SARAH is concerned with establishing novel holistic, simulation-based approaches to the analysis of aircraft ditching. It is build up from a consortium of experts from OEM industries, experienced suppliers of simulation technologies, established research institutions and representatives of the certification authorities. Results of SARAH are expected to support a performance-based regulation and certification for next generation aircraft and helicopter and to enhance the safe air transport as well as to foster the trustworthiness of aviation services. Aircrafts and helicopters often travel above water and thus have to prove a safe landing under emergency conditions. The specific challenge is to minimize the risk of injury to passengers and to enable safe evacuation. Accordingly, the motion of the aircraft/helicopter along with the forces acting on the structure are studied for controlled water impact during the design phase of an aircraft. Ditching has close links with crash simulation, but also distinctive features. Examples refer to hydrodynamic slamming loads on airborne vehicles and complex hydromechanics (partially at very large forward speeds) as well as the interaction of multi-phase fluid dynamics (involving air, water, and vapor phases) and structure mechanics. Design for ditching involves more than the analysis of loads and subsequent strengthening of the structure. It often requires adjustment campaigns for the handling of the vehicle during approach and the identification of favorable approach/flight-path conditions in line with the pilots flying capabilities to minimize the remaining kinetic energy of the vehicle to be transferred into the water. In conclusion, a pressing need for more advanced studies to support the development of next-generation, generalized simulation-based ditching-analysis practices is acknowledged by all stakeholders. The public interest in safety makes this proposal an ideal candidate for a European research proposal.

SpaceCarbon aims to develop European-based carbon fibres (CF) and pre-impregnated materials for launchers and satellite applications, enabling a European supply chain that is capable to reduce the dependency of the European Space sector on this critical Space technology and, therefore, reducing the risk of stopping future Space programmes, due to supply restriction and shortage of these materials from non-European sources. SpaceCarbon is expected to create the capacity in Europe to produce specialty CF products, and related intermediate products, by promoting the development of industrial and research facilities in these products and contributing to improve Europe’s worldwide competitiveness in the field of high performance Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) structures. In SpaceCarbon, it is objective to develop the semi-industrial manufacturing process for Intermediate Modulus (IM) CF (starting at TRL 6 and aimed to achieve TRL 8), targeting mainly launcher applications, and to improve the properties of the previously obtained High Modulus (HM) CF (starting at TRL 4) aiming at reaching a modulus in the range of 440 to 540 GPa at TRL 6. These properties will allow to enter in the range of HM CF products that are used in satellite sub-system applications. Moreover, the prepregs manufacturing process will be developed at semi-industrial scale to make possible to provide such materials at short-term to European Space End-users and to develop new prepreg formulations at lab scale, in view of enhancing composites performance for future Space missions. New testing methods will be developed to support the development and qualification of such materials, according to Space environment requirements. Finally, the design, manufacturing and testing of launcher and satellite sub-component demonstrators will be performed with the developed SpaceCarbon materials to validate their possible use at short and mid-term for Spacecraft structures.

More and more industrial sectors are demanding high performance composite materials to face new challenges demanded by the transport sector. Carbon and glass fibre unidirectional continuous tape reinforced composites are one of the most promising options. It would be reasonable to expect that the manufacturing methods to obtain composite parts made of this hybrid material will be capable to tailor-made and optimize even more the advantageous properties given by the tapes nature. However, at the moment, these technologies are not mature enough for a full industrial implementation. Main existing barriers are related to the high consumption of resources, lower rates of automation, high production of defective and the subsequent growth of the manufacturing costs. FORTAPE aims to solve these drawbacks through the development of an efficient and optimized integrated system for the manufacturing of complex parts based on unidirectional fibre tapes for its application in the automotive and aeronautical industry, with the minimum use of materials and energy. To achieve this objective, three main routes for fibre impregnation will be researched to manufacture the unidirectional carbon and glass fibre tapes: novel heating up technologies, melted supercritical fluid-aided thermoplastic polymers and fluidized bed of powders. Novel combination of process-machine approaches will be applied in overmoulding and in-situ consolidation to manufacture the composite parts for the targeted sectors. Novel mathematical modelling and computational simulation concepts will be developed to support the structural optimization and the failure prevention and new instrumentation strategies for process control will be implemented for the selection of the best process. The FORTAPE consortium, led by CTAG, gathers 10 partners from 5 different European countries, and covers the whole value chain needed to develop new composite technologies with efficient use of materials and energy.

The aim of HERFUSE proposal is to design innovative fuselage and empennages suitable for the future Hybrid-Electric Regional aircraft (HER) that will contribute to the overall target to reduce Green House Gases (GHG) emissions. HERFUSE will study the challenges on fuselage and empennages layout, material, components, manufacturing and assembly derived by integration of the relevant fuselage systems for HER as defined in the SRIA for a Hybrid-Electric Regional Aircraft and in HER-01 topic. HERFUSE integrates features and components necessary to regional hybrid-electric propulsion and complementary systems as well as improves weight, durability, aerodynamic efficiency and operational issues. The technologies and solutions matured in this project shall be aligned and feed with models, analyses and actual test data HERA project on regional aircraft (HORIZON-JU-CLEAN-AVIATION-2022-01-TRA-01). HERFUSE technologies, manufacturing and assembly of critical components will make feasible achieving the targeted performance gains of HER enablers such as low GHG energy sources (batteries and fuel cells), their storage (probable liquid in hydrogen case), their distribution and management, operational and safety features, thermal management provisions, electrical and thermal insulation. Technical solutions set by the HERFUSE will contribute then to the overall target and studies performed at aircraft level in HERA to reduce emissions. Namely, HERFUSE integration requirements will be concurrent and complementary to the aircraft-level ones set into HERA.

In the coming years, the European industry must assume the challenge of adopting clean and climate-neutral industrial value chains, producing sustainable products. Adopting digital systems will radically change the industry with products and services through innovative production processes. In particular, fully digitalised laser-based additive manufacturing methods are very versatile and thus can be implemented in different industries. Furthermore, energy saves against conventional manufacturing and material waste but also by design optimization can be achieved. However, these parts also required of additional surface treatments, which are nowadays energy and material-consuming, increasing costs and harming the environment. In addition, new concepts for increasing the added value of AM parts must be developed, for instance, by producing advanced surface functionalities in critical applications. The main objective of the CLASCO project is to develop a universal and digitalised laser-based post-process route for creating functionalised AM parts with complex shapes. While the complex parts will be produced by Laser Powder Bed Fusion, Laser polishing and laser surface micro-structuring using Direct Laser Interference Patterning will be combined in a unique manufacturing system. This route will substitute several resource-consuming processes, reducing the environment's negative impact. The implementation will allow substituting standard environmental non-friendly methods and even obtaining a better performance. In addition, different in-line monitoring methods, specifically plasma sensors and infrared cameras will be implemented. In this way, a virtual representation of the process for each part will be possible (digital twin), creating an entirely digitised product. The project's impacts will be analysed to optimise the sustainability of processes and products across the entire life cycle.