Sustainability and Environment

SFD mission flight Italy - Taranto-Grottaglie Airport
Flight Operations and Certification

28 November 2022

How to accelerate development for future aircraft

Aviation needs to become more sustainable and the requirements for that include innovative aircraft models and alternative means of propulsion. To accelerate those developments, Royal NLR is working with Airbus and the Italian and French knowledge institutes CIRA and ONERA to investigate the potential of scale models that mimic the dynamic movements of full-size aircraft.  “We’re making sure that the aircraft of the future can be developed faster and more efficiently,” says Leo Timmermans, a senior R&D engineer at NLR.

SFD mission flight Italy - Taranto-Grottaglie Airport
Flight Operations and Certification

23 November 2022

Clean Aviation’s scaled flight demonstrator completes its mission flight tests

Between 17 October and 31 October 2022, the Scaled Flight Demonstrator (SFD) developed in the frame of Clean Aviation made 19 flights for a total of 8 flight hours, taking off from and landing at Aeroporto di Taranto-Grottaglie in Italy. During the missions, about 70 automated manoeuvers have been executed in order to carry out parameter identification. This experimental campaign is key for the validation of the Scaled Flight Testing approach as a means to mature future disruptive technologies that will significantly reduce aircraft energy consumption.

Flight of NLR pipistrel above Rotterdam
Sustainability and Environment

07 November 2022

Demonstrations of electric aircraft on Aruba: “This is the future”

People on Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao may be taking electric planes to hop from island to island in the near future. Aruba is hosting demonstration flights this week by the Pipistrel Velis Electro, Royal NLR’s electrically powered research aircraft. “We’re going to show that electric flight is a clean, efficient and safe alternative to traditional aviation here in the islands,” said Angeline Flemming, adviser at the Dutch Caribbean Cooperation of Airports (DCCA), which is organising the event.

Scalair taxi test Deelen
Flight Operations and Certification

26 October 2022

R&D case: Scaled Flight Demonstrator - SFD

SCALAiR is part of Clean Sky2 Large Passenger Aircraft, and aims to validate scaled flight testing as a viable means for de-risking disruptive aircraft technologies and aircraft configurations to a high technology readiness level. The NLR activities involve ‘Test Aircraft Preparation and Qualification’ acceptance.

Air Traffic Management

26 October 2022

R&D case: Urban Air Mobility and U-Space (AMU-LED)

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.

Sustainability and Environment

25 October 2022

Low-noise propeller design for future regional aviation

Low-noise designs are needed if turboprops are to be the future of regional flight. This makes initiatives such as those within the Europe’s Clean Sky 2 IRON project coordinated by CIRA crucial without compromising on performance. The project has a focus on the design and testing of propellers, setting the ambitious target of a 6 dB near-field noise reduction at cruise compared to a baseline design. Preliminary results indicate that the high-level objectives of the project are on track and that the innovative propellers have significant noise reduction.

TRANSCEND - SMR-H2
Sustainability and Environment

04 October 2022

Decarbonisation of European aviation under threat, new study finds

A shortage of European feedstocks for sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) will limit European aviation’s ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from 2035 onwards. This is one of the main conclusions of a new study by Royal NLR and Delft University of Technology. This shortage means that greenhouse gas emissions will only be 40% lower in 2050 compared to a situation with aircraft powered solely by fossil kerosene, whereas sufficient SAF availability could double this reduction.