Overview
Reducing noise from aircraft operations perceived by airport neighbouring communities is a major challenge facing the aircraft manufacturing industry, social society and the air transport business.
The objective of OPENAIR is to deliver a step change in noise reduction. The project aims to deliver a step change in noise reduction, beyond the SILENCE(R) achievements.
The OPENAIR project will adopt a whole aircraft approach based on the latest developments in active/adaptive technologies, flow control techniques and advances in computational aero-acoustics applied to the major causes of noise at source.
The workplan clearly supports realistic exploitation of promising design concepts driven by noise reduction and will result in the development and validation up to TRL5 of "2nd Generation" technology solutions. OPENAIR's multidisciplinary approach and composition is suited to the projected integrated, lightweight solutions. The process includes a down-selection in mid project. The selected technologies will be subjected to scaled rig tests, and the resulting data will support assessment of the noise reduction solutions on power plant and airframe configurations across the current and future European range of products. The project exploitation plan will include detailed proposals for further demonstration in the Clean Sky JTI. The verification of the technologies applicability will be assured by addressing identified integration and environmental trade-offs (performance, weight, emissions). In this way OPENAIR will develop solutions that can play a significant role, in continuity with the previous Generation 1 effort, enabling future products to meet the ACARE noise goals and improving current fleet noise levels through retrofitting. This capability is key to providing the flexibility needed to simultaneously accommodate market requirements in all segments, global traffic growth and environmental constraints, while addressing the global environmental research agenda of the EU.