Aviation innovation

Substantially reducing greenhouse gas emissions and material waste while improving maintenance and repair efficiency are critical and significant demands. The aviation industry is facing challenges that can only be met through innovative thinking and applications.

New technologies are available; however, there are many obstacles to be overcome before they can be beneficial to the sector; international safety and certification requirements for example. Moreover, there is an efficiency-gap between manufacturing and maintenance in the aviation industry. While the production of aircraft components uses state-of-the-art automation, such as robotic systems and production methods, work in the hangar is often laborious and manual.

Advancing maintenance

Predictive and condition-based maintenance strategies have the potential to save millions of Euros by eliminating repetitive, labour-intensive maintenance interventions. Data-exchange algorithms could enable federated learning, and eventually will bring a common benefit to aviation partners that are not currently allowed to share data with each other. Furthermore, promising to make an impact in maintenance implementation are advanced sensor-equipped robots that can accurately and fast identify possible defects in aircraft’s structure and components. Environmentally-friendly, additional manufacturing-type repair technologies, such as cold spray, aim to extend the life of existing fleets by repairing the currently non-repairable components.

Systems innovations

Training innovations, such as the development of a maintenance synthetic training device (MSTD) for technicians, also encompass sustainability benefits, as these can do without a physical aircraft and its engines.

Further, applied research is conducted on the transition path towards smart autonomous airside operations in 2050, focusing on the automation of turnaround processes and ground vehicles and on the development of novel airport security technologies.

Our aviation engineering research group is involved at the cutting edge of developments in air transport, as we seek to understand and define the specific service and repair challenges that accompany electrical and hydrogen-powered aircraft.

Konstantinos Stamoulis, Professor of Aviation Engineering

Konstantinos Stamoulis holds a PhD in Fatigue of Micromechanical Systems and MSc diplomas in Applied Mechanics and Materials Science and Engineering and has been Professor of Aviation Engineering  at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences since 2020. In addition to his AUAS post, Stamoulis is a program committee member of the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences(opens in new window) (ICAS) and a member of the Executive Committee of the Aerospace Network of the Institution of Engineering & Technology (IET). He also serves as member of journal editorial boards and scientific committees. ‘It makes me very excited when the research we are doing contributes to innovation in the aviation industry,’ says Stamoulis.

Connecting education and research

The Department of Aviation Engineering regularly involves students in their research, for example through graduation internships. Together with the lecturer-researchers, they are building a solid knowledge base for sustainable innovation in the aviation industry. The research group also contributes to education through lectures and tutorials in the curriculum of Mathematics & Modelling, Aircraft Performance, Structure & Materials, Maintenance and LCM and Human Factors and Safety, as well as the Aviation Bachelor. The department also regularly supervises Master internships supported by the Erasmus Exchange programme.

Partners of the Aviation Engineering research group

As a valued partner to the aviation sector, the department works closely with academia, knowledge institutions and other universities of applied sciences. They are a part of the BrightSky project, which aims to allow Dutch aviation to play a leading role in Europe emphasizing in sustainability, digitization and social innovation, and in several European research projects.