CIDETEC is one of the organisations that form part of the STELLAR project consortium, which falls within the Clean Sky 2 programme. Clean Sky is Europe's flagship research programme aimed at developing innovative technologies to reduce CO2 emissions and aircraft noise levels. With funding from the European Horizon 2020 programme, Clean Sky reinforces the collaboration, competitiveness and global leadership of the European aeronautics industry.

The meeting to launch STELLAR was held in October at the premises of Materia Nova, the project coordinator, located in the Belgian city of Mons, and was attended by Marta Fenero and Jesús Palenzuela as representatives of CIDETEC Surface Engineering. The STELLAR project (Development of SmarT Eco-friendly anticontamination technologies for LAminaR wings) has a budget of nearly two million euros and will run for 36 months.

The aeronautical industry faces the challenge of the increase in the resistance coefficient due to the adherence of insects on aircraft surfaces and their negative effect on laminar flow, with the resulting direct impact on fuel consumption. The STELLAR project seeks to obtain information in order to understand the biochemical transformation of haemolymph during the flight phases and the resulting alteration and physical-chemical interaction with the surface of the aircraft, with the aim of developing efficient and durable cleaning solutions and new anti-pollution coatings based on an in-depth knowledge of the properties of insect residues and their interaction with the surface.

The main role of CIDETEC in the STELLAR project involves developing new coatings that help to reduce the adherence of insects on the fuselage of the aeroplane. As part of the project, CIDETEC is leading WP 2, which involves collating the existing work within current state-of-the-art techniques, and WP 5, which involves developing these coatings.