406

ENFICA-FC: Design and Flight Tests  
of a Fuel Cell Powered Aircraft 

Giulio ROMEO, Fabio BORELLO and Gabriel CORREA 

Abstract. Growing interest in the application to renewable energy sources has led 
to a rapid development of fuel cell technologies. From the successful attempts of 
these  technologies  in  the  automotive  industry,  fuel  cells  could  become  the  main 
power source for small general aviation aircraft or could replace APU and internal 
sub-systems  on  larger  aircraft,  to  obtain  all-electric  or  more-electric  air  vehicles. 
There  are  several  potential  advantages  of  using  such  a  power  source  that  range 
from  environmental and economic issues to performance and operability aspects. 
The  main  objective  of  the  European  Commission  funded  project  ENFICA-FC 
(ENvironmentally Friendly Inter City Aircraft powered by Fuel Cells) [1–11] was 
to develop and validate the use of a FC based power system for the propulsion of 
more/all electric aircraft. 

Keywords. Fuel cell, hydrogen tank, inter-city aircraft, battery pack 

1. Two Key Objectives 

The ENFICA-FC consortium (coordinated by Prof. G. Romeo) consisted of 9 partners. 
Within  the  course  of  the  ENFICA-FC  project,  which  was  launched  in  October  2006, 
two key objectives were attained: 

•  A  feasibility  study  was  carried  out  to  provide  a  preliminary  design  of  Inter-
City  aircraft  power  systems  that  could  be  supplied  by  fuel  cell  technologies; 
the safety, certification and maintenance concepts were also defined. Parame-
tric  sizing  of different  aircraft  categories (from  two-seater  aircraft  to  32 pas-
senger commuters) was performed [4,5]. The study led to a better understand-
ing of the practical meaning of transition from kerosene to hydrogen in trans-
port airplanes. 

•  A  two-seater  electric-motor-driven  airplane,  powered  by  FC,  was  assembled 
and tested. The FC system, the hydrogen storage system and the electric and 
electronic system were installed in a light sport aircraft RAPID 200 which was 
flight and performance tested as proof of the functionality and future applica-
bility of this system for inter city aircraft. 

2. Design of Conversion Aircraft 

After  the  selection  of  the  proper  aircraft  for  conversion  [6],  a  complete,  but  limited, 
mission  profile  definition  was  first  selected  to  show  the  feasibility  of  a  new  concept 
propulsion  system.  The  requirements  were  chosen  [3,6]  to  guarantee  that  the  mission 
could  be  flown  while  keeping  the  total  weight  at  around  5500  N,  i.e  maximum  total 
weight at which original RAPID200 was tested. 

G. Romeo et al. / ENFICA-FC: Design and Flight Tests of a Fuel Cell Powered Aircraft

407

An  extensive  CFD  analysis  was  performed  to  define  power  requested  for  flight, 
concerning not only the overall aircraft, but also critical component as the engine cowl 
[7,11] that must guarantee a proper cooling of the different systems installed in the en-
gine bay and provide a passive safety system for prevention of hydrogen accumulation. 
Predicted requested powers were found to be about 38 kW for climbing phase and 18–
20 kW for cruising phase. 

A particular architecture  was  adopted  for  the power  system  in order  to  achieve a 
safe  and  flyable  aircraft  for  the  prescribed  mission:  a  battery  system  was  added  as  a 
secondary  power  source  to  increase  the  rate  of  climbing  during  the  most  power-
demanding phases (take-off and climbing to 500 m altitude). While fuel cells is always 
providing up to its maximum power output (20 kW) for normal flight (cruise and des-
cending);  the  battery  was  designed  to  supply  20  kW  for  18  minutes.  During  roll-out 
tests  a  fuel  cell  only  take-off  was  also  simulated  to  demonstrate, from  a  performance 
point of view, the capability of a fuel cell only complete mission. 

Having two completely separate power source has a strong impact on flight safety, 
which is the main driver for all decision taken during design; the battery is designed so 
that it can work as an emergency power source in case of failure of fuel cell, allowing 
pilot to safely land. 

Introduction of the second power source requires a more complex electronic con-
trol system; it’s necessary indeed that fuel cell is always automatically selected as the 
main  power  supplier  in  order  to  minimize  battery  use  that  is  “activated”  only  when 
requested power exceed fuel cell maximum one; at the same time the controller needs 
to be able to instantly draw power from battery to replace fuel cell in case of fuel cell 
malfunction.  

The conventional power system (ICE), is very different from the fuel cell powered 
airplane both for number of items and for volumes of those items and aircraft balance 
must be maintained, keeping in mind safety constraints that are particularly important 
when operating with high pressure hydrogen [6]. Main properties of the Rapid 200-FC 
aircraft are: 

Maximum  take  off  weight:  5500  N;  Maximum  level  speed:  190  km/h;  Cruise 

Speed: 150–160 km/h. 

Maximum engine power: 42 kW; Endurance: 1 hr; Wing span: 9.9 m; Wing area: 

11.85 m2; Overall length: 7.0 m. Weight of subsystems are: 

Empty  Aircraft:  2210  N;  Fuel  Cell  System:  1030  N;  Pressurized  Hydrogen  Sub 
System: 510 N; Electric Motor: 400 N; DC/DC+AC/DC+ vehicle power control Sub-
System: 140 N; Battery Packs: 510 N; Pilot: 740 N (limit of one passenger instead of 
two). 

Some structural components were carefully re-designed: engine mount as support 
for many different subsystems (Fig. 1), special lightweight support plate for hydrogen 
tanks (Fig. 2), etc.  

A  new  propeller  was  also  designed,  manufactured  and  tested  since  weight  and 

available power of the converted aircraft strongly differ from the conventional one. 

3. System Testing 

Several experimental test activities have been performed at different levels of growing 
integration. 

 
408

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Pioneering the Air Transport

Figure 1. Engine bay installments of the fuel cell. 

Figure 2. Installment of the high pressure hydrogen tank. 

 
 
 
 
G. Romeo et al. / ENFICA-FC: Design and Flight Tests of a Fuel Cell Powered Aircraft

409

3.1. Individual Sub-System Testing 

The fuel cell was carefully tested against endurance at its maximum power output. The 
system  was  continuously  tested for  more  than 6  hours with no degradation of  perfor-
mances during the experiment. Several long tests were performed to prove reliability of 
the FC system [8]. 

Tests of battery system regarded mainly the safety of the system during charge and 
discharge;  particular  attention  was  paid  to  temperatures  and  minimum  voltage  during 
discharge; in fact, for safety reasons, the battery system isn’t provided with automatic 
cut-off, so that the pilot is able to draw all the energy accumulated, eventually damag-
ing battery, in order to safely land during an emergency. 

Motor, power electronics and vehicle controller were simultaneously tested, main-
ly the temperatures that can be reached during a full duty cycle; above all at the very 
beginning of the mission, when airplane speed, an so fresh air mass flow, is very low. 
Temperature  behaviors  of  critical  components  during  the  tests  showed  that  the  maxi-
mum temperature reached in the inverter was of 78° C (maximum allowable is 120°C), 
and  in  the  motor  was  of  80°C  (maximum  allowable  is  180°C).  Moreover  the  vehicle 
controller was tested against its capability of being able to immediately switch from the 
main  to  the  second  power  source,  and  back,  without  any  interruption  or  unexpected 
change of motor operation. 

Hydrogen storage system (350 bar is the working pressure for this application) was 

tested against maximum working pressure (438 bar) and burst pressure (984 bar). 

3.2. Semi-Integrated System Testing 

The whole fuel cell system was completely installed in the final configuration on a fu-
selage mock-up; the motor/power electronic block was linked to a bench brake; hydro-
gen was supplied at first by external hydrogen bottles until the system was proven reli-
able  and  then  by  the  actual  hydrogen  system.  Main  goal  of  this  testing  stage  was  to 
investigate and tune the communication between systems, above all vehicle controller 
and fuel cell. Moreover fuel cell system is extremely complex and opportune strategies 
needed to be defined to pilot it during normal and abnormal operations that may occur 
during flight; extensive testing was hence devoted to software related issues and tuning. 

3.3. Integrated System Testing 

The  final  and most  extensive  campaign  test  was  the  one  devoted  to  the complete  air-
craft (Fig. 3); ground test and flight test were performed at Reggio Emilia airport with 
the goal to validate the design and installation of the complete converted aircraft. 

This stage mainly investigated the behavior of output power when connected to the 
real load (i.e. the propeller), behavior of propeller, handling of system partial failures, 
temperatures  with  the  real  cooling  system  (i.e.  cooling  system  exposed  to  aircraft 
speed) and finally aircraft performances in take-off and cruise. Great attention was paid 
to  correct  handling  of  the  two  onboard  power  sources,  testing  several  scenarios  in 
which different failures were simulated. 

Having the complete system installed on board allowed checking the real efficien-
cy of cooling systems. In order to investigate this, temperatures were observed during 
high speed roll-outs which were performed for testing theoretical data about taking-off 

410

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Pioneering the Air Transport

Figure 3. Rapid 200FC during flight test (Copyright G. Romeo). 

distances  and  speeds;  cooling  systems  presented  a  very  satisfactory  behavior  keeping 
temperatures below admissible limits.  

After this extensive test campaign, the aircraft finally flew at Reggio Emilia airport. 
Six  flights  were  performed,  starting  from  a  first  2  minutes  maiden  flight  and  ending 
with speed world record attempt for electric aircraft powered by fuel cells according to 
the draft FAI sporting code Class C, Aeroplane. 

Flight path was chosen so that the aircraft was always able to land at the airport or 
at  a  close  airfield,  gliding with  no  available  power.  The  main  results  obtained during 
flights [9,10] were: 

•  A maximum endurance of about 39 minutes, being the limiting factor the wa-
ter consumption used for the stack humidification; the water tank capacity was 
undersized  and  needs  to  be  reconsidered  in  future  development;  hydrogen 
measured pressure was 100 bar at the end of that particular flight in which a 
drop of 5.9 bar was recorded for each minute of flight; 

•  A  maximum  average  speed  (according  to  FAI  definition)  of  135  km/h  was 
recorded during the best world record attempt; the speed was measured during 
two continuous 3 km long runs and with an altitude variation of less than 100 
m between the start and the finish points; 

•  A  maximum  speed  of  158  km/h  was  reached  during  level  flight;  with  a  top 
speed  of  180  km/h,  which  was  measured  during  several  diving  and  pull-up 
manoeuvre  tests.  The  total  GPS  Horizontal  Path  Length  for  a  flight  (Taxi  + 
roll out + climb + horizontal flight + landing) was 76,5 km. 

G. Romeo et al. / ENFICA-FC: Design and Flight Tests of a Fuel Cell Powered Aircraft

411

4. Conclusions 

The extensive experimental campaign carried out, as well as the theoretical estimations, 
have proved that fuel cell technologies represent a promising innovation in aeronautics 
as a key-enabling technology for all-electric, zero emission, low noise aircraft. 

The  experience  positive  handling  qualities  and  satisfactory  engine  performances 
led the team to consider these successful flights as a good starting point for further long 
endurance  high  speed  flights.  At  the  moment,  for  general  aviation  aircraft,  fuel  cells 
and the related technologies seem to need improvement from the gravimetric efficiency 
point of view; the actual one does not allow the same performances to be achieved as 
the original aircraft; a mid-range technology development would be sufficient to obtain 
acceptable performances. 

The real strength of the “all-electric aircraft” concept does not lie in an improve-
ment in the performances, but in the environmentally friendly use of the aircraft itself; 
such an aircraft could be used in airports surrounded by urban centers, during the night 
and in an environments that are restricted because of excessive pollution risk. 

The results obtained during the projects can be considered as a further step in the 
European  and  World  Aeronautics  Science  field  towards  introducing  zero  emission 
flight. 

Acknowledgments 

The authors acknowledge the important contribution made by the European Commis-
sion funding the ENFICA-FC, EC 6th FP programme – Contract No. AST5-CT-2006-
030779  (2006–2010).  The  authors  also  acknowledge  the  contribution  of  the  Consor-
tium partners. 

References 

[1]  Glover B. “Fuel Cells Opportunity”, Proceedings of AIAA/AAAF Aircraft Noise and Emissions Reduc-

tion Symposium, Monterey, USA, May 2005. 

[2]  Volker H. “Airbus Fuel Cell Systems for Aeronautic Applications. A Clean Way from Kerosene to En-

ergy”, Proceedings of 25th ICAS Congress, Hamburg, D, Sept. 2006. 

[3]  http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2008/q2/080403a_nr.html – April 2008. 
[4]  http://www.dlr.de/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-1/86_read-18278/ – July 2009. 
[5]  http://www.enfica-fc.polito.it/. 
[6]  Romeo G., Moraglio I. and Novarese C. “ENFICA-FC: Preliminary Survey & Design of 2-Seat Aircraft 
Powered by Fuel Cells Electric Propulsion”, 7th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration & Operations 
Conference (ATIO) – September 2007, Belfast, Northern Ireland, AIAA-2007-7754, pp. 15. 

[7]  Romeo G., Borello F. and Correa G. ““ENFICA-FC: Design, Realization and Flight Test of All Electric 
2-Seat Aircraft Powered by Fuel Cells”. 27th Int. Conf. of the Aeronautical Sciences (ICAS 2010), Nice 
(F), 19–24 Sept. 2010. ISBN: 978-0-9565333-0-2. 

[8]  Shavit Z. “Fuel Cell Propulsion for All-Electric and More-Electric Aircraft and the ENFICA-FC Pro-
ject”,  Proceedings  Annual  Conference  on  Advanced  Energy  Sources  (IFBC  2008),  Tel-Aviv,  Israel, 
January 2008. 

[9]  Pistecky P., Mikulka Z., Shavit Z., Miller N., Verstraete D. and Romeo G. “Analysis, Installation and 
Mission Performance of the Fuel Cell All-Electric Intercity Transport Aircraft”. Technical Report D4.4 
ENFICA-FC. 2009. 

[10]  Romeo G. and Borello F., “Design and Realization of a 2-Seater Aircraft Powered by Fuel Cell Electric 

Propulsion”, The Aeronautical Journal, Vol. 114, n. 1155, May 2010. 

[11]  Romeo G., Cestino E., Borello F. and Correa G. “Engineering Method for Air-Cooling Design of Two-
Seat Propeller Driven Aircraft Powered by Fuel Cells”, J. of Aerospace Eng., 2011, Vol. 24, pp. 79–88, 
ISSN: 0893–1321. 

412

II. Aviation Technologies and Operations – Pioneering the Air Transport

About the Authors 

Professor Giulio Romeo, Full Professor of Airplane Design and Aerospace Structures 
Fabio Borello, PhD 
Gabriel Correa, PhD  
Politecnico di Torino – Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering 
C. Duca degli Abruzzi 24 
10129 – Torino (Italy) 
giulio.romeo@polito.it 
fabio.borello@polito.it 
gabriel.correa@polito.it 
www.polito.it/grupporomeo 

Introduction to Part Three 
National and International Programmes 

In Part Three, the book provides papers giving an overview of national and internation-
al aeronautics activities, first on initiatives within the framework of the ERA (European 
Research Area), and second on examples for international cooperation initiatives. 
Within the framework of ERA, three types of activities are approached: 
•  National RTD Support for Aeronautics (France, Germany, UK, Spain, Austria 

and Sweden); 

•  European Aeronautics Networks (IFAR, ACARE, GARTEUR, EASN); 
•  Support Initiatives (Poles of Competitiveness, Education). 

Two examples of international cooperation initiatives are presented: 
•  Russian Aeronautics Research Programme; 
•  Latin America – EU. 

 
 
Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-415

415

“CORAC”: The Concerted Approach 
of French National Council 
for Civil Aviation 

Patrice DESVALLÉES 

Abstract.  The  French  Council  “CORAC”  has  been  created  in  the  wake  of  the 
“Grenelle de l’Environnement”, France’s environmental round table process, with 
a large consultation involving all sectors. It was launched in July 2007 and ended 
three  months later, in October. Concerning aviation, it was recommended in par-
ticular to increase research and technology development efforts and support to in-
novation, key-drivers to the “greening” of future civil aviation. 

Keywords. Grenelle process, CORAC, French RTD support 

1. Introduction 

Following the Grenelle process, all French civil aviation stakeholders signed up to an 
agreement in January 2008 with Mr. Borloo, Minister for Energy, Transport and Sus-
tainable Development. After a preparatory phase, CORAC was then officially launched 
in  July  2008  by  Mr.  Bussereau,  Minister  for  Transport.  This  council  is  aiming  for 
“greener”  aviation,  in  line  with  the  ambitious  European  ACARE  environmental  2020 
goals: 

•  Cutting CO2 emissions by 50%; 
• 
• 

 Reducing NOX by 80%; 
 Reducing perceived noise levels by 50%. 

Under the chairmanship of the Minister for Transport, CORAC gathers together all 
the French stakeholders in Civil Aeronautics and Air Transport at the upper level (i.e. 
CEO or chairman level). These stakeholders include representatives from aircraft, en-
gine, system and equipment suppliers, Airlines, Airports, Air Navigation Service Pro-

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
416

III. National and International Programmes – European Research Area

viders  (ANSP),  Institutions  &  professional  associations,  as  well  as  ONERA  and  all 
Ministries  concerned  with  aeronautics  and  aviation  research:  Ministries  of:  Research, 
Industry and Finance, Defence, Ecology and Transport. 

CORAC is a national forum which allows a concerted approach to better coordi-
nate  and  optimise  aeronautics  research  efforts  to  foster  aviation  technology  break-
throughs  and  innovations  toward  the  European  ACARE  ambitious  environmental  ob-
jectives  set  for  2020,  and  extended  to  2050  (Vision  “Flightpath  2050”  revealed  by 
Commissioners  Kallas  and  Maire  Goeghegan  –  Quinn  during  the  AERODAYS2011 
Conference). The new vision’s quantified environmental 2050 goals include the follow-
ing: 

•  Cutting CO2 emissions by 75%; 
• 
 Reducing NOX by 90%;  
• 
 Reducing perceived noise levels by 65%. 

The CORAC council’s working structure includes in particular: 
•  A Steering Committee; 
• 
•  A Communications office. 

5 Working groups and committees; 

Wide consultation is a key to the functioning of the CORAC council. The work is 
based  on  large  consultations,  information  exchanges,  knowledge  sharing  and  transpa-
rency between all French aviation stakeholders. 

On  environmental  topics,  CORAC  identifies  key  issues  and  ensures  specific  out-
comes,  for  example,  from  specialized  sectors  a  strengthening  of  studies  and  research 
aiming at comprehension and modelling of the impact of air transport on the environ-
ment  and  climate  change  mechanisms.  Examples  of  the  priority  topics  identified  in-
clude: combustion products, climate impact, noise propagation, and pollution chemistry 
modelling in the airport environment. 

CORAC is open to representation from organisations beyond the direct aeronauti-
cal  community  (external  specialists  are  consulted  whenever  needed,  e.g.  climate 
change, meteorology, etc. …) 

Fully in line and coherent with ACARE strategy and European activities (FP col-
laborative research, JTI, etc.), CORAC defines roadmaps for R&T efforts with a com-
mitment  from  its  members  to  take  measures  for  their  concerted  implementation  of 
them. 

2. The Virtue of National “ACARE” Mirror-Platforms Is to Be Continued 

Like  CORAC  in  France,  in  Europe  close  to  fifteen  ACARE-like  national  mirror-
organisations have been set up in Europe (Fig. 1). 

Facing  ever-greater  traditional  and  emerging  competition  from  countries  display-
ing new major aeronautical ambitions, the technology leadership of European aviation, 
particularly with respect to “Greening” is key and has to be maintained in the future. 
The best practices and initiatives developed over the last decades by European aviation 
stakeholders in terms of aviation RTD Vision 2020, ACARE, agenda SRA 2020 (now 
“Flightpath 2050”), and European national and regional coordination are truly virtuous 
dynamics which are essential to pursue in the future. 

P. Desvallées / “CORAC”: The Concerted Approach of French National Council for Civil Aviation 417

Figure 1. ACARE like mirror organisation within Europe. 

