acatech Senate event at Airbus: What does the future of aerospace look like?

Munich, 06 July 2023

On 30 June, the acatech Senators came together for their Annual Meeting. On this occasion, acatech Presidents Thomas Weber and Jan Wörner welcomed their guests to Airbus, the aerospace company located on the outskirts of Munich. They were joined by host Sabine Klauke, Chief Technical Officer (CTO) at Airbus and acatech Senator. The panel discussion, which took place during the afternoon, made it clear that digital technologies and societal expectations are key factors in the radical transformation of the industry – Future Aerospace is the motto.

Ottobrunn-based aerospace company Airbus, an example of successful economic cooperation in Europe, was this year’s host for acatech’s Senate event, a gathering of representatives of key technology firms, associations and research organisations. In his keynote speech on general trends in the mobility sector, acatech President Thomas Weber prepared his guests for the topics that would be covered during the day. He described the potential that digital technologies had to increase automation and enhance traffic control and emphasised society’s desire for a more climate-friendly mobility sector in Germany. For years, this desire has been regularly articulated in the Mobility Monitor a representative survey conducted on behalf of acatech.

The changed expectations of society affect the aerospace industry in particular, as host Sabine Klauke, Chief Technical Officer (CTO) at Airbus and acatech Senator, illustrated in her presentation. The industry is therefore looking for solutions that can reduce CO2 emissions from flights. As in the case of mobility at ground level, experiments are being conducted with hydrogen drives and alternatives to kerosene, a fossil fuel. These alternative fuels are known as sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs). They are biogenic in origin, are manufactured using renewable raw materials and have the potential to reduce CO2 emissions. However, SAFs are not yet being produced in sufficient quantities, also because the aviation ecosystem has not yet changed accordingly. Sabine Klauke said that climate change was a cross-sector challenge and therefore called for a cross-sector response. She added that acatech constituted the ideal forum to develop and push forward ideas together.

In the panel discussion that followed, moderated by acatech President Thomas Weber, Sabine Klauke, Olaf Heintze, (Aeronautics Division Development at the German Aerospace Center, DLR), Detlef Kayser (Member of the Executive Board at the Lufthansa Group) and Klaus Schneider (CTO at Liebherr-Aerospace & Transportation) debated the topic in more detail. During the discussion, it became clear that a certain openness to technology was desired in the industry. Lufthansa Executive Board Member Detlef Kayser warned that an excessive focus on individual climate-friendly technologies could be problematic for the future of aviation as a whole.

Autonomous flight could be a milestone on the road to the future. Dirk Hoke (CEO of Volocopter) and Stefan Thomé (CEO of Airbus Helicopters Germany) presented their vision for the mobility of tomorrow to the Senators. Pilotless air taxis are a popular partial solution for mobility – if only because there are too few pilots to meet demand.

The acatech Senate event concluded with a discussion going beyond the troposphere – the layer in the Earth’s atmosphere in which airplanes and other aircraft fly. acatech President Jan Wörner addressed the issue of space travel with his guests on the panel: Adel Al-Saleh (Member of the Board of Management at Deutsche Telekom), Maria Birlem (Co-CEO of Yuri), François Lombard (Head of Strategy at Airbus Defence and Space), Chiara Manfletti (COO at Neuraspace) and Gregor Pillen (General Manager at IBM for Germany, Austria and Switzerland). In space travel, digital technologies have facilitated the collection and use of increasing quantities of data, which in turn has allowed for the development of new business models. The panel explained, however, that significant innovations could only be expected if the appropriate conditions were created for startups and young companies in this industry. Deutsche Telekom Board Member and acatech Senator Adel Al-Saleh insisted that even major players like his company want to be able to use satellite data more effectively.

The day finally came to an end in the Maximilianeum building, the home of the Bavarian parliament, with the Senate reception. In his welcome address, Bavarian State Minister of the Interior Joachim Herrmann expressed his appreciation for science and engineering. He said that engineers, mathematicians and chemists provided important stimuli in the area of technology, which could help to tackle the challenges facing us.

There was yet another special highlight for the guests: a virtual dinner speech by ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti. The Italian astronaut is the first European woman to complete a spacewalk. She said that European space travel is ready for the next step, provided that cooperation between European countries intensified. She cited Airbus, the host for this year’s Senate event, as a long-standing example of such cooperation.