The Sixth European Aeronautics Days 2011, organised by the Spanish research agency CDTI and supported by the European Commission, took place in the Madrid Palacio Municipal de Congresos from 30th March to 1st April 2011. It was the largest Aerodays conference so far with more than 1400 participants coming from 45 countries, with an extensive exhibition area and numerous side-events of strategic importance to Europe's aeronautical research and innovation.

The Aerodays offered a great opportunity for aviation stakeholders at all levels to meet and discuss the latest advances in aeronautics and air transport, not only in Europe but also worldwide. Representatives from industry, research centres, universities and politics highly appreciated the opportunity to receive top-level information on strategies as well as on the advances of specific research programmes. The unique chance to meet and communicate across all branches and hierarchies opened up new partnerships and encouraged potential future collaboration.

Furthermore, the Aerodays offered the perfect scenario and timing to present Europe's Vision for Aviation, ‘Flightpath 2050’.

Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment

The conference motto is clearly directed towards the future challenges of aviation as well as to the recent political strategies of the European Commission. The general messages from the Commission and high level industrial and research leaders provided a clear view on the way ahead in research and innovation. It also highlighted the importance of aeronautical research within the Framework Programme.

Preparing the Future of Aviation

On the basis of global development it is evident that only in a joint European effort can the future in aeronautics be mastered. Industrial needs and environmental goals require research and innovation efforts leading eventually to an economically viable and environmentally sustainable air transport where aircraft, airports, air traffic management and operation contribute to a balanced and overall optimised system.

Aviation Technologies

Excellent overviews and insights into various community research projects were provided. The very good progress in greening of the air transport with topics in flight physics-, noise and vibration-, propulsion- and climate research as well as solutions for alternative fuels were presented. Equally important contributors to future aviation goals are air traffic operations and certainly cost efficiency, including structures-, systems-, production- and maintenance technologies.

Within the section pioneering the air transport a high emphasis was placed on the longer-term view into the future of aeronautics and the innovative solutions with a high potential for fulfilling the goals of Europe's ambitious vision.

The safety and security sessions provided an insight into the overall mandatory certification aspects of novel technologies and presented important developments in securing the air transport system of the future.

National and International Programmes

The excellent results in Europe for building the future of aviation are not only based on programmes of the European Commission but are a common achievement together with the specific research programmes of the Member States. European institutions and national research establishments have also aligned their goals to the European vision. Complimentary research and the advances in forming sustainable European networks supported by initiatives of the European Commission have resulted in outstanding achievements and an engaged and powerful workforce in industry, research and academia.

However, aeronautics is part of a global community and dependent on worldwide developments. Thus international cooperation is mandatory and strongly supported.

Europe's Vision ‘Flightpath 2050’

Europe's Vision for Aviation ‘Flightpath 2050’, setting out a European vision for the future of aviation, emphasises where those working in aviation see the priorities for the relevant policy, research and innovation instruments. It is a high-level vision of Europe leading with an aviation industry that is clean, competitive, safe and secure. At the Aerodays perspectives were shown how to implement this new Vision 2050 through a way forward to the new Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA).

Post-Conference Proceedings

After almost ten years of European research within the 6th and 7th Research Framework Programmes (2002–2006; 2007–2013) and in view of the coming Framework Programme ‘Horizon 2020’ (2014–2020) the Commission decided to support the publication of this special issue of the Conference Proceedings of the Aerodays in Madrid. Assisted by the Scientific Advisory Committee, selected papers from the policy and technical sessions were collected with the intention to provide the reader with a representative picture of the main themes and issues addressed.

The proceedings are divided into three main chapters:

• Policy and Strategy

• Aviation Technologies and Operations

• National and International Programmes

Due to the strategic importance of this conference the proceedings constitute a reference document providing an overview on aeronautical research within Europe especially devoted to Commission supported programmes and networks.

Scientific Advisory Committee

A Scientific Advisory Committee was set up by the European Commission in order to provide advice on the scientific and technical content of the Aerodays Conference as well as evaluate and coordinate the final content of these proceedings. Its members were:

Fred Abbink

Luis da Costa Campos

Anders Gustafsson

Jim Lawler

José Martin Hernandez

Fernando Monge Gómez

Cesar Puentes

Christian Pusch

Dieter Schmitt

Clyde Warsop

Acknowledgements

We wish to acknowledge our gratitude and thanks to the members of the Scientific Advisory Committee and to the authors of the papers for their great effort and cooperation to realise these Post-Conference Proceedings. We would also like to thank sincerely Jean-Pierre Sanfourche of the Council of European Aerospace Societies (CEAS), who acted as the co-ordinating editor for the whole book, and Ms Krisztina Simonne-Paldy of the Aeronautics team of DG Research Innovation of the European Commission, who implemented all the editorial requirements.

Joachim Szodruch

Dietrich Knörzer

Contacts:

Dietrich Knörzer (dietrich.knoerzer@ec.europa.eu)

Joachim Szodruch (Joachim.szodruch@dlr.de)