FUTPRINT50 addresses the need to accelerate disruptive technologies in aviation to ensure Carbon Neutral growth commitment from FlightPath2050. It will develop tools, technologies and aircraft level analysis for key hybrid-electric technologies supporting the entry into service of a 50 seat class aircraft by 2035/2040. This type is at the locus of convergence of timeframe and technology, promising to open with improved costs new routes for point 2 point connection of smaller, interior cities and villages at lower infrastructure costs than rail or road transportation, fulfilling aviation’s higher goal of connecting people for the creation of wealth and societal good. FUTPRINT50 will focus on energy storage, energy harvesting and thermal management. Besides advancing the state of the art of these technologies, it will research and develop MDO design methodologies whilst considering uncertainty, models and tools to evaluate new configurations and integration at system and aircraft level. To attain the ambitious vision of an entry into service aircraft by 2035/2040, FUTPRINT50 will develop roadmaps to align future research on technology development but also the regulatory side, striving for market, technology and legal readiness for entry into service. For this FUTPRINT50 will use research developed within the project but also extend itself to other complementary projects and initiatives, besides engaging the main stakeholders in comprehensive workshops. Furthermore, open-source aircraft design tools, hybrid-electric aircraft designs, and reference data sets will be generated and shared openly with the community to accelerate the development of future hybrid-electric aircraft. Finally, FUTPRINT50 will be developed by an international consortium of diverse and highly competent partners, abridging the EU with USA and Brazil and supported by an Advisory Board including EASA and ensuring connection with Canada.

A major challenge in the transport sector is to make economic growth compatible with sustainability and environmental constraints, while remaining competitive and innovative. The development of aeronautical products is a complex multidisciplinary process with requirements and constraints on the air transport system as a whole, the aircraft, and all the individual components to be produced. A major challenge impeding an efficient and cost-effective design processes is the integration of the various levels of the aeronautical supply chain. Therefore, the aeronautical industry needs to connect all the people, skills and technologies involved in its collaborative, multi-national and cross organizational processes, by means of a digital representation of production systems, supply chains, and seamless operations across diverse disciplines, during the entire life-cycle of the product. The high level objective of AGILE 4.0 is to bring significant reductions in aircraft development costs and time-to-market through the implementation of an integrated cyber-physical aeronautical supply chain, thereby increasing the competitiveness of the European aircraft industry, from integrators and high-tiers suppliers to SMEs, leading to innovative and more sustainable aircraft products. AGILE 4.0 targets the digital transformation of main main pillars of the aeronautical supply-chain: design, production and certification and manufacturing.The composition of the AGILE 4.0 consortium and capabilities available enable to address realistic development scenarios integrating multiple stakeholders and covering all the aspects of the development of complex aeronautical systems. AGILE 4.0 will provide the aircraft industry with a way to model, assess, and optimize complex systems addressing the entire life cycle. The technologies developed will enable stake-holders and actors of the aeronautical supply chain to perform trade-off which have never been possible to model before.