Rolls-Royce secures €64m to advance UltraFan 30 demonstrator through UNIFIED partnership

Rolls-Royce has secured €64million in funding from the European Union’s Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking (CAJU) to lead UNIFIED (Ultra Novel and Innovative Fully Integrated Engine Demonstrations), a collaborative research project supporting the development and planned ground testing of the UltraFan 30 demonstrator.

The project will focus on maturing and advancing next-generation propulsion technologies for future narrowbody applications, supporting planned ground testing of the UltraFan 30 demonstrator in 2028 and helping establish a credible pathway toward future flight test.

Led by Rolls-Royce, the UNIFIED consortium brings together industrial, academia and research partners from across France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom.

By combining expertise across the European aerospace sector, including the UK through its association wtih Horizon Europe, the partnership will strengthen industrial capability, enhance supply chain resilience and build the technology readiness required for future narrowbody applications.

Rolls-Royce Director of Research and Technology Alan Newby said:

“UNIFIED is an important step in advancing the UltraFan technologies that could underpin a future narrowbody application. The narrowbody segment is central to global aviation growth and delivering step-change improvements in efficiency in this market is key to long-term sustainability.

“Through Clean Aviation, we are accelerating technology readiness in collaboration with leading industrial, academia and research partners - strengthening the foundations required for future narrowbody opportunities.”

Clean Aviation Head of Unit Project Management María Calvo Blanco added:

“We value our long-standing partnership with Rolls-Royce, which builds on previous research programmes and a focus within Clean Aviation on scalable UltraFan architecture, starting with HEAVEN and followed by UNIFIED.

“The contribution of UNIFIED to the development of ultra-high bypass ratio technology will be a decisive step towards the goal of a 30% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (compared to 2020 state-of-the-art technology) for short-medium range aircraft entering into service in 2035. In this way, project partners help advance new propulsion technologies that can play a key role in securing a sustainable and competitive aviation sector.”

The UNIFIED consortium partners and representatives from the Clean Aviation Programme Management Unit recently attended a formal kick-off meeting in the UK to share overall programme plans, objectives and progress on initial activities in the project.

The funding forms part of the European Union’s wider Clean Aviation call 3, which is investing around €945million in total research effort across selected projects to accelerate the development of sustainable aviation technologies.

The UNIFIED project participants include: Rolls Royce, Airbus, ITP Aero, Lufthansa Technik, TU Darmstadt, Imperial College London, DLR, NLR, ONERA, INSA Lyon &  Aerospace Transmissions Technologies.