It is therefore essential for Europe to continue to work together towards the prepa-

ration of the future of aviation, along the new and ambitious “Flightpath 2050” goals. 

About the Author 

Patrice Desvallées – Deputy Director for Aeronautics 
Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) 
50, rue Henry Farman 
F-75720 Paris 
patrice.desvallees@aviation-civile.gouv.fr 
www.aviation-civile.gouv.fr 

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Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-418

The German National Aeronautics 
RTD Programme 

Franz-Josef MATHY 

Abstract.  The  aim  of  this  paper  is  to  give  an  overview  over  “LuFo”,  the  civil 
Aeronautics RTD Programme of the Federal Government of Germany, and similar 
activities  of  the  German  Länder.  LuFo  was  established  in  1994,  to  back  up  the 
technological preparation for actual aircraft programmes in the civil sector. Since 
then, a significant number of calls have been launched. In the frame of the actual 
programme line, LuFo IV, annual spending has increased to more than €100 mil-
lion. 

Keywords. LuFo, German RTD support 

1. LuFo as Part of the German High-Tech Strategy 

Today,  LuFo  is  part  of  the  German  High  Tech  Strategy.  This  was  developed  and 
adopted  by  the  German  government  in  analogy  to  similar  activities  in  other  export-
oriented countries. The goal of the High Tech Strategy is to strengthen the global com-
petitiveness  of  key  forward-looking  sectors  and  global  technical  leadership  of  key 
technologies. For this reason, instruments on regional and national level have been im-
plemented  that  aim  to  enable  and  foster  research  activities  by  private  companies,  re-
search organizations and universities. 

By  investing  more  than  6  bn  Euros  of  additional  funding  in  technological  RTD-
activities  the  High  Tech  Strategy  substantially  contributes  to  the  target  benchmark  of 
R&D spending on a 3% GDP level. The major part of the funding within the scope of 
the High Tech Strategy is provided by the Federal Government. Plans for the current 
financial period that runs from 2011 to 2013 also include further spending on this high 
level. 

Several  distinct  characteristics  qualify  aeronautics  as one  of  the  core  elements  of 

the German High-Tech Strategy: 

Firstly,  aeronautics  and  aeronautical  research  provide  a  great  impetus  for  many 
technological developments in other industries and also serve as a gateway to key hori-
zontal technologies. Mainly for these reasons, the aeronautics industry owns a status as 
a strategic sector for the whole economy. 

Secondly, the aeronautics sector plays a major role on the way to a sustainable and 
eco-efficient air transport system. Air transport with its specific characteristics and ca-
pabilities must be seen as an integral part of a mobility concept for the future. Especial-
ly for export oriented economies that are deeply integrated in global work sharing air 
transport  plays  a  prominent  and  indispensable  role.  As  sustainable  mobility  is  one  of 

 
 
F.-J. Mathy / The German National Aeronautics RTD Programme

419

the  major  societal  challenges  to be addressed,  aeronautics  research  is  consequently  at 
the heart of the High Tech Strategy as well in this respect. 

Apart from spill over effects and the contribution of aeronautics to sustainable mo-
bility,  the  importance  of  aeronautical  research  in  the  light  of  an  intensifying  global 
competition is also recognized by the German government and parliament. In order to 
keep  the  industrial  leadership  by  the  European  aeronautics  industry,  their  efforts  in 
RTD have to be continued on a high level or even increased in the future. Here, the role 
of the public sector is to provide an international level playing field and fair conditions 
for competition. 

2. LuFo Within a Three-Pillar Strategy of Regional, National and European RTD 

Strategy Programmes 

The aeronautics sector consists of different players that operate on different levels. Be-
sides local and regional players its backbone is formed by industrial players that mainly 
operate on a European and global level. In the most prominent projects a sizeable num-
ber of players located in many different countries have to work together. 

As the structure of public research programmes needs to reflect this, the German 

National Aeronautics RTD- programme is part of a three pillar strategy. 

This  strategy  supposes  that  the  national  programme  is  complemented  by  the  re-
search projects carried out within the framework of the EU Research Framework Pro-
gramme as well as by programmes ran by individual federal states or regions in Ger-
many where the aeronautics industry plays a particularly important economic or indus-
trial role. 

At the European level, the EU programme can foster the creation of transnational 
networks at a pre-competitive stage. These networks facilitate the pooling of industrial 
expertise  across  the  entire  EU.  And  this  in  turn  opens  up  the  possibility  to  integrate 
complex  individual  systems  into  total  systems  and  to  test  them  on  larger  technology 
demonstrators.  

At the national level, the national aeronautics research programme mainly involves 
projects that focus on the core expertise of German companies, often in their capacity 
as partners within European networks. 

At the federal state or regional level in turn, the major aim is to enhance coopera-
tion  between  regional  supply  chains.  For  this  reason,  an  increasing  priority  is  being 
placed on the promotion of clusters and the improvement of research infrastructures. 

This  three-pillar  approach  is  assessed  as  very  effective  structure  by  the  German 
government. For this reason we are strongly interested in its continuation and, together 
with  other  member  states,  emphatically  advocate  the  implementation  of  a  sector-
specific aeronautics programme within the Common Strategic Framework for Research 
and Innovation. 

3. Technical and Thematic Characteristics of LuFo 

The allocation of funding generally takes place within the framework of calls and not 
as part of an ongoing procedure. The selection of projects involves a two-step process. 
Companies, research institutes and higher education institutions can apply for funding 

420

III. National and International Programmes – European Research Area

by  submitting  a  project  outline.  Independent  experts  then  conduct  a  project  appraisal 
based on this outline. 

In general, funding is not awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. Instead, we 
provide the experts with a non-binding set of categories based on the growing compe-
tences  and  capabilities  of our  national  industry.  Categories  within  this  set  are  propul-
sion, flight physics, structure, cabins/systems, traffic management and helicopters. 

From the beginning, the programme has always had the ambition to strengthen the 
aeronautical research network in Germany, consisting of the industry, SMEs, universi-
ties and research institutes. To be transformed into successful marketable and competi-
tive  products,  research  in  aeronautics  generally  needs  to  be  industry-driven.  On  the 
other side, German research institutes as DLR and Fraunhofer as well as a number of 
(technical) universities specialized in the area provide research facilities that are excel-
lent on an international level. The aim of LuFo is to bring industrial needs and scientif-
ic excellence together in order to exploit synergies optimally. For this reason, the for-
mation of powerful networks and a realistic market perspective are essential criteria in 
the evaluation of submitted proposals. 

The idea of strong networks consisting of all stakeholders is also mirrored by fund-
ing conditions. In line with EU state aid regulations, grants are given that cover 40% of 
the project costs in case of industrial companies, 50% in case of SMEs while universi-
ties and research centers get 100% funding of project costs. Additionally, a 10% incen-
tive bonus can be achieved for industry or SMEs if they include universities or research 
centers as subcontractors in their research projects. 

The  thematic  content  of  the  aeronautics  research  programme  is  closely  aligned 
with  the  priorities  of  the  respective  ACARE  Strategic  Research  Agenda.  Within  this 
frame, a clear focus is put on the interests and key areas of our national industry as well 
as on its work packages within the Airbus- and other international programmes. 

However,  as  purchasing  strategies  of  the  OEMs  are  becoming  more  and  more 
global in scope, one of the key aims of present calls is also to boost the independence 
of suppliers in their relations with non-European OEMs. 

According  to  the  ACARE  goals,  the  major  focus  of  LuFo  topics  is  on  efficiency 

and sustainability of the air transport system. 

Societal acceptance of air transport in the mid-term will crucially depend on sub-
stantial achievements towards an environmental friendlier technology. Amongst others, 
innovative  concepts  for  air  frames  and  engines  are  key  factors  to  reach  this  target. 
However,  due  to  a  high  level  of  sophistication  and  complexity  in  these  technological 
areas, innovations can only be found with huge efforts. In order to support the efforts, 
LuFo has a defined the areas mentioned above as main research topics. This leads to a 
total share of around 80% of the LuFo-budget relating to topics in the scope of sustai-
nability and efficiency. With this, the priorities of the different LuFo calls are perfectly 
in line with the overarching technological objectives of the ACARE strategy. 

One example of a technological focus of the current call that is linked to a “green-
er” air transport system is the area of innovative production processes and operations 
using  carbon  fibre  composite  constructions.  In  this  field  further  progress  is  strongly 
needed  in  order  to  make  those  technologies  affordable  in  terms  of  production  costs. 
Only if this condition is met, this technology that allows for substantial weight reduc-
tions in aerostructures will be established in the long run. 

F.-J. Mathy / The German National Aeronautics RTD Programme

421

About the Author 

Franz-Josef Mathy 
Head of Department Aerospace Industry 
German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology 
Scharnhorststrasse 34-37 
D-10115 Berlin (Germany) 
Tel.:+49 30 18615 7471 
mathy@bmwi.bund.de 
www.bmwi.bund.de 

422

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-422

The UK National Aeronautics Technology 
Strategy 

Ray KINGCOMBE 

Abstract.  The  UK  National  Aerospace  Technology  Strategy  (NATS)  articulates 
the  required  technology  development  and  technology  demonstration  programmes 
required to maintain UK competitiveness and position in the global industry. The 
UK’s aims are entirely compatible with those stated in the European Vision 2020 
“Meeting society’s needs and winning global leadership”. NATS ensures that UK 
national and EU Framework funding is used in a fully complementary fashion. A 
UK  Aerospace  Technology  Steering  Group  (ATSG)  was  formed  and  has  coordi-
nated this strategy to identify areas  where the UK  could compete globally:  road-
maps  of  the  major  programmes  required  to  meet  future  market  needs  have  been 
produced, covering airframes, engines, equipment, rotorcraft, ATM and autonomy. 
Activity has taken place in all areas. 

Keywords. Technology strategy, UK 

1. The Aerospace Industry in the UK 

The  Aerospace  Industry  in  the  UK  is  the  largest  in  the  world  after  the  US  and  is  a 
crown  jewel  in  the  UK  manufacturing  sector.  The  UK  has  17%  of  the  global  market 
share,  supporting  over  100,000  direct  high-skilled  jobs  and  70%  of  the  production  is 
exported. Hence the sector is an asset for the UK as a whole. The UK has significant 
involvement  on  major  civil  and  military  programmes  through  Airbus,  Bombardier, 
Boeing, Eurofighter and the Joint Strike Fighter. The UK strategy in the civil field is 
based around being the global centre of excellence for wings, engines, equipment and 
rotorcraft. The UK designs and integrates all the wings for Airbus aircraft including the 
A320,  A330/340,  A380,  A350XWB,  A400M  and  now  A320NEO.  The  UK  also  de-
signs  and  manufactures  a  whole  range  of  large  civil  engines,  the  whole  Trent  family 
(600, 700, 800, 900, 1000 and XWB). 

2. Future Threats and Opportunities 

Looking to the future the market for civil aircraft is predicted to continue to grow glo-
bally, with traffic set to double in the next 20 years. The market for the next new single 
aisle aircraft (to replace A320 and B737 families) alone is predicted to be $2.6 trillion. 
This may not enter into service until 2025 but in the interim there are also significant 
opportunities  on  the  A320NEO,  B737MAX,  A350XWB  variants,  B777  variants  and 
civil rotorcraft. The potential emergence in the future of UAV’s could also present sig-
nificant  opportunities.  However  this  growth  is  set  in  the  global  context  of  increasing 
competition  for  high  value  work,  particularly  from  the  Far  East  but  also  from  Brazil 

R. Kingcombe / The UK National Aeronautics Technology Strategy

423

and Russia. This is overlaid with the emergence of new technologies in composite ma-
terials and open rotor engines. 

Aerospace programmes have individual characteristics not found in other manufac-
turing  sectors.  Programmes  for  new  aircraft  are  very  infrequent  and  becoming  even 
more  spaced  out.  Airline  customers  demand  substantial  operating  and  cost  improve-
ments between generations to justify their investment. Development time for new air-
craft  is  long  and  costly  (over  £10  billion),  not  only  because  of  the  complex  systems 
involved  but  also  to  satisfy  necessary  safety  and  certification  criteria.  Aircraft  have 
long service lives – now over 30 years. 

Hence  for  primes  and  suppliers  there  is  infrequent  opportunity  to  get  on  to  new 
programmes, and missing out on participation in one step can make it very difficult for 
the business to survive until the next. There are also major technology steps between 
generations and a need to maintain differentiated capabilities. 

3. Aerospace Growth in the UK 

The Vision for aeronautics in the UK is that by 2022 the UK will offer a global Aero-
space Industry the world’s most innovative and productive location, leading to sustain-
able growth for all its stakeholders. This involves having proven world-class technolo-
gical capability as an essential enabler as well as the necessary skills, supply chain rela-
tionships, infrastructure and investment. The UK has to stay world-class in high value 
advanced technology aspects. A national stakeholder group, with reporting line to Mi-
nisters, was formed to sustain a level of focused Aerospace applied research and valida-
tion/demonstration sufficient to maintain and enhance the UK’s position in the global 
Aerospace  market.  Hence  the  National  Aeronautics  Technology  Strategy  (NATS) 
formed in a partnership of government, industry & academia for a market-led, jointly 
funded R&T programme. 

4. The National Aeronautics Technology Strategy 

The joint  activity  with  industry, government  (civil  and defence)  and  academia  identi-
fied civil & military technology themes where the UK aerospace companies were inno-
vative global aerospace leaders or could become such, covering airframes (particularly 
wings),  engines,  equipment  (e.g.  landing  gear,  fuel  systems,  aircraft  power  systems, 
control systems, …), rotorcraft and autonomous systems. With the emphasis on exploi-
tation of technological capability the ‘blue sky’ university-only programmes are not in 
scope. 

A  common  view  of  the  future  market  with  specific  product  opportunities  was 
formed, including timescales. This was the basis for identifying the major technology 
demonstration/validation  programmes  that  would  be  required  to  meet  these  future 
product needs, including when the results would be needed and hence when the work 
should  start.  Roadmaps  were  formed  of  these  major  programmes.  The  airframe  and 
power plant parts of the roadmap are shown (Fig. 1). Above this would be a view of the 
future  market  and  products  (not  shown).  In  addition  there  are  further  roadmaps  on 
equipment, rotorcraft and autonomous systems. 

424

III. National and International Programmes – European Research Area

Figure 1. Example of technology roadmap: Airframe and Power plant. 

At  a  lower  maturity  level  than  the  technology  demonstrators,  the  technology  de-
velopment  needs  are discussed  and  added  to  the  roadmaps  through 13  individual Na-
tional Technology Committees in particular technologies e.g. fluid dynamics, materials 
& structures, electronic systems or human factors. This helps with the NATS objective 
to embed technology throughout the supply chain as a basis for future product devel-
opment. 

Each  major  programme  was  also  associated  with  a  target  funding  source.  The 
source  depends  on  how  collaborative  the  work  could  be  and  how  close  some  aspects 
were to commercial confidentiality. The major sources of government funding identi-
fied  were  civil/industrial  research  (through  the  Technology  Strategy  Board),  defence 
and  EU  Framework.  This  is  an  important  aspect  because  it  ensures  complementarity 
between the various funding sources adding coherence to military and civil aerospace 
programmes.  Often,  but  not  always,  early  stage  technology  exploration  can  occur  in 
wide collaborative programmes with either EU or national funding. Programmes then 
often become more commercially sensitive as the particular application of the technol-
ogy is developed. This stage is usually done with national funding or even by compa-
nies  with  their  own  funding.  The  next  stage  of  technology  system  demonstration  or 
validation can then be done in large collaborative programmes such as EU Framework 
Level  2  programmes  where  the  participants  work  together  but  need  only  disclose  the 
interface aspects of their participation in the demonstration, not the ‘internal’ details of 
how  it  is  achieved  in  their  component.  Hence  overall  gaps  and  overlaps  between  na-
tional and European funding sources can clearly be avoided. 

NATS is overseen by an Aerospace Technology Steering Group (ATSG) with re-
presentation  from  all  stakeholders.  This  group  had  a  reporting  line  to  BIS  Ministers 
which is evolving following the election of the new government in the UK. There is an 
Aerospace  Business  Leaders  meeting  chaired  by  the  Secretary  of  State  and  a  broader 
Aerospace Growth Partnership Group chaired by the Minister for Business which has a 

 
R. Kingcombe / The UK National Aeronautics Technology Strategy

425

specific  technology  sub-group.  The  Aerospace  Aviation  and  Defence  Knowledge 
Transfer  Network  (KTN)  holds  the  strategy  and  facilitates  ATSG.  However  it  should 
be noted that any lobbying cannot be done by the KTN. 

5. What Has Been Achieved so Far? 

Firstly  and  importantly  significant  advances  in  validated  technology  have  been 
achieved  in  all  areas,  e.g.  composites  technology,  combustion/emissions  technology 
including  major  test  rigs,  etc.:  the  UK  has  retained  No2  spot  in  world.  The  national 
implementation  of  NATS  has  brought  together  the  national  and  regional  sources  of 
funding,  establishing  a  partnership  between  the  Technology  Strategy  Board,  English 
Regional Development Agencies and Devolved Administrations in Wales, Scotland & 
Northern Ireland with UK companies. There has been significant investment by indus-
try  &  government  in  NATS  with  over  £400M  government  investment  in  the  first  6 
years – 2004 to date. The programme has also ensured coherence in use of UK national 
and EU funding. 

6. Future Outlook 

The content of the Strategy continues to be refreshed periodically. But there are aspects 
of NATS which continue to evolve. The multiple national and regional funding sources 
for  large  projects  have  made  the  funding  process  complex.  The  coordination  of  low 
maturity research through the National Technical Committees is a complicated process 
with  many  organisations  involved.  NATS  has  not  gripped  the  issue  of  aerospace  re-
search  infrastructure  in  the  UK  which  needs  further  attention.  Overall  the  issue  from 
industry of affordability of the programme with continued access to government fund-
ing remains an ongoing issue. In this respect the role of the recently established Tech-
nology Innovation Centres in the UK could be a useful development. 

7. Conclusion 

The  UK  has  the  opportunity  to  retain  significant  market  share  on  future  global  aero-
space programmes. Technological capability is a significant enabler and there is a need 
for continued support for aerospace research and technology to enhance UK capability 
in  world-class  areas  of  airframes/wings,  engines,  equipment  and  rotorcraft.  Large 
projects  deliver  major  systems  integration  and  validation  benefits  for  the  primes  and 
supply chain and there is a coordinated and coherent programme using UK and Euro-
pean funding sources. This has set the UK in a good position for the future. 

About the Author 

Dr Ray Kingcombe – Head of Technology 
Aerospace, Marine & Defence Unit -Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) 
1 Victoria Street – London SW1H 0ET, UK 
Tel.:+44 207 215 1115 
ray.kingcombe@bis.gsi.gov.uk, www.bis.gsi.gov.uk 

426

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-426

RTD Support for Aeronautics 
in Spain – CDTI 

Juan Carlos CORTÉS PULIDO 

Abstract.  The Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) is a 
Spanish public organisation, under the Ministry of Science and Innovation, whose 
objective  is  to  help  Spanish  companies  to  increase  their  technological  profile. 
CDTI has become a key organisation for the promotion of innovation and technol-
ogy development in Spain, since its creation in 1977. 

Keywords. Spanish ministry science and innovation, CDTI 

1. The Mission of CDTI 

The mission of CDTI is to help Spanish companies in several points: 

• 

Improving their technological level profile by providing funding for research 
and development projects; 

•  Managing and promoting their participation in international technological co-

operation programmes; 

•  Facilitating technology transfer. 

CDTI also encourages and assists in the creation, development and consolidation 

of technology-based companies in Spain (Fig. 1). 

Figure 1. CDTI will boost all enterprise innovative activities with most adequate instrument (capital, grants 
or loans with a non-returnable part). 

 
 
J.C. Cortés Pulido / RTD Support for Aeronautics in Spain – CDTI

427

Figure 2. The Spanish Innovation Strategy E2I. 

