‘Revolutions rather than evolutions’

As a leading academic and researcher, Beukers’ advice to students is to “always begin from scratch when solving a problem and don’t merely make incremental innovations. Revolutionize!”

Professor Adriaan Beukers is responsible for the research and development of lightweight structures at TU Delft’s Aerospace Engineering Faculty. He’s also a man inspired by the former ‘Skunkworks’, a secret division of Lockheed Martin set up in the 1950s to focus on advanced development programs.

Skunkworks developed top-secret, high performance military aircraft and was responsible for such aircraft marvels as the high speed SR-71 . aka Blackbird – reconnaissance airplane, which was capable of flying from London to New York in less than two hours.

Beukers admires this secret division for the kind of projects developed there: they represented leaps in innovation and fresh thinking. It’s the kind of approach Beukers likens to his own work. “I make revolutions, rather than evolutions,” he says.

Beukers’ passion for innovation inspired him to co-author two books with Ed van Hinte on the subject of composite materials. This is a specialist area in which Beukers truly excels, having been a consultant to both designers and architects. Both of Beukers’ books, ‘Lightness’, and his most recent book, ‘Flying Lightness’, explore the possibilities of how composite materials can help reduce our impact on the environment.

Rumour has it that Beukers even helped the designers who founded the now famous Dutch ‘DROOG’ design, which defined a new approach to design by mixing materials and interacting with the user. DROOG was co-founded in 1993 by product designer, Gijs Bakker, and design historian, Renny Ramakers, and has since championed the careers of such renowned designers as Hella Jongerius and Marcel Wanders.

Today, Beukers is focused on fighting to change the way the Western world uses energy, materials and cheap labour, without considering the consequences. “Lightness,” he exclaims, “can help us in achieving more energy efficiency. We currently have an unbalanced ratio, and we’re heading for climate change and other dire implications. If not altered, we’ll end with the depletion of fossils fuel, and then we’ll either have to change our transportation systems, stop them completely or change our mindset, as transport can be drastically improved.”

This situation can be exemplified by the fact that the USA constitutes about 10% of the world’s population, yet the country is responsible for consuming about 25% of the world’s resources.

Beukers says this is a major and persistent problem, because people are only interested in price, living more or less by what he calls a “slash and burn” motto. Consumers’ willingly complain about high prices, but rather paradoxically proceed in ultimately destroying themselves by worsening the greenhouse effect.

Beukers believes we can alter this, however. In striving to achieve energy efficiency, his more recent achievements include the ‘Dutch Extra’, the first fully-pressurized, 6-seater aircraft completely constructed of composites materials, making it very light and less energy consuming.

Beukers also works closely with his aerospace engineering students to find new solutions, such as a new and safer Liquified Petroleum Gas canister for automobiles, or a small composite pillow bag that when inflated with air can raise a weight of up to 131 tons. This solution is widely used in emergencies, such as after an earthquake or a terrorist attack that collapses buildings.
Nasa

Beukers firmly believes in solving concepts from scratch, and for this he says he takes an Industrial Design approach to designing, analysing and attempting to select the best possibilities. As such, Beukers feels that there should be opportunities to teach material sciences to other TU Delft faculties.

As an example of this, Beukers points out that it’s a necessity for architecture to use a material that would help solve the problem of more people living in smaller spaces. Materials therefore need to be stronger and lighter to accommodate this loss in space. English architects, Beukers says, commonly use the expression ‘the cost to keep up the fabric’, meaning the cost of keeping a building standing. Additionally, industrial design students usually only gets access to such materials around 10 years after their invention, after they have gone via aerospace engineering to Formula 1 racing and then on to consumer products.

The Dutch are regarded as masters of bonding composites, especially for aircrafts, and Beukers says the reason for this can be traced back to the non-availability of materials after World War II. Beukers calls this phenomenon, “Poor makes creative”, and offers as an example Nasa’s development of the space pen, which required huge amounts of R&D costs. When the pen was finally completed, Nasa proudly showed the Russians this ‘magical pen’ that could even write upside down! To this, the Russians responded by showing Nasa the normal ‘high-tech’ pencil they had been happily using for years!

Beukers also focuses heavily on the manufacturing possibilities, from shape possibilities to the smartness in materials; that is, conducting heat/electricity or controlling acoustics. Even accompanying sensors into the material, to integrate as much physics and mechanics into structures, can provide large leaps forward for new shape appearances.

“This is already happening all around us: in diving suits, astronaut suits, and the form of a bullet proof vest. Skis and tennis rackets nowadays have incorporated materials which in a flash change their properties from flexible to rigid,” he says, adding that he prefers flexible structures to rigid ones. “One can change the properties of flexible materials. A rubber boat for example becomes rigid when inflated with air.”

As for his advice for students and researchers looking to make their mark, Beukers offers these final words of wisdom: “Always begin from scratch when solving a problem, and don’t merely make incremental innovations. Revolutionize!”

