Testing For Laminar Flow On New Aircraft

A European project supported within the Sixth Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development
Context
The requirement to improve upon the environmental performance of aircraft is one of a number of key goals
of the Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research in Europe’s (ACARE) Strategic Research Agenda.
The environmental challenge is to meet continually rising demand for air travel whilst demonstrating
sensitivity to society’s needs by reducing the environmental impact of operating, maintaining, manufacturing
and disposing of aircraft and associated systems.

Specific environmental goals have been defined :

• To reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by 50%.

• To reduce perceived external noise by 50%.
• To reduce NOx by 80%.
• To make substantial progress in reducing the
environmental impact of the manufacture, maintenance
and disposal of aircraft and related products.

Similar goals have been defined by ACARE in the areas

of «Quality and Affordability», «Safety», «Air Transport
System efficiency» and «Security».

Airbus and its European research partners are

making significant investments to meet these
challenges. In the area of aerodynamic cruise
performance, the goal is to reduce the fuel
consumption. This can be done by improving the
efficiency of the engines and by introducing drag
reduction technologies.

The European FP6 project TELFONA will contribute to

these research activities by examining the opportunities
related to the concept of a Natural Laminar Flow large
commercial aircraft. This technology is in service today on
small business aircraft such as the Piaggio P180. The task
for the TELFONA project team is to understand whether
this technology can be scaled up to a large aircraft and then
to assess the drag reduction potential of this concept.
Project Objectives
The major objective of TELFONA is the development of the capability to predict the in-flight performance of
an NLF aircraft using wind tunnel tests and CFD calculations.

A number of supporting objectives have been defined : • Development of methods for predicting the in-flight
• Transition prediction tool calibration for NLF aircraft performance of an NLF aircraft including understanding
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Expected Results
The successful completion of the project will result in into the receptivity problem. The second “performance”
two wind tunnel model tests and improved transition model will be designed using the calibrated methods
prediction methods. The first “pathfinder” model will be and will be used to demonstrate the potential of a large
tested in ETW with the results being used to calibrate NLF aircraft.
transition prediction methods and to provide insight
Consortium
The TELFONA consortium consists of 15 organisations from 8 different member states. The consortium
contains 4 aircraft manufacturers, 1 industrial organisation (wind tunnel facility), 5 research organisations
and 4 universities and 1 consulting company.

Aircraft Manufacturers
Airbus UK (UK), Airbus E (Spain),
Airbus D (Germany), Piaggio (Italy)
Industrial Organisation
ETW (Germany)
Research Organisations
VZLU (Czech Republic),
ONERA (France), FOI (Sweden),
CIRA (Italy), DLR (Germany)
Universities
Imperial College (UK), IST (Portugal),
TU-Berlin (Germany), KTH (Sweden) ,

Consulting Company
ALMA Consulting Group (France)

Acknowledgment
Supported by the European Commission through the Sixth Framework
Programme for Research and Development up to 3 025 Keuros (out of
a total budget of 5 174 Keuros) the TELFONA project address the area
“Strengthening Competitiveness” of the “Aeronautics and Space” thematic
priority.
The project has been running since 1st May 2005 and it will last for 42
months.
Création :: Comète :: 04 78 39 56 13

Project Coordinator:
Airbus UK : Mr. D. Sawyers, +44 117 936 3435
david.sawyers@airbus.com

With the support of:

ALMA Consulting Group : A. Hoque, +33 4 72 35 80 30
ahoque@almacg.com
TELFONA management is operated on the PRODIGE Internet platform :
www.prodige.com