Success Stories

To meet the goal of a carbon-neutral growth of commercial aviation, the top-level objective of IMOTHEP is to achieve a key step in assessing the potential offered by hybrid-electric propulsion and, ultimately, to build a corresponding sector-wide roadmap for the maturation of the technology.

The core of IMOTHEP is an integrated end-to-end investigation of hybrid-electric power trains for commercial aircraft, performed in close connection with the propulsion system and aircraft architecture. Aircraft configurations will be selected based on their potential for fuel burn reduction and their representativeness of a variety of credible concepts, with a focus on regional and short-to-medium range missions.

FIBRE4YARDS will contribute to maintaining the global competitiveness of small and medium European shipyards. The objective is to develop an innovative cost-efficient, digitized, automated and modular vessel production approach using Fibre Reinforced Plastic and advanced production technologies (adaptive moulds, ATP/AFP, 3D printing, curved pultrusion profiles, hot stamping, innovative composite connections) from other industrial sectors, and to adapt and combine them in a “shipyard 4.0” environment.

Compliance with the regulatory framework and the necessary training to upskill production teams will be ensured; all within validated and viable business models targeting a circular and resource-efficient maritime sector (less fuel consumption, recyclable materials, energy-efficient production, less noise pollution).

The European-Chinese Research and Innovation project GreAT seeks to reduce aviation's impact on climate change across continents.

The consortium investigates new possibilities to manage air traffic in a greener way. Optimised flight trajectories will help to reduce fuel consumption during all flight phases, for instance through optimisation of airspace design and controller support tools.

GreAT also considers increasingly challenging and conflicting factors, such as the constant growth of air traffic, but also more complex items such as the environment, weather, aircraft operations and maintenance.

Europe’s photovoltaics manufacturing industry is facing strong foreign competition. The HIPERION project is working on enabling mass production of a new disruptive technology that concentrates sunlight on multijunction solar cells and can be mounted on top of a conventional silicon backplate. A game-changer, this high-efficiency module-level innovation has proven its performance in extensive outdoor tests and pilot installations. The focus now is on enabling its integration by manufacturers.

The project is led by a consortium of 16 members and includes industrial players with key expertise. A solar manufacturer will conduct a detailed financial evaluation on technology integration in the production line, while several solar installers will represent both the rooftop and utility end markets.

Modern aircraft are well equipped to cope with the most common icing conditions. However, some conditions, especially involving so-called “Supercooled Large Droplets”, have been the cause of severe accidents. Thus, improving safety in these icing conditions is important.

The SENS4ICE project directly addresses the need for reliable detection of icing conditions and introduces a novel approach of hybridisation of different detection techniques: In the proposed hybrid system, the direct sensing of atmospheric conditions and/or ice accretion on the airframe is combined with an indirect detection of ice accretion on the airframe by monitoring the change of aircraft’s characteristics.

The SuCoHS project investigates potential weight and cost savings in expanding the use of composite materials in aeronautic components. The aim is to conceive novel multi-material composites providing high resistivity against thermal (high temperatures, fire) as well as mechanical loading, allowing for cost-competitive manufacturing while reducing the requirement for visual inspection or rework. New solutions for structural health monitoring are considered to enable condition-based maintenance.

The project will develop a framework to adapt these promising technologies to different aeronautic components. Three industrial use cases are defined to set requirements, validate new technologies and demonstrate technical feasibility: a high-temperature resistance nacelle component, a composite aircraft interior shell and a tail cone panel substructure.

The MADELEINE project focuses on the development and validation of multidisciplinary design tools for optimisation. Special attention is given to multidisciplinary optimisation, to the understanding of multi-physics phenomena, to the simulation of manufacturing processes, and the transition to High-Performance Computing (HPC). During aircraft or engine design, most optimisation studies using high-fidelity tools are focused on a single discipline (such as aerodynamics, acoustics, heat transfer or structural analysis).

This single-disciplinary approach prolongs the overall process and makes it difficult to exploit multi-discipline trade-offs.

The MADELEINE consortium is working on a new design tool that meets the industrial need of competitiveness and fosters the integration of greener technologies.

The goal of the ACASIAS project (completed in 2020) was to develop advanced concepts for aerostructures with multifunctional capabilities by embedding sensors and antennas into typical aircraft structures (such as fuselage panels, winglets, tails), enabling to reduce CO₂ and NO_x emissions, overall airframe weight, cabin noise due to CROR engines, as well as maintenance costs.

The innovative technologies developed within ACASIAS related to antenna design, composite manufacturing process, radiofrequency, and structural analysis.

MINOTOR’s (completed 2020) strategic objective was to demonstrate the feasibility of the ECRA (Electron Cyclotron Resonance Accelerator) technology as a disruptive game-changer in electric propulsion.

The project represents a significant step in maturing the ECRA technology from TRL3 to TRL4/5 and will help assess its potential to improve European competitiveness, help develop low-cost satellite solutions for constellation management, including end-of-life propulsion, while paving the way for other future emerging electric propulsion technologies.

The main objective of the cooperation of the Chinese and European partners in ECO-COMPASS (completed in 2019) was to develop and assess multifunctional and ecologically improved composites from bio-sourced and recycled materials for application in aircraft secondary structures and interior.

Therefore, bio-based reinforcements, resins and sandwich cores were developed and optimized for their application in aviation.

A cradle-to-grave Life Cycle Assessment enabled the comparison of the new eco-composites with state-of-the-art materials.

AIRMES (completed in 2019) focused on reducing technically induced operational disruptions in European air traffic by optimising end-to-end maintenance activities within an operator’s environment.

The consortium developed an innovative maintenance service architecture that reduces the average delay time and improves aircraft utilisation.

This represents a key step in achieving zero flight delays due to direct aircraft technical causes and consequential delays on subsequent flights. The overall business benefit of this project is estimated at around one billion €.

The LEMON project aims at developing a Lidar emitter for space applications to monitor greenhouse gases and water vapour. LEMON will improve the accuracy of climate change analysis.

Based on innovative photonics components, LEMON will develop a cutting-edge Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) sensor concept that can either measure CO₂, CH₄ or water vapour stable isotopes in a rugged and compact architecture that matches mini-satellite missions size requirements.

INREP’s (concluded in 2018) objective was to develop and deploy valid and robust indium-free transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) to replace indium-based conductive electrode materials in applications such as high-efficiency photovoltaic cells, GaN-based LEDs, organic LEDs, and touchscreen monitors.

The physical properties of interest were transparency, electrical conductivity, work function, texture, as well as chemical and thermal stability.

AFLoNext (completed in 2018) was a four-year EC L2 project with the objective of proving and maturing highly promising flow control technologies for novel aircraft configurations to achieve a quantum leap in improving aircraft’s performance and thus reducing the environmental impact.

This large project was performed by a consortium of forty partners from fifteen countries.