9. A Technologically Guided Explanation of the (Delayed) Emergence of EU Military Research: The Curious Antecedent of the European Aeronautics Research Programme

The space component has added a further dimension to the air-strategic domain whose research and productive units have been progressively referred to as ‘aerospace industries’.

The demanding conditions (atmospheric pressure, temperature, structural, aerodynamic and navigation control aspects) applied upon the construction of an aeronautical product have made that numerous engineering disciplines, from mechanical to materials and hydraulic, from electronics to telecommunications and computer sciences, have contributed to the achievement of the technological performance of the aircraft. The interaction among these disciplines has forged a new engineering domain, the aeronautical one, which counts on a number of important sector-specific engineering disciplines and fields, such as aerostructures, aerodynamics, aero-hydraulics, aero-engines, avionics and their multiple combinations.

Other forms include, for example, fiscal incentives for the construction of infrastructures, preferential buying options and contractual conditions, public ownership or other proprietary control, favorable privatization conditions, employment incentives, support measures toward exports, sub-contracting limitations and other administrative preferential treatments.

An effects-based analysis of whether an aid is compatible with the EU Treaty is structured on a cost-benefit analysis of the probable effects of particular classes of aids on welfare and economic efficiency. The effects-based approach of the Commission to State aid control has registered a number of shortages with respect of the analysis of aids for R&D.

Europeans alleged that the US government was providing indirect subsidization through 8 National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) programs and 23 Department of Defense (DOD) research, development, test and evaluation (RTD&E) project elements.

The properties of composites vary widely depending on the type of matrix material (polymer/plastic, ceramic or metal) and the nature of the reinforcement (length, concentration and type).

Superconductivity is the capacity of certain advanced materials to transmit electrical current without resistance. Although known since the discovery of semiconductors and the development of transistors in the early 1950s, the physical phenomenon had only theoretical interest because it could only be detected at very low temperatures close to absolute zero. In 1982, the President of the United States Ronald Reagan, convinced of the potential for military and commercial application deriving from the study of superconductivity conditions in composites/advanced materials at higher temperatures, supported the launch of a multimillionaire research program in superconductor materials to be developed under the US Department of Defense’s responsibility in collaboration with a number of American universities and research centers. In 1986, physics researchers working at IBM under the mentioned research collaboration discovered superconductive properties in copper oxide-based materials, and only 4 years later, superconductive properties were detected in advanced ceramics at a temperature of more than 77 degrees Celsius. High temperature of structures is normally a constant in the operational life of an aircraft as an effect of the frictional heating generated to get the vehicle to reach an elevate speed and flight. Since advanced ceramics ensure the ‘conduction’ of the electric signal without resistance at high temperatures, these materials became key for supporting reliable power generation and transmission during take-off and air navigation. In the past, electronic chips had to be large enough to ensure continuous power transmission even in the presence of heat losses or other electronic failure (that has been the case notably with defense applications). As advanced ceramics ensure reliable transmission of power with minimum heat losses, big circuits became no longer needed, so that superconductive ceramics permitted the integration of power transmission systems into microelectronic circuits (e.g. superconductive micro-chips). The discovery of superconductive properties in advanced ceramics can be regarded as one of the most crucial materials innovation having contributed to ground-breaking developments in the field of aerostructures, engine systems and avionics, missiles and arms propulsion systems; it was also at the origin of the development of space technologies such as shuttle structures, space power transmission systems, rocket engines, etc.

Figures report aerospace products comprising complete aircraft systems, engines, equipment and space products. Space products include space vehicles, their engines and equipment, satellites, launchers and ground installations.

3% was reserved to space research.

In the course of the 1990s, a number of initiatives – such as the Simulation Assessment Validation Environment (SAVE), the Subsystems Integrated Design Assessment Technology (SIDAT) and the Virtual Product Development (VDP) – were developed in American companies, such as Lockheed Martin, under the sponsorship of the US Department of Defense.

Technological panels included aerodynamics, propulsion, materials and structures, navigation and control, computer and ITC technologies, human factors and systems integration.

Mr. Herbert Allgeier, Bavarian, mechanical engineer and ex-nuclear scientist with EURATOM, had worked since 1976 as a scientific adviser to various Directors-General of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Science, Research and Development (ex DG XII, today Directorate General for Research and Innovation DG RTD).

The company that later merged into DASA.

Office National d’Etudes et de Recherches Aérospatiales (ONERA)

Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Luft und Raumfahrt (DLR)

Defence Research Agency (DRA)

They were Aeritalia, Aerospatiale, Avions Marcel Dassault-Breguet Aviation, British Aerospace, CASA, Dornier, Fokker, MMB and SABCA.

There was a close professional interaction at the time between the two Commissioners Narjes and Davignon and the respective cabinets.