Roelof Vos Delft Institute of Technology

Dr. ir. Roelof Vos is an Associate Professor at the Aerospace Engineering Faculty of Delft University of Technology. His research is focused on new airplane configurations and technologies to enable truly sustainable aviation. Amongst others, he is the lead for the Flying V project that is performed at TU Delft in collaboration with industrial partners. 

Vos has published 27 articles in peer-reviewed journals about his research and has published over 80 conference papers. He has worked on various projects funded by the European Commission, the Dutch Research Council (NOW), and through public-private partnerships. He teaches courses on Aircraft Design and Aerodynamic Design as well as professional courses on Aerodynamic Design and Hybrid-Electric Aircraft Design. He is author of the textbook "Introduction to Transonic Aerodynamics" 

Vos is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and member of the AIAA Aircraft Design Technical Committee. He holds a BSc (2004) and MSc (2005) degree in Aerospace Engineering from Delft University of Technology and a PhD degree from the University of Kansas (2009) under the sponsorship of the Fulbright Program.

Expertise

How can we make aviation truly sustainable? Which technologies are needed to drastically reduce the climate impact of aviation? And what is the impact of these technologies on aircraft performance in the broadest sense of the word? Those are the type of questions that Roelof Vos tries to answer with his research. He specializes in the holistic assessment of new aviation technologies and aircraft configurations. 

To support this, he develops dedicated software that enables the assessment of new technologies with respect to important aircraft characteristics such as fuel consumption, aircraft weight, and aerodynamic efficiency. This has resulted in the Aircraft Design Initiator, an automated aircraft synthesis program that is used throughout numerous externally-funded projects. Technologies that have recently been studied with this program include: hybrid-electric propulsion systems, maneuver-load alleviation through wing movables, and hydrogen-fueled turbofan engines. Furthermore, aircraft configurations with tail-mounted propellers, blended-wing bodies, and a propulsive empennage have been studied. Additionally, Vos has been the project lead for the Flying V, a new airplane configuration for long-haul travel.