Aerospace industry meets again in person at Aviation Forum Hamburg 2021
December 8, 2021
Key players of the aerospace industry gathered on 7-8 December 2021 in Hamburg, Germany, and online for the 11th Aviation Forum. At the conference, they discussed new strategies, technologies and partnerships for the future of aerospace. Theaccompanying exhibition displayed innovations for aircraft manufacturing. The ANIMA project participated in this event, having had a booth in the exhibition as well, where representatives from the Airport Regions Council and the Royal Netherlands Aerospace Centre engaged with the audience. The attendees were informed about new approaches for aviation noise management and were also able to test the Virtual Community Noise Simulator (VCNS).
After facing the biggest crisis the aviation industry has ever experienced, the sector is repositioning itself, rethinking old structures and preparing for a fresh re-start. The central themes of the conference were therefore the application of new strategies, technologies, and partnerships to increase efficiency and keeping the quality of the industry at the highest level. The ANIMA project had a unique contribution to this event, given its non-traditional approach to noise. As a human-oriented research project that seeks to foster community engagement through fair and transparent communication, the project stood out thanks to its novel approach to noise impact management. In addition, the project served as a reminder that reducing aviation noise is still crucial to achieve a sustainable and socially accepted aviation and this should be considered when shaping new policies, strategies and technologies. Aviation has the chance to start a new through a sustainable strategy that addresses environmental challenges from a holistic point of view, also including aviation noise impact along other items such as decarbonisation, air quality and safety.
Preparing for the future with fresh perspectives
One of the main attractions of the ANIMA project stand was the Virtual Community Noise Simulators (VCNS). The VCNS allows for the integration of audible and visual aircraft noise-related information in interactive land-use planning settings, using a Virtual Reality headset. It is equipped with ANIMA-specific soundscaping scenarios, such as an Airbus A380 or a revolutionary blended-wing body (BWB) designed aircraft flyover.
Roalt Aalmoes, Senior R&D Engineer at the Royal Netherlands Aerospace Centre (NLR) explained that the “VCNS aims to help involve local communities in the decision-making process and to exchange with them on mitigation measures. As the world is in the process of recovering from a pandemic and as we are increasingly going towards sustainable solutions, keeping local communities in mind is crucial, since they are the ones most impacted by aircraft movements. We now have a better idea of how the future will look like with sustainable solutions for the aerospace, and the VCNS can already demonstrate these new concepts and show noise impact with the ultimate purpose of reducing it”.
The Aviation Forum Hamburg saw more than 50 international speakers gathering from organisations like Airbus, NASA, Boeing, to share their insights on stage. Over 150 companies were represented in the exhibition, the ANIMA project. The group of participants consisted of OEMs, manufacturers and suppliers of all tier levels, political decision-makers and thought leaders from Germany, Europe and worldwide. More than 700 attendees met face-to-face in Hamburg and additional 1,000 attendees joined digitally.