“Why does the aircraft look like this?” was a question that Christian Koch from the Institute of Aircraft Propulsion Systems (ILA) at the University of Stuttgart was often asked when he was talking to schoolchildren and prospective students at the Vocatium trade fair in Stuttgart in July 2024.
As head of two sub-projects, he presented the CRC 364 SynTrac to interested parties as an example of the innovative and socially relevant research taking place in the engineering sciences at German universities.

The aircraft model, which shows some of the innovations planned by SynTrac for the greatly increased integration of propulsion systems in future commercial aircraft, attracted particular attention.

Unlike the airliners used today, which the students are familiar with from their everyday lives, there are no turbines under the wings here; instead, it illustrates one of the possible configurations that SynTrac is researching.

This year’s Vocatium, as a trade fair for training and further education, was once again a good opportunity to talk to interested young people and get them excited about a future career in the aerospace sector and research alliances such as the SynTrac CRC.