Airbus A 310 Air Zero G from the French company Novespace
The German Space Agency at DLR offers various platforms that enable scientists to conduct research in microgravity conditions. These include the DLR parabolic flight campaigns, which are carried out with a specially equipped aircraft, the Airbus A310 Air Zero G from the French company Novespace. To achieve microgravity, the pilots fly a special manoeuvre: they set the aircraft on a parabolic flight path. This trajectory resembles a normal parabola. The aircraft climbs steeply upwards from horizontal flight, then reduces the thrust of the turbines and ‘falls’ upwards due to the residual thrust and then back down again after reaching the peak of the parabola, so that weightlessness prevails for a period of around 22 seconds. The researchers on board use this time for their experiments. The experiments come from all scientific disciplines, for example from human physiology, biology, fundamental physics or materials research, but devices and structures are also tested on board that may later be used on other zero-gravity platforms or in space. After each parabola of 22 seconds, the aircraft is brought back into level flight. The Airbus A 310 Air Zero G has been in operation at Novespace since 2015 and carries out scientific flights for the German Space Agency at DLR as well as for other European space agencies. Visitors to the ILA 2024 will have the opportunity to see and tour this special aircraft, which is used as a ‘flying laboratory’.
Links:
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
German Space Agency at DLR
E-Mail contact-dlr@DLR.de
