Developing the technology of tomorrow

CTA aims to meet the future technological needs of its customers by aligning its activities with long-term trends in the aerospace sector. We have the necessary talent, experience and capabilities to achieve this goal in the different lines of research in which we work.

Zero emissions

At CTA we are aware of the global efforts to reduce carbon footprint and its special importance in the aerospace sector. We are actively working on different technologies for the development of electric, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and hydrogen aircraft.

We have been working for some time on validation test benches for aviation engines with sustainable fuels and functional test platforms for hydrogen management systems and components, along with validation test benches for on-board electrical energy management systems.

In addition, we are constantly analysing and contributing to regulations in the field and in-flight fire safety tests. New propulsion and energy sources bring different risks which must be assessed in different ways requiring specific technology.

New aerospace architectures

In its constant pursuit of weight reduction and flight efficiency, the aerospace industry continually spawns disruptive aerodynamic designs, new materials, geometries and manufacturing processes and aircraft concepts that require new forms of product-oriented testing incorporating state-of-the-art testing technology.

CTA contributes with its experience and capabilities to develop new validation technologies in different environmental conditions such as high temperatures in hypersonic aircraft, cost-optimised validation of personal aircraft and drones, multi-functionality and biologically inspired technologies such as morphing.

Product-process-machine technologies

Backed by over 20 years in the field of thermal imaging, computer vision and ultra-precision positioning, at CTA we develop control, actuator and vision technologies for the product-process-machine triangle.

CTA participates as both project partner and lead partner in national and European programmes for the development of manufacturing technologies for use by leading companies in the aerospace sector.

Aviation and space shock testing

The evolution of testing towards virtualisation due to the need to reduce and optimise validation and certification costs for companies is a goal that CTA has been working towards for many years now.

CTA has expertise working with different shock tests such as pyroshock, high and low energy impact and drop tests, including bench-based virtualisation technologies and correlation of results to predict impact behaviour even during the design phase.