EU’s ‘Clean Sky’ – the 1-6 billion euro research project – with 86 participating partners from 16 nations – has goals like developing unique application-specific technologies and evaluation and advancement of the entire aeronautic system. Aviation experts from ACARE (Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research in Europe) are expecting to achieve 50% reduction of noise and carbon dioxide emission and 80% reduction of nitrogen oxide output by 2020. Thanks to better drive concepts and better adapted logistical designs and innovative and newer manufacturing of structural concepts and aerodynamic profiles, European aviation history will be rewritten under ACARE’s new guidelines. Air travel will soon get more environmental-friendly, quieter and cleaner.

Professor Holger Hanselka, Head of Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability LBF in Darmstadt, a member of Governing Board – decision-making body of EU’s “Clean Sky” project, is certain about achieving these ambitious goals thanks to the contributions by various Fraunhofer LBF Programs, their specialists and researchers.

With goals defined clearly and expertly guided by Fraunhofer Program Manager and Steering Member, John Simpson, airplane components like engines, wings, fuselage structures and systems and landing gear etc are to be put into an improved ecological balance of the system as a whole.

To cut noise and save energy, wings will have optimized airflow profile; kerosene consumption minimized with improved engine technology; with long-life-span raw materials and recyclable materials to prevent wastage. In future, airplane manufactures, thanks to Fraunhofer LBF Institutes, can automate their production.

Fraunhofer IFAM researchers have developed special plastics as per manufacturer needs which can be disposed in an environmentally safe way. They are investigating best ways to join light construction materials and how to reduce frictional resistance with innovative painting systems.

The integrity of materials used should withstand the quick changing pressure and temperature conditions as well as vibrations and shearing forces that occur during each flight. For this safety, a new sensor system – with electronic data processing system that can detect and measure deformations during take-offs and landings, is being engineered by Fraunhofer ENAS researchers.

Newly developed materials will be checked for ill-effects on passengers’ health and well-being with test flights. The Fraunhofer researchers are getting the materials tested, material-flows simulated, calculation methods refined and experiments conducted and analyzed. They will present their initial findings & contributions at ILA, the international aerospace trade show in Berlin, from June 8 to 13, 2010.

So, air travel will have less noise, less exhaust, less refuse and more comfort.

Alternative Energy.com