On the Way to ACARE 2020 and Beyond

Abstract

Air Transport is still one of the continuously growing industry sectors worldwide. Like in all industrial sectors, there is a constant request to reduce cost, improve quality and enhance security and safety. The aircraft as the central mean for transportation is under similar threats. But if we want to improve the aircraft further, we have to understand the air transport system itself, have to identify the different actors and their role, each partners strengths and weaknesses and then identify the areas where further aircraft improvements will bring best value to the system. The presentation will start to quickly describe the air transport system with its main elements and partners. ACARE, the European consortium for air transport, has developped their Vision 2020 and defined two strategic research agendas, to achieve the defined goals that can be used as a good basis for the next challenges. In the past, the drivers in the aircraft design process have been aimed mainly to increase range, increase speed and increase size, for sure always with the aim to further reduce fuel consumption, thus improving economy of the new aircraft. The new drivers in the air transport are environmental issues and still the improvement of aircraft economy. Fortunately, improving fuel efficiency is helping both, the environment and the economy of the aircraft. But there are other environmental aspects like: What is the best flying altitude? What is the best design range? How can the local emissions be further improved? The paper will provide some answers out of some recent studies, done at the TU Munich and other Research centres. There are quite some long-term issues and ideas which have to be explored further. In the European context, a new instrument for funding has been proposed by the CREATE project. This would help to support more long-term studies by the universities and thus help to keep the education for Aerospace students attractive, not only in the larger Western European countries but also in the smaller countries. Aerospace is still providing the fascination for young persons to go for an engineering education.