MEA 2024 Highlights

The objective of the MEA’24 international conference, held on February 7 and 8, 2024 at ISAE-SUPAERO Toulouse, was to support a transition to more electric aircraft, driven by the ambitious goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions for civil aviation by 2050.

New concepts are being proposed in Europe and beyond based on hybrid, all-electric, hydrogen, turboelectric and potentially distributed architectures.

This conference is a follow-up to the one held in Bordeaux in October 2021. The organizers of MEA’24 (SEE and 3AF) invited representatives from industry, research and agencies to share ideas, lessons learned, research results and solutions related to developments.

The two main sponsors were Safran and Collins Aerospace, not forgetting ISAE-Supaero which provided the premises and logistics.

This conference brought together approximately 250 participants from various backgrounds (around 50% from abroad), demonstrating the international scope of this congress with a dozen countries represented.

The discussions were fruitful between the actors of this sector, with presentations of research and industrial programs aimed at addressing the many current challenges, particularly those related to structure and aerodynamics, energy storage and distribution, electrical architecture, thermal management, reliability and certification.

The program was established by a program committee of about forty people, led by Valérie Budinger (ISAE- Supaero, SEE), assisted by Carsten Doll (Onera, 3AF) and Stéphane Henry (ret. ArianeGroup, 3AF), and validated by the two co-Chairs Régine Sutra- Orus (Safran Tech) and André Thess (DLR).

This 2-day program was supported by complementary contributions:

  • 6 keynotes (prestigious plenary lectures) were delivered by top players who presented the viewpoint of their entity: Safran Electrical and Power, Pratt & Whitney, Collins Aerospace, Ascendance Flight Technologies, Airbus Upnext, IRT Saint Exupéry, Onera.
  • 35 oral presentations were divided into 11 thematic sessions covering the following topics: aircraft architecture, thermal management, propulsion systems, electrical power generation and conversion, certification.
  • Two highly interactive “poster” sessions allowed the 32 selected authors to exchange ideas on their work with interested participants. 

In addition, 6 companies exhibited their products, namely: Opal RT, Gamma Technologies, dSPACE, Vector France, Safran, Collins Aerospace (RTX).

Finally, a gala dinner bringing together 160 participants added a convivial touch to this congress.

The final outcome of this edition is very positive, with very high satisfaction among participants.

The next edition will take place in Bordeaux in February 2027, the organizers of 3AF and SEE are willing to provide an attractive update for all actors interested in more electric aircraft topics.

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