Search Results for: helicopters

“Through this programme, we are helping the development of aerospace vehicles for both civil and military applications. If you look at civil aviation, there are major challenges relating to climate impact. We’re using this programme to try to help, creating lighter structures by using lighter materials, with more sustainable propulsion and the associated system innovations. It’s important for us that Dutch industry – and in due course its clients – can physically implement the solutions.”

“The relatively small patch of airspace above the Netherlands is used very intensively. Take small aircraft and helicopters, for instance, or large passenger planes… and then there are military aircraft, up-and-coming craft such as drones and new spacecraft that can operate in the upper strata of the airspace. Getting all those users to work together efficiently and safely is going to need research. That’s what we’re doing in the Safe and Competitive Operations programme. We’re looking at how you can help all the users in the Netherlands to utilise the airspace safely, sustainably, efficiently and effectively. For instance, we’re looking at the options for making use of machine learning and other new technologies, and how using them in operational situations can be made demonstrably safe.”

"We take a helicopter view, looking at making aviation greener. For instance, we carry out research into what the effects of various developments and innovations would be on emissions from the sector as a whole. New developments are coming rapidly, one after the other. That makes it crucial to create and maintain an overall picture before we start zooming in on the details. A solution can for instance look really promising from one perspective whereas it doesn’t fit in well at all from another point of view. To take just one example, aircraft that are more lightweight emit less CO₂ but if those weight savings mean that the production, maintenance or recycling consumes a great deal more energy, then maybe it’s not so sustainable after all if you look at the whole lifecycle."

Programme leader John Dominicus on the Operational availability of materiel knowledge programme

Programme leader Johan Kos on the Development of air vehicles knowledge programme