PARIDES

In 2021, the aircraft manufacturer ATR launched the PARIDES research project, an acronym for “Projet d’un Avion Régional Incrémental plus DÉcarboné et plus Sobre” (Project for an Incremental Regional Aircraft that is more carbon-efficient and more sober). This project, subsidised by the Direction Générale de l’Aviation Civile through the Plan d’investissement France 2030 decided by the government and the Ministry of Transport, is in line with ATR’s ambitions to reduce the environmental impact of regional air transport, in line with the objectives of carbon neutrality in 2050 set by the aviation industry, while improving safety and reducing operating costs.

ATR decided to collaborate with VESO Concept on the development of sandwich panels incorporating natural fibres, a major challenge given the number of attempts made by several world-class composites players to address this issue. 

From 2016 to 2019, VESO Concept led the BOPA project, “Biobased Omega Panels for Aeronautics”. This project led to the development of composite sandwich panels based on flax fibre, with a totally innovative architecture that meets a number of aeronautical requirements.

On the strength of this expertise, VESO Concept decided to pursue this exploration with ATR as part of the PARIDES project, which lasted almost two years.

We chose to work with flax fibres for several reasons:

• The possibility of applying a treatment to the fibres to improve fire resistance
• The potential for industrialisation of the manufacturing process, as linen is available in the form of technical fabrics, even for large volumes.
• Flax has good mechanical properties and is much lighter than other natural fibres
• 75% of the world’s linen production is located in France, and the fabrics we use are made in Europe.

The aim of these panels is to provide the same performance as current fibreglass panels, but with a lower carbon footprint and greater recyclability. The results obtained with these new bio-sourced sandwich panels (flax + partially bio-sourced epoxy resin) show that they are around 15% lighter than current walls. The fire resistance properties are promising, although they do not yet fully comply with FAR 25-853.

This promising work on these new biosourced walls should ultimately make aircraft lighter, but also improve the recyclability of parts at the end of their life.

The LCA study carried out on current fibreglass walls showed that lighter walls (hence the choice of flax) could enable significant weight savings on aircraft, and therefore make a full contribution to the decarbonisation of aviation.

Partners of the Project