5th EASN Association International Workshop on Aerostructures

The EASN International Workshop, which for three days each year gathers a significant number of representatives from the European Industry, Academia and Research Community, will take place on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th of September 2015 at the premises of the University of Manchester, UK. This major dissemination event, which aims to offer its participants a unique opportunity to network and interact among relative audience and to communicate the latest advancements, this time in the field of Aerostructures, it is co - organized by the University of Manchester and the EASN Association and it is endorsed by the Royal Aeronautical Society.
Up to now, about ten on - going Aerostructures related projects have already “locked” their participation, most of them with dedicated project sessions. In this respect, the 5th EASN International Workshop is expected to foster the cooperation and interaction between them on a multidisciplinary basis serving as a forum to exchange novel and innovative ideas for future research. In parallel, experts from several accredited institutes have confirmed their participation in the EASN Workshop’s Scientific Committee representing the European and International research community. During this event, the General Assembly meeting of the EASN Association will also take place.
More information about the workshop will be posted on a regular basis on the EASN website as well as on the 5th EASN International Workshop minisite.

Interview with ACARE chairman Peter F. Hartman (KLM-Air France), assisted by Ruben M. Ablas and Michiel Q. Laumans

Peter F. Hartman, chairman of ACARE and Vice-Chairman Air France KLM, evaluates the ACARE goals and long-term strategy, appraises the potential role of Academia on realizing these goals, as well as expresses his views on the new set-up of the Horizon2020 Programme.
Read the full interview of Mr. Peter F. Hartman on the EASN website

Promo – Air Final Workshop – 23rd April 2015, EC premises, Brussels, Belgium

The Consortium of the Promo – Air project is delighted to announce that the project’s final Workshop will be held on April 23, 2015 in Brussels, Belgium on the premises of the European Commission. Promo-Air is an initiative funded by the EC which aims to motivate and raise the interest of young Europeans in scientific and technical studies and careers related to aeronautics and air transport. The objectives of the Promo – Air final Workshop are to inform the aeronautical stakeholders about the achievements of the Promo-Air initiative, present the lessons learned from the process of getting in contact with European high-school students and identify a roadmap towards additional actions and policies required for further stimulating young Europeans towards this aim.
The Promo - Air Consortium would be pleased to welcome you to attend and share your viewpoint on the need and means to attract young engineers in the aeronautics profession. Due to the limited capacity of the workshop venue, please send your interest and contact details here.

The IASS project is now well into its third and final year and all consortium members are now focused on achieving the overall project goals. All project activities are well on track, advancing seamlessly towards their completion. The tests that are being performed and the models that are being developed aim at assessing the improved properties of the IASS project produced materials’ (electrical conductivity, impact damage resistance, flame resistance, self healing functionalities) as well as their behaviour under reality simulating conditions. The results of the aforementioned activities will determine the final modifications necessary for the selection and production of the nanofillers that are the most effective in realizing the overall aim of the project. The final results are expected to meet the requirements of the project’s concept, allowing for a successful conclusion of its activities. For more information visit the IASS project website.

All-solid plastic devices (15x20 cm2) have been successfully assembled on ITO/PET substrates. A total of 5 EC and 5 TOLED devices with the above mentioned sizes have been fabricated and shipped for the third testing campaign. Current work focuses on up-scaling the fabrication of electrochromic devices to dimensions close to 30x40 cm2, in order to comply with the industrial requirements. Meanwhile, the investigation of the Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) impacts of the selected chemicals and raw materials used for the development of EC/TOLED aircraft window has been completed. Data on potential toxic effects on humans and ecological targets were collected and evaluated to establish the toxicological and (eco) toxicological profile of the raw materials used, as well as to assess their hazards in the final product (aircraft window). In addition, a REACH compliance analysis was carried out in order to evaluate the safety and to identify the companies’ regulatory obligations for the aviation industry. For more information please visit the In-Light project website.