The  action  of  CDTI  is  aligned  with  the  State  Innovation  Strategy  (E2i)  of  the 
Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. This is the Spanish government political 
framework for action in the field of innovation to help change the production model in 
Spain,  through  the  promotion  and  creation  of  structures  that  facilitate  a  better  use  of 
scientific knowledge and technological development. The E2i is a multisectorial project 
involving all innovation stakeholders. It encompasses fives axes: International projec-
tion,  Public  Demand,  Financial  framework,  Human  Capital  and  Regional  cooperation 
(Fig. 2). 

CDTI  is  one  of  the  key  managers  of  the  Spanish  national  aeronautics  RTD  pro-
grammes with the main objective to increase competitiveness and technical excellence 
in order to generate higher levels of sustainable growth and productivity in the national 
economy. The overall objectives of the programme are in line with the vision 2020 of 
EU  and  with  the  ACARE  Strategic  Agenda:  reduce  the  impact  on  the  environment, 
increase the security and safety, increase the interoperability of ATM systems, operat-
ing and life-cycle cost reductions, stretching niches of excellence and quality etc. 

The mentioned objectives have been adopted in the Strategic Aerospace Research 
Agenda of the Spanish Aerospace Platform (PAE). This platform was created with the 
objective  of  becoming  established  as  the  reference  body  for  the  Spanish  sector  with 
regards to the needs and strategies of the aerospace activities, as a mirror platform of 
European ACARE. To reach these objectives, especially RTD projects and technology 
demonstrations proposed by industry, CDTI encourages and fosters the participation of 
Spanish  companies  in  projects  focus  on  strategic  fields  such  as  unmanned  aircrafts, 
composites, new materials, ATM systems, engines etc (Fig. 3). 

 
428

III. National and International Programmes – European Research Area

Figure 3. AERONAUTICS thematic areas Vs national R&D funded projects between 2006–2010. 

About the Author 

Juan Carlos Cortés Pulido 
Director of Global Innovative Markets 
Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) 
Cid, 4 
28001 Madrid (Spain) 
Tel.:+34 91 581 0707 
juancarlos.cortes@cdti.es 
www.cdti.es 

 
Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-429

429

Austrian R&D Strategy and Initiatives 
for the Aeronautics Sector 

Elisabeth OSSBERGER 

Abstract.  “TAKE-OFF”,  the  RTD-programme  for  Aeronautics,  which  was 
launched  in  2002,  got  adapted  to  the  articulated  goals:  target  groups  and  instru-
ments were enlarged and the market segments were implemented in the content of 
the calls. SMEs got strong support and international networking got more empha-
sis  by  the  programme  owners.  Actual  emphasis  is  put  on  networking  activities 
within the market segments and on the international level; within “AirTN”, Austria 
launched  a  trans-national  call  together  with  Germany,  and  thus  three  important 
projects have been funded. Austrian companies as well as universities participate 
as partners in FP7, Clean Sky and SESAR. This paper gives an overview of these 
activities on a national level. 

Keywords. Austrian RTD programme, Take-Off programme 

1. The Austrian Aeronautics Industry 

Austria has great ambitions to support the aeronautics sector and to be a key actor with 
high  end  technologies  within  the  supply  chain.  The  Austrian  Aeronautics  Industry 
mainly consists of a supply chain industry, but a few of the companies are primes like 
Diamond Aircraft or Schiebel. A study funded by our ministry, looking to the numbers 
of this sector in Austria, gave the following results: 240 companies have been identi-
fied  being  active  in  aeronautics  with  a  turnover  of  1.4  bn  €  in  2008  and  more  than 
7,404 employees; 13% of them were employed in research and development. The share 
of  market  segments  of  those  companies  is shown  in  Fig. 1.  Mostly  they  are  active  in 
complex aircraft structures and components, cabin equipment and aircraft electronics. 

Figure 1. Market Segments of the Austrian Aeronautics Industry, Brimatech 2009. 

 
430

III. National and International Programmes – European Research Area

Figure  2.  Brochure of the Austrian Aviation Strate-
gy for Research,  Technology and Innovation, bmvit 
2008. 

Figure  3.  Brochure  of  TAKE  OFF,  the  Austrian 
Aeronautics  Research  and  Technology  Programme, 
bmvit 2010. 

In  2008  the  Federal  Ministry  for  Transport,  Innovation  and  Technology  (bmvit) 
published a strategy for research, technology and innovation for aeronautics. A stake-
holder process has been therefore initiated, in which the industry, science, administra-
tion and aviation sectors are involved. Austria therefore adopted the main goals of the 
Strategic Research Agenda of ACARE, the Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research 
in Europe, which was published in 2004. Following the definition of international tech-
nological trends and market dynamics, the Austrian players and competences have been 
identified  and  scenarios  of  the  Austrian  potential  of  market  growth  in  this  field  have 
been  drawn.  In  the  end,  a  vision  for  the  aeronautics  sector  with  achievable  goals  has 
been created, and measures for the realization of this strategy have been formulated. 

2. The “Take Off” Programme 

TAKE  OFF  –  the  Austrian  RTD-programme  for  aeronautics,  which  was  launched  in 
2002  –  got  adapted  to  the  articulated  goals  of  the  strategy:  target  groups  and  instru-
ments were enlarged and the market segments of the strategy were implemented in the 
content of the calls. SMEs got stronger support and international networking got more 
emphasis by the programme owners. So up to now, M€ 49,5 have been invested into 
this programme and 124 projects have started. The huge consortiums also with partners 
and primes from foreign countries proved to be a success. Interesting results have been 
achieved. 

As a supporting measure for more transparency, a screening of the Austrian aero-
nautics sector was made in 2009. In total, 240 companies were found to be working on 
aeronautics in Austria. This was a very surprising result for experts as well, and in the 
end  a  brochure  of  Austrian  competencies  in  Aeronautics  was  produced.  It  was  also 
published as web-based data-link: www.aeronautics.at 

 
 
E. Ossberger / Austrian R&D Strategy and Initiatives for the Aeronautics Sector

431

Figure 4. Catalogue of the Aeronautics Industry in Austria, bmvit 2010. 

Actual emphasis is put more on networking activities within the market segments and 
on  the  international  level.  Within  “AirTN”  Austria  launched  a  trans-national  call  e.g. 
together with Germany and three projects worth M€ 35.7 have been funded. Austrian 
companies  as  well  as  universities  also  participate  as  reliable  partners  in  FP7  and  in 
Clean Sky and SESAR. 

With the mentioned activities Austria wants to support the very active and success-
ful Austrian aeronautics industry to get more competitive, especially on the global level. 

About the Author 

Mrs. Elisabeth Ossberger 
Aeronautics Research and Innovation Manager 
Austrian Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology – Department Mobility and Transport 
Technologies 
BMVIT 
Renngasse 5 
1010 Vienna (Austria) 
Elisabeth.Ossberger@bmvit.gv.at 
www.bmvit.gv.at 

 
432

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-432

Sweden – Aeronautics RTD Programme 
and Research Agenda 

Gunnar HULT and Vilgot CLAESSON 

Abstract. The Aeronautics RTD programme in Sweden was in the past dominated 
by  the  needs  for  the  development  of  military  aircraft  and  this  programme  is  still 
continued  to  support  the  Gripen  but  with  a  lower  level  of  effort.  The  national 
Aeronautical  Programme  (NFFP)  started  in  1994  and  is  now  in  its  fifth  phase 
(2009-2012).  Its  objectives  are  to:  (i)  strengthen  Swedish  competitiveness; 
(ii) strengthen  the  capability  to  participate  in  international  research  cooperation; 
(iii) support Swedish Armed Forces. 

Keywords. Sweden RTD, Gripen 

1. Aeronautics in Sweden 

Sweden has a traditionally strong and competitive aviation industry and aviation exper-
tise.  In  the  past  the  nation  has  been  quite  successful  in  developing  civil  and  military 
products. Some key accomplishments in the past are: 

•  First swept-wing fighter in Europe – J29 in 1948; 
•  First double-delta-wing aircraft – J35 in 1955; 
•  First canard-wing jet fighter – AJ37 in 1967; 
•  First JAA/FAA jointly certified airliner – Saab 340 in 1984; 
•  First fourth generation fighter – JAS 39 in 1988. 

Behind this success, close R&TD collaboration between users, industry, academia and 
agencies  as  well  as  an  integrated  civil-military  aeronautics  research  community  are 
important contributing factors. International cooperation has always been a strong ele-
ment  and  over  the  past  20  years  Swedish  aeronautics  has  been  strongly  involved  in 
European R&TD programmes. 

Today the Swedish aeronautical sector employs over 10,000 persons, subcontrac-
tors excluded, and has a turnover of more the 2 billion EURO per year with a growing 
export share. 

The main companies are Saab and Volvo Aero. The Gripen fighter is now in op-
eration  with  five  Air  Forces  worldwide  and  about  500  Saab  340/2000  commuter  air-
craft are in operation worldwide. Volvo Aero has been very successful in the transfor-
mation from military to civil production and today 90 % of large civil aircraft engines 
have components from Volvo Aero. 

G. Hult and V. Claesson / Sweden – Aeronautics RTD Programme and Research Agenda

433

2. Aeronautics Research & Technology Programmes 

The R&T programme in the past was dominated by the needs for the development of 
military  aircraft,  and  this  programme  is  still  continued  to  support  the  Gripen  pro-
gramme but with a lower level effort. 

Since the early 1990-s a research programme with joint civil and military funding 
has been established – the National Aeronautical Programme (NFFP), which is the fo-
cus  for  this  presentation.  In  addition  a  programme  to  support  the  technology  demon-
stration “Aeronautical Development and Demonstration Programme (FLUD)” has been 
running 2006–2010. 

3. The National Aeronautical Programme (NFFP) 

The  NFFP  programme  started  in  1994  and  is  now  in  its  5th  phase  (2009–2012).  The 
annual volume is about 12 Million EURO with 50% public funding and 50% industry 
funding.  The  public  funding  is  spent  for  research  performed  at  universities,  research 
institutes and SMEs. 

The NFFP objectives are to: 
•  Strengthen Swedish competitiveness in aeronautics; 
•  Strengthen  the  capability  to  participate  and  learn  from  international  research 

and technology cooperation; 

•  Support  Swedish  Armed  Forces  by  building  and  maintaining  knowledge  for 

systems operation and development. 

The  projects  performed  within  NFFP  are  on  lower  TRLs  with  the  aim  to  build  basic 
knowledge  which  is  then  applied  in  many  European  R&T  projects  and  demonstrator 
programmes as illustrated in the following pictures: 

 
 
434

III. National and International Programmes – European Research Area

For Saab a military example is Autonomous systems, where Saab is a partner in Neu-
ron. The example on the civil side is composite structures, where Saab is a subcontrac-
tor on ailerons, leading edges and doors for Airbus and Boeing. 

 
G. Hult and V. Claesson / Sweden – Aeronautics RTD Programme and Research Agenda

435

Volvo Aero is a subcontractor to most aircraft engine programs worldwide, and today 
90 % of large civil aircraft engines have components from Volvo Aero. 

4. The National Research Agenda – NRA Flyg 2010 

In a joint effort by all stakeholders a National Research Agenda has recently been de-
veloped with the following aims: 

•  Achieve a broad consensus on aeronautics research; 
•  Strengthen aeronautical research funding; 
•  Constitute a basis for decisions about research directions; 
•  Align Swedish aeronautics research with ACARE goals; 
•  Support international positioning. 

The  document  was  published  in  2010,  and  identifies  goals,  prioritises  technical  areas 
and formulates recommendations that will benefit Swedish aerospace industry. Nation-
al research and demonstrator programmes are also proposed as follows: 

•  NFFP 6 – a continuation of NFFP 5; 
•  Triple use – focusing on joint development between civil aerospace, military 

aerospace and other industries; 

•  Green  and  sustainable  demos  –  for  supporting  participation  in  international 

civil demonstrators; 

•  Military demos – international military demonstrators in EU and transatlantic 

partnerships. 

 
436

III. National and International Programmes – European Research Area

About the Authors 

Gunnar Hult 
FMV – Defence Material Administration 
SE-11588 Stockholm (Sweden) 
gunnar.hult@fmv.se 

Vilgot Claesson 
VINNOVA – Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems 
SE-101 58 Stockholm (Sweden) 
vilgot.claesson@VINNOVA.se 

 
Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-437

437

IFAR – International Forum for Aviation 
Research 

Joachim SZODRUCH and Richard DEGENHARDT 

Abstract.  The  future  challenges  of  air  transport  motivated  in  2010  the  leading 
worldwide aviation research institutions to found IFAR – the International Forum 
for Aviation Research – which is working on a voluntary, non-binding basis. The 
primary purpose of IFAR is to connect research organisations worldwide, to ena-
ble the information exchange on aviation research activities between members, to 
facilitate opportunities for networking and creating partnerships and to coordinate 
views and make recommendations for use by its members. Climate change is cur-
rently one of the most relevant topic and was the initial motivation to set up IFAR. 
However, the focus of IFAR is on all non-competitive research and development 
topics related to global technical challenges such as those pertaining to emission, 
noise,  security,  safety  and  efficient  operations,  and  steps  to  reduce  the  impact  of 
aviation on climate and the environment. Against this background, IFAR aims at 
developing  a  regularly  updated  IFAR  Framework  Document  outlining  global  re-
search objectives and technological opportunities for use by its members. The re-
sults will be updated regularly at the website www.ifar.aero From  the beginning, 
the IFAR activities were supported by the IFAR secretariat which was established 
and financed by DLR. From mid 2011 the IFAR administration and the IFAR ac-
tivities are also supported by the 3-year Support-Action-Project IFARs funded by 
the European Commission. After mid 2014 IFAR is expected and will be self or-
ganised without any further external support. 

Keywords.  Forum,  networking,  information  exchange,  communication,  coopera-
tion 

1. State of the Art/Background 

The  increasing  need  for  international  mobility  in  a  globalised,  work-sharing  based 
economy leads to a worldwide growth in air traffic by about 5% per year. This is the 
basis for economical growth but has an influence also on the climate change which is 
currently  discussed  worldwide  by  scientists,  decision-makers  and  the  public.  The  4th 
Assessment  Report  of  the  Intergovernmental  Panel  on  Climate  Change  (IPCC)  has 
stirred  an  intensive  public  debate  also  on  future  aeronautical  research  challenges  and 
policies. This report identifies aviation to contribute 2–3% of today’s total global anth-
ropogenic  CO2  emissions.  This  prompted  the  International  Air  Transport  Association 
(IATA) to set the long-term challenge of Zero Emission Aviation by 2050 and empha-
sised the importance of addressing these challenges on a global level. The answers and 
solutions  to  these  demands  are  expected  to  be  given  by  research,  eventually  industry 
and  operators.  Except  Member  States  or  regional  networks  (e.g.  EASN  or  EREA  in 
Europe),  specifically  non-profit  aviation  research  organisations  were  up  to  2010  not 
organised  on  a  worldwide  level  and  did  not  have  a  representation  which  can  react  to 
global  questions  and  demands.  The  new  International  Forum  for  Aviation  Research 
(IFAR) fills this gap. 

438

III. National and International Programmes – European Research Area

Networking
Networking

Co-operation
Co-operation

IFAR
IFAR

Information 
Information 
exchange
exchange

Framework
Framework
document
document

Communication
Communication

Figure 1. IFAR objectives. 

2. Objectives and Results 

IFAR aims to realise the following activities (Fig. 1): 

•  Connecting the global aviation research community worldwide; 
•  Serving as a venue for information exchange and communication, e.g. by its 
Summits,  by  conducting  specialist  meetings,  holding  workshops,  supporting 
actively conferences, hosting internet forums, etc.; 

•  Developing  among  its  members  a  shared  understanding  on  a  common  set  of 

key challenges faced by the global aviation research community; 

•  Developing views and recommendations, e.g. the IFAR Framework Document, 
to inform on future research strategies and – where appropriate – to develop a 
combined research strategy for the future; 

•  Publishing  and  disseminating  information  (e.g.  via  webpage,  flyers,  publica-

• 

tions, participation to conferences); 
Issuing IFAR views and recommendations and give advice on aviation topics; 
the purpose of issuing such views and recommendations is to define trends in 
aeronautics  research  and/or  inform  legislators  concerning  emerging  regula-
tions;  however,  views  and  recommendations  are  not  meant  as  binding  guid-
ance to individual IFAR members and their home country. 

3. IFAR Organisation/Members 

IFAR  operates  on  the  basis  of  consensus  among  its  members.  Annually,  principals 
from IFAR members convene at an IFAR Summit meeting. This event sets the IFAR 
goals and activities for the coming year and may establish special temporary commit-
tees or technical expert groups for IFAR activities of high interest.  

Membership in IFAR is open to national aviation research organisations, including 
universities  active  in  aviation  research, which  are non-profit  and which are  owned or 
mainly publicly funded by governments and which are charged by the country or coun-
tries in which they are located to conduct such research activities on their behalf. One 
organisation per country is accepted for membership. 

Current IFAR members are listed in the Table 1 above and are visualised in Fig. 2. 
These members represent more than 34,000 researchers working in mostly civil avia-
tion. Not counted yet are researchers of IFAR member countries belonging to different 
research organisations or universities. However, the ultimate aim is that IFAR members 
represent their countries entire research workforce. 

 
J. Szodruch and R. Degenhardt / IFAR – International Forum for Aviation Research

439

Table 1. IFAR Memebers 

Organisation name 

1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 
7 
8 
9 
10 
11 
12 
13 
14 
15 
16 
17 
18 
19 
20 
21 

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation 
Budapest University of Technology and Economics 
Central Aerohydrodynamics Institute of Russia (TsAGI) 
Centro Italiano Ricerche Aerospaziali (CIRA) 
Chinese Aeronautical Establishment (CAE) 
Czech VZLU-Aeronautical Research and Test Institute 
French Aerospace Lab (ONERA) 
German Aerospace Center (DLR) 
CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories (CSIR-NAL) 
Institute for Aerospace Research ( NRC) 
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) 
Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) 
Middle East Technical University (METU) Ankara 
National Aerospace Laboratory of the Netherlands (NLR) 
National Institute of Aerospace Research “Elie Carafoli” of Romania (INCAS) 
National Institute of Aerospace Technology of Spain (INTA) 
Polish Institute of Aviation (ILOT) 
Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) 
The Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) 
U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) 
von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics (VKI) 

Country 

Australia 
Hungary 
Russia 
Italy 
China 
Czech Republic 
France 
Germany 
India 
Canada 
Japan 
Korea 
Turkey 
Netherlands 
Romania 
Spain 
Poland 
Finland 
Sweden 
USA 
Belgium 

Figure 2. IFAR Member countries. 

4. IFAR History 

The  Fourth  Assessment  Report  of  the  International  Panel  on  Climate  Change  (IPCC) 
has  stirred  an  intensive  public  debate  on  future  aeronautical  research  challenges  and 
policies.  As  a  response,  in  2008  key  leaders  of  12  international  aeronautical  research 
organisations met in Berlin to address challenges to future Air Transport in the context 
of  climate  change.  The  second  time,  in  2010,  16  international  aeronautical  research 
organisations met and founded the International Forum for Aviation Research (IFAR) 
in order to take up work on possible research contributions to the climate and environ-
mental challenges faced by the air transport community and with a view to also address 
further global aeronautical challenges such as noise, security, safety and efficient oper-
ations. In 2011, the 2nd IFAR Summit was held in Paris. The number of IFAR mem-
bers  increased  to  21.  The  participants  agreed  to  a  common  IFAR  Charter.  They  ex-
changed  their  views  on  the  global  challenges  and  agreed  to  develop  the  Framework 

 
 
440

III. National and International Programmes – European Research Area

Step 1:

Step 2:

Step 3:

Summit

Vision and 
goals

Expert groups

New Technologies
New Technologies

Improved 
Improved 
ATS
ATS

Figure 3. IFAR 3-Step Approach. 

document on the technological solutions related to climate impact and noise. Further-
more  they  started  activities  on  education  by  promoting  and  the  exchange  of  graduate 
students, young scientists and engineers. The next IFAR Summit 2012 will take place 
in Japan. The IFAR Summits are planned to be regularly every year. 

5. IFAR Framework 

IFAR aims at developing and maintaining a regularly updated IFAR Framework Doc-
ument  outlining  global  research  objectives  and  technological  opportunities  for  use  by 
its members. The Framework follows a 3-Step-Approach illustrated in Fig. 3. 

