Assessment of European R&D infrastructure test facilities to support the future challenges in aviation

The society is demanding for future aircrafts minimising the negative effects on the climate. The document Fly-the-Green-Deal [1] elaborated by ACARE (Advisory Council for Aviation Research and Innovation in Europe) addresses the challenges and future needs in aviation. One example is using hydrogen, as alternative for fuel, which requires new propulsion systems or lightweight tanks. But of course, also all standard technologies need to be improved an optimised.

The new concepts and technologies need to be validated by experiments. The research partners in Europe operate different R&D infrastructure test facilities supporting the industry. EREA (Association of European Research Establishments in Aeronautics, [2]) connects the aviation research organisations in Europe. Within the European project RINGO (2018-2029) the EREA partners developed the status and future needs of the European infrastructure test facilities. The outcome is summarised in an online data base [3]. The IFAR (International Forum for Aviation Research, [4]) is an international connectional of the aviation research organisations worldwide. They also developed an online data base summarizing the infrastructures.

The aim of the study is to harmonise the different existing results and data bases on research infrastructures. They shall be grouped in different categories like wind tunnels, propulsion facilities, structural testing facilities, research aircrafts, etc.. Similarities and complementarities should be identified and evaluated. For the future challenges addressed in [1] improved and new infrastructures are needed. The current plannings and trends in Europe should be considered and assessed. The infrastructures cover the full range of aviation. The overall task is an assessment for these facilities.