Cranfield University has a major role in a new project developing the testbeds needed to pave the way for next generation aircraft.

Led by the Dutch national aerospace laboratory, NLR, EXAELIA: EXperimental Aircraft for European Leadership in Aviation is a €16m project with 23 partners in 13 countries who are collaborating to develop knowledge around building and using smaller scale flying testbeds. These testbed research aircraft, which will be re-used for additional flight test needs, will test new concepts and technologies and are crucial to help researchers and engineers learn how new technology long-range aircraft will work.

Accelerating three key areas of technology

The project focuses on three main areas – Tube and Wing (TaW) aircraft with new design long slender wings, Blended Wing Body (BWB) airliners and new propulsion systems, particularly hydrogen propulsion. All of these new technologies aim to significantly reduce the emissions from aviation, ultimately achieving net zero.

Cranfield is leading the design of the BWB testbeds, developing the legal paradigms and flight test practices for all testbeds, as well as making a major contribution to the design of hydrogen powertrains. Cranfield will also support four PhD students in this work, who will graduate ready to work on the next stage of building and operating these testbed aircraft.

Crucial step towards net zero aviation

Cranfield’s Principal Investigator and leader on the flight test practices work, Dr Guy Gratton, Associate Professor of Aviation and the Environment, said, “Our involvement in EXAELIA builds on nearly 80 years of aeronautical innovation here at Cranfield. Reaching net zero emissions from aviation requires a radical rethink of aircraft concepts, and this project has a crucial role in helping to de-risk and validate the technologies that will take us there.”

Dr Gratton led the previous EnabEl: Enabling Aircraft Electrification programme, and was the test pilot who made the first flight of the Sherwood eKub, the first British designed and built all-electric conventional aeroplane. He is supported by Reader in Airframe Systems, Dr Craig Lawson, who is leading the BWB design work.

Dr Lawson added: “We are looking forward to continuing our work on full-scale and sub-scale demonstrator BWB aircraft design through the EXAELIA project, and playing a leading part in enhancing Europe’s future flying demonstrator capabilities as an enabler to sustainable aviation.”

The EXAELIA project partners are also supported by industry leaders including Airbus, Safran, Rolls-Royce, MTU, GKN Aerospace, Collins Aerospace, Honeywell Aerospace Technologies, Piaggio Aerospace, KLM Royal Dutch Airline, and ITP Aero.

Cranfield University, which also owns and operates Cranfield Airport, is at the forefront of exploring new aircraft designs and the potential for hydrogen in aviation, with a £69 million investment creating the first large scale hydrogen research hub at any UK airport.