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EASN Newsletter - February 2022

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  • 12th EASN Conference on Innovation in Aviation & Space for opening New Horizons

    The EASN Association and the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech (UPC) are glad to announce the 12th EASN International Conference on "Innovation in Aviation & Space for opening New Horizons" which will take place in Barcelona, Spain from the 18th until the 21st of October 2022. 

    We are working on organizing an in-person 2022 EASN International Conference and we are excited and looking forward to meeting colleagues and friends again in Barcelona. In this frame, you are cordially invited to join us and be part of this year's conversation of the European Aviation & Space community!

    In this frame, we are pleased to announce that the abstract submission and registration for the 12th EASN Conference is now open! Submit your abstract here and ensure your participation by registering here, so as to take advantage of the Early Bird Registration Fees which are offered at a discounted rate until the 31st of July 2022!

    The aim of this yearly gathering is dual:
    • To act as a forum where innovative ideas, breakthrough concepts and disruptive technologies are presented with the aim to establish new research partnerships and possible synergies,
    • while in parallel be the place for disseminating the knowledge and results achieved and discussing on current trends and future needs in the frame of research projects of the Aviation and Space field.

    The previous 11th EASN International Conference, which, due to the COVID pandemic, was held virtually, was attended by more than 420 participants from various disciplines.

    Like its predecessors, the 12th EASN International Conference on "Innovation in Aviation & Space for opening New Horizons" will include a number of Plenary Talks by distinguished personalities of the European Aviation and Space sectors from the academia, industry, research community and policy makers. It will also include Thematic Sessions, along with Technical Workshops where evolving ideas, technologies, products, services and processes will be discussed. Furthermore, the conference is expected to be a major European Dissemination and Exploitation event of Aviation and Space - related research. The majority of the currently running research projects will exploit the 3-days technical program to present their activities and achieved goals, discuss on current trends and future needs of the Aviation and Space - related research and try to identify possible synergies with each other. Additionally, a number of policy development projects will also find the floor to present the strategic priorities of the European aviation sector.

    Last but not least, we are glad to announce that the 12th EASN International Conference will be performed with the support of Clean Aviation Partnership. 

    For more information on the Topics, the Key-Dates and the International Scientific Committee can be found at the official website of the 12th EASN International Conference.

  • EASN's survey on the sufficiency of funding for disruptive, low TRL research

    Recently, the EASN Board of Directors (BoD) and EASN’s Stakeholders Advisory Board (SAB) released a joint communication entitled "The Dangerous Decline of Upstream Aeronautics Research in Horizon Europe" (which can be found here). The document warns about the lack of sufficient funding for disruptive, low TRL research observed in both the Clean Aviation JU SRIA and the Work Programme Cluster 5 of Horizon Europe. It is considered that this will endanger the ambitious targets set by the aviation sector for aligning with the environmental goals of the European Green Deal by 2050. The letter was sent to Commissioner Mariya Gabriel, as well as to several persons in the European Commission's DG Research & Innovation. It will also reach several Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). 

    In this frame, EASN has invited several distinguished European Academia representatives to share with the readers of the EASN Newsletter their views, by answering the two following questions: 

    Question 1 (Q1): The letter signatories suggest that two measures should be taken now to avoid the observed danger: (i) a dedicated area reserved for upstream and break-through research in CAJU, similar to CS2 and (ii) sufficient priorities for aviation research at low TRL on disruptive technologies in the Cluster 5 Work Programme with the needed resources. What is your opinion to the above measures? Are these measures suitable and sufficient to face this threat?

    Question 2 (Q2): European Academia is playing the important role of incubator of novel and disruptive technologies. The very limited funds until now available to low TRL upstream research, will endanger the entire ecosystem of academic research in the European Union. According to your view, in which way the universities will be affected by the current conditions of the European aviation research programs?

    To the above-mentioned set of questions, answers have been received by the following colleagues: 

