FUTURED. ZAL Magazin 2025

DLR INSTITUTE OF SYSTEM ARCHITECTURES IN AERONAUTICS
OPENING THE ROOM
FOR A NEW ERA
IN AVIATION
36
CONTACT
Dr. Björn Nagel
bjoern.nagel@dlr.de
Change is in the air and the future of aviation
can literally take many shapes. Aircraft
needed to meet two main requirements:
performance and profitability. All
the different stakeholders’ needs made it
clear that a new era is taking off. Aircraft
should be profitable for the industry, yet
become sustainable across its entire lifecycle
at three different levels – aircraft, fleet
and air transport system. With a rising demand
for flights worldwide, affordability
for the individuals is key. Challenging
enough? Maybe, but the clock is ticking …
CHALLENGES & OPPORTUNITIES
“In the next few years, the industry must take
major decisions on how to move forward. That’s
a stretch, but doable,” says Björn Nagel, Director
of DLR’s Institute of System Architectures. “There
are still many unknowns and the devil is in the
details, but we’ve got quite a few ideas,” he adds
with a twinkle in his eye.
NO SILVER BULLET – BUT PLENTY OF IDEAS
“DLR researchers agree that there’s no silver
bullet. Instead, they explore various technological
options. With 54 institutes, we can explore
future aviation in breadth and depth – from energy
production paths to aircraft architectures,
operational scenarios and more ... Our institute
specializes in digital methods, cabin and industrialization,
and new aircraft architectures.” This
is why this institute is leading two of DLR’s flagship
projects, EXACT and ALICIA, which are
closely linked.
EXACT & ALICIA:
THE BIG PICTURE, IN DETAIL
“EXACT is the largest study on sustainable aviation
to date, exploring the most promising future
aircraft in terms of economic viability and
environmental friendliness. In ALICIA, scientists
integrate these results in a digital simulation
framework, supporting politics and industry in
making informed decisions by forecasting the
impact of technologies or policies.”
GLOBAL COLLABORATION
FOR SUSTAINABLE AVIATION
“Both aviation and global warming are … global,”
says Nagel. “That means we’re in it together. As
a major research institution, our role is to bridge
academia and industry. We really want to join
forces with them and the other players such as
SMEs, start-ups and think tanks, too. That’s why
we actively seek dialogue, like through our annual
symposium ‘Architecting Future Aviation.’”
A DIGITAL HANGAR: OPEN DATA FOR ALL
“And we are thrilled that our institute is literally
opening up another room for discussion and further
research – or rather a hangar,” he adds. “In
our digital hangar, we show the world what revolutionary
aircraft like the ones from EXACT could
look like – with detailed technical data. We also
want experts to be able to get an idea of how
their technologies or components could be integrated
and what they think of our approaches, so
that we can all progress as quickly as possible.”
While the hangar currently features only a few
aircraft configurations, DLR’s research doesn’t.
“We plan to update the hangar regularly and include
unusual-looking aircraft or technologies
we’ve explored but don’t currently consider the
best options.”