1.  Step 1 builds the vision and goals which are for instance influenced by politi-

cal demands; 

2.  Step  2  considers  new  and  visionary  break  –  through  technologies  which  are 
expected to fulfil the IFAR vision in Step 1 and which eventually improve the 
entire Air Transport System (ATS); 

3.  Step 3. Technologies in this regard are not only software or hardware but can 

also be improved operations or measures. 

IFAR – as research representation – concentrates on the development of the tech-
nologies  until  Technology  Readiness  Level  (TRL)  6.  Further  qualification  and  devel-
opment  is  expected  to  be  performed  by  industry.  The  new  technologies  do  not  need 
necessarily  to  be  developed  only  within  the  aviation  sector.  They  can  also  be  trans-
ferred from other industrial sectors as automotive, space, energy, etc. Alternative fuels, 
which might be needed for the future ATS to fulfil the long-term vision can be com-
plementary developed in the energy research sector. Co-operation and research activi-
ties across branches and disciplines seem beneficial and mandatory. 

The Framework Document may be based on: 
•  A comparison of existing goals/objectives (cf. [2] to [7]); 
•  An inventory of possible concepts or technologies which could be developed 

to accomplish certain objectives. 

IFAR can also develop other views and recommendations, findings and reports as 
may be appropriate. Such documents may include the findings of IFAR Ad Hoc Com-
mittees or IFAR Technical Expert Groups. 

 
J. Szodruch and R. Degenhardt / IFAR – International Forum for Aviation Research

441

6. Summary 

IFAR is a new International Forum for Aviation Research and was founded in 2010. It 
connects leading aerospace research organisations worldwide, enables information ex-
change between them, facilitates opportunities for networking and creating partnerships, 
coordinates  views,  makes  recommendations  and  supports  students  and  young  scien-
tist/engineers. IFAR focuses on non-competitive topics related to global technical chal-
lenges such as those pertaining to emission, noise, security, safety and efficient opera-
tions, and steps to reduce the impact of aviation on climate and the environment. IFAR 
develops  a  regularly  updated  Framework  Document  outlining  global  research  objec-
tives and technological opportunities. The IFAR activities are supported by the IFAR 
secretariat which was established and financed by DLR. From mid 2011 the IFAR se-
cretariat  is  also  supported  by  the  3-year  EU-project  IFARs.  After  mid  2014  IFAR  is 
expected to be self organised without any external support. 

References 

[1]  www.ifar.aero. 
[2]  ACARE – Aeronautics and air transport: Beyond Vision 2020 (towards 2050), (June 2010), Available 

from www.acare4europe.com. 

[3]  EREA  –  Vision  for  the  Future  –  Towards  the  future  generation  of  Air  Transport  System,  (November 

2010), Available from www.erea.org. 

[4]  Energy Technology Perspectives 2010, Scenarios and Strategies to 2050, International Energy Agency 

(IEA), Available from www.iea.org. 

[5]  Flightpath 2050 – Europe’s Vision for Aviation, (March 2011), ISBN 978-92-79-19724-6. 
[6]  IATA  –  Technology  Road  Map,  3rd  Edition,  International  Air  Transport  Association  (IATA),  (June 

2009), Available from www.iata.org. 

[7]  NASA  –  National  Aeronautics  Research  and  Development  Plan,  (February  2010),  Available  from 

www.nasa.gov. 

About the Authors 

Dr Joachim Szodruch 
German Aerospace Center (DLR) 
D-10117 Berlin 
E-mail: joachim.szodruch@dlr.de 

Dr Richard Degenhardt 
German Aerospace Center (DLR) 
D-38108 Brunswick  
E-mail: Richard.Degenhardt@dlr.de 

 
442

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-442

Coordination of Aeronautics Interest 
in the EU Member States 

Javier ROMERO and Roland GURÁLY 

Abstract.  This  paper  introduces  the  efforts  of  the  European  Member  States,  ob-
viously in line with ACARE goals, in terms of technology platforms and strategies. 
In order to better understand the implementation of these goals on national level a 
survey was launched in 2009 by the ACARE Member States Group. The outcome 
of this survey is also included in this paper. 

Keywords.  ACARE,  strategic  research  agenda  (SRA),  member  states  group 
(MSG) 

1. Introduction 

In January 2001 the Group of Personalities set two ambitious goals for European Aero-
nautics.  An  aircraft  and  air  transport  system  better  serving  societies  needs  while  be-
coming a global leader in the field of aeronautics. As a result a report “European Aero-
nautics: A Vision for 2020” was published. 

In  this  report  the  Group  recommends  developing  a  long-term  commitment  by  all 
stakeholders (e.g. the aeronautics industry, airlines, airports, air traffic control service 
providers etc.) to work in closer partnership and on the basis of consensus with the aim 
of strengthening and reorganising research and development efforts in Europe. 

Figure 1. Member States (EU and accession). 

 
 
 
J. Romero and R. Gurály / Coordination of Aeronautics Interest in the EU Member States

443

Besides  these recommendations,  the report  also  concluded  that  there  is a  need  to 
create an Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research in Europe (ACARE) to develop 
and implement a strategic approach to European aeronautics research ACARE’s main 
focus  was  and  will  be  to  establish  and  carry  forward  a  Strategic  Research  Agenda 
(SRA)  that  will  influence  all  European  stakeholders  in  the  planning  of  research  pro-
grammes, particularly national and EU programmes as well as private funded research, 
in  line  with  the  Vision  2020  and  the  goals  it  identifies.  The  mission  of  the  Member 
States Group (MSG) within ACARE is to foster the optimum involvement of Member 
States  in  the  formation  and  the  implementation  of  the  Strategic  Research  Agenda  for 
aeronautics  in  Europe.  Besides,  this  group  represents  the  needs  and  objectives  of  the 
Member States in the work of ACARE. 

2. National Research Programmes 

As  it  was  mentioned  above  the  ACARE  focuses  on  implementation  of  the  Strategic 
Research Agendas (SRA from 2002) and its follow-on (SRA2 from 2004). These agen-
das are built around six major challenges that represented the basis for the aeronautics 
and air transport research on European level, for many Member States and for the pri-
vate stakeholders. 

For successful implementation of SRA, ACARE activities are likely to include: 
•  Launch and approve the SRA and update it periodically; 
•  Make strategic and operational recommendations as well as commission stu-

dies for implementing the SRA and achieving the 2020 Vision; 

•  Evaluate  the  overall  results  and  benefits  of  the  SRA  for  Member  States,  the 

Commission and stakeholders groups; 

•  Recommend  measures  for  optimising  the  use  of  existing  research  infrastruc-

tures and achieving cost-effective investments; 

•  Recommend measures for improving educational policies to attract the scien-

tists, engineers and other skills that the sector needs; 

•  Develop  and  implement  a  communications strategy  to  promote  awareness  of 
the  SRA  (within  the  stakeholders  community  as  well  as  to  larger  public  au-
diences)  and  to  disseminate  information  on  stakeholders’  research  pro-
grammes for facilitating consensus on priorities. 

Based on the listed activities each Member State defined its own national ACARE 
like activity in terms of technology platform or strategy. In order to map the national 
initiatives a survey was launched in 2009 by the ACARE Member States Group (MSG). 
The MSG represents the needs and objectives of the Member States and the EU Candi-
date Countries in the work of ACARE. Main outcome of the questionnaire was a com-
prehensive overview about most of the European countries. It was noted, based on the 
results  of  the  report,  that  there  are  significant  activities  in  Europe  from  research  pro-
gramme,  national  programmes,  European  research  strategy  implementation  point  of 
view. However there is a gap in measuring or comparing national strategies. In order to 
better understand the need for the survey and the place of it on European level a table 
has been included below. 

 
 
444

III. National and International Programmes – European Research Area

Table 1. The Survey in the European context 

Strategy 
Programme 

European level 
ACARE SRA 
FP7 

Trans-national level 
ACARE MSG Survey 
AirTN 

3. Mapping Activity 

After describing the needs for the survey, the data collection and structure of the ques-
tionnaire is described in this section. 

The questionnaire was filled in mainly by Member States, as well as some EFTA 
countries, making up a total of 31 participants. As a reason of the number of countries 
involved,  a  huge  amount  of  data  has  been  collected  covering  areas  such  as  personal 
data,  national  strategy  data,  current  and  future  programmes.  The  other  aspect  of  data 
collection was the identification of research infrastructure that supports the Aeronautics 
or Generic research programmes within individual countries. 

The  area  of  competences  varied  from  flight  physics  through  aero-structures  to 
maintenance and safety (see appendix). It could be seen that different levels of capabili-
ties are covered for example Propulsion (A3) and higher level Airports (A9). Therefore, 
to avoid misunderstanding or confusion, it was decided to use standard competencies or 
capacities based on ACARE taxonomy (ref). 

The final result of the survey is a summary of competences that could be found in 
the Appendix (Matrix of Competences). The table includes the EU – 27 Member States 
and some candidate or potential candidate countries such as Croatia, Republic of Serbia 
or  EFTA  Countries.  They  are  active  participants  of  ACARE  MSG  meetings  however 
they are not part of the European Union yet. It needs to be mentioned that not all coun-
tries  provided  information  regarding  competences,  in  their  case  special  competences 
has been excluded. 

4. Conclusion 

In order to disseminate the results of the survey, a workshop of the ACARE MSG on 
Aeronautics Strategies in the EU Member States with the title “Developing the Aero-
nautics Research and Technology Potential in the EU Member States” was organised in 
Brussels  on  22nd  June  2010  (more  information:  www.airtn.eu).  It  represented  a  first 
step for some activities to map the national approach towards implementing the goals 
of the Aeronautics Strategic Research Agenda in developing the research and technolo-
gy potential in Aeronautics at the midway stage of the Vision 2020. It became obvious 
that several Member States that joined the EU in 2004 and 2007 – also called the EU-
12, need special support for enhancing their capabilities. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
J. Romero and R. Gurály / Coordination of Aeronautics Interest in the EU Member States

445

Appendix. Matrix of Competences (ACARE MSG Survey, 2010) 

References 

[1]  A new beginning for European Aeronautics Research, http://www.acare4europe.com/html/introduction. 

asp. 

[2]  European  Aeronautics:  A  Vision  for  2020,  January  2001,  http://www.acare4europe.com/docs/vision% 

202020.pdf. 

[3]  Strategic  Research  Agenda,  1st  and  2nd  Edition,  October  2004,  http://www.acare4europe.com/html/ 

documentation.asp. 

 
446

III. National and International Programmes – European Research Area

About the Author 

Javier Romero 
Centro para el Desarollo Tecnológico Industrial (CDTI) 
jjrr@cdti.es 
www.cdti.es 

Roland Gurály 
National Innovation Office (NIH)/Slot Consulting Ltd. 
rolandguraly@slotconsulting.hu 
www.nih.gov.hu, www.slotconsulting.hu 

 
Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-447

447

GARTEUR – Long Term R&T 
Collaboration in Europe 

Gunnar HULT and Björn JONSSON 

Abstract.  GARTEUR  (Group  of  Aeronautical  Research  and  Technology  in  EU-
Rope)  is  a  multinational  organisation  that  performs  high  quality,  collaborative, 
pre-competitive aeronautical research. It is based on a government-to-government 
agreement  (MoU)  between  seven  European  nations  with  major  research  and  test 
capabilities in aeronautics. GARTEUR was formed in 1973 by the governments of 
France, Germany and the United Kingdom in the wake of the formation of Airbus. 
The  Netherlands  joined  the  group  in  1977.  Sweden  joined  GARTEUR  in  1991, 
followed by Spain in 1996 and Italy in the year 2000. The GARTEUR focus is on 
research topics aimed at long term R&T because this is considered essential to as-
sure sustained competitiveness of the European aerospace industries. A key asset 
of GARTEUR is its unique mechanism for cooperation, which has been used suc-
cessfully for numerous collaboration projects over the past decades. It is the only 
framework in Europe for both civil and military aeronautics R&T. 

Keywords. GARTEUR, military and civil aeronautics R&T 

1. Organisation 

GARTEUR is organised around three main elements: 

•  A  Council  composed  of  representatives  of  each  member  country,  who  ap-
points  the  national  delegations.  Representatives  are  from  all  relevant  Minis-
tries  and  Research  Establishments.  The  Council  is  assisted  by  an  Executive 
Committee,  composed  of  one  member  from  each  national  delegation,  and  a 
GARTEUR Secretary; 

•  The  Groups  of  Responsables  (GoR),  the  scientific  management  bodies  and 
think-tank of GARTEUR,  are  composed of  representatives  from  government 
departments,  national  research  establishments  and  industry.  Currently,  four 
GoRs  manage  GARTEUR  research  activities:  Aerodynamics  (AD);  Flight 
Mechanics,  Systems  and  Integration  (FM);  Helicopters  (HC);  Structures  and 
Materials (SM); 

•  The Action Groups (AG), the technical expert bodies for project formulation 

and execution of the GARTEUR research work. 

GARTEUR  has  no  permanent  secretariat  or  headquarters.  The  seven  GARTEUR 
nations ensure alternately, and for a two year period, the Chairmanship of the Council 
and  the  Executive  Committee.  The  chair  country  also provides  the Secretariat  for  the 
same period. 

448

III. National and International Programmes – European Research Area

2. Technical Activities 

GoR AD (Aerodynamics) is active in experimental, theoretical, analytical and numeri-
cal fields of aerodynamics to encourage the developments and applications of methods, 
tools and procedures for both civil and defence applications. GoR AD focuses on: 

•  Applied and Fundamental Aerodynamics; 
•  Aerothermodynamics; 
•  Aeroacoustics; 
•  Aeroelasticity; 
•  Propulsion / Systems Aerodynamics Integration; 
•  Transition and Turbulence Modelling. 

GoR  FM  (Flight  Mechanics,  Systems  and  Integration)  is  active  in  flight  testing 
technologies  and  flight  simulations,  investigates  air  traffic  control,  sensor  technology 
and systems and human factors. GoR FM focuses on: 
•  Air vehicle systems technology, incl. safety; 
•  Avionics; 
•  Certification; 
•  Performance; 
•  Stability & control. 

GoR HC (Helicopters) is active to facilitate the advancement of civil and military 
rotorcraft technology, seeks to extend the flight envelope and performance, to increase 
safety  and  survivability,  and  to  increase  public  acceptance.  Technical  disciplines  in-
clude, but are not limited to: 
•  Aerodynamics; 
•  Aeroelastics including stability, structural dynamics and vibration; 
•  Flight mechanics & control and handling qualities; 
•  Vehicle design synthesis and optimization;  
•  Human factors; 
• 
Internal and external acoustics and environmental impact; 
•  Simulation techniques and facilities for ground-based testing. 

 
G. Hult and B. Jonsson / GARTEUR – Long Term R&T Collaboration in Europe

449

GoR SM (Structures and Materials) is active in initiating and organizing aeronau-

tics-oriented research on: 
•  Structures; 
•  Structural dynamics; 
•  Materials. 

Structures research is devoted to computational mechanics, loads & design metho-
dology. Structural dynamics research involves vibrations, responses to shock and tran-
sient loads, aero-elasticity and acoustic response. Materials research is related to mate-
rials systems, including aspects of polymers, metals and composite systems. 

3. Operational Principles 

GARTEUR  provides  a  very  useful  platform  and  network  for  scientists  from  research 
establishments,  industry  and  academia  to  pool  technology  and  knowledge  in  order  to 
develop ideas and concepts in various aeronautical areas. As GARTEUR has no com-
mon  funding  the  participants  in  GARTEUR  projects  have  to  bring  their  own  funding 
(national or company internal). Since the establishment of EU aeronautics programmes 
in the 1990-ies there exists a permanent mutual influence between this EU environment 
and GARTEUR. Project ideas developed within GARTEUR may fit with the Call for 
proposal and then become an EU-FP project. After an EU-FP project, ideas to be fur-
ther explored may result in a GARTEUR project. 

The  GARTEUR  operating  principals  provide  for  participation  by  organisations 
from non-GARTEUR countries in GARTEUR technical activities, under a special pro-
cedure subject to approval by the Council. In this spirit the EU funded ERA-Net AirTN 
project, for which GARTEUR was the initiator, has been established. AirTN has suc-
cessfully  established  and  maintained  an  extensive  network  of  European  aeronautics 
stakeholder groups that includes ACARE and GARTEUR along with universities, and 
research institutes. 

4. Conclusions 

•  GARTEUR has actively pursued European collaboration in aeronautics R&T 
for more than 30 years, covering both military and civil aeronautics R&T; 
•  Over  the  years  more  than  120  collaboration  projects  (Action  Groups)  have 
been  performed,  resulting  in  more  than  170  technical  reports.  GARTEUR 
Open Technical Reports will be made available on the website; 

•  GARTEUR is a unique forum of aeronautical experts from Industry, Research 

Establishments and Academia; 

•  GARTEUR  is  the  only  framework  in  Europe  for  both  civil  and  military  Re-

search & Technology for Aeronautics; 

•  A main GARTEUR asset is its unique mechanism for cooperation which pro-
vides  a  straightforward  way  to  increase  collaboration  on  dual  use  projects. 
Through  the  GARTEUR  mechanism,  both  industrial  and  governmental  part-
ners with either civil or military funding can easily work together; 

•  GARTEUR  takes  a  flexible  and  open  approach  towards  participation  in  re-

search projects of non-GARTEUR nations and organisations. 

450

III. National and International Programmes – European Research Area

About the Authors 

Gunnar Hult, GARTEUR Council Chair 
Björn Jonsson, GARTEUR Executive Committee Chair 
Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) 
SE-115 88 Stockholm (Sweden) 
gunnar.hult@fmv.se 
bjorn.jonsson@fmv.se 
GARTEUR Secretariat 
Email: secretariat@garteur.org 
Websites: www.garteur.org 
www.fmv.se 

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-451

451

EASN – The European Academia 
Association 

Spiros PANTELAKIS 

Abstract.  The European Aeronautics Science Network  – EASN – is the associa-
tion of European academics active in aeronautics related research. Its primary aims 
are to promote, encourage, coordinate and focus joint efforts between Universities, 
Research Organisations, Industry and SMEs which are active in the field of aero-
nautics and aerospace. 

Keywords. Academia, universities, research organisations 

1. The European Aeronautics Science Network – Who We Are? 

EASN is a large community of scientists from all over Europe with a common interest; 
Aeronautics  and  Aeronautics  related  activities.  Its  effective  members  consist  of  aca-
demics involved one way or another in Aeronautics related research, whereas associate 
EASN members are entities such as Universities and University labs as well as profes-
sionals  from  the  Industry  or  Research  Establishments  active  in  Aeronautics  research 
who  cooperate  with  the  academia.  Through  the  125  active  registered  members  (indi-
viduals and institutions), EASN connects to more than 10,000 academic staff and pro-
fessionals throughout Europe. 

EASN  initiated  in  2002  as  a  European funded  project,  after  realizing  the  need to 
tackle the fragmentation of the European Academia and the inefficient communication 
mechanisms  between  them.  This  led  to  significant overlaps  in  the Academic  research 
and  lack of  a common  University  research  strategy  for  the  sector of  aeronautics.  The 
long-term goal by establishing EASN was to built up an open, unique European plat-
form in order to structure, support and upgrade the research activities of the European 
Aeronautics  Universities  as  well  as  to  facilitate  them  to  respond  to  their  key  role  in 
realizing  the  European  Research  Area.  Following  2  successive  funded  projects,  the 

 
 
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III. National and International Programmes – European Research Area

EASN Association was founded in 2008 as an International non-profit Association go-
verned  by  the  Belgium  Law  for  international  not-for-profit  associations  and  founda-
tions. 

The establishment of EASN and its recognition as the representative of the Euro-
pean Academia in Aeronautics research facilitates in expressing a collective University 
voice and shaping a common University policy. Its acceptance by the EC, the European 
Aeronautics Industry, the SMEs and the Research Establishments as their partner, gives 
the European Aeronautics Community the opportunity to introduce the Academia point 
of  view  to  the  EC  officers  and  influence  on  active  participation  in  different  pan-
European  Aeronautics  research  activities.  EASN  has  signed  cooperation  agreements 
with Associations representing European Aeronautics professionals, with respect to the 
exchange of information and research cooperation. The strategic partnerships of EASN 
as  well  as  the  wide  spread  of  its  members,  allow  EASN  to  disseminate  Aeronautics 
related information to practically the whole Aeronautics community. 