    • Dr. Hitendra Hirani | Aerospace EU Programme Manager at University of Nottingham and Chief Strategy Officer at University of Nottingham, Italy. Member of the Academia Members Forum (AMF) of the Clean Aviation JU.
    • Prof. Panos Laskaridis | Professor of Hybrid Electric Propulsion, Head of the Propulsion Electrification Group at Cranfield University, Centre for Propulsion Engineering. Member of the Academia Members Forum (AMF) of the Clean Aviation JU.
      Prof. Dimitrios Mourtzis | Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics (MEAD), Director of the Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems and Automation (LMS) and Vice-President Research and Development of the University of Patras. Academia representative to the Governing Board of the Clean Aviation JU.
    • Prof. Spiros Pantelakis | Honorary Chairman of the EASN and Professor Emeritus at the University of Patras.
    • Prof. Shia-Hui Peng | Research Director at the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI), Professor at Chalmers University of Technology and EASN’s National Contact Point of Sweden.
    • Prof. Octavian Thor Pleter | Professor at the University Politehnica of Bucharest and EASN’s National Contact Point of Romania.
    • Dr. Jordi Pons Prats |  Assistant Professor at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - Barcelona Tech and EASN’s National Contact Point of Spain.
    • Prof. Rolf Radespiel | Professor and Head of the Institute of Fluid Mechanics at the Technische Universität Braunschweig. Member of the Academia Members Forum (AMF) of the Clean Aviation JU.
    • Prof. Ivica Smojver | Professor at the University of Zagreb, FMENA (Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture) - Department of Aeronautical Engineering and EASN’s National Contact Point of Croatia.
    • Prof. Konstantinos Tserpes | Associate Professor at the University of Patras, Industrial Advisory Officer of the EASN’s BoD and EASN’s National Contact Point of Greece.

    The answers provided, can be found here in an alphabetical order. 

  • Clean Aviation partnership has taken off!

    Clean Aviation, which was launched in November 2021, is a European public-private partnership developing innovative, cutting-edge technology to transform aviation towards a sustainable, climate-neutral future.

    The successor of Clean Sky 2 Joint Undertaking, represents the world’s most ambitious research and innovation agenda for a sustainable aviation sector that contributes to the EU Green Deal and the EU’s Industrial Strategy. Three main thrusts will form the pillars of the new European Partnership: hybrid electric and full electric concepts, ultra-efficient aircraft architectures, and disruptive technologies to enable hydrogen-powered aircraft. The unique approach of the Partnership – bringing together the best ideas and talent from industry, academia, research centres and SMEs – will ensure a vibrant and competitive research environment, transforming European aviation towards climate neutrality, supporting mobility goals and creating sustainable economic value. 

    On the occasion of this new beginning, the EASN Association is pleased to host a common interview of Mr. Ron van Manen, Head of Strategic Development of the Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking and Dr. Jean-François Brouckaert, Head of Technology Office of the Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking, in which they share their viewpoints regarding the brand-new Clean Aviation partnership, and they define the role of the European academia in this initiative.

    Read the full interview on the EASN website by visiting the following link and learn more about the programme on the Clean Aviation official website.

  • Interview of Dr. Jorge-A. Sanchez-P., Chairman of the Board of the si-Cluster

    Dr. Jorge-A. Sanchez-P. (short cv here) is, among others, the Chairman of the Board of the Hellenic Space Technologies and Applications Cluster (si-Cluster).

    Recently, the Hellenic Space Technologies and Applications Cluster and the EASN Association agreed to establish a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), in order to better serve the common interest and their mutual willingness to intensify the cooperation in between.  The MoU was duly signed on the 7th July 2021, by the Chairman of Si-Cluster Dr. Jorge-A. Sanchez-P. and the Chairman of the EASN Association, Prof. Andreas Strohmayer. 

    The Cooperation under this MoU will serve for the development of a mutually beneficial scientific, technological and organizational cooperation between the two entities in aerospace activities, promotion of developments in aerospace and popularizing the achievements and research in all areas of aerospace. Thematic areas covered by this MoU include but are not limited to academic, scientific, technological, industrial and entrepreneurship activities related to Aviation, Space and Aerospace. 

    For the first issue of the newsletter of 2022, Dr. Jorge-A. Sanchez-P. kindly accepted to share his views with the readers of the EASN Newsletter, regarding the scopes and the challenges of si-Cluster as well as the mutual benefits of the cooperation with the EASN Association.

    Read the full interview on the EASN website by visiting the following link.

  • 11th EASN Virtual Conference Publication Policy

    Permanent aim of the EASN Association is to ensure excellence and high scientific merit of the EASN Conference series. Publication of high-quality proceedings and special issues of reputable peer-reviewed international journals contribute to achieving this aim. In this frame the following publication arrangements have been performed: 

    11th EASN Virtual Conference on “Innovation in Aviation & Space to the Satisfaction of the European Citizens” 

    Conference Proceedings: We are glad to inform you that a remarkable number of full length proceedings papers presented during the 11th EASN Virtual Conference, are now published in the open access "11th EASN Virtual Conference on Innovation in Aviation & Space to the Satisfaction of the European Citizens" Proceedings issue by IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering (doi:10.1088/issn.1757-899X, Online ISSN: 1757-899X, Print ISSN: 1757-8981). The papers published in the EASN Conference proceedings will be widely discoverable across all major discovery services and indexed in main bibliographic databases, such as Scopus, Conference Proceedings Citation Index—Science (CPCI-S) (Clarivate, Web of Science), Compendex, etc. More information regarding the IOP indexing providers can be found here. The proceedings issue of the 11th EASN Virtual Conference is the volume 1226 (2022) and you may find it online here. 

