On April 22nd, a consortium of leading Dutch aerospace companies and institutes signed a collaboration agreement aimed at building up and strengthening the position of the Dutch consortium on the Chinese commercial aerospace market. Partners in the consortium are ADSE, DNW German-Dutch Wind Tunnels, Fokker Technologies, National Aerospace Laboratory (NLR), TU Delft and Royal TenCate. The Netherlands Aerospace Group, the industry association, serves as the secretariat of the consortium. NOST will be supporting several of the consortium’s activities in China.
The cluster, aptly titled Dutch Development and Research in Aeronautics supported by Government Organized Network (D2RAGON), will jointly deploy knowledge and expertise commercially to support the development of new concepts and integrated solutions for China’s civil aviation industry. COMAC, China’s main civil aircraft manufacturer, will be an important partner. Its current and future aircraft programs, including the ARJ21 and C919 (pictured), are expected to reap the benefits of Dutch expertise.
The cooperation is co-financed by the Dutch government through the Partners for International Business (PIB) funding program, a program that is aimed at creating access or consolidating the long-term positioning of companies/institutes that function as a consortium. Knowledge institutes can be, and preferably are, part of such a group.
Read the press release (in Dutch only) on the NAG website.