2. Our Aims 

The primary aim of the Association is the advancement of the aeronautics sciences and 
technologies. 

Further aims of the EASN Association are: 
•  The advancement of aeronautics technologies through innovative research and 
the support of European Universities, University Departments and Institutes as 
well as University research staff to perform aeronautics related research; 
•  The support of scientific and technological cooperation and human mobility; 
•  The  support  of  and  the  participation  to  activities  aiming  to  incubate  new 

knowledge, technological innovation and breakthrough technologies; 

•  The dissemination of knowledge and technological innovation and the execu-
tion of dissemination work through its participation in national or international 
projects and research programs related to aerospace; 

•  The  support,  organization  and  participation  to  activities  related  to  scientific 

knowledge and technology transfer; 

•  The execution of studies for the development of national and international pol-
icies  on  subjects  related  to  the  aims  of  the  Association  and  the  provision  of 
consultancy services for the development of education, research and develop-
ment policies and activities in aerospace; 

•  Collaboration  with  Universities,  other  academic  Research  Institutions,  Re-
search  Establishments,  the  Industry,  governmental  and  state  authorities,  the 
European Commission, etc. to support the aims of the Association; 

•  The assignment to Universities and other entities of contract work in the frame 

of its activities. 

3. Why to Join EASN 

Due to its multi-national nature, being a member of EASN opens the door to multila-
teral and bilateral international cooperation in Aeronautics. EASN provides the means 

 
S. Pantelakis / EASN – The European Academia Association

453

for locating partners for research activities of common interest, the preparation of joint 
projects  as well  as  partnerships  in  student  exchange programs.  This  is done  either  by 
the close cooperation established within the members of the EASN Interest Groups, as 
well as by the networking events prepared and carried out by the EASN such as infor-
mative and scientific workshops, meetings of Interest Groups members etc. The active 
participation in the EASN Interest Groups keeps the members in line with the state-of-
the-art regarding research activities in the respective areas and in contact with the plat-
forms  of  the  most  promising  and  effective  international  cooperation;  in  consequence 
where the highest chances for European research projects granted by European Com-
mission are. 

Furthermore,  EASN  membership  allows  for  access  to  information  provided 
through  the  website  such  as  conference  proceedings,  participation  to  expressions  of 
interest  campaigns,  working  groups  and  requests  for  input  towards  the  EC  and 
ACARE. Finally, enrolment in the EASN database also allows for the EASN members 
to be visible to the national and international communities in Academia, Industry and 
major Research Organisations. 

4. Who Can Join EASN 

1.  Effective members (with voting rights); 

• 

Individuals from European Academia or other University-similar organi-
zations, who are active in Aeronautics related research. 

2.  Associate members; 

• 

Individuals from Research establishments, SMEs and Industries, who are 
active in aeronautical research activities and cooperate with the academia; 
•  Entities such as Universities, University departments, REs, SMEs, Indus-
tries, other associations, professional organisations or governmental agen-
cies (e.g. EC) subscribing to the objectives of the Association; 

•  Each entity will be represented by a single person. 

3.  Honorary members; 

•  The title of Honorary Member or Honorary President may be granted by 
the General Assembly to persons who have rendered outstanding services 
to the Association; 

•  Honorary President takes juris et de jure part in the General Assembly and 

Board meetings with a consultative vote. 

5. How to Join EASN 

Registration in EASN and enrolment in the EASN database can be made easily on-line 
from the EASN website. Information on EASN and its activities, as well as on how to 
join the EASN Association can be found under www.easn.net. 

454

III. National and International Programmes – European Research Area

About the Author 

Spiros Pantelakis 
EASN Chairman 
Laboratory of Technology and Strength of Materials 
University of Patras – Panepistimioupolis Rio 
26500 Patras (Greece) 
Tel.:+30 2610 969498 
pantelak@mech.upatras.gr 
http://ltsm.mead.upatras.gr/lab/lang_en/ 
www.mech.upatras.gr 

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-455

455

The French Competitiveness Clusters 
in a European Context: 
Getting Together Research LABs, 
Large Industry and SMEs 

Thilo SCHÖNFELD and Katja SCHÖNTAG 

Abstract. European competitiveness is essentially driven by dynamic industry and 
technology-based clusters. In fact, globalisation on the one hand has strengthened 
the role of regional clusters on the other hand. As a result, along with increasing 
market globalisation, increasing resources will flow to the more attractive regions, 
reinforcing the role of clusters and driving regional specialisation. These clusters 
enable companies, research organisations and regions to join forces for their mu-
tual development and innovation. In a steady process, European clusters are seek-
ing to improve and strengthen their performance and innovativeness. The present 
paper presents the regional cluster policy currently applied throughout Europe (and 
worldwide) to the aerospace sector. Although this paper mainly focuses on the ac-
tivities of the French competitiveness cluster “Aerospace Valley”, perspectives on 
the future evolution in the context of European and international collaboration are 
provided. 

Keywords. Cluster, aerospace valley, EACP (European aerospace cluster partner-
ship) 

1. Introduction 

In  application  of  Michael  Porter’s  definition  of  clusters  as  “geographically  proximate 
groups  of  interconnected  companies  and  associated  institutions  in  a  particular  field, 
linked  by  commonalities  and  complementarities”  [1],  the  European  Council  held  in 
Lisbon in 2000 set the ambitious goal to make Europe “the world’s most competitive 
and dynamic knowledge-based economy”. 

Indeed,  with  the  globalization  of  operations,  significant  socio-economic  develop-
ments, and new market entrants, the European aerospace industry faces enormous chal-
lenges. During the past decade, the regions’ answer to these developments has been the 
bundling of resources and competences by clustering. Policy makers have been honor-
ing this approach by including clusters as a priority action to strengthen European in-
novation. 

Europe’s aerospace industry is very research-intensive with overall R&D expendi-
ture  above  average  for  manufacturing  industries.  International  competition  is  strong; 
European competences require staying one step ahead in terms of technology level and 
processes in order to stay competitive in the world market. 

 
 
456

III. National and International Programmes – European Research Area

Figure 1. Map of French Competitiveness Clusters (Copyright: Aerospace Valley). 

2. The French Regional Cluster Policy 

Based on a number of economic studies and analyses conducted mainly in Europe and 
Asia, the French government has established a national policy of regional competitive-
ness  clusters  (“pôles  de  compétitivité”)  to  stimulate  innovation  and  cooperation  be-
tween industry, research and education [4]. These competitiveness clusters are a forum 
for  the  creation  of  collective  projects  between  companies,  research  centres,  and  aca-
demic  institutions.  R&D  projects  are  the  clusters’  core  activities  and  constitute  the 
main  factor  of  their  competitiveness.  Non-R&D  projects  (training,  property  invest-
ments,  infra-structures,  economic  developments,  promoting  local  areas,  international 
expansion,  etc.)  also  make  key  contributions  to  the  competitiveness  of  the  cluster’s 
companies and the regional economic development. 

Following a first competitive “top-down” call for projects published in 2004, in Ju-
ly  2005  the  cluster  “Aerospace  Valley”  devoted  to  aeronautics,  space  and  embedded 
systems,  received  approval  along  with  66  other  clusters  covering  basically  all  of  the 
industrial sectors and economical tissues in France (Fig. 1). As one of six clusters from 
different sectors, Aerospace Valley was designated as a “global player” cluster. 

3. Aerospace Valley 

Aerospace Valley was created in 2005 and today is the leading innovative competitive-
ness  cluster  in  France  dedicated  to  the  sectors  of  aeronautics,  space,  and  embedded 
systems. Gathering the two regions Midi-Pyrénées and Aquitaine in the Southwest of 
France,  Aerospace  Valley  now  has  more  than  560  members  including  80  primes  and 
over  260  SMEs  as  well  as  a  number  of  major  aerospace  research  establishments  and 
engineering schools. Overall, members of Aerospace Valley represent one third of the 
French aerospace workforce with around 115,000 employments in 1,300 industrial es-
tablishments. A total of 12,500 researchers and scientists are active on the Aerospace 
Valley  territory  representing  45%  of  the  total  French  national  R&D  potential  in  the 
related sectors. 

 
T. Schönfeld and K. Schöntag / The French Competitiveness Clusters in a European Context

457

The  two  complementary  regions  of  Midi-Pyrénées  and  Aquitaine,  by  combining 
their strengths, constitute one of the leading European centres for space and aeronautics 
activities  and  in  the field of on-board  systems.  By  harnessing  all  sources  of  energy – 
major groups, small and medium-sized enterprises, public and private research centres, 
universities,  graduate  schools  of  aerospace  engineering  and  regional  authorities,  the 
cluster sets ambitious objectives for the upcoming two decades. Aerospace Valley ac-
tually has to be considered as a huge innovation think tank based on the “triple helix” 
concept  and  structured  in  the  triangle of  industry, research,  and  training  rather  than  a 
primarily business-oriented “cluster” following the Anglo-Saxon definition. By March 
2011, 410 collaborative R&D projects had received Aerospace Valley approval, 220 of 
them are currently running. They are mainly financed through various private and pub-
lic funding mechanisms. 

French  cluster  policy  and  support  is  characterized  by  a  strong  focus  on a  limited 
number of regions. Beside Aerospace Valley, there are two additional clusters dedicat-
ed  to  the  aerospace  sector  that  were  approved  in  2007:  ASTech  in  Ile  de  France  and 
PEGASE  in  the  Provence-Alpes  Côte  d’Azur  region.  These  two  clusters  have  set  up 
strong  links  under  the  guidance  of  Aerospace  Valley  in  order  to  guarantee  the  most 
efficient use of private and public resources on a national level. As an example, period-
ic reviews and evaluations of the R&D projects are conducted, best practices are shared 
and  international  initiatives  are  coordinated.  International  cooperation  is  part  of  this 
economic development plan. At present, Aerospace Valley has signed formal coopera-
tion  agreements  with  five  international  clusters  while  several  informal  contacts  have 
been established with aerospace clusters, particularly in China and Brazil. Additionally, 
it is a member of the European Aerospace Cluster Partnership (EACP), cf. below. 

4. The European Context 

4.1. European Cluster Approach 

The European Commission has recognized the value of clusters and their contribution 
to the European goals of jobs and growth. At a European Conference on Innovation and 
Clusters  held  in  Stockholm  in  January  2008,  the  European  Cluster  Memorandum  [6] 
was  presented.  It  had  previously  been  prepared  in  2007  by  a  High  Level  Advisory 
Group of experts on clusters established by the European Commission. The Memoran-
dum seeks a strong commitment from public stakeholders at all levels to further sup-
port  cluster  development  in  their  respective  territories.  It  recognizes  that  clusters  are 
“important drivers of innovation and contribute to the competitiveness and sustainable 
development  of  European  industry  and  services”.  It  postulates  that  “strong  clusters 
emerge and flourish best in open markets where ‘co-opetiton’ (i.e. a blend of coopera-
tion and competition) exists within and between clusters” [6]. 

Since  then,  the  importance  of  supporting  regional  research-driven  clusters  in  Eu-
rope  has  been  recognized  in  various  European  policy  and  action  plans,  including  the 
Broad-based  Innovation  Strategy  and  the  latest  Europe  2020  Strategy  with  its  Lead 
Initiative for industry policy. 

 
 
 
 
458

III. National and International Programmes – European Research Area

Figure 2. EACP Logo (Copyright: EACP). 

Figure 3. EACP Member Map (Copyright: EACP and its members (for logos). 

4.2. The European EACP Network 

The  European  Aerospace  Cluster  Partnership  (Fig.  2)  was  founded  in  2009  as  a  net-
work between European research–oriented regional clusters mainly in the field of aero-
nautics [7]. 

The main objective of this network is to strengthen Europe’s aerospace position in 
the worldwide markets through its clusters and regions. With its currently 38 members 
from 13 European countries (Fig. 3), this network has become a platform for exchange 
of  best  practices  and  information  on  cluster  management,  particularly  in  the  fields  of 
internationalization,  skills  &  innovation,  and  cluster  funding  [8].  The  cooperation  is 
fostered through joint projects, such as the CARE project (Clean Aerospace Regions) 
that was successfully submitted under FP7 by a consortium of 10 European aerospace 
clusters. 

Such more or less informal networks offer an overall framework for investigating 
new approaches in the promotion of innovation and R&D activities and for comparing 
novel  tools for  cluster  management.  The  clusters of  the  EACP  consortium  indeed  are 
very  heterogeneous  in  terms  of  size,  governance,  degree  of  industry  implication,  im-

 
 
T. Schönfeld and K. Schöntag / The French Competitiveness Clusters in a European Context

459

plementation of innovation strategies, RDT policies, etc. All three of the French com-
petitiveness clusters in aerospace are active EACP members. They are generally consi-
dered as situated in an intermediate position concerning governmental involvement (vs. 
purely  industry-driven  clusters)  with  a  strong  emphasis  on  technology.  Presently,  a 
second focus is on R&D activities and the elaboration of collaborative research projects. 
With the current French cluster policy and the developments on a European level 
concerning cluster support, it is to be expected that clusters will, over the next decades, 
be  strong  determinants  of  the  European  industry  landscape.  Policy  makers  as  well  as 
cluster managers are still learning how to optimize the strategic and operative support 
for clusters, but with the lessons learned so far and increasingly efficient structures in 
place, clustering is a powerful tool for Europe’s industry and its competitive advantage. 

References 

[1]  Michael  E.  Porter,  “Clusters  and  Competition”,  in:  On  Competition,  Harvard  Business  School  Press, 

Cambridge, 1998. 

[2]  Christian  Ketels,  “Structural  Change  in  Europe  3  –  Innovative  City  and  Business  Regions”,  Harvard 

Business School, 2004. 

[3]  Christian Ketels, Göran Lindqvist and Örjan Sölvell, “Clusters and Cluster Initiatives”, Center for Strat-

egy and Competitiveness, Stockholm School of Economics , June 2008. 

[4]  DATAR, “La France, puissance industrielle: une nouvelle politique industrielle par les territoires”, Paris, 

La documentation française, 2004. 

[5]  Contact: Center for Strategy and Competitiveness, Stockholm School of Economics, P.O. Box 6501SE-

11383 Stockholm, email: info@clusterobservatory.eu. 

[6]  Pierre Laffitte et al. (high-level advisory group), The European Cluster Memorandum, Stockholm, Janu-

ary 2008. 

[7]  Thilo  Schönfeld,  “Clustering  the  Regional  Aeronautical  Clusters”,  European  Commission  –  DG  RTD 

Transport, Member States Workshop, Brussels, May 2007. 

[8]  Rüdiger  Hintze-Schomburg,  Katja  Schöntag  and  Walter  Birkhan,  “Stronger  Together”,  Public  Service 

Review: European Union, Issue 18, September 2009, pp. 456–457. 

About the Authors 

Thilo Schönfeld 
Deputy Director International Affairs 
Aerospace Valley 
23, avenue Edouard Belin 
F-31400 Toulouse (France) 
Tel.:+33 (0)5 61 14 80 30 
schoenfeld@aerospace-valley.com 
www.aerospace-valley.com 

Katja Schöntag 
European Cooperation, EACP 
Aviation Cluster Hamburg Metropolitan Region 
Alter Steinweg 
D-20459 Hamburg (Germany) 
Tel.:+49(0)40 42841 3398  
katja.schoentag@bwvi.hamburg.de 

 
460

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-460

Trends in Educational Activities and 
Tools for Aeronautics – The Example 
of the von Karman Institute 

Herman DECONINCK 

Abstract. The recruitment of highly skilled engineering labour force will be a se-
vere bottleneck for Aeronautical Industry, in order to meet the challenges resulting 
from  the  greening  of  air  transportation  (ACARE  2020  Vision  and  the  Flightpath 
2050). The author of this paper presents an approach drawn from the Belgian von 
Karman  Institute  experience,  and  which  could  contribute  to  overcome  the  ob-
stacles. 

Keywords. Recruitment, bologna process, VKI, higher education, industrial needs, 
diploma, research masters, PhD, lifelong learning programmes 

1. Introduction 

To cope with the challenges resulting from the greening of transportation, two different 
trends are crucial: the first is the creation of a truly international market for higher edu-
cation  in  Europe  as  targeted  with  the  Bologna  Declaration,  allowing  European  wide 
recruitment  of  the  best  forces.  Second,  an  increased  focus  on  training  for  innovative 
research will be needed. It is advocated that this can only be achieved by an increased 
focus  on  Research  Masters  specializations  next  to  the  traditional  PhD  programmes. 
These educations further have to be strengthened with an increased emphasis on life-
long learning programmes for professionals and exchange programmes for top experts 
between  academia  and  industry.  Together,  these  three  types  of  programmes  form  the 
triad of top level higher education in Aeronautics. They benefit from strong synergies 
when organised on the same campus, as illustrated by the example of the von Karman 
Institute for Fluid Dynamics. 

2. The Bologna Process 

The Bologna Declaration of the European Ministers of Education, convened in Bolog-
na on the 19th of June, 1999 [1], marks a turning point in the development of European 
higher education. Twenty-nine countries pledged to reform their different higher educa-
tion  systems  towards  convergence,  which  has  come  to  be  known  as  the  Bologna 
process. In the meantime 47 countries have joined. The declaration is not just a politi-
cal  statement,  but  a  binding  action  programme  based  on  a  clearly  defined  common 
goal, a deadline and a set of specified objectives: 

H. Deconinck / Trends in Educational Activities and Tools for Aeronautics

461

•  A  clearly  defined  common  goal:  to  create,  by  2010,  a  European  space  for 
higher  education  in  order  to  enhance  the  employability  and  mobility  of  citi-
zens  and  to  increase  the  international  competitiveness  of  European  higher 
education (compared to other continents); 

•  A  set  of  specified  objectives:  (1)  the  adoption  of  a  common  framework  of 
readable and comparable degrees; (2) the introduction of undergraduate (first 
cycle, Bachelors, BS) and graduate (second cycle, Masters, MS) levels in all 
countries, with first cycle degrees (BS) no shorter than 3 years and relevant to 
the labor market; (3) the introduction of a common European Credit Transfer 
and  Accumulation  System  (ECTS)  for  course  credits,  also  covering  lifelong 
learning activities (1 ECTS corresponds to a total student load of ± 30 hours); 
(4)  the  establishment  of  a  European  dimension  in  quality  assurance,  with 
comparable criteria and methods; (5) the elimination of remaining obstacles to 
the free mobility of students (as well as trainees and graduates) and teachers 
(as well as researchers and higher education administrators). 

Next  to  the  need  to  “achieve  greater  compatibility  and  comparability  in  the  sys-
tems of higher education” (mainly an intra-European issue), the Declaration wants “in 
particular”  to  increase  “the  international  competitiveness  of  the  European  system  of 
higher education”. 

New objectives have been added (since 2003, 2005), which are (1) the inclusion of 
the third cycle in the process: PhD programmes and Master after Master and (2) life-
long learning as a recognized mission of higher education institutions, with the aim to 
stimulate also  the cooperation between industry and educational institutes in the field 
of lifelong learning. 

In conclusion, one can state that the Bologna process has created a European-wide 

market for higher education. 

3. Industrial Needs and Requirements in Aeronautics 

Considering the demand from the aeronautical industry for skilled employees in engi-
neering sciences, an increased focus on innovation and research can be recognized over 
the recent years. This focus results from the extreme challenges to be faced in the com-
ing 30 years, as described in the ACARE vision 2020 [2], recently (2011) updated to 
“Flightpath 2050” [3]. 

Increased  environmental  constraints,  the  so  called  “greening”  of  aeronautics,  re-
quires  unprecedented  improvements  in  fuel  efficiency  of  aircraft  (reduction  of  CO2), 
reduction of noise emission and reduction of NOX. These requirements may be so dras-
tic that evolutionary changes might not be sufficient. Instead, it could be necessary to 
completely rethink air transportation in the next 30 years, with innovative aircraft con-
figurations  (blended  wing-body,  flying  wing,  …),  innovative  engines  (contra-rotating 
open rotor, …) and sophisticated flow control (laminar wing, synthetic jets, Dielectric 
Barrier Discharge (DBD) or plasma control, MEMS, morphing etc.). 