    Special Issues: Further to the 11th EASN Virtual Conference Proceedings, a number of selected papers will be published in special issues of reputable international scientific journals following peer review. More specifically: 

    • Aerospace by MDPI (Cite Score: 3.0 – Scopus Indexed): Manuscripts submitted are currently reviewed by editorial board members and reviewers. Accepted papers are being published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and are already listed together on the special issue website. So far, 10 papers have been accepted and published in the open-access Aerospace Special Issue "10th EASN International Conference on Innovation in Aviation & Space to the Satisfaction of the European Citizens" which can be found here.
    • Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology (AEAT) by Emerald Publishing (Cite Score: 1.9 – Scopus Indexed): The AEAT special issue of the 11th EASN Virtual Conference is under preparation. Accepted papers, following to peer review, are being published continuously in the journal, as soon as accepted and are listed in the EarlyCite platform of the AEAT journal.
    • Journal of Aerospace Engineering - JAERO  (Cite Score: 2.4 – Scopus Indexed): The JAERO special issue of the 11th EASN Virtual Conference is under preparation. Accepted papers, following to peer review, are being published continuously in the journal as soon as accepted and are listed in the OnlineFirst Platform of the JAERO journal.

    All the aforementioned manuscripts will acquire a unique DOI number. The Organizing Committee of the 12th EASN International Conference on "Innovation in Aviation & Space for opening New Horizons" is currently under discussions for the publication options of the upcoming event and soon updated information will be released through the official Conference website which can be found here. 

EASN supported projects: Latest news and achievements

  • Reserve your seat! Futprint50 Aircraft Design Challenge 2022

    The FᴜᴛPʀIɴᴛ50 project is excited to invite you to join the FᴜᴛPʀIɴᴛ50 Academy Aircraft Design Challenge 2022 until the 4th of March 2022!  In the FᴜᴛPʀIɴᴛ50 Design Challenge, MSc. students with the support of their supervisors are asked to design a hybrid-electric aircraft according to CS-25 regulations where possible. This extensive task is designed for a group effort of up to five students at maximum. Main task of the design effort is to minimize aircraft emissions to mitigate the environmental impact of flying while aiming at an entry into service in the year 2040 (EIS 2040). Participation is open to the entire MSc. student community free of charge.

    Highlights

    • Exciting winning teams awards
    • Networking with international leaders in sustainable aviation
    • Entry-level opportunities for your future career
    • Feedback on your work by key-researchers & decision-makers
    • Short Course Series by high-level researchers

    Conditions of Participation

    All participants must be full-time MSc. students at a university, college or university of applied sciences. A group can be up to 5 people and group registrations are highly encouraged. However, an individual person with his/her supervisor could be registered too, and FᴜᴛPʀIɴᴛ50 will assist them to extend their team with other persons who have been registered. Prior knowledge in aircraft design is strongly recommended as the FᴜᴛPʀIɴᴛ50 team is not capable of providing substantial support while performing the challenge. As a result, a local supervisor from your institution is mandatory. 

    For more information please visit the following links:
    Official Website
    Detailed informational brochure

  • What if there was a way to accelerate the entry into service of electrified aircraft? In the absence of fuel consumption and lower operating costs, could electrified aircraft open up new point-to-point connections between smaller cities at lower infrastructure costs than rail or road transportation? FᴜᴛPʀIɴᴛ50 - “Future propulsion and integration: towards a hybrid/electric aircraft” is an ambitious EU funded H2020 project which aims to tackle the above by developing technologies and configurations for a commercial hybrid-electric regional airliner for up to 50 passengers that could enter service in 2035-40.

