Turbulence Solutions' EIC Accelerator Cancels Out the Bumps

Noise-cancelling headphones measure the sound arriving at your ear and play its opposite. Turbulence Solutions, based in Vienna, does the same to the air. A sensor ahead of the wing measures air movement, a control unit predicts how the aircraft will respond, and small dedicated surfaces the company calls Turbulence Flaplets deflect to counter the motion before it fully reaches the aircraft. The company says this cuts turbulence-induced vertical acceleration by more than 80% in flight tests.

The EIC Accelerator selected the project at its March 2025 cut-off as a grant-only award, and CORDIS records €2,097,679.60 from October 2025 to September 2027, shared with TS Avionics in Baden, under the challenge for breakthrough innovations for future mobility. The aim is to take the system from technology readiness level 6 to 8 for light and business aircraft, and for the electric aircraft of advanced air mobility.

It is already on sale, on one aircraft

Unlike most companies in these deep dives, Turbulence Solutions has a shipping product. The Shark 600 is the first aircraft available with the system, offered as an option, and the joint whitepaper with the manufacturer is a sales document rather than a research paper: calmer cockpit, less pilot fatigue, more confident passengers, and a differentiator that the company argues supports the aircraft's value.

The safety architecture described there is conservative in a way that reads as credible. The system is pilot assistance, not control: it can only be activated inside defined flight envelope limits, it deactivates automatically outside them, it is off during take-off and landing, it fails passively so that the flaplets simply stop being used, and the pilot can switch it off or override it through the primary controls at any time. The disclaimer is equally plain: it does not eliminate all aircraft motion and the performance figures are indicative.

The 80% figure, and who measured it

The claim that matters is the more than 80% reduction in turbulence-induced vertical acceleration, which appears both in the company's material and in the EIC project summary. It comes from the company's own flight tests on a piloted aircraft, and no independent measurement has been published. For an assistance system on an ultralight, that is a lower bar than it would be for a certified flight control on an airliner; for the business aircraft and air mobility markets the project targets, it will not be.

The project's framing of the problem is broader than comfort: turbulence causes fuel-burning detours, higher maintenance costs, in-flight injuries, and more workload for pilots and controllers, and light aircraft suffer most because they are light and fly low. It also cites NASA on turbulence mitigation mattering for public acceptance of advanced air mobility, which is the market where this technology would be worth most, since passengers in small electric aircraft will feel every gust.

1. Working system in flightFlyingFactory option on the Shark 600 ultralight.
2. 80% reduction in turbulence effectsCompany testsFrom its own flight tests; no third-party data.
3. TRL 8 for light and business aircraftIn progressThe purpose of the grant, to September 2027.
4. Adoption beyond one airframeNot reportedNo second aircraft type announced.

A small company on Austrian and EU money

Before this grant the company had raised just over €2 million, largely from Austrian government innovation funds including Austria Wirtschaftsservice plus private shareholders, according to Revolution.aero, which also reported that it estimated needing about €10 million to enter the advanced air mobility market and expected breakeven in 2028 if it did. The EIC award is grant only, with no equity, which roughly doubles the money the company has had and is aimed at qualification rather than scale-up.

A European answer to a problem airliners ignore

Large aircraft ride out turbulence because they are heavy; small ones cannot, which is why general aviation and the coming generation of electric air taxis have a comfort problem that no amount of better weather forecasting fixes. Europe has a concentration of light aircraft manufacturers, the Shark among them, and the EIC's mobility challenge is aimed exactly at this kind of component innovation. The project's clean air and climate trackers are both at 100%, on the argument that avoiding turbulence detours saves fuel.