Such changes will be deeply rooted in fundamental science and understanding of 
all  the  detailed  physics  involved  such  as  turbulence,  transition  and  interdisciplinary 
coupling effects (e.g. aeroacoustics, aeroelasticity, heat transfer, chemistry). 

At the same time short production cycles will require new design methodologies, 
involving interdisciplinary collaboration at international level from different locations 

462

III. National and International Programmes – European Research Area

(concurrent engineering, collaborative tools) and Multidisciplinary Design and Optimi-
zation  (MDO)  including  off-design.  This  should  ultimately  lead  to  the  “numerical 
Flight-Testing  of  the  virtual  aircraft”  (Dr.  A.  Abbas,  Airbus,  at  a  recent  workshop  of 
the EU FP7 GRAIN project). 

Such  advances  will  require  fast  and  high  fidelity  experimental  validation  of  new 
concepts:  improved  accuracy  and  sophistication  of  experimental  approaches  (non-
intrusive  techniques,  cryogenic  wind  tunnel  (ETW))  as  well  as  faster  processing  by 
field measurements (PSP, PIV …). 

4. Consequences for Higher Education 

Evidently  the  role  of  research  and  higher  education  will  be  crucial  to  meet  the  chal-
lenge of developing a highly skilled labor force. The Bologna process is therefore cer-
tainly a step in the right direction, but it is by far not sufficient. The top level higher 
education in Aeronautics (and other fields of engineering) has to focus more on innova-
tive research by (1) training engineers for doing innovative research; (2) providing the-
reby top level facilities and instruments; (3) bringing students into contact with the re-
search  programmes  funded  by  industry,  governments  or  supranational  organisations 
(EU,  ESA);  (4)  having  permanent  contact  with  research  and  design  departments  in 
industry;  (5)  providing  an  international  recruitment  and  working  environment  (Eras-
mus, Marie Curie, MaM programmes …); and (6) encouraging personal contact of stu-
dents  with  experts  (e.g.  by  organising  host  programmes  for  visiting  experts,  short 
courses …). 

At the political and institutional level, this requires increased focus on programmes 

beyond the first and second cycle targeted in the initial Bologna Process. 

•  There is an important need for a specialization in research beyond the primary 
Master,  but  less  focused  than  the  PhD  studies.  This  observation  explains  the 
increased importance of third cycle programmes such as Research Master pro-
grammes  in  aeronautics  (at  the  level  Master  after  Master)  next  to  traditional 
PhD programmes; 

•  Engineers in industry and government research centers need to upgrade conti-
nuously  their  knowledge  by  lifelong  learning  (e.g.  following  short  training 
courses, with highly specialized, top lecturers). This creates an important need 
for high level lifelong learning programmes on an institutional basis; 

•  Exchange  programmes  between  industry  and  academia  become  crucial:  top 
level industrial experts should be allowed to take a temporary leave as visiting 
professors  in  academic  institutions.  Similarly,  academic  staff  should  gather 
real life industrial experience by working for short periods in industry and/or 
by carrying out research under contract and in close collaboration with indus-
try. 

These observations bring us to the triad of educational programmes at the top level 
(Fig.  1):  (1)  the  Research  Master  at  Master  after  Master  level  which  aims  to  provide 
highly skilled engineers for the industry and research institutes, or for continued PhD 
studies, (2) the PhD studies and (3) the lifelong learning programmes for professionals 
from industry, research centers and academia (researchers or PhD candidates). 

 
H. Deconinck / Trends in Educational Activities and Tools for Aeronautics

463

Figure 1. The Triad of top level higher education programmes for innovative research. Strong synergies are 
present when organised on the same campus. 

When  organised  on  the  same  campus,  these  3  types  of  education  benefit  from 
strong  synergies:  The  Research  Master  students  are  integrated  in  the  funded  research 
programmes  carried  out  by  PhD  candidates;  the  PhD  candidates  profit  from  the  ad-
vanced  short  courses  and  the  contact  with  renowned  experts  (with  industrial  expe-
rience) invited to teach these courses; the short courses can even be organised with the 
aim  to  attract  the  complementary  expertise  for  PhD  research  when  such  expertise  is 
missing at the institutional level. 

5. The Example of the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics 

In many respects, the VKI can be viewed as a forerunner in this multifaceted vision of 
European higher education in aeronautics: starting 55 years ago, the VKI was a trend 
setter in the creation of a third cycle programme and a lifelong learning programme at 
European and even trans-Atlantic (NATO inspired) level: 

•  The third cycle programme “Diploma Course” was a programme of 1 academ-
ic  year  of  specialized  training  for  aeronautical  engineers,  started  in  1956  by 
Theodore von Karman. It has delivered over 1500 graduates since 1956, from 
over 15 different nationalities; 

•  The lifelong learning programme “VKI Lecture Series” is a programme of 1 
week specialized short courses for professionals organised since more than 40 
years.  It  offers  10–12  courses  each  year,  attracting  over  300  participants  per 
year from more than 15 countries. 

6. From Diploma Course to Research Masters 

Starting  in  October  2010,  the  VKI  Diploma  Course  programme  has  been  fully  con-
verted to the Bologna process as a third cycle programme at the level of Master after 

 
464

III. National and International Programmes – European Research Area

Master with a duration of one year. It has been accredited by the Dutch-Belgian (Fle-
mish) accreditation organisation NVAO which ensures a quality assurance at European 
level, and it follows the ECTS-compatible credit system. Further it has preserved all the 
assets and experience of 50 years of the VKI Diploma Course: strong integration with 
research (PhD research, EU or ESA-funded research), international recruitment (more 
than 12 nationalities represented) and synergies with the Lecture Series programme. Its 
key ingredients follow the line of the tradition of the Diploma Course: 

1.  Course work: 30 ECTS with 2 orientations in aeronautics (Aeronautics/Space 
and  Turbomachinery/Propulsion)  and  1  orientation  in  environmental  and  in-
dustrial flows (bio, wind, environment, climate). The course work offers expe-
rimental  and  numerical  options,  with  a  strong  interdisciplinary  aspect  (expe-
rimentalists are also trained in numerical simulation and vice versa). The me-
thodology is a hands-on approach, combining theory, homework, and labora-
tory experience, with a strong link to industrial practice and needs. Training in 
research includes also methodology of research, bibliographic search, presen-
tation and reporting and project management; 

2.  Research project (Master thesis): 30 ECTS with a strong coupling to existing 
funded research projects giving access to top facilities and resources and lead-
ing to “real life” research including also the management of the project: sche-
duling and managing of resources and technical staff. There is a close follow-
up  with  three  periods  of  reporting  in  front  of  an  evaluation  team  as  well  as 
training in public presentation. 

7. PhD and Lecture Series Programme in Fluid Dynamics 

The von Karman Institute also has an extensive PhD programme with a community of 
over 60 PhD’s in residence, all related to fluid dynamics, both experimental and numer-
ical. The PhD thesis is defended at a university either in Belgium or abroad. 

Finally,  the  VKI  Lecture  series  programme  is  a  lifelong  learning  programme  for 
professionals  from  Industry,  Research  Institutes  and  Academia  (advanced  courses  for 
PhD  candidates),  created  more  than  40  years  ago.  The  duration  of  the  courses  is  be-
tween 3 and 5 days. The teachers are experts invited from all over the world. The ex-
tensive course notes prepared for each Lecture Series have become valuable reference 
material in the field. 

Complemented with an extensive short training programme at undergraduate level, 
the  Research  Master,  the  Lecture  Series  and  the  PhD  programme  offer  a  unique  and 
truly  international  environment  for  education  and  research  in  Aeronautics  and  Fluid 
Dynamics in general. 

8. Conclusion 

The  top  segment  of  higher  education  should  focus  on:  (1)  training  for  innovative  re-
search with an important role for Research Master studies at Master after Master level, 
next to PhD studies; (2) lifelong learning programmes for professionals, in close con-
tact  with  the  industry  and  research  centers.  The  von  Karman  Institute  has  developed 
more than 50 years of experience in this area. 

H. Deconinck / Trends in Educational Activities and Tools for Aeronautics

465

Key ingredients are (1) to link the education with ongoing research projects (EU, 
ESA,  national,  regional);  (2)  to  link  the  education  with  industrial  needs  and  applica-
tions; (3) to have an international dimension both in the teaching and student body (fol-
lowing Bologna); (4) to teach collaboration in international networks and teams, stimu-
lating proficiency of languages; (5) to stimulate lifelong learning programmes for pro-
fessionals  (short  courses);  (6)  to  stimulate/create  exchange-visiting  programmes  with 
experts  from  industry  and  research  centers,  also  with  partner  universities  and  (7)  to 
exploit the strong synergies between different third cycle programmes at one site: the 
triad of PhD – MaM – Short Course (Lecture Series). 

References 

[1]  The Bologna Declaration on the European space for higher education: an explanation, prepared by the 
Confederation  of  EU  Rectors’  Conferences  and  the  Association  of  European  Universities  (CRE), 
http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/educ/bologna/bologna.pdf. 

[2]  European Aeronautics: a vision for 2020, Meeting society’s needs and winning global leadership; report 

of the group of personalities, January 2001, http://www.acare4europe.org/docs/Vision 2020.pdf. 

[3]  Flightpath 2050: Europe’s Vision for Aviation, Report of the High Level Group on Aviation Research, 

2011, http://ec.europa.eu/transport/air/doc/flightpath2050.pdf. 

About the Author 

Herman Deconinck 
Dean of Faculty, von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics 
Waterloosesteenweg 72 
B- 1640 Sint-Genesius-Rode (Belgium) 
Tel.:+32 2 3599618 
deconinck@vki.ac.be 

466

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-466

Russian Aeronautics Research Programmes 

Liudmila ROSTOVTSEVA 

Abstract. Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russian Federation supports research 
in the field of civil aviation through the federal target  programme “Development 
of Russian Civil Aviation for 2002-2010 and through 2015”. Attaching great im-
portance  to  international  cooperation,  the  Russian  organisations  are  actively  in-
volved  in  the  EU  Framework  Programmes.  In  the  frame  of  the  third  competition 
FP7 in the field of aeronautics and air transport, the coordinated competition “EU-
Russian Aeronautics research” has been launched. As a result of the competition, 
three  projects  are  currently  underway.  This  paper  describes  approaches  to  devel-
opment  of  Russian  aviation  industry  with  the  help  of  aeronautics  research  pro-
grammes. 

Keywords. Russian aviation industry, EU-Russian aeronautics research 

1. The Russian Aviation Industry 

The development of Russian aviation industry is being implemented in conformity to 
the Strategy that was approved in 2006. The task of this strategy is to provide the fos-
tering a new organisational branch structure. The efficient fulfilment of policies: 

•  Creates the aeronautic engineering and promotes it into potential markets; 
• 

Involves the resources needed and regulates these resources based on state and 
private property partnership. 

Nowadays  we  can  state  that  the  key  integrated  industry  structures  formation  is 

completed. They are as follows: 

•  The United Aircraft Corporation JSC in area of aircraft engineering; 
•  The Russian Helicopters in helicopter engineering; 
•  The United Engine Corporation in propulsion engineering; 
•  Also  the  formation  of  the  integrated  structures  in  aircraft-borne  instruments 
making industry and in airplane units engineering will be soon completed. 

2. A High Scientific and Technical Potential 

The  activities  of  the  major  Russian  State  Research  Centers  that  are  TsAGI,  CIAM, 
VIAM, GosNIIAS and others are well known to the aeronautics community all over the 
world. They are characterized by the high scientific and technical potential, the scientif-
ic schools of the world level and the unique research and test basis. Their activity fo-
cuses on creating the scientific and technological groundwork, the applied technologies 
and scientific and technological solutions. 

L. Rostovtseva / Russian Aeronautics Research Programmes

467

3. The Nearest Challenges 

The nearest industry challenges in civil sector are: 

•  Promoting  the  SSJ-100,  Tu  204CM,  Аn-148  aircrafts  into  international  and 

nation markets correspondently; 

•  Creation of the SSJ-NG aircraft, the medium haul MC-21 aircraft, a new gen-

• 

eration engine intended for “breakthrough” products; 
Implementation  of  projects  in  helicopter  engineering,  including  the  comple-
tion in creation of Mi 38 and Ka-62 helicopters. 

Based on the results of the previous year it is to be point out the beginning of the 
series production of SaM-146 engines for Sukhoi Superjet-100 aircraft. The engine is 
certified in conformity to European Airworthy Rules and meets the Interstate Aviation 
Committee  (IAC)  requirements.  The  aircraft  as  it  is,  is  awarded  the  IAC  type  certifi-
cate. This year we expect to be awarded a European certificate to this aircraft. 

A gas generator of principally new PD-14 engines family was created. It is suited 
expressly for MC-21 aircraft project, the aircraft professionals are actively contributing 
into. 

4. The Key Priority-Driven Requirements to the Air Transport System 

Nowadays  when  our  national  researches  and  developments  are  targeted  to  the  imple-
mentation of innovative evolution of the state, the key priority-driven requirements to 
the air transport system are to be: 

•  Flight safety and regularity; 
•  Reducing the environmental impact; 
•  Energetics and resource-saving; 
•  Air transport affordability. 

5. Financing 

The  Federal  Target  Programmes  (FTPs)  constitute  a  principle  R&D  financing  instru-
ment. As far as it concerns the civil aircraft engineering the Ministry of Industry and 
Trade of the Russian Federation (MIT) is customer-coordinator of FTP under the title 
“The development of the Russian civil aviation for 2002–2010 period and for period up 
to 2015”. 

Accordingly  to  the  legislation  in  force,  all  the  projects  that  are  eligible  to  be 
founded within the above mentioned FTPs are selected based on research topic propos-
als  calls  which  of  the  strategic  importance  and  the  industrial  potential  are  taken  into 
consideration. The key topics in Call areas are selected by the Expert Council. 

The terms of proposals examination and their evaluation within Calls are regulated 

by legislation. 

Various evaluation criteria may be used in dependence of the particularly individu-

al FTP but the principle ones are: 

 
468

III. National and International Programmes – International Cooperation

•  Proposed activity duration; 
•  Finances required; 
•  Applicants professional ranging in proposed research area; 
•  Quality indices of the project submitted. 

The same rules are valid for the joint international programs of MIT of Russia, in-

cluding during the coordinated Calls. 

The financing within the above mentioned FTP is provided for research in aerody-
namics and strength, aircraft propulsions, avionics, aviation materials and technologies, 
and is aimed at the primary structure weight saving and the aircraft life-time increasing, 
the engine noise and emissions level reducing as well as reducing the sonic boom im-
pact on humans and environment, the enhancement of air vehicles control and naviga-
tion accuracy, as well as the human factor consideration in control system. 

The flight test technique development, the perspective norms and the aviation en-
gineering  requirements  establishment,  the  Russian  and  international  standards,  norms 
and  technical  documentation  and  simulators  technology  harmonization,  are  also 
planned to be enhanced. 

6. The Participation in EU – FP 

While  mentioning  the  international  cooperation  in  aeronautics  research,  it  is  to  be 
marked  that  the  Russian  aviation research  centers participate  actively  in  EU  FP  Calls 
and at that this participation percentage success is rather high. 

To the end of creating the favourable conditions for further expansion of EU and 
Russia cooperation in civil aviation research and enhancing the competitiveness of this 
strategically important industry sector, the Directorate Transport EC Research Directo-
rate General and the Aviation Department of Russian MIT established jointly an Aero-
nautics Research Working Group. 

The Working Group prepared and kicked-off successfully in frame of the 3-rd FP7 

Aeronautics and Air Transport call the Coordinated EC–Russia aviation research call. 

Now it is possible to be stated that the Coordinated call has been established. The 
main  tasks  we  set  are  achieved:  the  call  is  coordinated  in  timetable,  budget  amount, 
terms of implementation in topics and in executors. 

In  conformity  to  procedures  and  terms  coordinated  within  the  Working  Group, 
three projects were selected and are financed by EC and the MIT of Russia (SVETLA-
NA, ORINOCO, ALASCA). 

The call was performed in two stages. At the first (European) stage 5 topics of 10 
were  recommended  to  be  considered  at  the  next  (Russian)  stage  where  3  proposals 
were selected and recommended to be granted as the best ones within both the Euro-
pean and Russian call stages. 

We  have  obtained  a  valuable  experience  that  can  be  used  within  the  future  joint 

calls. 

Currently the industry faces to new challenges in development and implementation 
of novel mechanisms for modernization and innovative development, updating the in-
dustry long termed aims in behalf of socio-economic development of Russia. 

Within the processes being implemented the matter of enhancing the research cen-
ters activities, including the role they play in industry and state modernization, is under 
scrutiny study now. 

L. Rostovtseva / Russian Aeronautics Research Programmes

469

7. Towards New Initiatives with a View to Concentrating Research Organisation 

The  matter  of  concentrating  the  research  organizations  resources  through  creating  an 
Associated  Aviation  Research  Center  based  on  FSUE  TsAGI  n.a.  N.E.  Zhukovsky  is 
under consideration. 

Under coordination by the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade the innovative 
programs conceptions are already developed by corporations and the Technology Plat-
forms started to be formed that will become an efficacious instrument for state scientif-
ic  and  technological  strategy  implementation.  The  Technology  Platform  is  called 
“Aeronautical mobility” in aviation industry. 

8. International Cooperation 

The international cooperation both in the research area and in the area of development 
and production of aircraft engineering will continue developing. In such a situation the 
intellectual property rights on the jointly generated products are getting of greater vital-
ity as well as the financing the joint activities and the mutual admission of norms when 
developing and creating new engineering. 

We are of opinion that the relevant Working Groups constitute the efficient plat-

form where the principles of our future cooperation may be stated and negotiated. 

About the Author 

Liudmila Rostovtseva 
Deputy Director of Aviation Industry Department 
Ministry of Industry and Trade Russian Federation 
www.minprom.gov.ru 

 
  
 
470

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.
doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-063-5-470

Latin America – EU: Experience and 
Potential for Cooperation in Aeronautics 
and Air Transport Research 

João Pedro TABORDA and Jean-Paul DOMERGUE 

Abstract. The CoopAir – Latin America (CoopAir-LA) aimed to address the need 
for a more systemic assessment in identifying the research fields with higher po-
tential  for  cooperation  in  Research  and  Technology  for  Aerospace  (Aerospace 
R&T) between Europe and Latin America. 

Keywords. Latin America, CoopAir-LA 

1. Introduction 

Recent years have witnessed an increase in cooperation between Latin America and the 
European Union in the area of aerospace R&T. Such dynamics has provided the condi-
tions for the development of this Coordinated Support Action, CoopAir-LA, focused on 
defining a roadmap that will allow this cooperation to be taken to a next level. 

CoopAir-LA  has  run  for  18  months,  with  its  final  workshop  in  Brussels  on  Sep-
tember 2010. The consortium included companies and research organisations from the 
EU (Spain, Portugal, France and Poland), and counterparts in Latin American countries 
with  experience  in  aerospace  R&T:  Brazil,  Mexico  and  Argentina  (although  not 
represented in the consortium, attention was also paid to Chile). 

The project focused on four major goals: i) to build a database with the main orga-
nisations working in aerospace R&T in Latin America, and respective areas of exper-
tise  [1];  ii)  to  analyze  factors  that  impacting  cooperation  between  the  two  regions  in 
this area; iii) to present policy recommendations that will contribute to bring the current 
cooperation to a next level; iv) identify the research areas with a stronger potential for 
cooperation in aerospace R&T between the EU and Latin America. 

As  the outcomes  of  the project,  CoopAir-LA  has  available  a  database  with  Latin 
American organisations and their areas of expertise. Such database was developed with 
the  support  of  three  workshops  in  Latin  America  (Brazil,  Argentina,  and  Mexico1), 
during which participants became more familiar with the opportunities provided by the 
Framework Programme. 

