In the series ‘NLR People’, we show you who the experts at the Royal Netherlands Aerospace Centre are, what drives them, and what they are working on behind the scenes. In this episode: Shafeeq Kasiemkhan, Mechanical Design Engineer at the Aerospace Vehicles department.
‘No plane can take to the air without wind tunnel models’
“Back in 2014 we created the first wind tunnel models for the Ariane 6 (ESA’s newest rocket model, Ed.), which was successfully launched in July 2024. The fact that everything around the launch went so well gave us an enormous sense of pride.” As a Mechanical Design Engineer at the Royal Netherlands Aerospace Centre (NLR), Shafeeq Kasiemkhan works with planes, helicopters and rockets that the rest of the world only sees when they finally take to the air years later.
The testing and validation of new aircraft with wind tunnel models is indispensable for the aviation of tomorrow. The models are used to develop new aircraft types and research innovative technology. They enable aircraft manufacturers to determine the optimal aerodynamic properties before a prototype has even been built. Added to that, the simulations save time and money and improve safety because any problems can be identified and resolved before the new aircraft actually takes to the air.
NLR has a state-of-the-art facility in Marknesse in the Netherlands with its own workshop in which the models are designed, built and fitted with advanced measuring equipment. This advanced equipment – such as balances that enable the load on a model to be very precisely measured in all directions – is also being designed by Shafeeq and his team.
The fact that this NLR one-stop-shop and the DNW wind tunnels (German-Dutch Wind Tunnels) are located less than fifty metres apart in Marknesse makes it a unique test location. NLR designs wind tunnel models for international research projects and aircraft manufacturers in Europe, Brazil, South Korea and the United States.
Quickly collecting huge amounts of data
“See that big tunnel there?” Shafeeq asks as he points from his office on the NLR campus in Marknesse to a grey installation measuring 9.5 by 9.5 metres. “That’s the Large-Low Speed Facility (LLF), a wind tunnel with a closed return circuit. We can perform tests there at speeds of up to 550 kilometres per hour.” The tunnel is mainly suitable for aerodynamic and aeroacoustic research during take-off and landing phases and is large enough to test complete aircraft configurations.
Shafeeq: “The wind tunnel models contain thousands of sensors that can measure values such as pressure distribution, airflow profiles, noise production and temperatures on the model surface. So a wind tunnel test can quickly collect huge amounts of data.”
Among other things, Shafeeq is working on wind tunnel models with new materials (for example, the replacement of steel with carbon or glass fibre) and wing structures. In the future, aircraft will become even lighter and more flexible, which means flutter will become a bigger problem. To analyse this, his team developed a new wind tunnel wing model that makes it possible to analyse vibrations in real time during wind tunnel tests.
“I like to push the boundaries and operate out of the box. So that when the job becomes technically difficult I can still come up with a solution”
Pushing the boundaries
Another research study in which Shafeeq is closely involved is the ATTILA project, which is a European platform for testing tilt rotors in wind tunnels. One of the EU’s environmental and mobility goals is for citizens to be able to travel from door to door in 4 hours in 90% of cases. To achieve that goal, a new type of aircraft is required that is somewhere between conventional helicopters and planes. That’s where tilt rotors come into play. The rotors of a tilt rotor can tilt, enabling the aircraft to fly horizontally at high speed and take off and land vertically – which saves an enormous amount of space.
With tilt rotors, however, the mechanical interplay between the wing and the rotor is difficult to predict. That presents a major challenge, Shafeeq explains. “There are three blades on the wing of a tilt rotor. Whirl flutter occurs when the movements of an aircraft’s rotors and wings influence and reinforce each other. So you want to be able to set and vibrate them collectively but also independently of each other so that you can simulate the situation in a wind tunnel,” Shafeeq explains. At DLR, they designed a device that can do this. However, it turned out to be too bulky and heavy so they asked NLR for advice.
Shafeeq played a key role in developing a mechanical (and therefore much lighter) device. The model has now been successfully tested and a patent application has been filed for the design. What does Shafeeq like most about his job? “Finding answers to almost impossible questions. I like to push the boundaries and operate out of the box. So that when the job becomes technically difficult I can still come up with a solution, as happened with ATILLA. If I had to name one thing that I’m proud of in my career, that would be it.”
The new generation of manufacturers
As a boy, Shafeeq was always fascinated by aviation and space travel. Whether it involved going to Schiphol Airport to spot planes, giving school presentations about space or building model rockets at home: He first took a secondary vocational course in aircraft maintenance technology, then did an internship at Schiphol and finally decided to study aircraft engineering. Shafeeq has now been working at NLR for ten years.
The most important advice he ever received was from a colleague who has since retired: ‘Always strive for perfection’. “I have a first-time-right job. Because it’s so expensive to design, create and test a wind tunnel model, everything has to work perfectly straight away. I had to get used to that at the start because it involves a certain kind of pressure.”
And due to this pressure it can be quite a challenge to find the right personnel. That is why Shafeeq believes it is important to spend a lot of time, effort and attention on guiding interns and new employees. Something that his colleagues say he can do better than anyone. How exactly does he do that? The main thing he wants from his trainees is that they dare to do new things.
“They should be given the chance to make mistakes because that’s when you learn the most. I just think that it’s very important for the next generation of builders to be expertly guided. After all, they’re the future of our department. We design the hardware here in our department and those designs become reality downstairs in the workshop. So once an intern has come up with an idea, I ask them to walk downstairs and talk with the colleague who has to create it. You learn a lot from that direct feedback. But the most important message to get across is that the work that we do here is indispensable. Because new sustainable aircraft can only be validated in wind tunnels. Without our work, no plane can take to the air.”
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