NFL awards two research prizes and three young scientist prizes Research Day at the Lower Saxony Research Centre for Aviation

New approaches to the design of 1g wing structures, clean-burning aviation fuel combinations, additive manufacturing of orbital truss structures, the prevention of plasma blackouts during spacecraft re-entry, and the integration of cabin noise into the aircraft design process – five research projects from various fields of aerospace make outstanding contributions to this. They were awarded the Hermann Blenk Research Prize, the Karl Doetsch Young Scientist Prize and the VDI Aerospace Prize. The award ceremony took place during the Research Day of the Lower Saxony Research Centre for Aviation (NFL) on 27 November 2025 in Braunschweig.

Hermann Blenk Research Prizes

Dr.-Ing. Yannic Beyer investigated a new approach to active gust load reduction for aircraft wings at the Institute of Flight Guidance at TU Braunschweig. Since aircraft wings have so far mostly been designed for strong turbulence, this results in high material and thus weight requirements. In his dissertation, Dr. Beyer developed a mathematical model that controls active actuators in the wing in the event of known turbulence in order to stiffen it in a targeted manner and compensate for the load. He also created a simulation environment to validate the process. In various scenarios, he was able to show that the wing load can be reduced to 1g. The approach thus enables significant material and weight savings and thus contributes to the reduction of CO₂ emissions. It should be emphasised that both the work and the algorithm and simulation have been made publicly available.

Dr.-Ing. Paul Zimmermann researched the stability limits of new fuel combinations in premixed flames of aircraft engines at the Institute for Technical Combustion at Leibniz University Hannover. The aim was to identify a fuel that enables a significantly less polluting premixed combustion mode based on the lean premixed prevaporised (LPP) process – ideally without soot particles and nitrogen oxides. His work thus makes an important contribution to the future environmental compatibility of aviation. Both the NFL Executive Board and external experts praised the high scientific quality of the work.

Both scientists were awarded the Hermann Blenk Research Prize, worth 2,500 euros each, this year.

Karl Doetsch Young Scientist Prizes

Fynn Luca Lampe made a significant contribution to the production of orbital truss structures in his bachelor’s thesis at the Institute of Space Systems at TU Braunschweig. He developed interfaces between a robot arm, a control unit and a welding device to realise the basic functions of a metal printer. In this process, a metallic filament is melted by an electric arc and built up layer by layer to form components. Lampe succeeded in integrating both the basic printing functionality and advanced functions such as the use of different energy sources. He also conducted a parameter study to determine the optimal operating parameters. For this achievement, he received the Karl Doetsch Young Scientist Prize, which is endowed with 1,000 euros. He successfully completed his mechanical engineering studies in 2024 and is currently studying for a master’s degree in aerospace engineering at TU Braunschweig.

Another Karl Doetsch Young Scientist Prize (worth 1,000 euros) went to Léon Lüer for his outstanding master’s thesis on the active prevention of plasma blackouts during the atmospheric re-entry of spacecraft. The thesis was written at the Hypersonics Research Laboratory at MIT and the Institute of Fluid Mechanics at TU Braunschweig. During re-entry, an ionised plasma layer surrounds the spacecraft, which can disrupt or completely block communication – a significant safety risk. A promising countermeasure is the injection of an electrophilic gas upstream of the antenna. Using reactive hypersonic flow simulations, Lüer was able to show that the injection of sulphur hexafluoride is an effective approach to ensuring communication during re-entry. He received the Karl Doetsch Young Scientist Prize for this achievement. Lüer successfully completed his master’s degree in aerospace engineering at TU Braunschweig in 2025.

VDI Aerospace Prize

This year’s VDI Aerospace Prize, worth 1,000 euros, went to Pia Allebrodt for her master’s thesis on the integration of cabin acoustics into preliminary aircraft design. In order to combine the increasing demands on passenger comfort and crew health protection with the goals of a sustainable and efficient aircraft, multidisciplinary design analysis and optimisation is considered an established approach. Within this framework, Allebrodt developed a methodology for the reliable and computationally efficient prediction of cabin noise that can be seamlessly integrated into the multidisciplinary design process. She demonstrated the performance and extensibility of her approach using simplified preliminary design processes that take into account not only cabin acoustics but also structural aspects and cabin layout. Her work thus makes a significant contribution to a holistic view of aircraft design. Allebrodt successfully completed her master’s degree in aerospace engineering at TU Braunschweig in 2024.