These  events  also  allowed  for  the  project  to  gather  information  on  where  Latin 
American organisations identify issues and opportunities to enhance cooperation with 
their European counterparts. Dissemination of information in Latin America about the 
EU  Framework  and  facilitation  actions  to  establish  regular  links  with  those  counter-
parts were identified as major factors, while analysis on the current projects involving 
Latin  American  partners  shows  no  issues  in  what  concerns  the  quality  of  their  work, 
making  them  case  studies  to  be  disseminated  both  in  Europe  as  in  Latin  America  as 
successful examples of cooperation between the two regions in this specific industry. 

J.P. Taborda and J.-P. Domergue / Latin America – EU: Experience and Potential

471

Figure 1. Database with Latin American organisations. 

As  conclusions,  the  project  prepared  its  recommendations  on  the  policy  actions 
that,  once  implemented  on  both  sides  with  the  continuous  involvement  of  academia, 
research  centres  and  industry,  may  contribute  to  develop further  cooperation between 
the  EU  and  Latin  America  in  the  research  fields  identified  of  higher  potential.  These 
include  biofuels,  composite  materials,  metallic  structures,  design  of  aerostructures, 
aerodynamics, flight physics (including simulation), and noise and vibration. 

Beyond discussed in specific meetings, those recommendations were presented to 
representatives of the European Commission and also to officials from the Latin Amer-
ican countries represented in project. 

2. Aerospace-Related Competencies in Latin America 

Latin American countries have different levels of experience within the aerospace in-
dustry, with Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Chile having higher visibility based on the 
national strategies they have been pursuing in recent years. 

Due to the development of Embraer in the recent decades, Brazil has established 
itself  among  the  restricted  group  of  nations  which  host  today  a  final  integrator  for 
commercial aviation. The industrial policy that, among other results, lead to the crea-
tion of Embraer in 1969 had its origins during the 40s with the creation of the Instituto 
Tecnológico de Aeronáutica in the city of S. José dos Campos in the state of S. Paulo. 

The creation of Embraer and its strong development in the last two decades estab-
lished  a strong  dynamics  in  Brazil,  not  only  in  the  state of S. Paulo but  also  in other 
areas of the country like the state of Santa Catarina with the local Federal University 
involved in several projects in the field of noise and vibration. 

Neighbouring  Brazil,  Argentina  has  also  a  long  tradition  in  the  aerospace  sector, 
having established several partnerships with Brazil, including the joint development of 

 
472

III. National and International Programmes – International Cooperation

a regional aircraft in the early nineties, the CBA-123 project. Additional activities are 
now expected from the participation of the Argentinean industry in the development of 
the Embraer KC-390 military cargo aircraft under a program coordinated by the Brazil-
ian Air Force. 

Beyond  this  type  of  activities  involving  design  and  manufacturing  of  structures, 
Argentina  hosts  distinctive  competencies  in  avionics  and  systems,  particularly  in  the 
region of the capital Buenos Aires.  

Also emerging from the region as a Global player is Mexico, with its policies high-
ly focused on the attraction Foreign Direct Investment. The state of Querétaro has been 
particular dynamic in such regard, currently hosting 14 large firms, most of them with 
industrial operations of increasing complexity and technological content. 

Despite  the  absence  of  a  partner  in  the  project,  the  CoopAir-LA  consortium  de-
cided  to  include  Chile  as  the  fourth  case  to  be  analysed  under  the  project,  having 
achieved important results in the last two decades based on the development of Empre-
sa Nacional de Aeronáutica, ENAER, and its regular involvement in Embraer and CA-
SA’s commercial and military programmes2. This has allowed the country to consoli-
date local competencies in the area of metal structures, including the assembly of fuse-
lage sections. 

3. Experience of Latin American Partners in Framework Programme Projects 

Framework  Programmes  6  and  7  have  witnessed  an  increasing  participation  of  Latin 
American  partners  in  EU-funded  projects  for  aerospace,  particularly  by  Argentinean 
and Brazilian partners. Under Framework Programme 6 (FP6) it was possible to identi-
fy  four  projects  in  four  different  fields,  while  three  at  least  are  to  be  added  from 
Framework Programme 7 (FP7). 

Under  FP6,  and  based  on  its  competencies  related  with  numerical  methods  and 
tools, the Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la industria Química at the Univer-
sidad Nacional del Litoral was part of two projects: RAPOLAC (Rapid Production of 
Large  Aerospace  Components,  [2])  and  SYNCOMETS  (Synthesis  of  aeronautical 
compliant mechanical systems). 

The other two projects in FP6 with the participation of Latin American partners in-
volved two Brazilian organisations. X3-Noise was coordinated by engine manufacturer 
Snecma, with the participation of the Federal University of Santa Catarina who brought 
into the consortium its distinctive competencies in the area of noise and vibration. 

FP6 also saw the first participation of Brazilian OEM Embraer under the DIANA 
project, dedicated to research in the area of avionics and coordinated by a Portuguese 
SME, Skysoft. 

Beyond CoopAir-LA Coordinated Support Action, Embraer is also involved in the 
ADVITAC  project,  coordinated  by  French  company  Daher,  and  focused  on  research 
that may lead in the future to the development of a full composite tail cone.  

Coordinated  by  the  Portuguese  University,  Instituto  Superior  Técnico,  the  NO-
VEMOR project is another FP7 project with the participation of Embraer, in the area of 
aerospace structures. Outside FP7’s aerospace calls, Embraer is also part of KARYON 
consortium in the field of sensors network. The project was approved under the scope 
of one the European Commission’s call on Information, Communications and Technol-
ogy. 

 
J.P. Taborda and J.-P. Domergue / Latin America – EU: Experience and Potential

473

Figure 2. Embraer aircraft Ipanema certified to fly with ethanol. 

Outside  FP7  but  still  connected  with  the  policy  goals  of  FP7  and  future  frame-
works there is the participation of Embraer in the SWAFEA initiative, a tender coordi-
nated  by  DG  MOVE  in  the  area  of  biofuels  for  aviation.  The  winning  proposal  was 
submitted by French laboratory ONERA, who already presented its final report to the 
European Commission on the state-of-the-art concerning the possible use of biofuels in 
aviation. 

With  the  first  aircraft  (Fig.  2)  certified  in  the  World  for  the  use  of  ethanol  (the 
crop-duster  Ipanema,  [3])  and  an  on-going  research  to  assess  the  use  of  biofuels  in 
commercial  aviation,  Embraer  was  invited  to  participate  in  the  SWAFEA  initiative, 
having shared its experience with the European partners who were part of the research 
team lead by ONERA. 

Despite  no  participation  from  Chilean  and  Mexican  partners  in  FP6  and  earlier 
calls of FP7, the dynamics above described brings an opportunity to do an assessment 
on factors that may contribute to consolidate such momentum and to strengthen coop-
eration between the EU and Latin American in aerospace R&T. 

4. Barriers for a Stronger Participation of Latin American Partners in FP 

Programme’s Projects 

Beyond mapping the more dynamic organisations engaged from Latin America in aero-
space  R&T  with  EU  partners,  CoopAir-LA  aimed  to  identify  the  barriers  that,  once 
managed, may allow such cooperation to be brought to a higher level. 

Taking the opportunity associated with the organisation of three workshops under 
the  scope  of  the  project  (held  in  Brazil,  Argentina  and  Mexico),  a  questionnaire  was 
delivered to the participants in order to have their views on such barriers. 

As a point identified across the answers gathered from the three countries, there is 
the little knowledge on FP7 rules and its opportunities for funding, as well as how such 
funding  may  be  compatible  with  the  resources  provided  by  the  local  Government  in 
Latin America. 

Beyond these, data from the questionnaires allowed to identify three types of bar-
riers: Internal to the organisations; Financial; and Educational. Once addressed the as-
sociated  issues,  one  may  expect  cooperation  to  increase  between  Latin American  and 
EU organisations in the area of aerospace R&T. 

 
 
474

III. National and International Programmes – International Cooperation

Internally, most organisations who answered the questionnaires are public bodies 
not exclusively dedicated to the aerospace sector. This has an impact on their level of 
interest to invest their talent and resources in aerospace projects, both inside their home 
county as outside where language and distance remain barriers. 

As  far  as  the  financial  barriers  are  concerned,  Latin  American  organisations  still 
have  some  progress  to  make  in  terms  of  increasing  their  knowledge  on  funding  me-
chanisms available by their home government. The same can only be truth for mechan-
isms made available for international cooperation in Framework Programme 7. In gen-
eral, Latin American partners are not aware that, under the conditions provided by the 
regulation  of  the  Framework  Programme  for  International  Cooperation,  it  is  possible 
for them to get funding. 

As a third type of barrier, it was possible to identify Educational issues that raise 
some barriers of a more structural nature. The first is related with a general lack of spe-
cific training for the aerospace sector. Despite this lower offer, the activity in the sector 
is  low  and  sometimes  insufficient  to  retain  talent  in  the  country.  As  a  consequence, 
some answers in the questionnaires point to a brain drain problem with local trainees 
leaving to the European Union or to the United States. 

Based on the creation of the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica in the late 40s, 
Brazil may be the less of the four countries exposed to this problem, nevertheless the 
high demand for qualified people by Embraer a decade ago took the company to estab-
lish a programme (the PEE) to specifically address the issue of lack of aerospace engi-
neers in Brazil. The PEE is still active, having graduated more than 800 engineers. 

5. Recommendations to Overcome the Identified Barriers 

As far as the Internal barriers are concerned, Latin American organisations face similar 
challenges to most of their European counterparts. As an overall point in their strategy, 
such  organisations  should  act  on  the factors  that  will  allow  them  to  increase  their  in-
vestment in R&T. At the centre of such investment, their researchers should be part of 
network of experts and participate in joint projects with knowledge centres. For aero-
space  R&T,  governments  in  Latin  America  should  continue  to  design  and  implement 
policies targeting the specific issues of the sector in their country. 

On the Financial barriers, and while increasing the tools available to promote the 
funding available through national programmes, new initiatives may be carried out by 
local public bodies to raise visibility of the Framework Programme and to provide the 
local organisations with the relevant information on, for instance, the availability of EU 
funding. 

Finally,  on  addressing  the  Educational  barriers,  data  gathered  from  the  question-
naires suggests the need for improvement on particular issues such as communication 
in  English.  Beyond  these,  local  policies  should provide  incentives for  the  mobility  of 
researchers,  while  creating  or  strengthening  existing  Post-Graduate  programmes  in 
aerospace. 

Conclusions from the project suggest these to be priorities to be taken by the poli-
cymakers in Latin America which will facilitate the participation of local organisation 
in future projects in R&T aerospace within the EU Framework Programmes. 

 
 
 
J.P. Taborda and J.-P. Domergue / Latin America – EU: Experience and Potential

475

(cid:2)  

xxxxxxxxxx  xxxxxxxxxx  xxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxx  xxxxxxxxxx  xxxxxxxxxx

Flight dynamics and control 
Flight dynamics and control 

Avionics 
Avionics 

Advanced Materials 
Advanced Materials 

Biofuels 
Biofuels 

Propulsion 
Propulsion 

Aerostructures 
Aerostructures 

Noise and Vibration 
Noise and Vibration 

ATM 
ATM 

■ 
■ 

■ 
■ 

■ 
■ 

■ 
■ 

■ 
■ 

■ 
■ 

■ 
■ 

■ 
■ 

■ 
■ 

■
■

■ 
■ 

■ 
■ 

■ 
■ 

■ 
■ 

Figure 3. Higher potential for research in CoopAir-LA’s partner countries. 

6. Conclusion: Towards a Stronger Participation of Latin American 

Organisations in R&T Projects for Space 

CoopAir-LA provided a first and very important opportunity to assess the factors play-
ing  a  role  in  the  level  of  participation  of  Latin  America  organisations  in  aerospace-
related R&T within the EU’s Framework Programme. 

Despite  the  identified  barriers  and  the  work  that  local  governments  and  bodies 
should continue to do in their countries, recent years have witnessed an increasing par-
ticipation  of  Latin  American  organisations  in  EU-funded  projects  related  with  aero-
space research.  

Such  initiatives,  mainly  lead  until  today  by  Argentinean  and  Brazilian  organisa-
tions, have provided a base for such participation to increase in the future, in fields of 
research clearly identified: 

•  Biofuels; 
•  Aircraft Structures: Optimized design and Manufacturing; 
•  Noise and Vibration; 
•  Flight physics: Numerical analysis and Simulation of fluid dynamics; 
•  Avionics. 

Using the information available in the database developed as a deliverable of the 
project, Fig. 3 provides a chart with the distribution of such areas of expertise among 
CoopAir-LA’s partner countries: Argentina, Mexico and Brazil. 

While  other  area  shouldn’t  be  excluded  upfront,  the  experience  from  concrete 
projects in the five above should be disseminated as successful cases in order to over-
come some of the barriers identified in the project. Such joint effort should be coordi-
nated among three types of players: 

1.  European Union bodies. The European Commission may continue its work in 
promoting  the  tools  available  under  its  Framework  Programmes,  particularly 
the  funding  opportunities  for  Latin  American  organisations  under  the  provi-

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
476

III. National and International Programmes – International Cooperation

sions for  International  Cooperation. As has been  the  case,  EU  delegations  in 
Latin American counties should remain involved in such effort; 

2.  Latin American Governments. Local bodies should increase the dissemination 
in  their  countries  of  information  concerning  funding  opportunities  arriving 
from cooperation agreement with the European Union. Taking the example of 
Brazil, the country signed a Science & Technology Agreement with the Euro-
pean Commission in 2007 [4], in addition to the Strategic Partnership covering 
a broader range of subjects of bilateral interest [5]. Both have provided condi-
tions  for  the  adoption  of  other  tools  such  as  R&D  Coordinated  Calls  in  the 
fields of Energy and Information Technologies. Such path may also be consi-
dered  in  the  future  for  air  transport  and  aerospace  with  the  three  partnering 
countries in CoopAir-LA; 

3.  Research Partners. As parties with experience in participating in projects from 
the  Framework  Programme,  research  partners  should  continue  their  work  in 
actively disseminating their valuable experience from participating in this type 
of projects, while exploring new and more ambitious opportunities to develop 
research work in partnership with their European counterparts. 

Such opportunities can only achieve results under a win-win approach where Eu-
ropean partners are interested and may have access to the best competencies available 
in their Latin American partners. 

Endnotes 

1 A detailed presentation about the project was also made in Chile, although not taking place in a dedi-

cated workshop as was the case in the three partner countries. 

2 Today, EADS CASA. 

References 

[1]  Database of Key Actors, http://www.coopair-la.eu/home_eng.htm. 
[2]  http://www.rapolac.eu/participants.html. 
[3]  Ethanol-fueled  Ipanema  certified  by  the  CTA,  http://www.embraer.com/en-US/ImprensaEventos/Press-
releases/noticias/Pages/IPANEMA-MOVIDO-A-ALCOOL-E-CERTIFICADO-PELO-CTA.aspx. 

[4]  http://ec.europa.eu/research/iscp/index.cfm?lg=en&pg=brazil-4. 
[5]  http://eeas.europa.eu/brazil/index_en.htm. 

About the Authors 

João Pedro Taborda is responsible for Government Affairs at Embraer Europe 
joao.taborda@embraer.fr 

Jean-Paul Domergue is Head of Operations at EADS IW – Innovative concepts & Scenarios – and in charge 
of R&T International Operations for Latin American countries 
Jean-Paul.Domergue@eads.net 

                                                           
 
Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.

477

Acronyms 

ACARE: Advisory Council for Aviation Research in Europe 
ACCENT: Adaptive Control of Manufacturing Processes for a New Generation of Jet 

Engine Components (EU research project)  

ACO: All Condition Operations 
ADS: Air Data System 
AFMS: Advanced Flight Management System 
AFN: Airframe Noise 
AGAPE: ACARE Goals Progress Evaluation 
AIAA: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics 
ALaSCA: Safety (and maintenance) Lattice Structures for Composite Airframes  

(EU research project) 

ALCAS: Advanced Low Cost Aircraft Structures (EU research project) 
ALICIA: All Condition Operation and Innovative Cockpit Infrastructure (EU research 

project) 

AMS: Advanced Manufacturing Systems 
ANS: Air Navigation System 
ANSP: Air Navigation Service Providers 
APU: Auxiliary Power Unit 
ASD: AeroSpace and Defence Industries Association in Europe 
ASTM: American Society for Testing and Materials 
ATAG: Air Transport Action Group 
ATC: Air Traffic Control 
ATCO: Air Traffic Controller 
ATM: Air Traffic Management 
ATS: Air Transportation System 
AVERT: Aerodynamic Validation of Emissions Reducing Technologies (EU research 

project) 

AWIATOR: Aircraft Wing with Advanced Technology Operation (EU research 

project) 

BEMOSA: Behavioural Model of Security in Airports (EU research project) 
BTL: Biomass to Liquid 
CAA: Civil Aviation Authority 
CAEP: Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection 
CALM: Computer Assisted Landing Management Systems 
CAT: Clear Air Turbulence 
CATS: Contract-Based Air Transport System 
CDM: Collaborative Decision Making 
CDTI: Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (Spain) 
CESAR: Cost-Effective Small Aircraft (EU research project) 
CIMNE: Centro Internacional de Métodos Numéricos en Ingeniería (Barcelona, Spain) 
CFD: Computational Fluid Dynamics 
CFMU: Central Flow Management Unit 
CFRP: Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic 

 
 
 
478

CIS: Confederation of Independent States 
CNRS: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France) 
CNS: Communication, Navigation and Surveillance 
CO2: Carbone Dioxide 
COTS: Customer Oriented Transport System 
CREDOS: Crosswind Reduced Separations for Departure Operations (EU research 

project) 

CRISIS: Critical Incident Management Training System Using Interactive Simulations 

(EU research project) 
CVS: Combined Vision System 
4D: Four Dimensional 
DELICAT: Demonstration of LIDAR-based Clear Air Turbulence Detection  

(EU research project) 

DES: Detached Eddy Simulation 
DG MOVE: Directorate General for Mobility and Transport 
DG RTD: Directorate General for Research & Innovation 
DLR: Deutsches Zentrum für Luft und Raumfahrt (German Aerospace Research 

Centre) 

DNA: Direction de la Navigation Aérienne (France) 
DNW: German-Dutch Wind Tunnels 
DREAM: Validation of Radical Engine Architecture Systems (EU research project) 
EACP: European Aerospace Clusters Partnerships Association 
EASA: European Aviation Safety Agency 
EASN: European Aeronautics Science Network 
EC: European Commission 
ECL: Ecole Centrale de Lyon (France) 
EFTA: European Free Trade Association 
EIBI: European Industrial Bio-energy Initiative 
ERA: European Research Area 
EREA: Association of European Research Establishments in Aeronautics 
ESA: European Space Agency 
ESTEC: European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESA) 
ETS: Emission Trading System 
ETW: European Transonic Wind-tunnel 
EU: European Union 
FAA: Federal Aviation Administration 
FFAST: Future Fast Methods for Load Calculations (EU research project) 
FLPN: Flight Plan Negotiation 
FMC: Flexible Matrix Composite 
FMS: Flexible Manufacturing System 
FOIPS: Flight Object Interoperability Proposed Standard 
FP: Framework Programme 
FRF: Flight Reconfiguration Function 
FUTURE: Towards Flutter-Free Turbo-machinery Blades (EU research project) 
FVM: Finite Volume Method 
FW-H: Ffowcs-Williams & Hawkings acoustic analogy  
GARTEUR: Group of Aeronautical Research and Technology in EURope 
GDP: Gross Domestic Product 
GFRP: Glass Fibre Reinforced Plastic 

 
479

GHG: Green House Gas 
GSDS: Ground Security Decision Station 
GTL: Gas to Liquid 
HAIC: High Altitude Ice Crystal 
HEFA: Hydro-processed Ester and Fatty Acid 
HIL: Human in the Loop 
HISAC: High Speed Aircraft (EU research project) 
HMD: Head-Mounted Display 
HMS: Human Machine System 
HRJ: Hydro-processed Renewable Jet 
HUD: Head-Up Display 
HUMAN: Model-Based Analysis of Human Errors during Aircraft Cockpit Design 

