Alenia Aeronautica is to lead the Green Regional Aircraft (GRA) Integrated Technology Demonstrator (ITD) project as part of the €1.6 billion ($2.34 billion) Clean Sky Joint Technology Initiative (JTI) between the European Commission and industry.
Expected to be approved by the European Union Council of Ministers in the next few weeks and scheduled to be launched at the beginning of 2008, the Clean Sky JTI is the most ambitious research project in EU history. Its goal is to exploit current and emerging technologies to reduce the environmental impact of air traffic in Europe, and validate and demonstrate them within the next seven years.
One of six "technology development platforms" established within the Clean Sky Joint Undertaking, Alenia Aeronautica will lead the GRA ITD project, with EADS Casa as co-leader, and the participation of regional turboprop manufacturer ATR, Greece's Hellenic Aerospace Industries group, French research establishment Onera and two Italian industry/university consortia.
Air Green includes Piaggio Aero Industries, companies Sicamb and Foxbit, the universities of Naples, Turin, Pisa and Bologna universities, and research centres CSM and IMAST.
CIRA Plus comprises Naples-based Aerosoft and Dema, research centres CIRA of Italy and Romania's Incas, and the Elsis company of Lithuania.
The GRA aims to develop technologies to be applied to regional aircraft entering service beyond 2015. The "technological domains" that the Alenia-lead ITD will manage include advanced aerostructures for weight reduction advanced aerodynamics limiting acoustic emissions created by airflow all-electric aircraft systems architecture to increase fuel efficiency mission and trajectory management to reduce environmental impact at local and global level, and advanced aircraft configurations integrating the most promising technologies.
The Alenia-lead ITD will mature these technologies and flight test them, to select the ones that can be applied to the subsequent industrialisation phase.
Source: Flight International