    Having reached more than two years of lifetime, FᴜᴛPʀIɴᴛ50 has already achieved important milestones and findings. Beyond their research activities, the FᴜᴛPʀIɴᴛ50 team of researchers is committed to supporting and encouraging today’s students and young researchers through the initiative of the FᴜᴛPʀIɴᴛ50 Academy. This year the FᴜᴛPʀIɴᴛ50 project is excited to invite MSc. Students along with their supervisors to join the FᴜᴛPʀIɴᴛ50 Academy Aircraft Design Challenge 2022 until the 4th of March 2022! In the FᴜᴛPʀIɴᴛ50 Design Challenge, MSc. students with the support of their supervisors are asked to design a hybrid-electric aircraft. This extensive task is designed for a group effort of up to five students at maximum and participation is open to the entire MSc. student community free of charge. The project researchers encourage all young scientists to register and aim for an equal representation of all genders.

    Among the highlights since our last update, is also a new video that captures the exciting atmosphere of the innovative research activities that FᴜᴛPʀIɴᴛ50 carries out and gives a glimpse into their main motivation.

    Discover more details on the project and its initiatives on the FᴜᴛPʀIɴᴛ50 website!

    Be sure to join its networks too! LinkedIn | Twitter | ResearchGate | YouTube

  • SAFELAND was launched in July 2020 and aims at supporting flight and landing of single-pilot operated aircrafts, in case of pilot incapacitation.

    The project particularly focusses on the ground side and especially on the role that Air Traffic Management (ATM) could have in managing the transition from a single-pilot operated flight to reduced or absent contribution of the onboard pilot to landing. SAFELAND investigates the interaction of a ground-based pilot operating through a remote cockpit position with onboard automation and air traffic controllers to manage the flight. Having already defined the SAFELAND Final Concept  (available as public deliverable here), the Consortium moved on to its evaluation. To this aim, SAFELAND partners worked on the preparation of simulation exercises for the validation of the SAFELAND concept and procedures. The process towards the SAFELAND concept evaluation includes Low fidelity simulations and Real time simulations. Specifically,

    • Low fidelity simulations, already performed in the beginning of 2022, were aimed to provide a first understanding of the feasibility and validity of the core ideas of the concept based on the results from three different runs of flight descent and landing scenarios.
    • After the evaluation of the Low fidelity simulations, the Real time simulations will follow next May 2022, at DLR´s Institute of Flight Guidance, exploiting the Controller Working Position (CWP), Cockpit and Remote Cockpit simulators that have been specifically adapted for the SAFELAND simulation exercise.

    For the time being, four deliverables derived from these efforts, namely:

    • D2.1 Adaptation of CWP simulator
    • D2.2 Adaptation of cockpit simulator
    • D2.3 Adaptation of remote cockpit simulator
    • D2.4 Integration report

    SAFELAND @ SESAR Innovation Days 2021

    Last December the work done was presented by the partners at SESAR Innovation Days 2021 conference, a benchmark event in air traffic management (ATM) exploratory research (view presentation here) and was published as a full paper entitled: “Toward single pilot operations: A conceptual framework to manage in-flight incapacitation” (view article here). At the same event, the “Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) projects collaboration panel” to which SAFELAND participates together with other projects, namely INVIRCAT, PJ13 - W2 ERICA, URClearED and CORUS-XUAM, was represented by a joint presentation (view presentation here), while an introductory video was also created (view video here). The RPAS collaboration panel aims to produce operational concepts to integrate Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and more specifically RPAS in the European airspace by bridging the gap between traditional Air Traffic Management (ATM) and the novel U-space concept in order to achieve a safe and efficient integration of new (unmanned) airspace users.

    For more updates on all our latest news stay tuned with the SAFELAND social media pages: Twitter | LinkedIn

    This project has received funding from the SESAR Joint Undertaking under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 890599.

     

  • The EU-funded iFACT (iodine Fed Advanced Cusp field Thruster) project is working to further develop an iodine-based ion propulsion system by establishing an efficient European ground test infrastructure, further advancing the “Advanced Cusp Field Thruster” (ACFT) technology, and generating a detailed iodine - material compatibility library.

    iFACT is well on the way to achieving its objectives and delivering important results. The team of experts has successfully concluded its 3000h tests of continuous firing with iodine as propellant. They have been able to feed almost 8kg of iodine through a single thruster into their iodine compatible brand-new test facility in AEROSPAZIO in Italy. This means that the iFACT experts finally demonstrated that long term firing and the simulated high total impulse EP maneuvers are feasible through their promising propellant candidate. In particular, the tailored propellant feeding has operated efficiently without coping with undesired challenges like clogging or material incompatibilities. After more than 3060h tests of continuous firing they have finalised the thruster’s operation. Within the next weeks, they will decommission the test articles, including thrust measurements and health checks.