TOLED module with total substrate size of 15 cm x 30 cm

While the intermediate reporting period has been officially approved, a set of parameters for deposition of cold sprayed Ti-6Al-4V coatings has been determined, leading to minimized porosity and increased hardness and deposition efficiency. Based on these, sets samples holding different geometries are being prepared towards determining the wear, fatigue, tensile and corrosion performance of these cold spray coatings. Surface processing is also being investigated, in order to define the optimal set of parameters to further improve properties prior to the repair of real aeronautical components. Modifications on the powder feeder are being examined towards its integration into the Cold Spray Portable Portable System (CSPS), while the basic frame, control cabinet and gas supply panel are in the production process. Nozzle holders with handle and heater are expected to be delivered within the next couple of weeks and the CSPS is planned to be ready for the first tests at the end of April 2015. For more information, please visit our website, image gallery and video gallery.

Having completed the first half of its project duration, i-VISION’s overall activities are running as initially foreseen in the project roadmap. In the third and last phase of the project, detailed pilot cases and scenarios for conducting preliminary validations of intermediate technological prototypes are in the process of being defined by the industrial partners along with the support of research and application partners.
These activities will give input into the development tasks in order to improve and harmonize the functionalities of the technologies. Hence, the final prototypes and demonstrators will be set up, during the last 12 months of the project. The knowledge-based technologies of i-VISION will accelerate the design process through the systematic reuse of knowledge, while allowing for faster and more flexible prototyping of aircraft cockpits. This analysis will result in highly competitive cockpits from the end-user’s perspective and will increase the utilization of future aircrafts by allowing human pilots to operate in extreme weather and traffic conditions.
For more information visit the i-VISION project website.

Regarding small high volume parts methods evaluations based on Tomosynthesis as well as Helical CT have been presented. The goal here is to provide methods capable of multi-clip measurements which significantly reduce the time needed for scanning. Experiments were realized both in 2D and 3D. Furthermore defect detection techniques have been explored using a robot CT setup based on large industrial robots. The software developed towards data analysis and interpretation of the generated results allows for a layer wise inspection of the underlying data.
Regarding the comparison of Ultrasonic tesing to X-ray computed tomography a set of tests was done by Airbus Innovations Group and Airbus operations GmbH. Ongoing work includes functionalities for handling large data sets and further correlation between XCT and ultra-sonic testing.
For more information, please visit our website at QUICOM project website.

PERSEUS, which stands for “Promoting Excellence & Recognition Seal of European Aerospace UniversitieS”, successfully held its Kick-off Meeting on December 9th 2014 at the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology, Politecnico di Milano, Italy. The PERSEUS Coordination and Support Action, funded by the EC’s Horizon2020 Research & Innovation Programme, aims at firstly defining the evolving skill needs of the European aviation sector and subsequently at formulating strategic recommendations and corrective measures for the improvement and harmonization of the content of the curricula for aviation engineers towards the ultimate creation of an integrated European aviation education system, based on sound quality criteria capable of supporting the continuous improvement of the educational system in the sector. For more information please visit the PERSEUS project website.

SUNJET II (SUstainable Network for Japan-Europe aerospace research and Technology cooperation II) initiated its activities with a very successful Europe-Japan Symposium on "Electrical Technologies for the Aviation of the Future". The two day symposium was held on 26-27 March 2015 in Tokyo and was hosted by the Delegation of the European Union to Japan. The symposium focused on the current status of the European and Japanese future trends of the electrical technologies for the aviation and gathered around 180 participants. A number of excellent presentations, which will soon be available on the SUNJET II website, were given from the most important European and Japanese stakeholders.
SUNJET II is a support action funded by the European Commission, aiming at enhancing the relations between EU and Japan in research and technology activities related to aviation. SUNJET II is expected to open new application domains for future aeronautics EU-Japan cooperation agreements, aiming at EU-Japan compatibility, better interfacing and paving the road for common regulations, rules and procedures as well as the use of interfaced or common subsystems, equipment and tools.
More information will soon be available at the SUNJET II website.

