The partners in the Airbus MultiFunctional Fuselage Demonstrator project received JEC Composites Innovation Award 2025 for ‘Aerospace Parts’ at the JEC World show in Paris. On behalf of the faculty of Aerospace Engineering TU Delft and SAM XL Aydin van den Bergh and Hein Koelman were part of this celebration of the most successful and innovative collaborative projects in the Composites industry.

The JEC Composites Innovation Award 2025 in the category ‘Aerospace Parts’ goes to the Airbus-led MultiFunctional Fuselage Demonstrator project funded by CleanSky2. A team of aerospace structures specialists at our faculty in close collaboration with the smart advanced manufacturing field lab SAM XL, and with GKN Fokker and NLR, assembled the lower half of the full scale thermoplastic composite demonstrator built in the project.

Lead researcher Irene Fernandez-Villegas: “Our part of the project, called STUNNING, is a great example of how we can speed up and scale up innovation on lightweight structures in aviation by real-time collaboration among researchers, students, specialists in field labs and industry. This collaboration with our partners made it possible to successfully assemble the lower half of the fuselage here in Delft. Lightweight structures are the way forward to significantly reduce fuel consumption and therefore emissions of aviation. I am proud that our contribution is recognized and honoured by the composites industry. And want to congratulate all partners in the project with winning this ‘Nobel Prize of the composites industry.”