Clean Aviation’s ambition to go over decisive impactful steps in demonstrated disruptive aircraft performance compatible with 2035 EIS will only be possible if the future regulatory framework is not an impediment to innovation. Certification shall still improve safety while shortening time to bring new safe products to market and into service, and maintaining European leadership and competitiveness. Having de-risked the certification path is an important step. The project will deliver a comprehensive set of regulatory materials on certification together with preliminary description of methods of compliance applicable to the three "thrusts" of Clean Aviation and a first status of comprehensive digital framework of formalized collaborative tooled and model/simulation-based processes for certification. Critical challenges, tackled through Proof of Concepts for the regional and short and medium range aircrafts, including hydrogen, will be easily transposable and scalable to different product lines and aircraft segments such as general aviation, rotorcraft, business jets or commercial medium-long range affecting the complete fleet. This initiative represents a tremendous opportunity to reinforce European leadership and sovereignty in leveraging our position as the forerunner of worldwide new certification frameworks. The composition of the project consortium reflects a smart mix of aircraft manufacturers (CS-25, CS-23), engine manufacturers (CS-E), equipment manufacturers, research centres, universities, SME and PLM experts. Playing a pivotal role between innovation and the development of safety, security or environmental protection standards, the involvement of EASA experts acting together with industrial and research technical teams for the conception, endorsement of new solutions and enhancement of the international community acceptance is also essential.

The purpose of the COMPANION project is to define, design and prepare a common flight test demonstrator platform to enable the validation of ultra-efficient propulsion systems developed in Clean Aviation Call#01 projects at full scale and in a wide envelope of realistic operational conditions. Given the clear requirement in the roadmap planning of the CA projects OFELIA and SWITCH for flight test demonstrations in Clean Aviation Phase 2 to achieve TRL 6 before the end of the program in 2030, a corresponding platform must be prepared to be available before the end of year 2026. The project targets to prepare and deliver the hardware of the flight test platform ready for engine installation by the end of June 2026. The flight clearance process will be opened in COMPANION, but will need to continue with the installation of the demonstrator engines in follow-up projects to be defined at the end of CA Phase 1. The project plan proposes to prepare a common flight test demonstrator platform on the basis of an Airbus A380 aircraft with one of the inboard engine pylons modified to accommodate versatile ultra-efficient proposal systems which are currently under development for a Clean Aviation Short Range and Short and Medium Range concept aircraft, namely an Open Rotor test engine and a hybrid electric Ultra High ByPass Turbofan. The flight test aircraft will be fully equipped to host a diversity of standard and special flight test instrumentation that will be defined in close cooperation with the projects OFELIA and SWITCH to provide all data required to quantify the performance of the demonstrator engines under operational conditions. The test aircraft allows the demonstrator engines to operate on conventional kerosene and SAF fuel at blending rates of up to 100%.

DAWS 2 (Development of Advanced Wing Solutions) will continue the work started in the live ATI funded DAWS project. The focus is on development of Ultra Efficient technologies to cut fuel burn and weight, independent of the fuel choice. DAWS 2 will develop the technology into industrially applicable solutions for a new high build rate product. The primary application would be for a new short to medium range aircraft, although the technologies would also be applicable for long range aircraft. These technologies will enable development of a High Aspect Ratio wing through additional span for a new aircraft product. High Aspect Ratio wings achieve reduced drag and hence fuel burn. Using technology for load alleviation, weight reduction and folding wing tips, the fuel burn of the wing can be reduced further. To represent the behaviour of the new technologies, improvements need to be made to existing tools. This covers improvement of numerical simulations including representation of the flow in challenging areas of the design space and for non-linear devices. It will include improvement of methods for coupling structural models and computational flow dynamics. (CFD-CSM). It will also cover development of capabilities for calibrating advanced instrumentation and WTT (Wind Tunnel Test) techniques for assessing the new technology.

Developing aircraft using hydrogen is seen as a major lever to reach net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050 and to secure the long-term sustainability of air travel. In order to enable a widespread development of hydrogen aviation, it is essential for airport operators that a future regulatory framework is implemented for the handling of large quantities of hydrogen at airports and that there is a clear understanding of how hydrogen-powered aircraft will be integrated into airport operations and the required changes to current aircraft ground handling operations are known. In parallel to this, and for industrial partners, it is also necessary to develop new ground-handling equipment for hydrogen aircraft, and more specifically liquid hydrogen refuelling equipment that will enable safe and efficient turn around operations. GOLIAT will demonstrate liquid hydrogen aircraft ground operations at three different types of European airports using a small hydrogen operated aircraft allowing the necessary procedures to be developed. It will also, through two demonstrators, showcase several critical technologies needed for future certified high-performance liquid hydrogen refuelling. In parallel, GOLIAT will answer key questions that will lay the foundations for the standardisation and certification framework of future safe hydrogen operations. Indeed, a key output of the project will be the gap analysis of certification rules and requirements for ground operations and equipment. Finally, GOLIAT will also assess the sizing and economics of hydrogen value chains for airports, critical for the competitive development of hydrogen powered aviation. To achieve its goals, GOLIAT reunites technology providers (aircraft manufacturers, liquid hydrogen suppliers, logistics experts, cryogenic component manufacturers and standardisation experts) and academia as well as several European airport operators all of whom will be supported by EASA.

Direct aviation emissions accounted for 3.8% of total CO2 emissions and 13.9% of the emissions from transport in the EU in 2017, making it the second biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions after road transport. In addition, the growing amount of air traffic means that many EU citizens are still exposed to high noise levels. Intensified research and innovation activities are therefore needed to reduce all aviation impacts and emissions (CO2 and non-CO2, noise, manufacturing) for the EU to reach its policy goals towards a net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. One of the main levers to decrease CO2 emissions is to reduce the airframe structural weight. As an answer, FALCON’s ambition is to enhance the design capabilities of the European industrial aircraft sector, focusing on fluid structure interaction (FSI) phenomena to improve the aerodynamic performances of aircraft (unsteady loads). Specifically, FALCON aims to develop high-performance, predictive and multi-disciplinary tools for FSI in aeronautics, in order to reduce the aeroacoustics and aeroelastic instabilities using multi-fidelity optimization. This will also benefit to specific noise emissions generated by flexible and mobile airframe structures when exposed to both low and high-speed fluid flows. To achieve its ambitious goal, FALCON assembles a unique interdisciplinary environment of fifteen public and private institutions and their affiliated entities (from renowned research institutions to SMEs and aircraft high-tier suppliers and integrators) to cover all the required scientific and know-how expertise. Building upon three industrial testcases and tight links with key European partnerships such as Clean Aviation, FALCON delineates a high-impact/ low-risk proposal that will significantly contribute to the digital transformation of the European aircraft supply chain.