First and foremost, sustainability is the most important global challenge that society wishes to address and an area in which the European aeronautical industry is deeply committed as can be seen very clearly not only in the Clean Aviation public-private partnership as well as in the fact that a Zero Emissions Aviation (AZEA) alliance has been set up. CESA forms part of both initiatives under the auspices of the European Commission.

The second challenge consists in making this sustainable future viable without any detrimental effects for competitiveness. Once the lines of work required to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 have been identified (sustainable fuel, electric aircraft and hydrogen as a key energy vector), our sector must to do its utmost to fully recover the civil market (something that has not happened yet) that has been hit by a devastating pandemic followed by a situation of major economic and geopolitical instability. 

R&D is an absolute priority in this context to develop the capabilities required to make that sustainable future feasible, although this goal cannot be achieved at any cost but rather by applying a solid approach to support feasible technological developments in the future in a sector where safety is an absolute priority.

We did, in fact, work in two projects related to critical actuation systems. One of them was the DEMANDOS project (DEsarrollo de tecnologías core para MANDOS de vuelo primarios en aviones de nueva generación) (development of core technologies for primary flight controls aboard new generation aircraft) and Tekniker provided us with crucial support to develop a high-performance electric linear machine for a primary flight control application used aboard sixth generation planes. 

Joint work has now started on another project focused on technologies used to operate zero-emission planes. Our collaboration will consist in validating the design of an ultra-compact electric machine that will be incorporated to our development of a 100% electric actuation system in the area of hydrogen-powered aircraft.

One of CESA’s strategic priorities in terms of R&D is related to being rated as a company that delivers complete actuation systems. In recent years, the company decided to further its technological skills in two key areas that are like the heart and brain of actuation systems that are fully electric. Leadership in this domain is crucial to offer products that are competitive, sustainable, reliable and totally safe.

As regards the brain component, I’m referring to the development of electronic systems used to control critical applications which, thanks to R&D projects carried out over the last decade, has allowed CESA to occupy a strong position and offer in-house products. 

The second area of development has to do with electric machines, which I would describe as the heart of an actuation system. We are making significant R&D efforts to position ourselves in the field of electric and hydraulic actuation systems.

Tekniker has helped us develop capabilities associated with the electric machines based on the organisation’s know-how in areas such as electromagnetic simulation, material technologies and resources used to validate prototypes.

I can say that our relationship is based on mutual trust and that knowledge the technology centre is providing us with is an extremely important asset as regards working together not only in this area but also in others.

As mentioned previously, an electric engine is the heart of an actuation system and, in the case of certain market segments, the transition from hydraulic systems towards systems that are 100% electrical is already happening. Although the advantages associated with electric actuation, on paper, are clear (less weight, more reliability, monitoring options, cleaner and more sustainable systems…), reality shows that there are still important challenges to be addressed. 

Things like, for instance, heat management, especially in applications involving continuous operations –primary flight controls– or in operating environments where calorific power generated during operations –such as engines– must be managed efficiently to avoid affecting conventional systems where hydraulic fluid plays an extraordinary role as a cooling agent. 

Another challenge is related to meeting extremely demanding in-flight safety standards. To this end, one of the key aspects to be addressed is the development of electric fault-tolerant machines that will allow us to eliminate mechanical redundancies that produce very heavy and complex systems. Another key issue that must be addressed.

Let’s say that we could simplify our priorities and challenges by only focusing on three major areas. Firstly, we must consolidate our market position as suppliers of complete systems and this refers to what I said previously about electronic control systems.

Electrification is the second major challenge. It is a one-way path, and our focus is completely geared towards technological developments addressing major challenges associated with electric actuation. 

Challenge number three is related applying new technologies to data acquisition and management/utilisation. The large amount of data that electrified systems can deliver thanks to their basic concept characteristics can be useful for people using our equipment.

Consequently, it is essential that we know how to use data and transform it into quality information that our end users must find easy to interpret, based on our knowledge and capabilities in terms of electronic equipment. We are currently involved in several projects featuring a number of disruptive technologies and developments based on Big Data, Digital Twin, Health Monitoring…

This challenge is multi-dimensional. Dimension one focuses on developing products that are more reliable and safer (featuring, for instance, condition monitoring technologies to anticipate faults and generate in-service corrective actions).

Dimension number two covers product support and maintenance to generate, for instance, predictive maintenance capabilities to reduce our customers’ operating costs.

Dimension number three, finally, addresses the issue of how to manufacture and assemble our equipment by resorting, for instance, to virtual and augmented reality to gather and manage data so that any operations performed by our erection and manufacturing staff can be carried our more easily and with higher productivity levels.