With 1,5 years of operations under its belt, the CATER Coordination and Support Action has reached several achievements. A dedicated Door-to-Door (D2D) model in daily journey has been established, thereby creating a common language and understanding for the theme of time efficiency. Moreover, through a very comprehensive analysis, the most relevant Research and Innovation domains connected to time efficiency have been found and have accordingly defined an R&I framework. The developed Assessment Framework has been utilized to assess past and running (FP6 &FP7) EU-funded projects (63 so far), and leveraged to identify future evolutionary needs and opportunities.
Furthermore, an online expert consultation survey on R&I issues in Time efficiency has been launched, aiming to accumulate the viewpoint, expertise and valuable insight of the main R&I players and aviation stakeholders. If you wish to participate in our consultation campaign, please fill-in the CATER questionnaire here. The process is very simple and should not take you more than 10 minutes to complete. Additionally, the CASK web-platform –a smart and innovative instrument to search for everything related to the world of travel efficiency- has been released and made accessible to the wide audience, to turn it into a proactive CATER Community. You can register and become part of the CATER R&I Community here. Also, you can join our LinkedIn Group here. Finally, the 2nd CATER e-book is now available online.

Approaching its final stage, the Promo – Air project is organizing its final Workshop that will take place on April 23rd 2015, in Brussels, Belgium. The objectives of this event are to inform the aeronautical stakeholders about the achievements of the Promo-Air initiative, present the lessons learned from the process of getting in contact with European high-school students and identify a roadmap towards additional actions and policies required for further stimulating young Europeans towards this aim.
The aforementioned action is combined with the organization of the European Aeronautics Science Week. In this event, high-school students from all over Europe have the opportunity to visit Universities of their local societies and explore the fascinating world of Aeronautics through the produced by Promo-Air educational material. This initiative is expected to contribute to the raising of awareness of young Europeans in studies related to Aeronautics and in the same time to link European high schools with Universities dealing with aeronautical research. In parallel, a pan-European student quiz competition has been settled, the winner of which will be offered an all-paid visit to Airbus Assembly Line, in France generously sponsored by Airbus S.A.S. and EASN Association as well.
For more information on the Promo-Air project, please visit the promo-air website.

Having completed its project duration, HIKARI held its final meeting from the 14th to the 15th of January 2014 in Suresnes, France. During this two day meeting, the very positive outputs achieved were presented and received enthusiastically by participants. This final meeting closed a successful period of project activities, yielding constructive feedback, which concluded that there is still room for further research on the crucial field of High Speed Transport (HST). In the same time, the inclusion of a TV documentary in the Euronews channel has been produced, with regards to the research performed within HIKARI. The aim was to create a video, with which HST will gain awareness in in our daily life, allowing us to conceive it as a feasible scenario for our future by giving us the opportunity for example to fly from Paris to Tokyo in less than three hours! This TV documentary was aired in the FUTURIS programme in 13 different languages and reached 400 million households in 155 countries. For viewing the TV Clip and the respective article please follow this link.
For more information visit the HIKARI project website.

The UMRIDA project aims at the improvement of Uncertainty Quantification (UQ) methods towards industrial readiness, focused on handling a large number of uncertainties (including geometrical ones), epistemic uncertainties, analysis of input uncertainties and methods for defining tolerances. The proposed methods are being validated and evaluated against selected test cases, towards the development of the UMRIDA Innovative database for UQ and Robust Design Management (RDM). Preliminary UQ results have been achieved for the Rotor 37 and the RAE2822 airfoil challenges, by taking into account a large number of geometric and operational uncertainties. The results obtained will be presented in the upcoming 1rst UMRIDA Workshop on Uncertainty Quantification. In the second half of the project, robust design formulations will be developed and applied to other test cases, aiming to achieve results in reasonable time, by combining efficient UQ methods and existing optimization methods. For more information please visit the UMRIDA project website.

