During the Paris Air Show, the German company ECOMAT and Royal NLR signed a Memorandum of Understanding. With this, the two parties want to combine their expertise in the field of science and business with regard to lightweight constructions, materials research and virtual product development in the aircraft industry.
German-Dutch cooperation
Aviation must virtually reinvent itself to be climate neutral by 2050. This requires innovations in all aspects of aviation and a broadly supported international approach in which cooperation between knowledge institutions, the business community and government is essential.
From that point of view, the German research and technology center ECOMAT and NLR confirmed their cooperation and knowledge exchange in the field of sustainable aviation in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) during the Paris Air Show.
The focus is on four topics, such as the reuse and circularity of materials in order to use raw materials as economically as possible. In addition, it is about the development of (liquid) hydrogen applications, aimed at the goal of both the Netherlands and Airbus ZeroE to develop future aircraft that no longer have any CO2 emissions. The MoU then describes agreements on future space technology, in which developments in aerospace can complement each other, such as on the (re)use of lighter materials, and on digitization. The latter can contribute to sustainability by being able to test and certify aircraft components without the need for (destructive or full-scale) tests. But CO2 emissions can also be reduced by simulating flight movements in a computer program.
Collin Beers, NLR's Aerospace Vehicles division manager: “We have been talking to each other since last year and after a visit to Bremen, we at NLR were inspired and very impressed by the entire set-up of ECOMAT and the available aerospace knowledge and experiences of companies such as Airbus, Ariane, Testia and fellow institutes DLR and Fraunhofer. It was clear that joining ECOMAT would be of great value to us and we believe that NLR can also bring a lot to ECOMAT vice versa”.
Optimal exchange
The MoU follows the recently signed contracts for office and work space for NLR at ECOMAT and the cooperation between the participants in ECOMAT with NLR in the field of sustainable aviation and space travel. ECOMAT offers the possibility to bring together several parties under one roof in Bremen. This way they can all benefit from an optimal exchange of knowledge and expertise.
