European aerospace and research partners to cooperate on €3.6B “Clean Sky 2” initiative

12 September 2012

Airbus, together with 13 leading aerospace industry and research partners, has entered into an agreement with a letter of intent to cooperate on a “Clean Sky 2” programme. As an extension of the European Commission’s (EC) “Clean Sky” Joint Technology Initiative (earlier post), the industry would invest jointly with the EC a total of €3.6 billion (US$4.6 billion) over seven years on transport research in the frame of Clean Sky 2.

As part of the agreement, Clean Sky 2 would become incorporated in the European “Horizon 2020” program (earlier post), to run from 2014 to 2020. This LoI also expresses the European industry’s commitment to align its strengths and to significantly increase investment in European R&T through Clean Sky 2. This reflects the importance of strong and continued investment and co-operation to respond appropriately to the future challenges of air traffic.

Clean Sky 2 will build a bridge towards the targets of “Flightpath 2050” and the new ACARE (Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research in Europe) Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda. These targets include the reduction of air transport CO₂ emissions per passenger kilometer by as much as 75% by 2050.

Airbus is currently playing a leading role with its partners in the seven-year Clean Sky research programme. Airbus says that its key contribution, the advanced laminar flow “Smart-Fixed-Wing” Airbus A340 demonstrator, is progressing well. Clean Sky 2 will take the industry’s collaborative research to the next level to prepare for a new wave of technologies.