Approach

The TAPAS research program is a collaboration with the European aircraft consortium Airbus.

Airbus sees the production and use of thermoplastic composites as an important development for future aircraft programs.

The Dutch companies and knowledge institutions involved will – thanks to their advanced manufacturing and research methodologies – deliver a concrete contribution to realize the Airbus objectives.

The research program of the TAPAS consortium is the result of a cooperation agreement with Airbus, signed in 2005.

On 26 March 2009 a supplementary Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Airbus, Fokker Aerostructures, TenCate Advanced Composites and The Netherlands Aerospace Group in order to stress the intensification of the collaboration around thermoplastic composites.

On 21 April 2009 the formal start of the TAPAS1 consortium was jointly announced by the partners Airborne Technology Centre, Dutch Thermoplastic Components, Fokker Aerostructures, KVE Composite Group, Technobis Fibre Technologies, TenCate Advanced Composites, Technical University of Delft and University of Twente. Though not a formal participant in the consortium, the Dutch Aerospace Laboratory (NLR) is cooperating closely through subcontracts and Dutch government co-funded research projects.

In January 2014, the follow-up project TAPAS2 started. The consortium has been expanded with the Dutch Aerospace Laboratory (NLR) and the small and medium-sized enterprises CoDeT and KE-works.