SARISTU has completed the first half of its final year and is on the road to its Final Conference and Meeting to be held in May 2015 in Moscow, Russia. Some of the key highlights of this period include the delivery of the completed 5X4m Door Surround Structure with 584 co-bonded sensors from Invent to DLR’s Stade facility. Furthermore, the static test of the Enhanced Adaptive Droop Nose Ground Test Demonstrator successfully took place at VZLU.
To top it all, the SARISTU Wind Tunnel Demonstrator was fully assembled, with system installation completed and performed its first flight on board a cargo aircraft to Moscow for Wind Tunnel Testing. In a nutshell, the overall progress is meeting and in individual cases exceeding expectations through additional test campaigns regarding Nanocomposites and the initial assessment of multi-SHM equipped test specimen. This is also highlighted by the increased visibility and awareness of the project. For more information please visit the SARISTU project website.

INEGI concluded single-step manufacturing demonstration for complete fuselage section INEGI has finished in 2014 a comprehensive series of feasibility demonstrations for the fabrication of self-stiffened composite curved structures through automated filament winding. From small structural details up to full scale panels, several prototypes were manufactured as per integration of real business jet aero structure. Part of the program was developed and co-funded in the FP7 collaborative project WASIS.

The newFACE project – Future Aircraft Configurations for Eco-Efficiency is a project focused in proposing new aircraft concepts through an integrated Design Thinking Methodology, joining aeronautic design with technological, economical and human perspectives. The consortium is composed by Almadesign, with its strong product conceptual design background, SETsa, that brings full CAD and prototyping capabilities, INEGI with its multidisciplinary R&D experience and Embraer Portugal Compósitos as complex aero-structures manufacturer and end user from the aeronautical sector. Embraer S.A., in Brazil, and Instituto Superior Técnico, also participated by invitation to add enlarged view of aviation as OEM for scientific aeronautical expertise, respectively. Several innovative approaches, concepts and prototypes will be unveiled at Paris Air Show 2015 in June.

New Skin-Stringer Joining technology by Stationary Shoulder Friction Stir Welding. A complete assessment under static, dynamic and fracture mechanics points of view is going to be performed to evaluate the possibility of a new joining technology for skin-stringer T-joint configuration. The main goal is the applicability in fuselage part of new generation aircraft, leading to a considerable weight reduction and lower manufacture costs with an higher automation. For more information please click here.

The Translation for Massive Open Online Courses (TraMOOC) project is a Horizon 2020 collaborative project aiming at providing reliable machine translation for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Coordinated by the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, it brings together 10 partners from 6 European countries with wide experience in their field, allowing for an unhindered course towards achieving the project’s goals.
Following the successful Kick-off meeting held on the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin premises on February 13th, 2015, the TraMOOC project launched its activities, focusing on identifying the project’s use cases and on creating the first language pairings for the machine translation process. The main outcome of the project is an online translation platform which will provide high-quality translation of all types of text genre included in MOOCs from English into eleven European and BRIC languages, which currently have weak Machine Translation support. After the online TraMOOC service launch, EASN network members, natives of all eleven targeted languages, will be identified as domain experts and they will be asked via questionnaires and interviews to evaluate the translation output of course material pertaining to their domain of expertise. Information will soon be available on the TraMOOC project website.

A novel hybrid trailing edge control surface composed of three different materials, having the ability to perform camber and decamber morphing, was designed in Department of Aerospace Engineering of METU within the scope of CHANGE Project of 7th Framework Programme of European Commission. The control surface, which was analyzed under aerodynamic loads of CFD analyses, will also undergo wind tunnel, ground vibration and flight tests.
The trailing edge control surface is actuated by five servo actuators placed inside the control surface volume. It has compliant parts made of silicone based material, and the differential elongation of the compliant materials helps to the intended morphing of the control surface.

Research and Academic Collaboration in Industrial Aircraft Design
Dr Andrea Da Ronch of the University of Southampton, UK, has been awarded by the Royal Academy of Engineering an Industrial Secondment at Airbus Operations Limited, UK.
Dr Da Ronch will be working at Airbus with their teams to develop and apply a rapid methodology for predicting the effects of the forces acting on wings and other airplane structures in flight using computational fluid dynamics methods. Such methods will reduce the time needed for calculation from the current month-scale to days and design safer and more environmentally-friendly aircraft.
More details are available at Dr Da Ronch’s research group webpage.