Rotor blades form an elementary component of a wind energy plant. They define decisively their performance and have a significant impact on the total plant costs. The aim of the AIrOPT -project are aerodynamic investigations and optimization of pultruded rotor blades for small wind turbines incorporating a new industrial production process, namely the pultrusion technology. Within the development process, requirements from the production as well as from the aerodynamic research & development site will be included into the design of a new rotor blade concept. Two versions will be tested in the field using comprehensive sensor technologies in order to analyze the performance of the rotor blade itself and their effects on the small wind turbine as a whole. Project partners are: Hochschule Emden / Leer and TWE-Tandem Wind Energy GmbH