Professor Adriaan Beukers. (Photo: Sam Rentmeester/FMAX)

Professor Adriaan Beukers is responsible for the research and development of lightweight structures at TU Delft’s Aerospace Engineering Faculty. He’s also a man inspired by the former ‘Skunkworks’, a secret division of Lockheed Martin set up in the 1950s to focus on advanced development programs.

Skunkworks developed top-secret, high performance military aircraft and was responsible for such aircraft marvels as the high speed SR-71 . aka Blackbird – reconnaissance airplane, which was capable of flying from London to New York in less than two hours.

Beukers admires this secret division for the kind of projects developed there: they represented leaps in innovation and fresh thinking. It’s the kind of approach Beukers likens to his own work. “I make revolutions, rather than evolutions,” he says.

Beukers’ passion for innovation inspired him to co-author two books with Ed van Hinte on the subject of composite materials. This is a specialist area in which Beukers truly excels, having been a consultant to both designers and architects. Both of Beukers’ books, ‘Lightness’, and his most recent book, ‘Flying Lightness’, explore the possibilities of how composite materials can help reduce our impact on the environment.

Rumour has it that Beukers even helped the designers who founded the now famous Dutch ‘DROOG’ design, which defined a new approach to design by mixing materials and interacting with the user. DROOG was co-founded in 1993 by product designer, Gijs Bakker, and design historian, Renny Ramakers, and has since championed the careers of such renowned designers as Hella Jongerius and Marcel Wanders.

Today, Beukers is focused on fighting to change the way the Western world uses energy, materials and cheap labour, without considering the consequences. “Lightness,” he exclaims, “can help us in achieving more energy efficiency. We currently have an unbalanced ratio, and we’re heading for climate change and other dire implications. If not altered, we’ll end with the depletion of fossils fuel, and then we’ll either have to change our transportation systems, stop them completely or change our mindset, as transport can be drastically improved.”

This situation can be exemplified by the fact that the USA constitutes about 10% of the world’s population, yet the country is responsible for consuming about 25% of the world’s resources.

Beukers says this is a major and persistent problem, because people are only interested in price, living more or less by what he calls a “slash and burn” motto. Consumers’ willingly complain about high prices, but rather paradoxically proceed in ultimately destroying themselves by worsening the greenhouse effect.

Beukers believes we can alter this, however. In striving to achieve energy efficiency, his more recent achievements include the ‘Dutch Extra’, the first fully-pressurized, 6-seater aircraft completely constructed of composites materials, making it very light and less energy consuming.

Beukers also works closely with his aerospace engineering students to find new solutions, such as a new and safer Liquified Petroleum Gas canister for automobiles, or a small composite pillow bag that when inflated with air can raise a weight of up to 131 tons. This solution is widely used in emergencies, such as after an earthquake or a terrorist attack that collapses buildings.
Nasa

Beukers firmly believes in solving concepts from scratch, and for this he says he takes an Industrial Design approach to designing, analysing and attempting to select the best possibilities. As such, Beukers feels that there should be opportunities to teach material sciences to other TU Delft faculties.

As an example of this, Beukers points out that it’s a necessity for architecture to use a material that would help solve the problem of more people living in smaller spaces. Materials therefore need to be stronger and lighter to accommodate this loss in space. English architects, Beukers says, commonly use the expression ‘the cost to keep up the fabric’, meaning the cost of keeping a building standing. Additionally, industrial design students usually only gets access to such materials around 10 years after their invention, after they have gone via aerospace engineering to Formula 1 racing and then on to consumer products.

The Dutch are regarded as masters of bonding composites, especially for aircrafts, and Beukers says the reason for this can be traced back to the non-availability of materials after World War II. Beukers calls this phenomenon, “Poor makes creative”, and offers as an example Nasa’s development of the space pen, which required huge amounts of R&D costs. When the pen was finally completed, Nasa proudly showed the Russians this ‘magical pen’ that could even write upside down! To this, the Russians responded by showing Nasa the normal ‘high-tech’ pencil they had been happily using for years!

Beukers also focuses heavily on the manufacturing possibilities, from shape possibilities to the smartness in materials; that is, conducting heat/electricity or controlling acoustics. Even accompanying sensors into the material, to integrate as much physics and mechanics into structures, can provide large leaps forward for new shape appearances.

“This is already happening all around us: in diving suits, astronaut suits, and the form of a bullet proof vest. Skis and tennis rackets nowadays have incorporated materials which in a flash change their properties from flexible to rigid,” he says, adding that he prefers flexible structures to rigid ones. “One can change the properties of flexible materials. A rubber boat for example becomes rigid when inflated with air.”

As for his advice for students and researchers looking to make their mark, Beukers offers these final words of wisdom: “Always begin from scratch when solving a problem, and don’t merely make incremental innovations. Revolutionize!”

Professor Adriaan Beukers. (Photo: Sam Rentmeester/FMAX)