Advisory Board for SynTrac established

SynTrac’s mission is to drive transformative changes in aviation by reducing emissions and designing highly efficient aircraft for the future. Through innovative approaches and interdisciplinary collaboration, the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) is addressing some of the most pressing challenges facing the aerospace sector today.

In a significant step towards advancing sustainable aviation, the CRC SynTrac has formed an Advisory Board comprising industry and academic experts from Airbus, DLR (German Aerospace Center), MTU Aero Engines, and TU Darmstadt, bringing highly valued expertise to this ambitious initiative.

We are delighted to announce that the following members of the Advisory Board will be by our side to lend their expertise to the SynTrac Project agenda:

  • Daniel Reckzeh works as senior manager and aircraft architect in the Airbus Technology Programme. There he is in charge of future aircraft concepts, flight science technology & capability and longer term & disruptive technology aspects
  • Cord Rossow who was Director of the DLR Institute of Aerodynamics and Flow Technology in Braunschweig and Professor of Aerodynamics at the TU Braunschweig until March 2023. He is an internationally recognized expert in the fields of aerodynamics and aircraft design. His personal research work was dedicated to the development of numerical methods for flow simulation, which he has continued to pursue since his retirement.
  • Dr Reinhold Schaber works in MTU Aero Engines’ Engineering Advanced Programs Department as “Consultant Predesign Methodology” and – among others – is responsible for tools and studies in the conceptual design phase.
  • Cameron Tropea is retired since 4/2020 from his position as professor and head of the Institute of Fluid Mechanics and Aerodynamics at the Technical University of Darmstadt. He serves on numerous review boards of ministries and funding agencies at the national, European and international level and he holds guest professorships in India and China, where he spends considerable time each year. His research interests include unsteady aerodynamics, atomization and sprays, interfacial transport processes and measurement techniques in fluid mechanics.

The newly constituted Advisory Board will provide strategic oversight and foster collaboration between academia and industry to ensure impactful outcomes. This partnership underscores a shared commitment to building a sustainable future for air travel, where groundbreaking research meets real-world application.

The Advisory Board members were already actively involved at the CRC’s Annual Meeting from 25 – 27 November 2024 in Stuttgart, where they reviewed research progress, contributed insights, and discussed future directions for achieving the project’s ambitious goals.

Their engagement highlighted the vital importance of industry-academia collaboration in tackling aviation’s environmental challenges while maintaining safety, efficiency, and performance.

The SynTrac Management Board and the rest of the SynTrac team are looking forward to continuing the successful collaboration that has been established at the Annual meeting and appreciate all the valuable inputs so far.

Photo: University of Stuttgart/Rabea Morrison