15 May 2023
Rotor blade designs have to be sufficiently strong for wind tunnel testing and must have dynamic characteristics that resemble the full-scale behaviour. This implies that the blade design should have a closely matching stiffness and mass distribution along its entire span in comparison with the target properties of the aeroelastically scaled blades.
24 April 2023
Urban Air Mobility (UAM) concepts, such as flying taxis and package delivery drones, are increasingly viewed as an essential component of future transportation systems. But before UAM flights can occur on a meaningful scale, several challenges need to be tackled including airspace integration. Recognising the need to address this challenge, several initiatives are underway worldwide to develop the new Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) services needed to facilitate UAM flights. In this context, the European Commission has initiated the European U-space UTM system. U-space development has been divided into four distinct phases named U1-U4 where the complexity of the resulting operations are gradually increased.
04 April 2023
The objective was to manufacture three Ti-6Al-4V flaperon ribs by Direct Energy Deposition (DED). With conventional manufacturing processes, it can be very costly or even impossible to produce components with such complex shapes. However, DED is also challenging due to various features inherent in the design: bulky thin parts, asymmetric geometry, overhanging features etc. The main challenge was manufacturing all the structures with the minimum distortion and highest accuracy.
29 March 2023
NLR develops advanced services supporting more complex operations in dense areas such as assistance for Detect & Avoid and U-space Weather Information Services. To provide drone operators with information about the actual and forecasted weather situation, NLR develops a service to provide hyperlocal wind nowcasting for drones by drones. Due to their light-weight nature, small drones can be vulnerable to wind. This is particularly true for low altitude operations in urban areas where both wind speed and direction can change abruptly. To safely realize numerous applications of drones in urban areas, real-time and accurate knowledge of low altitude winds is needed. To develop this service NLR executed the METSIS project (METeo Sensors In the Sky)
03 March 2023
Over the past decades the Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) programme has been working intensely to deliver sustainable ATM solutions. These SESAR Solutions are being brought towards higher Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) via Industrial Research (IR) projects and towards (pre-)deployment via Very Large Demonstrations (VLDs). The challenge is to combine and integrate individually developed SESAR Solutions, while not losing the established benefits of the individual Solutions. Proper integration therefore requires a detailed understanding of the local ANSP operations and of the specific in-and-outs of the SESAR Solutions to be integrated.
23 February 2023
Offshore wind energy plays a major role in the transition to green energy. The wind turbine blades require periodic inspection. The inspection and repairs are carried out by specialists who descend along the blade on a cable. This is very labour-intensive and an even greater challenge offshore. The AIRTuB consortium developed systems that are mounted on a drone and that can automatically inspect the wind turbine blade and carry out repairs if necessary. Regular inspection allows repairs to be planned in a windless period which prevents loss of production.
10 February 2023
Project: STUNNING (Smart and affordable THeRmoplastic fUselage demonstratioN for huGE aircraft)
20 January 2023
In recent years, improving energy efficiency (i.e. fuel consumption) and emission reduction have led to increased engine sizes and bypass ratios. These modifications create a crucial noise issue due to the emission of low-frequency noise and the size and effectiveness limitations of the current noise-absorbing structures (liners).
28 November 2022
Urban Air Mobility (UAM) promises to be the next mobility revolution, enabling faster, more efficient and sustainable transport solutions (such as flying taxis and other large drones) throughout urban areas. But there are a number of challenges that need to be overcome for UAM to become a reality. These include the organisation of the lower-level airspace, the scale-up of operations in a safe way, integration with ATM, the development of an architecture that can support operations and public acceptance.
