FLUG REVUE March 2004: European aerospace research efforts

EUROPEAN AEROSPACE RESEARCH EFFORTS

By Matthias Gründer

The growth of civil aviation requires not only solutions to urgent issues of environmental protection and the conservation of natural resources but also greater safety, comfort and punctuality, in short, more passenger-friendliness. Moreover, permanent pressure to increase marketability and competitiveness and the limitations on airport capacity and European air space that are expected to remain for the foreseeable future require revolutionary technological solutions.

These factors combined with ever more pronounced integration into international structures are setting the framework conditions for the future development of aviation in Germany and Europe. Here, the European Union has assumed an important role in the process of harmonisation. €700 million of research funds were made available just for the 5th Framework Programme (1998 to 2002), 26 percent of which went to German industry and academia, due to their cutting-edge technologies. Meanwhile, a budget of €1.075 billion has been set aside for aerospace research and technology in the 6th Framework Programme (2003 to 2007) now under way.

FIVE GUIDING OBJECTIVES FOR RESEARCH

An Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research in Europe (ACARE) has been set up at the EU to determine strategic actions at national and European level. On top of this, the Group of Personalities, a group of high-ranking aviation experts chaired by EU research commissioner Philippe Busquin, has formulated the following guiding objectives:

Increase the capacity of air transport systems and implement a “uniform European airspace”
Improve passenger comfort
Raise the safety of air travel despite the expected increase in air transport volume
Reduce ecological damage from nitrogen oxide emissions and noise
Increase the competitiveness of European industry as regards air vehicles for commercial air transport, propulsion and equipment.

At the same time the European Union is promoting a number of research programmes that involve different Member States working together on the principle of complementary national programmes. This possibility is provided for in Article 169 of the EU Treaty, but has never been used up to now.

The German government in turn has allocated some Euro 160 million of research funds between 2003 and 2008 for the national aerospace research programme – subject to budgetary constraints. This year alone Euro 30 million of research funds will be released, Euro 19.5 of which is earmarked for projects to do with traffic growth and environmental conservation, Euro 7.5 for safety and passenger-friendliness and Euro 3.0 for economic efficiency and value creation.

FOCUS ON CONSTANT INNOVATION

But if products are to hold their own on world markets in the face of extremely tough competition, then aerospace research is not just a matter for and function of the industry that creates them. “We are convinced that even the best companies can only be successful if they are driven by recognition of the need for constant and wide-ranging innovation. This requires a lot of courage and the willingness to take risks in the development of state-of-the-art technologies,” declared Philippe Camus, CEO of EADS, the second-largest aerospace and defence company in the world, in this connection.

On the occasion of the second technology seminar organised by EADS at the end of last year in Suresnes near Paris, Camus announced that EADS was to step up its investment in research and development, having already invested about Euro 5 billion during 2003. Euro 2.7 billion of this came from customers, the remaining Euro 2.3 billion financed out of funds generated internally.

Tangible results of this investment activity include the ground-breaking A380 programme in civil aviation and the commitment to develop the A400M military transport aircraft. In the area of aviation, moreover, a selection of research topics was unveiled (not in order of priority):

the airport ground navigation system, TAXI DRIVER
electrical system for the activation of control services on commercial and transport aircraft
forward-looking, optical sensors for the detection of gusts, turbulence and windshear
the maximum possible safety against lightning strikes
the all-weather helicopter
the Quattrocopter micro-aerial vehicle with hover capability,
unmanned air vehicles for military reconnaissance
simulation of complex maintenance work in a virtual environment
friction stir welding as an environmentally friendly joining technology
hypersonic missiles and
air refuelling booms for Airbus tanker aircraft

to name only the most important.

The industry research programme will be accompanied by programmes at the German Aerospace Centre DLR and offshoots, for example. German technology policy is geared towards fair international competition with all the players on an equal footing, and if competitive conditions are unequal, then state assistance is viewed as justified. To this end, the following challenges and competence fields were formulated:

traffic growth and environmental conservation: fuel-efficient, low-noise and low-emission aircraft against the background of growing air traffic
safety and passenger-friendliness – safe and sustained traffic and passenger systems
economy and value creation – innovative engineering, production and maintenance methods.

The research focuses that this gives rise to include efficient and low-emission propulsion systems, energy-optimised systems, adaptive lightweight structures, flight control systems for regional aircraft, innovative lift and system concepts for helicopters, high-lift concepts for new approach and departure procedures, pilot support systems, comfortable and safe cabins, virtual processes and tools, and innovative production, maintenance and repair technologies.

Today some 440,000 people work in the European aerospace industry, which has a trade surplus of over €22 billion. In Germany alone there are 68,000 skilled jobs in industry, 16,000 of them in research and development. It is imperative to secure these jobs and further develop Germany as business location in the long term through qualified training, superior technological capability in academia and industry.

It is clear that scientists and engineers working in the European aerospace industry have a lot of work ahead of them to make our environment safer and the aircraft of the future more capable. In forthcoming issues, FLUG REVUE will be devoting specific articles to some of the research areas.

From page 92 of FLUG REVUE 3/2004

Last updated 12 February 2004

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