With ARTEM (Aircraft noise Reduction Technologies and related Environmental iMpact), seven EREA members and strategic partners have teamed up with leading European universities and major entities of the European aerospace industry in order to address the technology challenges raised in the call MG-1-2-2017 “Reducing aviation noise”. ARTEM aims at the maturing of promising novel concepts and methods which are directly coupled to new low noise and disruptive 2035 and 2050 aircraft configurations. A core topic of ARTEM is the development of innovative technologies for the reduction of aircraft noise at the source. The approach chosen moves beyond the reduction of isolated sources as pure fan or landing gear noise and addresses the interaction of various components and sources - which often contributes significantly to the overall noise emission of the aircraft. Secondly, ARTEM addresses innovative concepts for the efficient damping of engine noise and other sources by the investigation of dissipative surface materials and liners. The chosen technology concepts offer the chance to overcome shortcomings (as the narrow band absorption peak or poor low-frequency performance) of current devices. The tasks proposed will mature, and subsequently down select these technologies by comparative testing in a single relevant test setup. Furthermore, noise shielding potential for future aircraft configurations will be investigated. The noise reduction technologies will be coupled to the modelling of future aircraft configurations as the blended wing body (BWB) and other innovative concepts with integrated engines and distributed electrical propulsion. The impact of those new configurations with low noise technology will be assessed in several ways including industry tools, airport scenario predictions, and auralization. Thereby, ARTEM constitutes a holistic approach for noise reduction for future aircrafts and provides enablers for the expected further increase of air traffic.

In SENECA, eleven academic and industrial aerospace entities from all over Europe have teamed up to address the challenges raised in the call LC-MG-1-15-2020 “Towards global environmental regulation of supersonic aviation”. The consortium is considering the forthcoming market entry of a new generation of supersonic aircraft. However, it is assumed that the first new generation of supersonic aircraft will not be able to fly over land with supersonic speed, i.e. will not have completely solved the problem of the supersonic boom. Therefore, the missions under consideration for this project will be supersonic over water and subsonic over land. As a consequence, SENECA will mainly focus on noise and emissions in the vicinity of airports and the global climate impact of supersonic aircraft. SENECA aims at developing deepened understanding and detailed modelling for the emissions, the LTO noise, and the global environmental impact of supersonic aircraft. Building on this, the development of beyond state-of-the-art technologies to further reduce the environmental impact of supersonic aviation will be enabled. SENECA will contribute its project results to the ICAO level discussions, in order to scientifically accompany and strengthen the European perspective on the necessary regulations for novel supersonic aircraft. Key milestones of the project dissemination and exploitation plan are aligned to the CAEP work program and agenda, and the whole project plan is designed to work towards these milestones.

(Re-)entry into planetary atmospheres represents one of the most critical phases of space missions, involving high thermal loads on the vehicle surface and radio communication blackout which can last for minutes. As demonstrated with previous scientific studies, magneto-hydrodynamics (MHD) provides a framework for tackling both issues: high enough electromagnetic (EM) fields can be used to reduce heat fluxes and create a magnetic windowing able to mitigate the blackout. However, the translation of those ideas into an operational radically-new science-enabled technology to be used onboard spacecrafts has not been achieved yet. MEESST aims at filling the gap between science and technology towards the development of a first demonstrator implementing active magnetic shielding. To this end, a disruptive device consisting of a compact cryostat integrating a superconductive magnet able to generate sufficiently strong magnetic fields will be designed, manufactured, tested in on-ground experimental plasma facilities and via numerical simulations relying upon improved models. The latter will take into account, for the first time, all relevant EM-plasma interactions, thermochemical nonequilibrium and radiation effects for both Earth and Mars atmospheres. As a result, a radically-new science-enabled proof-of-concept technology will be developed and deployed, together with enhanced experimental techniques and modelling tools which can contribute to push European space technology one step ahead the competition, worldwide. The success of MEESST can introduce a paradigm shift in aerospace science and technology by turning active magnetic shielding (i.e. a futuristic concept traditionally associated to science fiction) into reality and potentially into the spotlight, not just for space travel but also for future hypersonic transportation systems, radar imaging, surveillance and GPS navigation, all requiring accurate knowledge of EM signal propagation characteristics through plasmas.