Page 21 - World Airnews Magazine March 2021

NEWS

NEW WINDTUNNEL TESTS

second round of wind tunnel
Atesti ng is under way for a new
composite wing which will equip a high-

speed tiltrotor demonstrator being devel-
oped as part of the EU’s Clean
Sky 2 programme.

The T-Wing consortium - led by the Italian
aerospace research centre CIRA - is in part-
nership with Leonardo Helicopters for the

development of the next-generation civil

tiltrotor techdemo, an aircraft which is due

to make its maiden flight in 2023.
Initial assessment of the NGCTR-TD’s

aerodynamic performance was conducted
by Leonardo Helicopters in June 2019 with the wind tunnel runs,” he said. dustrial manufacturing process of the wing
the support of T-Wing, Clean Sky 2’s LIFT Meanwhile, the T-Wing partners have based on the tooling being constructed by
project and other partners and suppliers. completed the critical design review for the OMI,” said Di Palma.

During the new round of evaluations, due structure and have begun initial manufac- “This wing is a very unconventional

to last for two weeks, a 1.2m (3ft 11in)-long turing activities to support the production design and is based on a highly integrated

model, developed by IBK Innovation, will of full-scale ground- and flight-test wings wing box concept developed by MA Group

be used. It is based on the wing’s aerofoil, for the project. on an in-service CS-25 [category aircraft]

complete with a moveable flaperon. The T-Wing consortium comprises programme.

It will be integrated into “a complex exper- Naples, Italy-based MA Group as industri- “Before manufacturing the test articles,

imental set-up called DEMOS”, said CIRA’s al leader; Italian machining expert OMI; the consortium is perfecting the process

research and development manager and crash-test specialist SSM, also from Naples; through several full-scale manufacturing
T-WING project coordinator Luigi Di Palma. German engineering consultancy IBK trials that are currently in progress,”

This will allow “pitch rotation according Innovation, which specialises in loading he said. Q

to user-defined laws”. and aeroelasticity; and University of Naples

“The machine is a dynamic one, able to Federico II for experimental dynamics. Article courtesy:

rotate the wing model at high speed during “At present, MA Group is finalising the in- https://www.flightglobal.com/

AIRPORTS
SIX AFRICAN AIRPORTS
of “The Voice of the Customer” recogni- partnership with airports to help them
tion is sponsored by Amadeus. rapidly scale passenger handling capacity

he Airports Council Internation- These African airports Dakar Blaise Di- up or down, to serve passengers in new

Tal has recognised six African agne International Airport (Diass, Sene- parts of the airport or ‘off-airport’ and

airports through their “The Voice of the gal) Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to make their experience contactless.

Customer” programme. (Nairobi, Kenya) Kotoka International Despite the operational difficulties faced

Launched last year, the certificate is Airport (Accra, Ghana) Moi International by all airports, we believe those that place

given to airports around the world which Airport (Mombasa, Kenya) SSR Interna- the passenger at the centre of everything

demonstrated significant efforts in gath- tional Airport (Mauritius, Mauritius) and they do are well positioned to build safer

ering passenger feedback through the Tunis Carthage Airport (Tunis, Tunisia) and more satisfying, smoother experienc-
Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Departures have been recognised. es for travellers.
survey, to help them better understand Bruno Spada, executive vice president The Airport Service Quality programme

their customers during the pandemic. airport IT at Amadeus said, “We are proud is a customer experience measurement

To qualify, an airport member must have to support this important recognition of and benchmarking programme across 34
collected three or more quarters of data. airports that relentlessly sought to gather key performance indicators. More than
This year, 140 airports have been rec- passenger feedback during the pandemic. half of the world’s travellers pass through
ognised around the world and delivery During that period, we have worked in an ASQ airport. Q
World Airnews | March 2021
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