Global solutions for major aviation questions
Michel Peters, CEO of the Netherlands Aerospace Centre (NLR), was appointed Vice-Chairman of IFAR, the International Forum for Aviation Research. Peters was appointed at IFAR’s 6th annual meeting, held at NASA’s Ames Research Center, in California, USA.
IFAR is comprised of 26 global aviation and aerospace research organisations that collaborate in order to jointly address the challenges facing the global aviation sector, such as technological issues that transcend national borders, including emissions, noise disturbance, safety, security and efficient operations.
In the presence of representatives of 21 aviation research organizations, the global leaders in aviation evaluate the progress of technological collaboration pertaining to aviation’s impact on the environment. Examples of this include research into alternative fuels, the development of a comprehensive approach to ATM research, the supersonic aircraft, and wind tunnel tests.
IFAR’s focus is on global issues, which are further subdivided into working groups. Consequently, NASA, for example, leads the ‘Air Transport Efficiency’ and alternative fuels working group. NLR meanwhile leads the ‘Impact of Weather on ATM’ working group. For NLR, this means that we collaborate with dozens of other organisations to initially identify existing research activities that are globally relevant for this subject and render it possible to exchange associated information.
In addition to promoting scientific and technical expertise, IFAR promotes exchanges of young researchers. Hence, during IFAR’ s recent meeting, a Young Researchers conference was held, during which IFAR participants from various countries exchanged ideas pertaining to the future of aviation. For networking purposes, researchers can benefit from the shared use of www.ifarlink.aero (for IFAR members and researchers at universities, related to aviation and aerospace).
NLR follows DLR, NASA and JAXA in assuming the Vice-Chairmanship. NLR is regarded and renowned as a leading organization in the field of aviation. Michel Peters will assume the chairmanship of IFAR in two years. Peters: “IFAR is an important global networking platform for both CEOs and scientists. IFAR’s focal point is the future of aviation. As the NLR, we must be a part of this platform. NLR is already participating in various working groups, such as ‘weather’ and ‘air traffic management’. We do this on a modest scale, as there is no allocated funding available, but we engage in areas of interest.”
The next IFAR meeting will be held in the autumn of 2016 at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, in Daejeon, South Korea.