    Important results are disseminated through the iFACT official website. To stay updated- follow www.epic-ifact.eu

    Join our networks and get involved now! Twitter | LinkedIn | YouTube

  • The wings of large civil passenger aircrafts are highly flexible structures that house the fuel tanks but and can deform significantly when atmospheric turbulence or gust is encountered. The EU funded Horizon 2020 SLOWD (SLOshing Wing Dynamics) project aims to investigate in-depth the effect of sloshing on the dynamics of the wing structures, carrying fuel, through the development of experimental, numerical and analytical methods; and eventually to take advantage of the dissipative effect of sloshing to reduce loads from gusts and turbulence.

    To give you a taste of the project’s main progress to date, the team of experts has initiated a small scale wing sloshing testing, the reduced order modelling of the sloshing fluid has been successfully integrated in structural model while the high-fidelity coupling algorithm for fluid-structure interaction is now in place and under testing.

    These technical advances have led to a significant list of published scientific papers in both journals and conferences, which are available in Open Access in the SLOWD ZENODO Community. Further to this, interesting visualizations of the project’s achievements and findings are available on the project’s YouTube channel.

    Connect with SLOWD through their networks and stay up-to-date!

    LinkedIn | Twitter  | YouTube |ZENODO| ResearchGate

Coordination and Support Actions: Latest news

  • The EU-funded TRA VISIONS 2022 Young Researcher Competition is calling on young researchers to participate in the Competition with their innovative ideas to revolutionise transportation and EU mobility! The Competition is open to university students (BSc, MSc and PhD) enrolled in a college, university or technical institute from across the European Union. To participate, students must submit their ideas under one of five categories, each per mode of transport: Road, Rail, Waterborne, Airborne and Cross-modality. The 3 finalists for each Mode will win cash prizes, free accommodation and tickets to Lisbon, entrance ticket to the TRA Conference,at the presence of European Commission representatives, major industry stakeholders, academic researchers, and field experts.

    TRA VISIONS partner Deep Blue, will hold a brief online webinar with a specific focus on the Competition’s Airborne Mode on February 21st, 12.30-13 CET. Deep Blue will break down the Competition rules, timeline, the judging process, while providing some tips on how to better showcase the projects and present the application at its best.

    REGISTER HERE

  • Register for the TRA VISIONS 2022 Senior Researcher Competition Award!

    Are you an experienced researcher of the transport sector (Road, Rail, Waterborne, Airborne, Cross–modality) and have contributed with innovative ideas and concepts, based on results from EU-funded projects? If so, then what are you waiting for? Register for the TRA VISIONS 2022 Senior Researcher Competition Award! We are happy to announce that the submission deadline has been extended to May 31st, 2022. Further information about the contest rules, schedule and selection criteria, can be found here. 

    TRA VISIONS 2022 Special Honorary Award – Nominations now opened!

    The nominations for the TRA VISIONS 2022 special honorary award are now open! This special award is for honouring a senior researcher of the transport sector (Road, Rail, Waterborne, Airborne, Cross–modality)  who is about to complete or has already completed their career and has, throughout the years, demonstrated ground-breaking and future-oriented views and research in the field of transport (all modes). To propose an outstanding researcher please follow the link. 

    More information can be found  at the official TRA VISIONS 2022 website.

  • UMA3 (Unique Materials for Advanced Aerospace Applications) is a 3-year H2020 CSA, launched in September 2020. The project is about creating an excellence centre around the University of Miskolc, for increasing scientific excellence and knowledge. It also aims at establishing a value chain of knowledge in the areas of powder metallurgy, additive manufacturing and high-performance PVD nanocoatings. 3 training seminars have already been held. The first one (April 27th - 29th 2021) detailed the general administration of EU projects, emerging concepts regarding the aviation industry and brainstorming sessions entitled: “Next horizon for Europe: the new research and innovation programme''. The second, “Training in innovation”, (5-7 July 2021) focused on intellectual property rights and commercial exploitation. Most recently, a 3-days Local Individual Scientific Training was successfully held (13-15 December 2021) discussing “advanced materials for aerospace and aeronautical applications”, “additive manufacturing for aerospace materials” and “modelling and simulation, testing of materials”. Lastly, professional work has begun on the topic of powder metallurgy and additive maniufacturing with focusing the preparation of joint publications.

    Please visit the UMA3 website for more information as well as follow the project on social media (Twitter and LinkedIn) to stay updated with its latest news and activities.

Subscribe to EASN Newsletter - February 2022

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Disclaimer: EASN accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to the information above. This information is subject to change without notice.

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