EXAELIA is impact-driven beyond current European RTD mainstream and address long-range aircraft (~45% of current air transport emissions)
Key Expected Results:
- Promising disruptive aircraft concepts, energy carriers and related technologies that offer more than 50% of CO₂ tailpipe emission reduction by 2050 with respect to 2020.
- Predesigns of modular experimental aircraft for derisking, with new experimentation approaches, as technology infrastructure assets (family concept), for use and re-use.
- Advanced design processes.
- Roadmap for development of the aircraft configurations until TRL 6 / coming 10-20 years, oriented towards EIS 2045-2050, covering next EU FP timeframe. The ultimate benefit will be to accelarate entry into service by one a/c generation (>20 years).
Key stakeholders:
- Aircraft/engine manufacturers and airlines, linked through a strong Advisory Board.
Overall Result capture:
- Business and operational plans for the FTBs.
- Analysis of the holistic impact of the aircraft configurations: climate impact, energy consumption, CO₂ and non-CO₂ emissions.
- Dissemination, training, and wider societal impact (improving public perception).
About Impact Assessment: Science-based informed decisions
Holistic Impact Assessment is an assessment framework carried out using a systematic approach using EC Better regulation guidelines and framework developed by the Impact Monitor and Impact Monitor 2 projects.
There are several metrics evaluated at each level – from Sustainability Index to Noise to Climate effects, further assessing the societal aspects such as skills, workforce and educations sector impacts. The assessment is holistic and presented in an interactive dashboard to understand the interaction of impacts, cross coupling across the multiple levels for each FLRA configuration.
- Sustainability index.
- Climate (CO₂ and Non-CO₂) and Fleet modeling aspects for FLRA configuration.
- Noise levels of the new aircraft concepts.
Sustainability index : one of the important metrics for Impact Assessment, incorporating the five pillars of sustainability (performance, environment, costs, circularity, and social impact)
EXAELIA relevance towards European policy making
- For the sake of European competitiveness, sustainability and sovereignty in aviation, substantial investment in aviation research and innovation (R&I) and support to market uptake of new technologies is needed. A broad representation of European aviation stakeholders, including European industrial entities, SMEs and start-ups, research organisations and universities, developed the Aviation Research and Innovation Strategy (ARIS, 2025), in close coordination with the European Commission.
- EXAELIA contributes to the Aircraft technologies pillars in ARIS. It takes first steps on the pathway to entry-into-service of hydrogen-powered and/or blended wing-body long range aircraft before 2050. EXAELIA provides deep insight in criticalities of such disruptive aircraft configurations with advanced propulsion concepts, and their enabling aircraft and propulsion technologies. EXAELIA also defines and partly develops the FTB families, as technology infrastructure assets that are needed to de-risk the criticalities.
- Policy makers will obtain the assessed impact of EXAELIA’s disruptive aircraft configurations on aviation to motivate their further development. In addition, EXAELIA provides the policy makers roadmaps for both hydrogen-powered and blended wing-body long range aircraft development, as next steps towards entry-into-service. These roadmaps include the use of the EXAELIA FTB families for de-risking criticalities and are accompanied by development, operational and business plans for these FTBs.