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VFS Showcases Future Flight at Airtec 2024
  • 12 Nov 2024 12:15 PM
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VFS Showcases Future Flight at Airtec 2024

By Mike Hirschberg, VFS Director of Strategy
Vertiflite, Nov/Dec 2024

For the third year in a row, VFS organized sessions on future air mobility at Airtec, “the International Fair on Aerospace, Future Air Mobility, New Space and Defence & Security.” The business-to-business (B2B) exhibit and tradeshow in Augsburg, Germany, is intended as a “central, international meeting place for suppliers and OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] to find each other precisely and to establish new business relationships.” With the addition of defense and security to the tradeshow’s mandate, VFS added a session on rotorcraft advances, for a total of five sessions and 21 speakers, organized by the author.

Airtec 2024 was held Oct. 8–10 at the Augsburg convention center, with some 1,500 visitors each day, a growth of nearly 15% compared to last year (see “VFS Leads the Future of Air Mobility at Airtec,” Vertiflite, Jan/Feb 2024), which itself was more than double that of Airtec 2022 (see “VFS Made an Impact at Airtec,” Vertiflite, Jan/Feb 2023).

The opening plenary session, also chaired by the author, included welcomes from government dignitaries and insightful talks by executives across the aerospace industry:

  • René Reinhardt, Policy Officer in the Office of the Aerospace Coordinator, Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy
  • Dr. Anna Christmann, Member of the German Parliament, Federal Government Coordinator of German Aerospace Policy (Video message)
  • Bavarian State Minister Dr. Florian Herrmann, Member of the State Parliament, Head of the Bavarian State Chancellery (Video message)
  • Dr. Wolfgang Hübschle, City Council for Economic Affairs, City of Augsburg
  • Andreas Hammer, Airbus Defence and Space, Head of Combat Air Systems and Site Director of Manching, Bavaria
  • Meinolf Köster, Head of Aerospace at Drees & Sommer and Divisional Director: "Decarbonisation of Aerospace: Energy Transition Meets Competitiveness"
  • Dr. Stephan Baur, Partner, Roland Berger: "Advanced Air Mobility — The Good, The Bad, The Ugly (And How to Overcome It)"
  • Dr. Alexander Kopp, CEO, POLARIS Spaceplanes: "The Polaris Spaceplane Project"
  • Tobias Mueller, Strategy&, UAS Competence Center Leader: "Can Drones Help Us Soar Towards a More Sustainable Future? Analyzing UAS and Their Role in ESG" [environmental, social and governance responsibilities]

VFS Sessions

The Rotorcraft Advancements session featured researchers from (L-R): TUM, Airbus, Leonardo and ULTRA Energy.

The five sessions organized by VFS over the three days began with Future Air Mobility Perspectives, featuring insights by the author and executives from Germany company Lilium and Czech company Zuri. In addition, Willi Tacke, CEO of Flying Pages, provided an overview of recent electric aviation developments in Europe and China.

A session on Rotorcraft Advancements included cutting-edge research and development efforts from Airbus, Leonardo and the Technical University of Munich (TUM), as well as an overview of ULTRA Energy’s design and manufacture measurement and control solutions for aerospace and industrial processes.

The Future Air Mobility Developments session featured the latest electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft developments by Airbus, Volocopter and ERC, and electric conventional takeoff and landing (eCTOL) developments by Væridion, all happening nearby in Bavaria.

A session on Future Air Mobility Critical Technologies discussed some of the key enablers for advanced air mobility (AAM), including talks on autonomy and power electronic systems by two Fraunhofer Institutes, as well as RENK Test Systems on various test stands for drive systems. Alain Vallée, Senior Technical Programme Manager for the European Organisation for Civil Aviation Equipment (EUROCAE), the European-based aviation standards development organization, highlighted the process for developing industry standards for aviation, particularly for AAM, which is called “innovative air mobility” (IAM) by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

The closing session on hydrogen propulsion featured insights from two Technische Hochschule Augsburg professors and executives from Piasecki and H2FLY.

The final VFS-organized session was on hydrogen propulsion. Technische Hochschule Augsburg (“Technical University of Applied Sciences Augsburg”) Prof. Dr.-Ing. André Baeten and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Neven Majic presented on the university’s research on temperature control of airborne cryogenic, hydrogen-cooled propulsion system with an axial flux electric motor and the lightweighting potential of reinforced domes on high-pressure vessels for gaseous hydrogen, respectively. Sebastian Grasser of SGL Carbon presented on the company’s lightweight fuel cell components and scaling up production to large volumes.

The session also included talks by two hydrogen fuel cellpowered aircraft OEMs. Stefan Andres is Chief of Product for Piasecki Aircraft’s eight-seat compound hydrogen helicopter under development, the PA-890, as well as its two-seat test bed, HAXEL (“Hydrogen coAXial Electric Lift”), which is expected to fly in the coming months. The session concluded with Prof. Dr.- Ing. Josef Kallo, the CEO of H2FLY, the pioneering hydrogen aviation company that was acquired by Joby Aviation in 2021 (see “eVTOL Leaders Deliver,” Vertiflite, Sept/Oct 2024). H2FLY is working to “deliver to market the first qualified, fully hydrogen-electric aircraft powertrain [for] emission-free, sustainable air travel,” the company says. The HY4, the world’s first hydrogen-electric passenger aircraft, first took off in 2016, demonstrating both the feasibility and potential of hydrogen for aviation.

The company is also being funded by the German government to explore high-powered hydrogen fuel cell systems over the next three years; H2FLY is developing 1.2-MW powertrains for flight testing on a Dornier 328 twin-engine turboprop (being put back into production by Deutsche Aerospace as the D328eco), with an estimated range of 800 km (500 miles). Kallo envisions that, within the next few years, a hydrogen-fuel cell eCTOL aircraft will be able to transport 40 passengers over distances of up to 2,000 km (1,240 miles) using 2-MW systems.

Exhibits and More

Zuri CEO Michal Illich spoke in the opening VFS Future Air Mobility session and showcased the company’s ergonomics and electronics testbed.

Airtec 2024 featured exhibiting companies from aerospace OEMs to suppliers, universities, government agencies, institutions and associations. The Vertical Flight Society partnered with the Technical University of Munich for a large exhibit stand, supported by graduate students and researchers in the Institute of Rotorcraft and Vertical Flight (chaired by Prof. Ilkay Yavrucuk) and the Institute of Flight System Dynamics (chaired by Prof. Florian Holzapfel). The TUM researchers showcased their research and had the opportunity to talk about vertical flight and flight dynamics with thousands of visitors.

Airtec 2024 was quite successful as a B2B platform; it was an opportunity to network, make new or renewed business connections and see the latest developments from leading innovators in aerospace, particularly those based in Germany and around Europe. The plenary and 13 conference sessions (with five organized by VFS) highlighted the latest advances in aerospace technology, including applications of artificial intelligence (AI), additive manufacturing and advanced materials. The insights and understanding provided during the sessions were highly valuable to the attendees.

Visitors from 20 nations were registered at Airtec 2025, including Afghanistan, Algeria, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, China, England, France, Germany, Iceland, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Poland, the Republic of Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States.

Next year’s Airtec will be held again in Augsburg, Germany, on Oct. 22–24, 2025. Those interested in exhibiting or attending can learn more at www.airtec.aero.

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