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The objective of AeroPlan is to appropriately disseminate to all the levels of the aeronautical industry the foreground knowledge generated within EC funded research projects, focusing on real life applications. This will enable the processing and evolution of the foreground knowledge throughout the different Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs), within time, instead of being constrained to scientific publications and conferences only. In this way the project will ensure that both existing aircraft and future designs will benefit from these innovations.

A consortium of key partners, which has participated in a significant number of such research projects that have already finished or are in their final stages, has been assembled to deliver the prime objective of the project, i.e. to organise three international conferences and two seminars within Europe in order to quickly and effectively disseminate the technological innovations from the projects COMPRES, SENARIO, PLASER, INDUCER, IAPETUS, COMPAIR EXPECT, INDUCTOR, COMPARE and ADVANCED

Current economic world conditions in many countries both within and outside the EU are forcing the operation of both passenger and cargo aircraft well beyond their original design life, as the cost for replacing older aircraft becomes disproportional to the capability for long-term investment of many airlines. Most aircraft have been manufactured using aluminium alloys, which constitute the greatest percentage of their structure, while the use of composite materials, although increasing, is relatively limited. Even though repair techniques have been established by the manufacturers for the initial design life of the aircraft, it is well understood that there is an increasing need for innovative repair solutions, both for metallic and for composite structures, to restore structural integrity or to reinforce areas prone to damage, which would reduce operating costs by providing easy and low cost repair procedures, extending significantly their economic life while guaranteeing airworthiness and the corresponding flight safety.

During the last ten years, the EC has funded research projects providing composite based aircraft repair solutions, through the development of innovative elements that could assist in performing safer and more efficient repairs, in a faster and more economical way. As these innovations have been developed as the main or the secondary target of a large number of upstream research projects, their combination and adaptation to the actual aeronautical composite repair requirements is needed, together with their organised and systematic promotion towards the key players of the aeronautical industry, in order to maximise the impact of results facilitated by EC investment (funding). Project Objectives

As required by the relevant topics, each research proposal funded by EU includes a detailed dissemination and exploitation plan, which, for the projects already finished has been successfully concluded. However, it is evident that, due to the fragmentation of the research activities on the same topic (i.e. bonded composite repairs) in 10 different projects, none of these projects was able to autonomously provide a global overview of advancements achieved in this field to the stakeholders of the aeronautical industry. This is exactly the "gap" which the AeroPlan projects attempts to fill, by integrating all the produced technological advancements in to a single support action, targeting directly all the key players of the aeronautical industry (certification authorities, aircraft manufacturers, MROs (Maintenance / Repair / Operations), airlines and academia).

Project Acronym: COMPRES Period of Implementation:1999 - 2002 Project Title: Composite Repair of Metallic Structure for Ageing Commercial Aircraft

Project Acronym: SENARIO Period of Implementation: 2007-2010 Project Title: Advanced Sensors and Novel Concepts for Intelligent and Reliable Processing in Bonded Repairs

Project Acronym: PLASER Period of Implementation: 2009-2012 Project Title: Portable Laser system for the Surface preparation of composite Repairs

Project Acronym: INDUCER Period of Implementation: 2009-2011 Project Title: Induction Heating and Health Monitoring Solutions for Smart Aircraft Maintenance using Adapted Composite Patches

Project Acronym: IAPETUS Period of Implementation:2009-2012 Project Title: Innovative Repair of Aerospace Structures with Curing Optimisation and Life Cycle Monitoring abilities

Project Acronym: COMPAIR Period of Implementation: 2009 - 2011 Project Title: Continuous health monitoring and non-destructive assessment of composites and composite repairs on surface transport applications.

Project Acronym: EXPECT Period of Implementation: 2010-2012 Project Title: Examination of Practical Aspects of Innovative Bonded Composite Repair Techniques

Project Acronym: INDUCTOR Period of Implementation: 2010-2012 Project Title: Induction based Curing Tool for Optimised heating of composite Repairs

Project Acronym: COMPARE Period of Implementation: 2010-2012 Project Title: Comparative evaluation of NDT techniques for high-quality bonded composite repairs

Project Acronym: ADVANCED Period of Implementation: 2011-2012 Project Title: Advanced heating system and control mode for homogeneous high temperature curing of large composite repairs