(EU research project) 

HVO: Hydrogenated Vegetables Oils 
IATA: International Air Transport Association 
ICAO: International Civil Aviation Organization 
ICATEE: International Committee on Aviation Training in Extended Envelopes 
ICOG: Interoperability Consultancy Group 
IFAR: International Forum for Aviation Research 
IFR: Instrument Flight Rules 
ILR: Institute for Aerospace (Institut für Luft und Raumfahrt), RWTH Aachen 

University  

IPCC: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 
JAA: Joint Airworthiness Authorities 
JTI: Joint Technology Initiative 
KATnet: Key Aerodynamic Technologies network (EU research project) 
KTH: Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan – Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden) 
LCF: Low Cycle Fatigue 
LDA: Latent Dirichlet Allocation 
LES: Large Eddy Simulation 
LIDAR: Light Detection And Ranging 
MAAXIMUS: More Affordable Aircraft through Extended, Integrated and Mature 

Numerical Sizing (EU research project) 

M-DAW: Modelling and Design of Advanced Wing Tip Devices (EU research project) 
MMI: Man-Machine Interaction 
MMS: Man-Machine System 
MOJO: Modular Joints for Aircraft Composite Structure (EU research project) 
MTM: Master in Technology Management 
NACRE: New Aircraft Concept Research (EU research project) 
NATO: Northern Atlantic Treaty Organization 
NDT: Non-Destructive Testing 
NEXTGEN: Next Generation (of Air Traffic Management systems) 
NLF: Natural Laminar Flow 
NLR: National Lucht – Ruimtevaartlaboratorium (National Aerospace Laboratory, NL) 
NODESIM-CFD: Non-Deterministic Simulation for CFD Based Design Methodologies 

(EU research project) 

NOx: Nitrogen Oxides 
O3: Ozone 
OCVM: Operational Concept Validation Methodology 

480

OECD: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 
OEM: Original Equipment Manufacturer 
ONERA: Office National d’Etudes et de Recherches Aérospatiales (France) 
OPENAIR: Optimisation for Low Environmental Noise Impact Aircraft (EU research 

project) 

ORINOCO: Instability Waves are one of the Recognized Mechanism for Noise 

Generation in High Speed Hot Jets (EU research project) 

PAMELA: Process for Advanced Management of end of Life of Aircraft  
PCM: Polynomial Chaos Method 
PDA: Payload Driven Aircraft 
PDF: Probability Density Function 
PED: Pôle Européen de Développement 
PIV: Particle Image Velocimetry 
PLASMAERO: Useful Plasma for Aerodynamic Control (EU research project) 
PLIF: Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence 
PMT: Mediterranean Technology Park 
PSP: Pressure Sensitive Paint 
PTV: Particle Tracking Velocimetry 
RADAR: RAdio Detection And Ranging  
RAIN: Reducing Airframe and Installation Noise (EU research project) 
RANS: Reynolds Average Navier-Stokes 
REACT4C: Reducing Emissions for Aviation by Changing Trajectories for the benefit 

of Climate (EU research project) 
RED: Renewable Energy Directive (EU) 
RFS: Renewable Fuel Standard (US) 
RNP: Required Navigation Performance 
R&D: Research and Development 
R&T: Research and Technology 
RTD: Research Technology Development 
RVSM: Reduced Vertical Separation Minima 
SADE: Smart High Lift Devices for Next Generation Wings (EU research project) 
SAFEE: Security of Aircraft in the Future European Environment (EU research 

project) 

SATCAS: Selenia Air Traffic Control Automated Systems 
SEM: Scanning Electronic Microscopy 
SESAR: Single European Sky ATM Research 
SFWA: Smart Fixed Wing Aircraft (Clean Sky) 
SHM: Structure Health Monitoring 
SID: Standard Instrument Departure 
SILENCE(R): FP5 Project for Reduction of Aircraft Noise (EU research project) 
SME: Small and Medium-size Enterprise 
SOFIA: Safe Automatic Flight Back and Landing on Aircraft (EU research project) 
SOP: Standard Operating Procedure 
SRA: Strategic Research Agenda 
SUPERTRAC: Supersonic Transition Control (EU research project) 
SUPRA: Simulation of Upset Recovery in Aviation (EU research project) 
SVELTANA: Safety (and maintenance) Improvement through Automated Flight Data 

Analysis (EU research project) 

SVM: Support Vector Machine 

 
481

SVS: Synthetic Vision System 
SWAFEA: Sustainable Way for Alternative Fuels and Energy for Aviation  

(EU research project) 

SWIM: System Wide Information Management 
TANGO: Technology Applications to the Near-Term Business Goals and Objectives 

(EU research project) 

TEAMPLAY: Tool Suite for Environmental and Economic Aviation Modelling for 

Policy Analysis (EU research project) 

TECC-AE: Technologies Enhancement for Clean Combustion in Aero-Engines  

(EU research project) 

TERESA: Technology Roadmap for Environmentally Sustainable Aviation 
TIMECOP-AE: Towards Innovative Methods for Combustion Prediction in  

Aero-Engines (EU research project) 

TIMPAN: Technologies to Improve Airframe Noise (EU research project) 
TITAN: Turnaround Integration into Trajectory and Network (EU research project) 
TRL: Technology Readiness Level 
TUB: Technical University Braunschweig 
TUD: Technical University Darmstadt 
UAV: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle 
UOP: University of Phoenix 
UAS: Unmanned Aerial System 
URTA: Upset Recovery Training Aid 
VALIANT: Validation and Improvement of Airframe Noise Prediction Tools  

(EU research project) 

VKI: von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics (Brussels, Belgium) 
WBS: Work Breakdown Structure  
WEZARD: Weather Hazards for Aeronautics (EU research project) 
X-Noise: European Aviation Noise Research Network (EU research project) 

 
Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.

483

Subject Index 

‘Indra’ 
3D-woven performs 
academia 
ACARE 
accurate simulation 
adaptive systems 
advanced collaborative decision 

42  
334  
451  
75, 442  
320  
320  

making 

259  

advanced flight management 

system 
aeroacoustics 
aerodynamics 
aeronautics 
aerospace valley 
air traffic management 
air transport 
Airbus 
Airbus Military 
aircraft components 
aircraft turnaround 
aircraft-pod-concept 
airframe noise 
airframe noise prediction 
airframes 
airlines 
airport 
airport carbon accreditation  

235  
144  
82, 94, 103  
48, 55, 75  
455  
39  
39  
48  
340  
334  
259  
48  
138  
144  
315  
19  
35, 39, 197, 259, 284  

programme 

airspace 
ALCAS 
all conditions operations 
all electric aircraft 
all-electrical concept 
alternative fuels 
ANSP 
ASD 
ATM 
Austrian RTD programme 
automation 
battery pack 
behavioural science 
bio-fuels 
biojet fuels 

35  
39, 394  
48  
246  
75, 345  
353  
129  
42  
32  
42, 122, 277  
429  
296  
406  
197  
22  
116  

blades 
Bologna process 
bottleneck 
Brake-to-Vacate 
BTL (biomass) 
buffer time 
CDTI 
CFD 
chemical treatments 
clean combustion 
Clean Sky 
Clean Sky partners 
climate change 
climate impact 
climate-optimised flight routing 
closure flap ribs 
cluster 
cockpit 
cognitive modelling 
collapse 
combined vision system 
combustor chamber 
common strategic framework 

for research and innovation 

communication 
compact electronics 
compacting techniques 
competitiveness 
complex systems 
complexity science 
composite airframe structures 
composite materials 
composites 
conductivity 
contamination 
contract of objectives 
contra-rotating open rotors 
CoopAir-LA 
cooperation 
CORAC 
creative workshops 
crew 
critical incident 

168  
460  
259  
48  
129  
259  
426  
89  
399  
150  
55, 75  
55  
116  
122  
122  
94  
455  
246  
235  
320  
246  
150  

9  
437  
345  
334  
63  
292  
292  
320  
315  
75  
307  
399  
284  
168  
470  
437  
415  
370  
235  
190  

 
 
 
484

crosswind 
CTL (coal) 
demonstrators 
departure operations 
destination 
detection 
dielectric barrier discharge 
diploma 
direct drive open rotor 
disturbance propagation 
DLR@UNI 
DLR_Graduate programme 
DLR_innovation_initiative 
DLR_Shool_Lab 
drag reduction 
EACP (European aerospace  
cluster partnership) 

Eddy simulations 
electrical & electromechanical 
impedance measurements 

electrical networks 
electro-mechanical actuators 
emission reduction 
energy 
engine architecture 
engine components 
enhanced rotorcraft 
enhanced vision system 
environment 
environmentally friendly 

229  
129  
55  
229  
284  
253  
103  
460  
168  
292  
26  
26  
26  
26  
82  

455  
144  

307  
353  
345  
75, 116  
63  
168  
302  
383  
246  
55, 63  

aero-engine 

184  
16  
Europe 
9  
Europe 2020 strategy 
42  
European interoperability 
European policy making 
45  
EU-Russian aeronautics research  466  
138  
exhaust noise 
302  
failure 
110  
field velocity method 
Fischer-Tropp synthetic paraffine 

kerosenes (FT-SPK) 

flame 
flexible manufacturing 
flight automation 
flight path optimisation 
flight reconfiguration function 
Flightpath 2050 
flow control 
flutter-free blades 

129  
150  
296  
201  
75  
201  
6, 9, 63  
82  
161  

fly-by-wire 
forum 
FP7 
French RTD support 
fuel cell 
full-scale demonstrators 
future fuels 
game-changing concepts 
GARTEUR 
geared open rotor 
generic cockpit 
German RTD support 
greening aero-structures 
Grenelle process 
Gripen 
GTL (gas) 
hazards 
head mounted display 
head-up display 
health 
health monitoring 
helicopter 
higher education 
high-speed cruiser 
hostile aircraft 
hub 
human errors 
human machine interface (HMI) 
hydrogen tank 
hydroprocessed renewable jet 

48  
437  
75  
415  
406  
75  
366  
55  
447  
168  
235  
418  
399  
415  
432  
129  
223  
246  
246  
307  
340  
29  
460  
386  
201  
35  
235  
246  
406  

(HRJ) 

hypersonic vehicles 
icing 
ignition kernel 
industrial needs 
industry 
information exchange 
innovation 
innovation emergency 
innovation union 
interactive simulation 
inter-city aircraft 
Joint Technology Initiative 
Joint Undertaking 
laminar flow 
laminarity 
large Eddy simulation (LES) 
Latin America 
LCF (Low Cycle Fatigue) 

129  
386  
223  
156  
460  
32  
437  
3, 16, 75  
9  
9  
190  
406  
75  
75  
82  
75  
156  
470  
302  

 
94  
leading edge skin 
253  
Lidar 
460  
lifelong learning programmes 
302  
lifing 
110  
load calculations 
239  
loss of control in flight 
low pressure turbine 
168  
low temperature co-fired ceramic  345  
161  
low-pressure compressors 
161  
low-pressure turbines 
418  
LuFo 
Madrid 
13  
296, 302  
manufacturing 
442  
member states group (MSG) 
micro-hybrid 
353  
military and civil aeronautics 

447  
R&T 
334  
modular joints 
307  
monitoring 
89  
Monte-Carlo method 
353  
more-electrical technology 
94  
morphing 
239  
motion perception model 
239  
motion simulators 
13  
Nereus Network 
437  
networking 
366  
new aircraft 
366  
new engine architecture 
19  
new fuels 
366  
new technologies 
22, 277  
NEXTGEN 
noise reduction 
138  
non-contact composite inspection  327  
327  
non-destructive testing 
non-deterministic simulation 
89  
non-invasive composite 

inspection 

open rotor 
operating procedures 
operational loads monitoring 
functions 
optimal structures 
particle image velocimetry 
particles 
passengers 
percolation 
personal air transport 
PhD 
pilot-cockpit interaction 

327  
75  
19  

340  
315  
150  
223  
35  
307  
376  
460  
235  

485

plasma 
plasma synthetic jet 
PLASMAERO 
policymakers 
Polynomial Chaos method 
power line communication 
power over data 
private industrial investment 
programmable logic controller 
punctuality 
recruitment 
reduced separation 
regional airports 
research 
research and technology 
research masters 
research organisations 
resilience 
right-first-time structure 
rotorcraft 
Russian aviation industry 
safe countermeasure 
safe design 
safety 
science 
security 
security emergency 
service-oriented architecture 
SESAR 
SESAR/NextGen partnership 
slotted flap 
small aircraft 
small airports 
smart high lift configuration 
smart materials 
social organisations 
Spanish ministry science and 

103  
103  
103  
32  
89  
359  
359  
45  
296  
284  
460  
229  
376  
16  
75  
460  
451  
292  
315  
29, 383  
466  
201  
320  
63  
3  
63, 197  
201  
296  
22, 39, 277  
6  
94  
376  
376  
94  
399  
197  

innovation 
split velocity method 
stimulating ideas 
strategic research agenda (SRA) 
structures 
suborbital flights 
surface integrity 
sustainable commercial air 

426  
110  
370  
442  
307, 340  
386  
302  

transportation 

Sweden RTD 
swept wing 
synthetic vision system 

366  
432  
82  
246  

 
 
486

system agility 
system stability 
system wide information  

management 
Take-Off programme 
target windows 
taxiing 
technology goals 
Technology Readiness Level 
technology strategy 
technology 
techno-social systems 
terahertz (THz) detection 
terrorists 
tilt-rotor 
timing 
training 
trajectories 
transmission 
transport road map 
trapped vortex combustor 
turbines 
turbomachinery 
turbomachinery noise 

292  
292  

277 
429  
284  
246 
116  
75  
422  
3 
292  
327  
197 
383 
22 
190 
122, 259 
359 
6  
150  
168 
161 
138  

turbulence 
turbulence hazards 
turbulent skin friction 
types of upset regimes 
UAS 
UAV 
UK 
ultrasonic measurements 
unique path 
universities 
upset recovery training aid 
upset scenarios 
upstream research projects 
usage monitoring function 
usage-based maintenance 
vertical flight 
virtual simulation platform 
visualisation techniques 
VKI 
volcanic eruptions 
wake vortex 
weather 
wires 
X-Noise network 

253 
253  
82  
239  
394 
394 
422 
307  
359  
451 
239  
239  
370  
340  
340  
29  
235  
156  
460 
223  
229  
223 
359 
138  

 
Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
D. Knörzer and J. Szodruch (Eds.)
IOS Press, 2012
© 2012 European Union. All rights reserved.

Author Index 

Abbas, A. 
Armijo, J.I. 
Asif, S. 
Barny, H. 
Bone, D. 
Borello, F. 
Bueno Gómez, J. 
Burguburu, J. 
Burton, C. 
Cabot, G. 
Cabrejas, J. 
Caruana, D. 
Castillo Acero, M.Á. 
Cazalens, M. 
Champion, C. 
Claesson, V. 
Collin, D. 
Correa, G. 
Cortés Pulido, J.C. 
CREDOS consortium 
D’Auria, G. 
Dautriat, E. 
de Graaff, A. 
Deconinck, H. 
Degenhardt, R. 
Desvallées, P. 
Dezitter, F. 
Di Crescenzo, D. 
Domergue, J.-P. 
Dreyer, D. 
Enders, T. 
Epstein, A.H. 
Fernandez, I. 
Foch, E. 
Fransson, T.H. 
Fucke, L. 
Gadiot, G. 
Gaitonde, A. 
Gallego, R. 
Garmendia Mendizábal, C. 
Gaudin, J. 
Geoghegan-Quinn, M. 
Gómez-Escalonilla, J. 

82 
340 
296 
253 
168 
406 
201 
150 
370 
150 
340 
103 
399 
150 
48 
432 
138 
406 
426 
229 
277 
55, 75 
370 
460 
320, 437 
415 
223 
277 
470 
246 
22 
366 
302 
353 
161 
239 
370 
110 
42 
ix, 3 
315 
ix, 9 
340 

Goutines, M. 
Groen, E. 
Gurály, R. 
Herrería García, J.-A. 
Herrmann, R. 
Herteman, J.-P. 
Hirsch, C. 
Hult, G. 
Javaux, D. 
Jones, D. 
Jonsson, B. 
Kallas, S. 
Kellner, S. 
Kerkloh, M. 
Kim, S. 
Kimber, J. 
Kingcombe, R. 
Kirschenbaum, A. 
Klein Lebbink, G. 
Knörzer, D. 
Koloszár, L. 
Kooner, S. 
Krein, A. 
Ky, P. 
Lederlin, T. 
Llopart Prieto, L. 
Lüdtke, A. 
Luis Nuñez, S.M. 
Mathy, F.-J. 
Matthes, S. 
Mills, N. 
Monner, H.P. 
Müller, R. 
Napoletano, L. 
Novelli, P. 
Orsi, G. 
Ossberger, E. 
Pantelakis, S. 
Pelfrène, P. 
Pérez, D. 
Pfeiffer, H. 
Phleps, P. 
Piera, E. 

487

184 
239 
442 
201 
315 
45 
89 
432, 447 
235 
110 
447 
ix, 6 
259 
35 
359 
370 
422 
197 
370 
v 
144 
370 
63 
39 
156 
334 
235 
259 
418 
122 
394 
94 
370 
246 
129 
29 
429 
451 
370 
292 
307 
370 
13 

 
 
 
488

Piwek, K. 
Renou, B. 
Riemenschneider, J. 
Rihacek, C. 
Romeo, G. 
Romero, J. 
Rostovtseva, L. 
Rötger, T. 
Sáez Sánchez, A.C. 
Schmitt, D. 
Schönfeld, T. 
Schöntag, K. 
Schram, C. 
Schrauf, G. 
Serrano Martín, L. 
Slater, C. 
Speijker, L.J.P. 
Stabellini, A. 

376 
150 
94 
284 
406 
442 
466 
116 
259 
370 
455 
455 
144 
82 
259 
345 
229 
383 

Steelant, J. 
Stenz, G. 
Strano, A. 
Strohmeier, R. 
Szodruch, J. 
Taborda, J.P. 
Truman, T. 
Ureña-Raso, D. 
Valero, E. 
Vandewal, M. 
Vázquez, A. 
Vogt, D.M. 
Webb, P. 
Wevers, M. 
Williams, G. 
Wong, B.L.W. 
Wörner, J.-D. 

386 
370 
277 
16 
v, 437 
470 
370 
32 
82 
327 
19 
161 
296 
307 
63 
190 
26 

 
Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment
Jointly organised by the  European  Commission and the Centre for the 
 Development  of  I ndustrial   Technology  in  Spain  (CDTI),  the   Aeronautics 
Days sixth edition – ‘AERODAYS 2011’ – was held on  30th – 31st March and 
1st April 2011 in the Palacio  Municipal de Congresos of Madrid. It brought 
 together  1400  delegates  –  policy  makers,  aero space   manufacturers, 
engineers,  researchers  and  customers  –  to  report  and  discuss  the 
 challenges  and  solutions  for   creating  greener,  safer,  secure  and 
 competitive   solutions  for  aeronautics  and  air  transport  in  Europe. 
 Highlights  included  ‘Flightpath 2050’, Europe’s vision for future aviation.

The  present  book,  published  by  the  European   Commission,  brings 
 together about 80 papers  selected by a Scientific Advisory Committee 
with  the   intention  to  make  broadly  known  the  main  themes  and  issues 
addressed on the  occasion of this Convention. 

Given  the  strategic  importance  of  the   latter,  these  post-conference 
proceedings   constitute  a   reference   document  providing  an   overview 
on  aeronautical   research   within   Europe  more  particularly  devoted  to 
 Commission  supported programmes and networks. 

D

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i
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ISBN 978-1-61499-062-8 (print)
ISBN 978-1-61499-063-5 (online)

European Union:
ISBN 978-92-79-22968-8
KI-31-12-481-EN-C
doi: 10.2777/69176

Innovation for  
Sustainable Aviation  
in a Global Environment

Proceedings of the Sixth European 
Aeronautics Days
Madrid, 30th March to 1st April 2011

Edited by
Dietrich Knörzer
Joachim Szodruch

15752-Knorzer_V3.indd   1-3

19-06-12   15:09