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Small Air Transport (SAT) - GAM 2020

Periodic Reporting for period 4 - GAM-2020-SAT (Small Air Transport (SAT) - GAM 2020)

Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31

Today, there is a need to improve European mobility in remote areas using small aircraft. These mobility needs must be obtained reducing environmental impact, paving the way of aviation decarbonitation on short range routes. Today, there is no available solution matching mobility needs and environmental goals at affordable costs (FlightPath 2050 ""d2d 4h"" challenge, whereby "90% of travellers within Europe are able to complete their journey, door-to-door within 4 hours").
The Small Air Transport (SAT) Initiative proposed in Clean Sky 2 represents the Research & Development (R&D), interests of European Manufacturers to develop green technologies for future affordable small aircraft (both passenger and cargo use), belonging to European Aviation Safety Agency Certification Specifications-23 (EASA´s CS-23) regulatory base. This initiative includes dozens of Industrial Companies (including Small Medium Enterprises), Research Centres and Universities, covering the full supply chain (aircraft integrators, engine and systems manufacturers, research organizations).

SAT activities in 2023-24 focused on:

1) Support the final evaluation on the Green 19 seats a/c (aircraft), with expected benefits in TE final assessment

2) Final integration and complete test campaign of SAT D1and D2 demonstrator

3) SAT D3 Flight test campaign completion
The following key steps were made during 2023-24:
• Management and coordination activities of SAT studies, interface with other SAT-related activities performed within other Integrated Technology Demonstrators (Airframe, Engine, and Systems), and support to Technology Evaluator (TE) analyses.

Relevant Dissemination actions have been completed with the participation in the :
9th Eccomass Thematic Conference on the Mechanical Response of Composite 12-14 September 2023
Joint H2020/IMOTHEP Workshop on HYbrid Electric Propulsion Bruxelles 30 November 2023
Clean Aviation Annual Forum Bruxelles 5-6 March 2024
ILA Berlin 5-9 June 2024
ICAS 2024 9-13 September 2024 Florence Italy
14th EASN 8-10 October 2024 Thessaloniki Greece

• Demonstrators progress:
o SAT D1 "Aircraft Level 0" Completed integration and test campaign for TRL evaluation.
o SAT D2 "Smart wing with Structural Health Monitoring" complete integration of SHM and static test for assessment.
o SAT D3 "Safe and comfortable cabin amd avionic ” complete flight test campaign.
SAT TA addresses market innovations to reduce small aircraft operational cost and environmental impact, ensuring good levels of operational safety, to revitalize European market in the small commuter category.
In particular, the following Beyond State-of-the-Art technologies are addressed:

1) Low cost composite wing box and engine nacelle using Out of Autoclave (OoA) technology, Liquid Resin Infusion (LRI) and advance automation process.
2) Innovative high lift device (blowing flap), able to allow aircraft operations from short airfields (<600m).
3) Affordable small aircraft manufacturing of metallic fuselage by means of Friction Stir Welding (FSW) and Laser Metal Deposition (LMD).
4) Affordable fly-by-wire architecture for small aircraft (CS23 certification rules).
5) More electric systems replacing pneumatic and hydraulic aircraft systems (high voltage Electrical Power Generation and Distribution System, hybrid de-ice system, landing gears and brakes).
6) Advanced avionics for small aircraft, to reduce pilot workload, paving single pilot operations for 19 seats.
7) Advanced cabin comfort with new interiors materials and more comfortable seats.
8) New generation of turboprop engine with reduced fuel consumption, emissions, noise and maintenance costs for 19 seats aircraft.

The preliminary integration of the abovementioned technologies into the Green Loop 2 aircraft configuration shows that original Clean Sky 2 targets in terms of both CO2 and NOX emission reduction are matched for the design mission (800 nm, 230 KTAS) are met, paving the way to the introduction of an affordable and green small European commuter in 2025.
19-seats Green aircraft flying.
19-seats Green aircraft mission analysis preiminary results.
sat-d-1-demo.jpg
E-STOL EIS2032 flying.
SAT D2 final demo
SAT D3 Final