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CleanSky

CleanSky is the most ambitious aeronautical research programme ever launched in Europe. Its mission is to develop breakthrough technologies to significantly increase the environmental performances of airplanes and air transport, resulting in less noisy and more fuel-efficient aircraft.

CleanSky
Overview


The CleanSky JTI (Joint Technology Initiative) was born in 2008 and is one of the largest European research projects ever, with a budget estimated at €1.6 billion, equally shared between the European Commission and industry, over the period 2008 - 2013. The objective of this unique public-private partnership is to speed up technological breakthrough developments and shorten the time to market for new solutions tested on Full-Scale Demonstrators.

Considering that aircraft have a 30-year service life and that new aviation design takes more than a decade to develop, the accelerated research process that CleanSky offers, represents an unprecedented opportunity for rapid progress in the introduction of green technology into aviation.

CleanSky will demonstrate and validate the technology breakthroughs that are necessary to make major steps towards the environmental goals set by ACARE - Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research in Europe - the European Technology Platform for Aeronautics & Air Transport and to be reached in 2020:
 
  • 50% reduction of CO2 emissions through drastic reduction of fuel consumption
  • 80% reduction of NOx (nitrogen oxide) emissions
  • 50% reduction of external noise
  • A green product life cycle: design, manufacturing, maintenance and disposal/recycling
  • CleanSky encourages the participation of SMEs such as SustainAvia to ensure their full involvement in the programme, therefore offering opportunities to the entire aeronautic supply chain from all EU Member States and Associated countries.

Towards CleanSky 2


With the success of Clean Sky, it is necessary to build upon the achievements of the current programme to, inter-alia, reach the 50% decrease of CO2 and, beyond the ACARE 2020 horizon, prepare for the even more ambitious targets of Flightpath 2050.  

Key elements of Clean Sky 2 are:
 
  • Higher level of integration of technologies into vehicle-level demonstrators (Large Passenger Aircraft, Regional Aircraft, Fast Rotorcraft)
  • System-level Demonstrators and focused technology streams for Airframes, Engines and Systems
  • Transverse co-ordination of research activity in Small Air Transport (SAT) and Eco-Design
  • A continued robust and independent analysis of progress towards the programme goals via the Technology Evaluator 
More on CleanSky 2