For climate-friendly long-haul air travel (2040-2045), the LuFo consortium is jointly developing a simulation and evaluation environment as well as structured scouting processes to identify disruptive technologies.
The three objectives of the ATLAS LuFo project are being addressed in three main work packages (HAPs):
HAP 1. Development of a publicly accessible simulation environment that enables the quantitative evaluation of new technologies and their climate impact — from individual flights to the fleet level.
HAP 2. Identification and evaluation of disruptive and synergistic technology options for future long-haul aircraft, with a focus on climate-neutral concepts.
HAP 3. Development of a scouting process, to identify innovative individual technologies at an early stage and systematically evaluate them.
The German Aerospace Centre (DLR) participates extensively with the DLR Institutes of Air Transport and Atmospheric Physics, as well as with our institute, the Institute of System Architectures in Aeronautics (coordinator of DLR activities).
DLR contributions in detail:
Climate impact expertise for the assessment platform (HAP1):
In this work package, DLR integrates the effects of non-CO₂ emissions -particularly contrails - into a central simulation environment. The Institute of Atmospheric Physics contributes with its climate impact analysis competencies including contrail modelling.
Holistic overall system evaluation of innovative concepts (HAP2):
In the second work package, project partners design innovative long-haul aircraft concepts for market entry around 2050, which are then evaluated by DLR. The Institute of System Architectures in Aeronautics, together with the Institute of Air Transport, conducts the overall system assessment. The team builds on results from the DLR projects ALICIA and EXACT and evaluates both, the efficiency and climate impact of the developed concepts.
Strategic technology scouting and roadmap analysis (HAP3):
To identify promising individual technologies with long-term impact at an early stage, we are jointly establishing a scouting process together with all project partners. All DLR-institutes carry out potential-, sensitivity- as well as risk analyses and expand existing technology roadmaps.
Project
ATLAS (Air Transport Analysis and Technology Synergy Study)
