GKN Aerospace
Over 55,000 people work in GKN companies and joint ventures in more than 30 countries.
ID: 981946923150-02
Lobbying Activity
Response to European Partnership for Clean Aviation
27 Aug 2019
GKN Aerospace fully supports an European Partnership on Clean Aviation and believes it is the right step for EU aviation research and innovation. This framework is the very example of EU added value. Aviation is a strategic industry, which means that EU needs to stay a global leader in technology, design and certification. We need a cutting edge supply chain to remain there. This will allow the EU to set the standard and take a leading role in developing solutions for a global challenge such as decarbonisation.
Decarbonisation of transport is an important challenge, required to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, with air transport as an essential part of this challenge. Today the sector is achieving a pace of 1,5 to 2 % reduction per year, but this needs to be accelerated. Due to the structure of aviation sector and the global character of the business, solutions need to be addressed at a European level and in a holistic manner. Flightpath 2050 and ACARE SRIA target -75% CO2, -90% NOx and -65% noise by 2050. Businesses, universities, research institutes and governments need to work together at an EU level to bring about the innovation and impact required to meet these targets. The complete supply chain needs
to be connected. GKN Aerospace strongly believes an Institutionalised Partnership (article 187) would be the best framework, as this provides the best guarantees for results and impact, to let the whole supply chain work together at an EU level. This focus does not exclude cooperation with third countries.
Cross-sectoral cooperation can result in new solutions and opens up new business possibilities. Key sectors and technologies need to be combined to get the required impact, such as digitalisation, advanced manufacturing, smart design and certification, but also novel ideas that contribute to electrification and provide for new fuel cell developments. Safety, high performance etc. should be of the highest priority.
In the short term, drop-in biofuels will also add further reduction of fossil CO2 emissions. In the longer term first non-drop-in fuels, such as liquid hydrogen and liquid biogas (LBG) are also viable solutions. This requires more efficient propulsion systems for new aircrafts and retrofits to be able to cope with (future) availability of these fuels. This also means research into new fuel and propulsion systems. Cooperation with other (EU funded) partnerships and initiatives such as hydrogen and fuel cells should be encouraged and facilitated.
Since the mission is to significantly reduce emissions of greenhouse gasses and noise, solutions need to be developed both for short and medium/long term to achieve the targets. The partnership should focus on both tracks.
Read full response