Aviation brings people and cultures together, and facilitates international trade and economic growth. But it also has its drawbacks, such as harmful greenhouse-gas emissions and the noise pollution caused by aircraft. Fraunhofer researchers are developing new technologies and strategies to enable air traffic to grow while becoming more environmentally friendly at the same time.
Clean Sky is a project designed to make air travel more environmentally friendly. The project aims to reduce CO2 emissions by 50 percent, NOx emissions by 80 percent and perceived noise levels by 50 percent between now and 2020, and to introduce sustainable life-cycle management criteria throughout the aviation industry. The Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability LBF is responsible for coordinating the contributions made by all Fraunhofer Institutes to the Clean Sky project.
The small Bavarian town of Holzkirchen is home to a unique flight laboratory that is part of the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics IBP. The lab’s 30-meter-long low-pressure chamber contains the forward section of a real Airbus A310 aircraft, complete with cockpit and eight rows of cabin seating. How can cabin air quality aboard aircraft be improved? Which factors in on-board comfort allow wellbeing to be increased most efficiently and with a minimum of effort? These are the questions that Dr. Gunnar Grün and his team are trying to answer in the climate lab.
Engineers at the Fraunhofer-Institut für Werkstoff- und Strahltechnik IWS in Dresden have developed an innovative process in cooperation with industrial partners to weld and form modern lightweight parts for aircraft.
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft