GETTING SHIPSHAPE...GETTING SHIPSHAPE UK F-35B FORCE GETS READY FOR FIRST OPERATIONAL CARRIER...

GETTING SHIPSHAPEUK F-35B FORCE GETS READY FOR FIRST OPERATIONAL CARRIER DEPLOYMENT

October 2020

DOES AEROSPACE HAVE A RACE PROBLEM?SECRETS FROM THE FALKLANDS AIR WAR

POWERING UP ELECTRIC FLIGHT

www.aerosociety.com

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OCTOBER 2020 AEROSPACE COVER FINAL.indd 1OCTOBER 2020 AEROSPACE COVER FINAL.indd 1 18/09/2020 14:5918/09/2020 14:59

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ContentsEDITORIAL

When global rules unravel Regulars4 RadomeThe latest aviation and aeronautical intelligence, analysis and comment.

11 Pushing the EnvelopeRob Coppinger looks at the progress in the development of engines for the new generation of supersonic civil aircraft.

12 TransmissionYour letters, emails, tweets and social media feedback.

58 The Last WordKeith Hayward compares and contrasts the collapse of Rolls-Royce in January 1971 with its present diffi culties in the wake of Covid-19.

Features

19 21 things I discovered while writing Harrier 809Rowland White describes previous secret plans and unusual facts when researching his latest book on the Falklands Air War.

26 Lightning pathfi ndersThe experience of introducing the F-35B Lightning II onto the UK’s new HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier.

40

Volume 47 Number 10October 2020

Correspondence on all aerospace matters is welcome at: [email protected]

3

Editor-in-ChiefTim Robinson, FRAeS +44 (0)20 7670 4353 [email protected]

Deputy Editor Bill Read, FRAeS +44 (0)20 7670 4351 [email protected]

Production ManagerWayne J Davis +44 (0)20 7670 4354 [email protected]

Publications ExecutiveChris Male, MRAeS +44 (0)20 7670 4352 [email protected]

Production ExecutiveAnnabel Hallam+44 (0)20 7670 4361 [email protected]

Book Review EditorBrian [email protected]

Editorial Offi ceRoyal Aeronautical SocietyNo.4 Hamilton PlaceLondon W1J 7BQ, UK+44 (0)20 7670 4300 [email protected]

www.aerosociety.com

AEROSPACE is published by the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS).

Chief ExecutiveSir Brian Burridge CBE FRAeS

Advertising+44 (0)20 7670 [email protected]

Unless specifi cally attributed, no material in AEROSPACE shall be taken to represent the opinion of the RAeS.

Reproduction of material used in this publication is not permitted without the written consent of the Editor-in-Chief.

Printed by Buxton Press Limited, Palace Road, Buxton, Derbyshire SK17 6AE, UK

Distributed by Royal Mail

2020 AEROSPACE subscription rates: Non-members, £180

Please send your order to:Wayne J Davis, RAeS, No.4 Hamilton Place, London W1J 7BQ, UK. +44 (0)20 7670 [email protected]

Any member not requiring a print version of this magazine should contact: [email protected]

USA: Periodical postage paid at Champlain New York and additional offi ces.

Postmaster: Send address changes to IMS of New York, PO Box 1518, Champlain NY 12919-1518, USA.

ISSN 2052-451X

Afterburner46 Message from our President47 Message from our Chief Executive48 Book Reviews52 New Member Spotlight53 2021 Membership subscriptions54 Black History Month56 Elections

Front cover: UK Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II on HMS Queen Elizabeth. (Lockheed Martin)

Tim Robinson FRAeS, [email protected]

Additional content is available to view online at: www.aerosociety.com/aerospaceinsightIncluding: Economics of electric aircraft – Parts 1 and 2, Air ambulance of the future,

Wake-up call for space threats, Has aviation and aerospace got a racism problem?, Review of Microsoft’s new Flight Simulator.Online

Read AEROSPACE magazine and the Insight blog on your smartphone, tablet or digital

devices with the AEROSPACE app - available on iTunes and Google Play.APP

36 Beyond safetyHow aviation organisations need not just to meet but to exceed safety standards.

Plugging into the electric aircraft revolutionPart 1 of a two-part analysis into the economic realities of developing and operating all-electric commercial aircraft.

Broadening the paletteHas aviation and aerospace got a racism problem and what can be done about it?

Clipped wingsThe practicalities of keeping civil aircraft in long and short-term storage.

30

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What price global standards, rules and regulations? Pre-pandemic there were many who argued that globalisation had gone too far. However, the effect of Covid-19 on aviation, which relies on seamless connectivity, common standards and single markets, has been crippling with only domestic air travel in China to return to anything like normality. Elsewhere, hopes that a gradual easing of restrictions from the tight lockdown in March would bring a recovery in passenger numbers have now been dashed, and airlines are facing the complete collapse of long-haul travel. In the UK, air bridges, uncertainty over countries on the 14-day quarantine list and last-minute Government U-turns are undermining any demand for intra-European air travel. Without a vaccine being quickly rolled out, this could well mean a slow and painful recovery – one estimate is that airlines will not recover to 2019 traffi c levels until 2028. The scale of job losses to the aviation industry has also distracted attention from an arguably bigger issue – the way in which aviation and air travel is the vital lubricant that keeps the motor of global trade and commerce running. Although the world has adapted remarkably swiftly to remote collaboration and online working, the absence of business-class travel to help power the global economy, means the risk of the engine is in danger of seizing-up. Simply put, if the world’s nations want to avoid a prolonged global depression, there needs to be urgent high-level global agreement on common health standards for air travel, airport checks, passenger screening, etc to allow aviation to continue to generate this wider employment and wealth. Although countries are creating their own national ‘aviation plans’, airlines desperately need a global recovery plan just to survive, let alone thrive, in a confusing mishmash of pandemic travel rules and restrictions.

Return of the kingA review of Microsoft’s new Flight Simulator.

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14

BlueprintINTELLIGENCE / ANALYSIS / COMMENT

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Retractable undercarriage Unusually for a single-engine light helicopter in this class, the landing gear will be retractable. The sleek design will help achieve lower aerodynamic drag, giving reduced fuel consumption.

Composite structureThe HX50 will feature a composite structure, giving a lightweight, damage-tolerant and crashworthy protection for a pilot and four passengers.

Blade runnerThe HX50 is set to benefit from a new approach in rotor and hub design, with its three-blade configuration providing benign handling, increased flight performance and advanced wire-strike protection.

OCTOBER 2020 News.indd 2OCTOBER 2020 News.indd 2 18/09/2020 13:58:4218/09/2020 13:58:42

GENERAL AVIATION

Light chopper aims to disruptA previously unknown UK company has revealed that it is developing a new light helicopter for the private market. The Hill Helicopters HX50 is a single-engine light helicopter powered by an as-yet-unnamed 500shp powerplant and will carry four passengers and a pilot. It is aiming to compete with the Bell 505, Robinson R66 and Airbus H120 with low running costs of £15k a year – and address a market not yet served. The company aims to fl y the helicopter in 2022, with deliveries to follow the following year.

Specifi cations

Passengers: fi ve including pilotGross weight: 3,630lbEmpty weight: 1,870lbPayload: 1,760lbCargo: 60lbMax cruise speed: 140ktFuel burn: 35gph at 140kt 22gph at 110kt

5OCTOBER 2020

Mystery engine Hill Helicopters remains coy about the 500shp turbine powerplant it will use for the HX50 but there is speculation that it is developing its own powerplant in-house with input from founder Jason Hill’s engineering company DynamiQ Engineering. The engine is described as being multifuel (including biofuels) with advanced inlets and noise-suppression and delivering a high power-to-weight ratio.


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AEROSPACE

NEWS IN BRIEF

Airbus has signed agreements with Frenchbee and SAS Scandinavian Airlines, together with three air navigation service providers, DSNA, NATS and Eurocontrol, for feasibility studies of its fello’fl y emissions reduction project. Inspired by the fl ight patterns of birds, the fello’fl y concept involves fl ying two aircraft close together for long-haul fl ights to improve

performance. Flight testing using two Airbus A350s is scheduled to begin later this year with the new partners becoming involved in 2021.

The UK Government has announced that it is to publish an aviation recovery plan later this autumn. The report, which will give details of a fi ve-year strategy up to 2025, is expected to cover policies on such topics as travel corridors, border

health checks, passenger refunds, CAA enforcement powers, aviation reform and business rates with airports.

The Irish Air Corps has taken delivery of three PC-12NG Spectre special mission turboprops. The aircraft touched down in Baldonnel, Ireland, on 10 September after fl ying in from Denver, Colorado, US, where they were converted for the ISR

role. The PC-12NGs will replace fi ve Cessna FR172 aircraft previously used for patrol.

Arianespace launched a Vega rocket on 2 September from French Guiana, carrying 53 small satellites from 13 countries. The payload included satellites for the European Space Agency, CubeSats for Planet and Spire, Satellogic, PointView, Kepler Communications,

Slovenia, Thailand and Spain.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has awarded fl ight certifi cation for Diamond Aircraft’s single engine DA50 RG. First fl own in October 2019, deliveries of the fi rst aircraft are due to begin in early 2021 with FAA certifi cation in the same year.

UK next-generation airship manufacturer

Global airline body the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has proposed an urgent rescue plan for UK aviation after it detailed how stop-start quarantine measures are killing demand for air travel. The body warns that government policies are putting 820,000 jobs at risk, and proposes: a testing regime at airports, a review of the infection threshold that triggers quarantine, a suspension of APD duty and an extension of the furlough scheme for the airline sector.

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Airlines adapt with sightseeing fl ights

Bahrain airshow axed, Zhuhai back on

ATC trainees latest casualty of Covid-19 fallout

AEROSPACE

AIR TRANSPORT

COVID-19

Faced with restrictions on international fl ights due to the Covid-19, some airlines have now begun offering scenic sightseeing fl ights to cater for passengers desperate to fl y. Taiwan’s Eva Air, for example, fl ew scenic charter fl ights in August using an A330, with the aircraft reportedly operating

at full capacity. Royal Brunei Airlines, also operated a 85min sightseeing ‘dine and fl y’ fl ight in August using an A320. Meanwhile, other airlines including Japan’s All Nippon Airlines (ANA), Japan Airlines, Singapore Airlines and Qantas are set to follow suit with scenic sightseeing fl ights.

Over 120 trainee air traffi c controllers from the UK NATS air service provider are to lose their jobs just weeks before graduation and being posted to operational units. Due to the sharp decline in air traffi c, training has now been paused. Students will have a guaranteed right to return once it re-opens but the decision was slammed by union Prospect who said it was “disastrously short-sighted”.

AIR TRANSPORT

IATA suggests 4-point plan to rescue UK aviation

The Bahrain International Air Show, which was scheduled for 18-20 November, has been cancelled due to the continuation of the Coronavirus pandemic. The organisers hope to hold the next show in 2022. Meanwhile, organisers of China’s Zhuhai Air Show have backtracked on an earlier announcement that the

trade exhibition, set for 10-15 November, would be cancelled due to Covid-19. A representative of the show had orginallly emailed media outlets to say that the show was cancelled before sending another email only to request that outlets withdraw their coverage of this news and that the show was still going ahead.

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7OCTOBER 2020

Hybrid Air Vehicles has announced that it is forming a partnership with 2Excel Aviation to offer customers joint proposals for operating the Airlander 10 airship in a variety of roles.

United Airlines is to furlough about 20% (16,370) of its employees. The action is to come into force on 1 October when payroll restrictions attached to a Federal bailout expires.

Greece announced on 12 September that it will buy 18 Dassault Rafale fighters to boost its air power. The acquisition is part of a rise in defence spending, driven by increased tensions with Turkey, that will also see Athens acquire four new frigates and SH-60R naval helicopters, as well as anti-tank missiles and torpedoes, plus an upgrade for ten Mirage 2000s.

Under plans to help commercialise space, NASA is to incentivise private companies to collect Moon rocks and lunar dust. The initiative seeks to open up the Moon to future mining and resource extraction.

The UK’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) has announced it has carried out a trial of UAVs for SAR using the Hermes 900 drone.

The eight-hour flight demonstration took place over September from Wales, with the MALE UAV flying the first drone flight in unsegregated airspace since 2015 – and the first UAV flight to take-off, fly in international airspace and land back in the UK.

Slovenian electric aircraft specialist Pipistrel, has announced the launch of a new hybrid-electric eVTOL cargo aircraft to

enter service in 2023. Named the V300, the aircraft is fitted with four vertical-thrust electric motors on twin booms with a conventional engine powering a pusher propeller. According to the company, the V300 could carry up to 1,000lb (460kg) with room for three EPAL standard pallets. A smaller V20 variant could carry payloads up to 44lb (20kg) over shorter distances.

UK-based eVTOL developer Vertical Aerospace has revealed a new winged design for a five-person electric aerial taxi – the VA-1X. The vehicle would carry four passengers and one pilot and have a range of 100miles and a cruising speed of 100mph. The company is aiming for entry into service in 2024.

Congress publishes final 737 MAX report

US flies new fighter X-plane in secret testing

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GENERAL AVIATION

The USAF has revealed that it has flown a demonstrator X-plane in secret for its Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) future fighter. Speaking at the Air Force Association conference, Will Roper, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, revealed that a NGAD full-scale demonstrator had begun flight testing and “we broke records doing it”, according to an interview in Defense News. No other details, such as manufacturer, or location of flights were given.

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On 16 September, the US Congress House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure published its final report into the development of the Boeing 737 MAX – strongly criticising both the manufacturer and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for their part in allowing an unsafe aircraft to enter service and one that killed 346 people in two separate accidents. The investigation, which took 18 months to put together, said that the crashes were a ‘horrific culmination of a series of faulty technical assumptions by Boeing’s engineers, a lack of transparency on the part of Boeing’s management, and grossly insufficient oversight by the FAA’. The report found that there was extensive pressure to cut costs and schedule, to compete with the rival Airbus A320neo, faulty design and performance

assumptions, a ‘culture of concealment’ with Boeing withholding critical information from the FAA, airlines and 737 MAX pilots, conflicts of interest and conflicted representation between manufacturer and regulator, as well as Boeing’s influence over the FAA’s oversight function. Chair of the Committee, Congressman Peter DeFazio said that: “our report gives Congress a roadmap on the steps we must take to reinforce aviation safety and regulatory transparency, increase Federal oversight, and improve corporate accountability to help ensure the story of the Boeing 737 MAX is never, ever repeated.” European aviation safety agency EASA has completed flight testing of the Boeing 737 MAX as part of its return to flight. Testing took place in Vancouver, Canada, due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Evacuation report puts hand lugagge in spotlight

Vertical Aerospace adds wings for its new five-person eVTOL


AEROSPACE8

Taiwanese carrier STARLUX airlines is to lease eight Airbus A330-900s from Air Lease Corporation. The first aircraft are due to be delivered in late 2021. On 15 September the RAF conducted an airborne trial of its new Nexus AI data sharing platform onboard a Voyager tanker with multi-service observers from the British Army and Royal Navy onboard. Nexus is a

multi-domain information portal, designed to take data from multiple sources and share it as part of the future ‘Combat Cloud’ battlespace network.

SpaceX launched an Argentine radar observation satellite on 30 August on its 100th launch. Lifted aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral on a southerly trajectory, the SAOCOM 1B satellite was placed into an orbit over Earth’s poles.

Two smaller satellites, GNOMES 1 and Tyvak 0172, were also placed into orbit.

As AEROSPACE goes to press, general aviation manufacturer Piper Aircraft is set to fly the 5,000th example of its popular Archer single-engine light aircraft. First named the Archer in 1972, the aircraft is a variant of the best-selling PA-28 family and was put back into production in 2010.

An Israeli company, Atlas LTA Advanced Technology, is aiming to introduce a new generation of ‘green’ high altitude and long-range airships and aerostats. Atlas plans to build a range of large-capacity transport ATLANT helium-filled, hydrogen-powered airships, capable of carrying oversized cargo up to 165 tons.

Pilots working for US carrier Spirit Airlines have

reached an agreement with airline management to prevent 600 pilots from being furloughed from 1 October. Around half of Spirit’s 2,500 Spirit pilots have agreed to temporarily work fewer hours each month.

Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) has unveiled the first prototype of its indigenous KF-X fighter aircraft. The first of six prototypes is currently under assembly with completion scheduled

Radome

NEWS IN BRIEF

MoD approves Typhoon AESA radar upgrade

Laminar-flow fuel-sipping bullet aircraft promises jet speeds

China flies mystery winged spacecraft

First El Al direct flight between Israel and UAE makes history

AIR TRANSPORT

AEROSPACE DEFENCE

China has launched and returned to Earth an experimental reusable spacecraft. The spacecraft took off onboard a Long March 2F rocket on 4 September from Jiuquan launch base in the Gobi Desert which then landed on 6 September after two days in orbit and reaching an altitude of 350km. It is then believed to have landed at a secretive

test runway at Lop Nur airbase. The state-run news Xinhua News Agency later confirmed the mission was testing ‘reusable technologies during its flight, providing technological support for the peaceful use of space’. Details of the spacecraft are unknown but some analysts claim that it is a winged vehicle, similar to the USAF’s X-37B.

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The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has given the go-ahead for a £317m contract to install the European Common Radar System (ECRS) Mk 2 active electronically scanned-array (AESA) radar onto the RAF Typhoons. The development and integration will be conducted by BAE Systems and Leonardo

which will go onto 40 Tranche 3 Typhoons with the option to also retrofit the radar into Tranche 2s. Flight testing will commence in 2022 with IOC in 2025. Once in service, the ECRS Mk2 will be ‘the world’s most capable fighter radar’ able to simultaneously perform air and surface search and track, as well as electronic warfare and attack.

On 31 August the first direct service between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) landed in Abu Dhabi after a three-hour flight from Tel Aviv. The chartered El Al flight, using a Boeing 737 with ‘peace’ written in Arabic, English and Hebrew on it, carried Israeli and US

diplomats and also made history by routing over Saudi airspace – previously banned to Israeli airliners. The flight follows the surprise signing of a Middle East peace deal, with the UAE normalising relations with Israel.

Secretive US-start-up Otto Aviation has finally revealed its revolutionary Cerelon 500L six-person aircraft, which offers jet-like (450mph) speeds and range (4,500nm) but achieves a staggering 18-24miles to the gallon thanks to its laminar flow shaping, which produces 59% less drag than comparable aircraft and its RED A03 V12 piston engine. The Cerelon, which was first spotted in 2017 in Victorville, California, has now flown 31 times, according to the manufacturer.

SPACEFLIGHT

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On 11 September, Airbus announced through social media that the 10,000th example of its A320 single-aisle family airliner – an A321neo – had made its first flight from its Hamburg factory.The milestone airframe will go to Middle East Airlines (MEA).

OCTOBER 2020 9

ON THE MOVE

After AI vs human simulated dogfights, the US is set to put AI aces in real aircraft to go head-to-head in air combat trials with human pilots in 2024. Speaking at a US DoD AI symposium, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper revealed that a real-world trial in 2024 of an AI vs human fighter pilot will take place in 2024, following on from

the DARPA AlphaDogfight challenge this year which saw a computer triumph against a human F-16 pilot in simulated air combat – winning 5-0. The AI Top Gun developed by Heron Systems had already beaten other artificial agents in the AlphaDogfight challenge, including Aurora Flight Sciences and Lockheed Martin.

A320 family reaches 10,000th

GENERAL AVIATION

AEROSPACE

After 30 years the annual Flying Legends vintage warbird show will no longer be held at the historic Duxford airfield in Cambridgeshire, it has been announced. The 2020 Flying Legends did not take place this year due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, the Imperial War Museum, responsible for Duxford aerodrome, blamed

Covid-19 and financial constraints and said the decision was by ‘mutual agreement’ with the Flying Legends organisers and vintage aircraft operator The Fighter Collection, which will continue to be based at Duxford. Meanwhile, planning approval for a new 168-room Hilton hotel on the Duxford site was given the go-ahead in June.

Bruce Landsberg has been appointed for a second term as Vice Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

Greg Jones is the new CEO of Salus Aviation.

Max Kingsley-Jones, formerly at Flight Global, is now Senior Consultant at Cirium.

IAG’s Chief Executive and

former British Airways chief, Willie Walsh, has stepped down after nine years in the position. Iberia Chairman and Chief Executive Luis Gallego is now IAG CE.

NASA has named Catherine Koerner as the new Orion Progam Manager. She previously led the Human Health and Performance Directorate at NASA Johnson.

for 2021, first flight in 2022 and manufacturing to begin in 2026. South Korea plans to have 120 KF-Xs in service by 2032.

Icelandic space company, Skyrora has conducted a test launch of a small two-stage sub-orbital rocket, Skylark Micro, from the Langanes Peninsula in Iceland. The rocket ascended to 26.86km before both stages were parachuted back down to sea. Skyrora is planning to launch a larger orbital

vehicle, Skyrora XL, in 2023. Russian Helicopters has delivered a Mi-171 helicopter to China. Built at the Ulan-Ude Aviation Plant, the aircraft has been acquired for an unspecified Chinese civil aviation company. China already operates around 200 Mi-171 helicopters.

Supersonic airliner start-up, Boom is the latest high-speed aircraft developer to receive

DEFENCE

A rocket launched by new US commercial space company Astra failed to make orbit on 11 September. The 38ft two-stage Rocket 3.1 launcher designed to carry microsatellites and CubeSats into orbit lifted off from its space port at Kodiak, Alaska but suffered what is reported to be an engine shutdown shortly afterwards.

Flying Legends parts company with Duxford

New entrant Astra fails to reach orbit

Airb

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funding from the USAF to study its Overture SST as a possible US government transport. The funding comes from the USAF Presidential & Executive Airlift Directorate to explore configurations of the Overture as a potential VIP executive or Presidential transport.

Finnish flag carrier, Finnair is slashing its flight schedule for October by nearly half as the recovery of passenger traffic stalls out.

SPACEFLIGHT

AI fighter pilot to take on human in dogfight test

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10 AEROSPACE

By the NumbersUnderstanding the world of Aerospace through data

Passenger airliners in service/storage

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Oct 2020 By the Numbers.indd 2Oct 2020 By the Numbers.indd 2 18/09/2020 16:2318/09/2020 16:23

Carlisle said, in supersonic cruise speed have, “quite big impacts on time on wing.” This is where Reaction Engines’ heat exchanger technology would be helpful. The technology is now light enough so that it can be incorporated into the heart of the engine. Virgin Galactic’s plan is for a Mach 3 plus transport and the SABRE cooling technology can also help there. Thomas points out that, between Mach 3 and 4, its heat exchanger can rapidly cool the incoming air, reducing the engine temperature and avoiding the need for using exotic materials. Avoiding more carbon dioxide and other pollutants in the atmosphere is another goal for supersonic aircraft developers. Boom and Nevada-based Aerion, which is creating its AS2 supersonic business jet, both see carbon neutrality as important for faster-than-sound travel’s environmental case.

Synthetic fuels

In February, Boom announced that its test programme will be carbon neutral by using sustainable fuels. Aerion announced in October 2018 that its AS2 jet would be using GE Aviation’s Affinity, a medium bypass ratio engine with a twin-shaft, twin-fan turbofan, which can use synthetic fuels.

Aerion Chief Sustainability Officer, Gene Holloway, explained that his firm is also working with British Columbia-based carbon capture specialist, Carbon Engineering. It is developing technology to capture carbon dioxide from the air and turn it into a synthetic aviation fuel.

Meanwhile, Boom is also working with a direct carbon capture, fuel producing company, California’s Prometheus Fuels. While synthetic fuels are more expensive than conventional hydrocarbon-based ones, Holloway states that they have a higher specific energy, 3-4%, compared to JP-1, and they have no sulphur content; so no sulphur oxide emissions. He added that an aircraft can be carbon neutral if it maximises its use of such fuels. Despite the spate of August announcements, Carlisle is under no illusion about the challenge; in his view there is a long way to go to concluding that an environmentally friendly, economically viable supersonic engine is possible. Looking back on Concorde, Carlisle said everything has moved on a long way.

Four supersonic civil transport announcements were made in August and all but one of them involved Rolls-Royce. Almost 17 years since the retirement of Concorde, and its Olympus

593 powerplants, opinion from Rolls-Royce is that building an engine in 2020 for supersonic travel is not a challenge. The challenge today is developing a supersonic engine that meets environmental regulations and is still economically viable at business class seat prices; that is the view of Rolls-Royce’s Strategy Director For Civil Aerospace, Simon Carlisle.

Supersonic united

The Derby-based propulsion firm is working with supersonic airliner developer Boom, Virgin Galactic and Reaction Engines, which is advancing its synergetic air breathing rocket engine (SABRE) for Mach 5 travel. On 3 August, Virgin Galactic announced a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Rolls-Royce to collaborate in designing and developing engine propulsion technology – that work involves Derby’s US arm. Two days later, Rolls-Royce and Boom announced that they had launched a new agreement to advance engine design for Boom’s Overture airliner.

The third and fourth announcements came on 21 and 31 August. Of those two, Reaction Engines and Rolls-Royce were first, announcing a strategic partnership agreement to develop high-speed aircraft propulsion systems. The second came from the US military and involved a previously unknown company, Exosonic, but not Rolls-Royce. Exosonic has a contract with the US Government for a supersonic Air Force One. While little is known about Exosonic’s plans, Reaction Engine’s technology for high-speed propulsion is its proven SABRE heat exchanger and this is expected to be important for Rolls-Royce’s intentions. Reaction Engines’ Chief Executive, Mark Thomas, said that his company’s heat exchanger could help realise an economically viable supersonic engine. Carlisle explained that supersonic propulsion operates at high temperatures which, while also experienced by today’s airliner engines, will last a lot longer. Small differences,

Pushing the Envelope

Accelerating civil propulsionRobert Coppinger

11OCTOBER 2020

CARBON CAPTURE SPECIALIST CARBON ENGINEERING. IS DEVELOPING TECHNOLOGY TO CAPTURE CARBON DIOXIDE FROM THE AIR AND TURN IT INTO A SYNTHETIC AVIATION FUEL

Exploring advances on the leading edge of aerospace

Pushing the Envelope A B.indd 1Pushing the Envelope A B.indd 1 18/09/2020 16:2518/09/2020 16:25

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LETTERS AND ONLINE fi@aerosociety Find us on LinkedIn Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com

Crow

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Lifetime with the RAeS

A UK F-35B Lightning II on the fl ight deck of HMS Queen Elizabeth in November 2019 as part of the WESTLANT 19 Exercise off the US coast.

The National Audit Offi ce (NAO) published Carrier Strike – Preparing for Deployment on 26 June 2020 and it concerns the current status of the UK’s approach to developing Carrier Strike capability; essentially the ability to conduct military operations with fi xed-wing aircraft launched from CVF, Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers. It presents a damning picture. Poorly considered government ‘gunboat’ power projection ambitions, mission and capability woolliness, murky command and fi nancial responsibility, artless systems’ integration, compromised warfi ghting effectiveness, unresolved confl icting military needs and plain unaffordability contrive the subplot of the NAO report.

The F-35B aircraft gives the RN an absolute winner but, by integrating an ASTOVL and fi fth-generation fi ghter in such large ships, the sum of the whole falls short of the

bold and innovative solution that might have marked re-entry into 21st century fi xed wing maritime aviation. Furthermore, an ASTOVL aircraft denies the RAF the best available strike fi ghter for multi-operational needs.

Politically, the UK re-introduction of carriers and air wings is pinned on establishing a national military capability to mount global operations at short notice as carrier enabled power

projection (CEPP). However, the huge resources to mount and sustain the Carrier Strike capability do not appear to have been properly planned or indeed accepted by the services themselves and the effort is evidently distorting the overall total armed forces equipment budget.

The raison d’être of maritime fi xed wing aviation is fl eet air defence. Equal, but lesser, are strike and ISR and modern data

Anthonile Greenman The RAeS is a lifetime association. Today I came across this book in our library. The RAeS has been around before I was born and it shall still be there in many years to come. I salute everyone who has made this Society a world-class professional body.

Can the Royal Navy afford two aircraft carriers?sharing. CEPP and Carrier Strike appear to have stymied this maritime-air imperative and stumped development of a best system of systems ASTOVL/ship approach. A carrier size-misfi t has resulted, predisposed to serious operational shortcomings. Simply, full capability may not be achieved and lethality, supportability, survivability, vulnerability and independent operating capability will be severely compromised because recovery is unaffordable.

The NAO points out the affordability problem and something will have to give. Perhaps it will be the early loss of one carrier and a change to the F-35 procurement plan. Hopefully, looking back these past 50 years, it will be third time lucky for the Fleet Air Arm and fi xed-wing will not be lost this time.

Philip V Hunt FRAeS

AEROSPACE12

Alex Berry [On RAeS response to CAA consultation on new draft procedure for reviewing the classifi cation of airspace] An interesting read with most valid points around the issue of compromised safety. In my view, anything that simplifi es sub-4,000ft is sure to get a decent round of applause from a high proportion of the GA community. The CAA have made some welcome changes of late, hopefully this trend will continue.

Raphael D [On Is there a racism problem in aerospace?(1)] There’s a huge problem in aviation with this issue but it’s more comfortable to sweep it under the carpet, rather than having open and honest conversations. Putting a photo of a female pilot and the ‘token’ black man in a recruitment website doesn’t make a business more ‘inclusive’. Unfortunately, as a recruiter, cabin crew and then airline pilot, I have seen enough to categorically say that - yes, there is a racism problem in aviation.

Dr Susanne Svensdotter Agree completely.

Philip Day [On Sir Glenn Torphy’s refl ections on changes to the RAF(2)] Nice to see a useful article put into bullet points too. Not everything benefi ts from masses of prose! Thank you for saving me some time and delivering the same impact.

Reclassifying airspace

Racism is a problem

The Royal Aeronautical Society has won the Best Professional Engineering Institution of the Year award for 2020. Organised by EqualEngineers, The Engineering Talent Awards 2020 are a new set of awards to celebrate the diversity of the engineering and technology profession.

Bishnujee SinghCongratulations Royal Aeronautical Society team! I predicted correctly the previous day that the RAeS is going to walk away with the award. It’s almost going to be my 25 years of association with the RAeS.

Mariya Tarabanovska Congratulations to everyone in RAeS!

Capt Don Van Dyke Well-earned, well-deserved!

Christopher Miah Congratulations to the Royal Aeronautical Society. A wonderful achievement most fi tting for a world class professional engineering body.

Peter Round Fabulous news. Well done all of you.

RAeS wins engineering diversity award

Jacob Pompe [On NHS Spitfi re(3) It is wonderful how, to this day, the Spitfi re remains to be such an iconic aircraft. I recommend watching The First of the Few about how it all started!

Captain Ameen Budagher The Royal Air Force was instrumental in changing positively the outcome of the Second World War. Glorious day for the RAF.

George R

omain/A

RC

o

RAF refl ections

Thank you Spitfi re

i f@aerosociety linkedin.com/raes facebook.com/raes www.aerosociety.com

F,

1. https://www.aerosociety.com/news/only-0-is-acceptable/2. https://www.aerosociety.com/news/bringing-balance-to-the-air-force/3. AEROSPACE, September 2020, p 24, Signed Spitfi re scrambles to lift nation’s spirits4. https://www.aerosociety.com/news/wiring-up-the-electric-aviation-revolution/5. https://www.aerosociety.com/news/21st-century-boyds-us-goes-back-to-the-future/

de Havilland DH98 Mosquito TT35 ‘converted’ to a FBVI for the fi lm 633 Squadron in 1963. The fi rst Mosquito prototype completed its maiden fl ight nearly 80 years ago on 25 November 1940. Over 7,700 were built and the ‘Wooden Wonder’ remained in service from 1941 to 1961. The original prototype is on display at the de Havilland Aircraft Museum at London Colney and is the only surviving WW2 prototype to be preserved in the world.

From the RAeS photo archives@BladeIndia [On Wiring up the electric aviation revolution(4)] Rightly said, introduction of eVTOLs is a plausible reality for short-haul fl ights where public concerns over safety is a big challenge. Long-haul aircraft will take longer.

OCTOBER 2020 13

RA

eS/N

AL

Cranfi eld University is appealing to students and visitors who have fl own in the National Flying Laboratory Centre (NFLC) Jetstream 31 turboprop ‘Flying Classroom’ to share their anecdotes and experiences of their fl ights. The aircraft is soon due to be retired and replaced with a larger Saab 340B fl ying laboratory and classroom. Contact: nfl cmemories@cranfi eld.

AEROSPACE Deputy Editor Bill Read was among a group who fl ew in Cranfi eld University’s NFLC Jetstream 31 Flying Classroom in November 2019.

AEROSPACE Editor Tim Robinson FRAeS has won The Honourable Company of Air Pilots Award for Aviation Journalism 2020. ‘This award is given to an individual journalist, publication or organisation for an outstanding contribution to the promotion or public awareness of aviation in general or of any important aspect of aviation activity.’

Aviation accolade for Editor

Cranfi eld asks for Flying Classroom memories RAeS virtual space conference

@sophielharker Really happy to have published my fi rst article on the @AeroSociety blog (and eventually magazine), but I’m even happier that it was on such an important topic. It’s just the start and looking forward to seeing the Society take its next steps.

@hoang_laura Fantastic piece of writing refl ecting on the brilliant @AeroSociety BAME webinar and more. Delving into important issues and how we move forward. Well done @sophielharker

On 9-10 September the RAeS held its fi rst conference using its new virtual event platform for a two-day online conference on Safeguarding Earth’s Space Environment on the challenge of orbital space debris.

@marauder2048 [On 21st Century Boyd’s(5)] A piece that wilfully mischaracterises Schriever’s approach to fi ghters. His whole point was that you had to consider the ground and support equipment and the other components as a total package which meant that introducing new types had to be carefully planned and executed.

@BurkhardDomke A tool doesn’t yet make a good design. At best, the digital modelling and simulation approach abstractedly refl ects only what is known and thought to be understood. Beyond that, it is fed with assumptions. The real challenges are in organisation and culture.

BAME webinar(1)

Designing fi ghters

@BryanHomey [On USAF announcing that the T-7A will be designated the eT-7A due to having been digitally designed] Will it phone home? Hahaha.

@TheDewLine And SR-71 stood for ‘slide rule’, then, apparently.

@DefenseWag Thank heavens the E is silent.

@OwensRayna [On First RAeS virtual conference on Safeguarding Space] Fabulous session on international collaboration this afternoon at @AeroSociety

Cranfi eld U

niversity

Short-haul e-aircraft

Digital design

@adelegammaranoThank you @AeroSociety really enjoyed the fi rst day of this conference, very well organised and great speakers!

plans to debut a carbon neutral aircraft by 2035 while British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson vowed that the UK would be the first to develop a zero-emission long-haul passenger aircraft. However, while remarkable progress has been made in recent years on the development of smaller electrically-powered aircraft and eVTOLs, the advent of larger e-aircraft for commercial passenger transport still has a long way to go. Many technical hurdles still need to be overcome, in particular those relating to the power and duration of batteries. Battery technology still has much to do before it can compete with jet fuel as a source of energy. There has also been talk of the potential of hydrogen to power larger aircraft but this technology also faces challenges in developing a hydrogen fuel cell which is small, light and safe enough to be fitted on board an aircraft.

While-e-aircraft have the advantage that they are less polluting and cleaner, they also

14 AEROSPACE

AEROSPACEThe economics of electric aircraft – part 1

The zero-emissions passenger aircraft is coming. In the not too distant future, we are told, fleets of quiet, non-polluting, super-efficient battery or even hydrogen-powered powered

aircraft will replace noisy CO2 and NOx-emitting jets, continuing the role of aviation in connecting people across the world but without the risk of adding to global warming. While much has been written about the different futuristic designs proposed by developers of e-aircraft, less has been said about how these new aircraft will cope with the competitive realities of commercial air transport. Part 1 of this two-part report into the economics of electric aircraft will look first at the challenges of selling commercial electric aircraft to operators and the implications for airport operators and service providers.

Recent months have seen a renewed interest in accelerating the development of passenger aircraft driven by electric or hybrid-electric power. The French government has announced

Recent months have seen a renewed interest in accelerating the development of passenger aircraft powered by electric or hybrid-electric power. But will these aircraft make money in commercial operation? BILL READ FRAeS looks at the financial challenges faced by electric aircraft designers.

Plugging into the electric aircraft revolution

WILL IT BE EASY TO INCORPORATE INTO EXISTING AIRPORT INFRASTRUCTURE AND GROUND-HANDLING EQUIPMENT?

Wiring up the electric aircraft revolution A B f.indd 2Wiring up the electric aircraft revolution A B f.indd 2 18/09/2020 17:0018/09/2020 17:00

A RADICAL

NEW AIRFRAME

DESIGN

MIGHT LOOK

FUTURISTIC AND

EYE-CATCHING

BUT HOW

PRACTICAL WILL

IT BE IN DAY-

TO-DAY AIRLINE

OPERATIONS?

15OCTOBER 2020

Wright E

lectric

utilise a less efficient power source than flying an aircraft using kerosene, as charging batteries is less efficient than using the fuel directly. An all-electric aircraft will also weigh the same at the end of a flight as it did at the beginning – unlike a conventional jet aircraft, which gets lighter as it uses up fuel.

Because the reliability of batteries is not yet assured, current thinking is that, in order to satisfy flight safety regulations, the first generation of electric aircraft is likely to be a ‘hybrid-electric’ design fitted with a supplemental fossil fuel

engine to act as an emergency back-up generator, recharging the electric batteries to extend range. However, such hybrid aircraft, although they may be safer, will not be as efficient to operate as either all-jet or all electric-motor aircraft. The back-up motor will take up payload space and add weight, while the aircraft will need to carry both batteries and liquid fuels, which will need to be refuelled and recharged between flights.

As batteries become more efficient, future all-electric designs may have different shapes but, in the interim, e-aircraft might look similar to current regional turboprop designs with long

straight wings fitted with either two or multiple propellers.

Short-haul replacement

Even with the hoped-for advances in battery and electric engine technology, experts believe that battery-powered aircraft will not be able to replace all jet-powered aircraft. Although e-aircraft are expected to be quieter, non-polluting and cheaper

to operate than jet aircraft, they will fly more slowly and will not have sufficient battery life to stay in the air for long distances. Unless new technology is developed to reduce these restrictions, industry experts are currently predicting that electric aircraft will only replace commercial jet aircraft on short-haul regional routes. As a result, a two-tier system may evolve with e-aircraft operating on short-haul and regional routes while jet turbine aircraft (using more efficient environmentally-friendly engines and sustainable fuels) continue to fly on long distance routes.

Developing an e-aircraft

As with electric cars, the development of the electric aircraft is expected to progress in stages. In the electric aircraft market, the current buzzword is urban air mobility (UAM); many companies are busy working on new designs for small eVTOLs designed to carry small numbers of passengers on short routes. This pioneering work is helping to accelerate technology and systems which can be used for the development of larger electric aircraft similar in capacity to regional turboprops and jets.

While there are a number of companies currently working on larger e-aircraft designs, it is not the aim of this article to look at specific projects or technical challenges. Instead, the focus will be on the wider operational and economic aspects of operating such a new type of aircraft.

Imagine that you are a start-up company developing a new electric passenger-carrying aircraft. How can you bring your design to market and compete for orders against other manufacturers?

The electric aircraft start-up Wright Electric has started to develop the electric propulsion system for a 186-seat electric aircraft called Wright 1.


16 AEROSPACE

Engines, airframes and batteries

The next problem is that of design. What will the new aircraft look like? A radical new airframe design might look futuristic and eye-catching but how practical will it be in day-to-day airline operations? Will it be easy to incorporate into existing airport infrastructure and ground-handling equipment? How easy and economic

will it be to service and maintain?There is also the issue of engines. Will the

engines be purchased separately from the airframe (as they often are with current jet-powered airliners or will they have to be developed as an integrated unit by the aircraft manufacturer? The same challenge applies to the incorporation of batteries.

Then there is standardisation. While it is tempting for e-aircraft designers to produce all their own designs which are different from those of their competitors, there is a commercial and practical need to standardise some components, such as battery sizes and charging plugs, so that they are easy to use and replace.

Flight safety certification

Another problem is that of safety. Competent authorities will only grant flight certification to a new electric aircraft it they are convinced that it is safe to carry passengers. How will your new aircraft cope with the rigours and hazards of


The first obstacle is finance. Even before the onset of Covid-19, developers of electric aircraft were having difficulties staying in business, as it was taking so long to bring a design to the point where it could actually start earning money. This process has since accelerated as developing a new electric aircraft design requires a substantial quantity of investment. As with all innovative projects, there is an element of risk in that development may encounter unforeseen costs, time delays, safety issues or lack of demand. Because so much about the future of e-aircraft is still uncertain, banks and investors tend to be reluctant to risk money in unproven technology and markets. An e-aircraft developer will therefore need to have deep pockets and a strong commitment to investing over the long term.

Traditionally, new aviation technologies have been developed by OEMs and engine manufacturers, often with support from national governments. However, in the case of e-aircraft, more stakeholders will also be involved in creating the infrastructure needed to operate such new aircraft – including airports, pilot trainers, air traffic managers, components suppliers and MRO providers.

Existing aviation regulations are based on conventional liquid-fuelled aircraft. The introduction of hybrid and electric aircraft may require new regulations regarding safety, flight certification, training and maintenance, all of which could take time to evolve.

HOW CAN YOU ENSURE THAT THE AIRCRAFT BATTERIES ARE SAFE?

Rendering of the Project 804 X plane being developed by Raytheon Technologies.

Raytheon Technologies


17 OCTOBER 2020

airport’s carbon footprint. Electric aircraft would be both non-polluting and quieter, meaning that airports close to populated areas could operate for longer hours or overnight without disturbing local residents. It would also do wonders for the airport’s environmental image. In October 2018, Heathrow Airport announced that the first electric-hybrid aircraft to use its facilities will not have to pay Heathrow’s landing charges for an entire year if it was operated in a regular service hub – an offer valued at nearly £1m.

There would also be disadvantages. Current jet-powered passenger aircraft all share a common ‘tube and wing’ shape which may vary in size but which can be loaded or unloaded using existing airport equipment. Airport ground-handling services are geared up to working with conventional designs. “Introducing electric aircraft would involve new interfaces between airport and aircraft and ground-handling systems,” concluded Jean-Brice Dumont, EVP engineering at Airbus, speaking at the 2020 Singapore SATLF conference.

However, the advent of passenger-carrying electric aircraft with new shapes and characteristics would require the learning of new skills. Ground-handling infrastructure may have to be created to manage e-aircraft with unconventional shapes, such as long thin wings requiring more space between parked and moving aircraft.

Compatibility

Airports may also have to cater for two different types of electric aircraft needing to be refuelled or recharged. Pure electric aircraft would require battery changes while hybrid-electric aircraft will have two sets of engines, one needing fuel and the other batteries. Airport ground-handling staff

flight, such as high winds, turbulence, ice, rain, high and low temperatures, lightning strikes or bird and drone strikes? How can you ensure that the aircraft batteries are safe? High-performance batteries need cooling and must be ensured against the risk of fire (as shown by the problems faced by Boeing with battery fires after the introduction of the first 787s and the fire of the first prototype of the Eviation Alice electric aircraft),

In addition, there are operational issues to be resolved. Will your passenger-carrying e-aircraft have two pilots or one, or perhaps be flown autonomously? How will this decision affect the attitudes of safety authorities and pilot unions, as well as passenger confidence?

Sustained volume production

Assuming that your e-aircraft design is certificated, the next problem is production. Should serial production be attempted by the same start-up company that designed the aircraft or should the responsibility of volume production be handed over to a larger OEM with experience in this area? Alternatively, the OEMs may decide to play catch-up by buying up the start-up company.

Decisions will also need to be made about spare parts and aftermarket support. Aircraft OEMs and engine manufacturers make as much, if not more, money from support services than from original equipment sales. As an e-aircraft designer, would you want to try to cash in on this market, or would it be less effort to hand this responsibility over to a third party?

Airports

In a future where there are now e-aircraft designs ready to fly, the next question is who will buy them and how will they be operated? But first, it could be instructive to look at the airport infrastructure and support services in which electric aircraft will operate. As with much new technology, there is the question of who jumps first. Airlines will not acquire e-aircraft if there are no airports they can operate from. Similarly, airports will not commit to building electric aircraft infrastructure until they are sure that such aircraft will be introduced in sufficient numbers to justify the investment in new facilities (a dilemma faced by several airports when the Airbus A380 was first introduced).

Imagine that you are an airport operator deciding how best to invest for the future. You know that electric passenger aircraft will be coming in the future, so how best can you attract airlines operating e-aircraft to base at your airport or to use your facilities?

There would certainly be advantages. Operating electric aircraft would greatly reduce the

IN A FUTURE

WHERE THERE ARE

NOW E-AIRCRAFT

DESIGNS READY

TO FLY, THE NEXT

QUESTION IS

WHO WILL BUY

THEM AND HOW

WILL THEY BE

OPERATED?

Airbus and Rolls-Royce made the joint decision to bring the hybrid-electric propulsion E-Fan X demonstrator to an end in April 2020.

Airb

us


18 AEROSPACE


would have to become familiar with the workings of a wide variety of different e-aircraft designs and have all the different types of batteries and associated equipment on hand needed to service them. The batteries may be stored in different places on the aircraft, possibly in the wings or within the fuselage. Some e-aircraft may be recharged with the batteries in situ, while others will have their used batteries swapped out for a new fully-charged set. The size and shape of batteries may also vary between each aircraft design, as might the connectors needed to recharge them (a problem experienced in miniature by every owner of a mobile phone).

Air traffic managers would also have to learn new methods of operation, co-ordinating the movements of fast jet airliners with slower e-aircraft. There are also operational safety issues as to the potential restrictions on e-aircraft operations of adverse weather or how airport fire crews and emergency services should react to a take-off or landing accident or a battery fire on the ground.

Regional airport market

One prediction for the future of electric aircraft is that they could be operated from smaller airports which previously could not cope with the economics of commercial flights – thus generating a totally new market. However, this would only be possible if these airports have the necessary infrastructure to cater for e-aircraft – such as battery chargers, ground crew to change or recharge batteries and MRO service providers with the relevant technical knowledge and access to spare parts. If e-aircraft did generate a demand for the more intensive use of regional airports, these airports would also need to invest in new passenger and transport infrastructure, such as new terminals, roads and parking.

MRO

Turning to the question of support services, imagine that you are an MRO provider keen to profit from the growing market for servicing

electric aircraft. It is predicted that servicing costs for e-aircraft will be lower, at least for engines, as electric motors are less complicated than jet turbines and should require less maintenance. Airframes, on the other hand, may have higher maintenance costs depending on how they are constructed, such as is already being experienced with the increased use of

composite structures where damage is more difficult to detect and repair. Standardisation of components and the availability of spares would also have an effect on costs and time scales.

MRO providers will also have to adapt to new norms as e-aircraft are expected to have a different operating cost structure than jet aircraft. An all-electric aircraft will not require a fuel system but would require the regular replacement of batteries. However, what is not yet known is how the experience of using electric aircraft in regular commercial operations may throw up new maintenance issues not yet thought of, as batteries and motors are exposed to heat, cold, sunlight, ice, turbulence and all the other rigours of flight. Many MRO providers, engine manufacturers and OEMs are taking full advantage of digital systems to record multiple parameters of aircraft in flight, predictive maintenance, flight testing and digital twins. Once the designs for electric aircraft and motors have become clearer, MRO providers can start working on the most efficient ways to maintain them – most likely with the assistance of digital modelling, robotic inspection systems and digital printing already being used on existing airframes.

RAeS Urban Air Mobility, Virtual Conference; 30 September 2020 – 1 October 2020Part 2 of this report into the economics of electric aircraft will consider how airlines could be persuaded that there is money

to be made in game-changing new e-aircraft designs and how will they might be operated in commercial service.

Eviation’s Alice, a light nine-seater all-electric plane designed to service regional areas.

WILL YOUR

PASSENGER-

CARRYING

E-AIRCRAFT HAVE

TWO PILOTS OR

ONE, OR PERHAPS

BE FLOWN

AUTONOMOUSLY?

Eviation


3. As a project pilot at China Lake, Mercury 7 astronaut Wally Schirra was the first pilot to fire a Sidewinder missile – a weapon that, in the AIM-9L version used by Sea Harrier in the Falklands, was so lethal that it was described by one of the development team as ‘a death ray’.

4. During fighter direction trials at RNAS Yeovilton prior to 809 Naval Air Squadron’s deployment, it was discovered that the liberal application of WD40 lubricant greatly increased the Sea Harrier’s radar signature.

5. Before settling on development of the Sea King AEW.2, the Department of Naval Air

1. A handful of 809 Naval Air Squadron’s pilots, who had been urgently recalled to Yeovilton from as far afield as Arizona, California, Germany and Australia, had fewer than ten hours in the cockpit of a Sea Harrier when they went to war – less front-line training than was given to a Spitfire or Hurricane pilot in WWII.

2. Two Anglo-Argentinian veterans of RAF Bomber Command’s WWII campaign against Nazi Germany, volunteered to fly against the British during the Falklands War as part of Escuadrón Fénix, a paramilitary unit set up to fly business jets in support of Argentinian Air Force operations.

Ahead of the release of his latest aviation book, Harrier 809, which looks at the events of the Falklands War and the BAe Sea Harrier’s part in it – ROWLAND WHITE reveals some fascinating facts from his research.

21 things I discovered while writing Harrier 809

19OCTOBER 2020

Above: Shortly beforeflying south during the Falklands War, 809 Squadron flew a photo sortie over southern England designed to signal strength in depth to an enemy that would soon meet the Sea Harrier in battle.

Main image via author.

Harrier 809 by Rowland White and published by Bantam Press will be available from 15 October 2020.

21 Things learned about Harriers B A 3pp f.indd 321 Things learned about Harriers B A 3pp f.indd 3 18/09/2020 16:2018/09/2020 16:20

20 AEROSPACE

DEFENCEFalklands Air War

Warfare explored the possibility of reviving the Fairey Gannet AEW.3, equipping either the Hercules, BAe Coastguarder (itself a development of the HS748), and Chinook with AEW radar. Also considered was the Skyship 500 airship that featured in the James Bond movie, A View to a Kill.

6. One plan considered by the Ministry of Defence prior to launching Operation Corporate was to seize and hold mainland Argentinian territory in Tierra del Fuego and then use it as a stronghold from which to launch the campaign to retake the Falkland Islands.

7. The RAF’s Alert Measures Committee argued for the introduction of an ‘RAF flat-top’, an aircraft-carrying ship from which it could fly aircraft under Air Force, rather than Navy command and control. Members of the RAF Marine Branch, it suggested, might be used to help crew it.

8. During trials conducted by the US Marine Corps, a clean AV-8A Harrier was capable of climbing to an altitude of 30,000ft 13 seconds faster than a clean F-4 Phantom. The Marine Corps also tested the Harrier against US-operated MiGs in dissimilar air combat at Area 51 in Nevada.

9. The Argentinian Navy tried to buy Falklands flagship HMS Hermes in the 1960s and, as

late as 1979, British Aerospace was trying – with the blessing of the Foreign Office – to sell it the Sea Harrier as a replacement for the A-4 Skyhawk.

10. The Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough employed modelmakers to build 1:24 scale Airfix kits of the Harrier GR.1 that were then used to trial the effectiveness of new camouflage schemes devised by the RAE’s Defensive Weapons department.

11. In order for the RAF’s 39 Squadron Canberra PR.9s to have the range to reach Punta Arenas in Chile as part of Operation Folklore, they were fitted with hastily designed new internal fuel tanks. The flight plan required them to land on a section of the Pan American Highway in northern Chile to refuel from a waiting RAF C-130 Hercules before continuing their journey south.

12. 809 Squadron kept a Sea Harrier on Quick Reaction Alert during Atlantic Conveyor’s journey south. After a vertical take-off, it was calculated that it was capable of shooting down the shadowing Argentian 707 at a maximum range of 183 miles. London had a pre-prepared press release written in anticipation of this happening.

13. The first enemy aircraft shot down by a Fleet Air Arm fighter launched from a merchant ship drafted into naval service was a Focke-Wulf

Below: A 809 Squadron Harrier on Atlantic Conveyor’s pad during the trip south. The aircraft was on alert to intercept Argentian spyplanes tracking the Task Force.

The 809 Naval Air Squadron crest.

Crow

n copyright

Via author


21OCTOBER 2020

take over Fw-200 Condor in 1941. The pilot of the ‘Hurricat’, Lt Bob Everett RNVR, was a former Grand National winning jockey.

14. Worried about the ‘thin blue line’ of Sea Harriers, US Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger suggested letting the British use the 100,000t supercarrier, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, as a ‘mobile runway’. Unfamiliar with the complexities of naval aviation, an enthusiastic British Ambassador suggested that the RAF might fly Buccaneers from Ike’s deck.

15. There was a proposal to develop a Harrier T.4 into night-attack ‘Pathfinder’. Fitted with a forward-looking infra-red system operated by a crewman in the rear seat, the T-bird could either have mounted solo precision attacks at night or lead a flight of GR.3s flown by pilots wearing night-vision goggles.

16. During Operation ACME, a 51 Squadron Nimrod R.1 suffered an engine failure while conducting a covert intelligence-gathering mission from a Chilean airfield. During the subsequent emergency landing on a remote South Pacific island, two tyres burst and a main undercarriage assembly was wrecked. On a subsequent mission, the same Nimrod was forced to evade an intercepting Mirage. A senior Chilean Naval Officer was on board the RAF spyplane during both incidents.

17. Ordered to leave Chile at short notice, an RAF C-130 Hercules, operating in support of Operation Folklore, was delayed for a few days in Tahiti by the French for arriving unannounced from Easter Island without the right diplomatic clearances. Tough work but someone’s got to do it.

18. Under the codename Operation Fingent, a Marconi S259 mobile radar from RAF Wattisham with a ten-man team of RAF operators was flown out to Chile to monitor Argentine air movements aboard a Flying Tiger Line Boeing 747. Always a stylish outfit, the airfreight company once set up a record company, Happy Tiger Records. Their final release, Mason Proffit’s 1971 album, ‘Movin’ Towards Happiness’, is actually pretty good...

19. Between 1962 and 1996 the King William Building at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich was home to an operational nuclear reactor called JASON. So far, at least it remains the only 17th Century, Sir Christopher Wren masterpiece to have been used for this purpose.

20. The Blue Vixen radar designed for the Sea Harrier FA.2 was so good that, when it was first used on operations in Bosnia, claims of contacts by SHAR not picked up by AWACS were not believed. The technological

innovation at the heart of Blue Vixen occured to its designer, Ferranti’s John Roulston, while waiting for a snow-delayed flight at Logan Airport in Boston.

21. Internet speculation that the long runway at Banjul in The Gambia – used as a stopover by 809 Squadron’s Sea Harriers on their way south – was originally built by aliens seems unlikely. However, the West African airport was designated as an official diversion field for the Space Shuttle in the event that a ‘Transoceanic Abort Landing’ was required.

Above: Map of the top secret ACME Nimrod spyplane flights, carried out from Chilean territory.

Via

auth

or


diverse panel of representatives from across the aerospace, aviation and space sectors, as well as representatives from the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers (AFBE-UK):

● Halimatu Abubakar, Engineering Operations Manager, Aerospace Sector

● Shahida Barick FRAeS, Strategic Advisor, Space Sector

● Rachna Reiter, Airline Pilot, Aviation Sector

● Sheila Sousa, Senior Telecommunications Expert, AFBE-UK

Recognising race

In recent history some have found it difficult to talk about race, however it is becoming clear that the ‘I don’t see colour’ assertion is actually doing more harm than good. Reiter described her race as

22 AEROSPACE

AEROSPACEDiversity and inclusion

Following the release of the RAeS’ statement and action plan on the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, the Diversity & Inclusion Working Group (D&I WG) hosted a webinar to start

the discussion around how the Society and wider aerospace sectors can work to be more inclusive for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) members and colleagues. During the panel the audience was asked the following question: ‘Have you experienced racism in the workplace or other professional setting?’, to which 40% of the attendees replied ‘yes’. The webinar titled ‘BAME Perspectives on Aerospace and Aviation: Shaping the Future’ aimed to put the focus on looking ahead on a variety of topics and opening the floor to ask the difficult questions on racism in industry and academia. Elvis Tinago ARAeS, Thermofluids Summer Intern and D&I WG member, chaired a

Does aviation and aerospace have a racism problem? SOPHIE HARKER reports from a recent RAeS webinar that highlighted some uncomfortable questions that the industry urgently needs to address and which the Royal Aeronautical Society is aiming to lead the debate on.

Broadening the palette

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23OCTOBER 2020

part of her individual personality and that, by not recognising her race, it is ignoring an important part of her, commenting: “It’s who I am, I’m Asian and proud to be, I acknowledge it and I celebrate it.”

Our panellists discussed how addressing race does matter and the importance of having these open dialogues. It is essential to acknowledge race in order to have a productive discussion about it, even if these are uncomfortable conversations.

Introducing ‘BAME’

‘BAME’ is an acronym for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic. Although often used in efforts to improve the lack of diversity and inclusion in society, the term ‘BAME’ itself causes disagreement, due to the perception that it groups together all individuals who are ‘non-white’ without recognising the individual challenges and differing cultures of certain communities under the BAME banner. This was a running theme throughout the webinar with debate around why society feels the need to label anyone in the 21st century (be it with the BAME tag or their gender, sexual orientation or other characteristics). Although our panellists agreed that this was not the ideal situation and

that we should endeavour to use labels less, it was highlighted that there is merit in using them to recognise and tackle some of the issues that affect individuals from BAME communities.

Racism in the workplace

Two polls were held during the webinar. The first identified that 83% of the audience members were currently or planning to work or study in the aerospace, aviation and space sectors. The second asked the audience if they had ever experienced racism in the workplace or another professional setting. The poll results showed 40% of the attendees responded that they had experienced racism. Sousa, who represented AFBE-UK (an organisation dedicated to providing support and promoting higher achievement among students and professionals in engineering), identified this shocking statistic as a very high percentage that cannot be ignored. Among the panel it was agreed that it shows there is a lot of work that needs to be done and that only a response of 0% is acceptable. This statistic also highlighted that it is not enough to just ‘recruit more diverse candidates’; employers need to make efforts to create an inclusive environment to allow these

Clockwise from directly above: Webinar host; Elvis Tinago EngTech ARAeS – Fluid dynamics engineer, RAEng Scholar.The panel: Rachna Reiter BE, MBA – Airline Pilot; Shahida Barick BEng, FRAeS – Strategic Advisor, Space Sector; Sheila Sousa – Senior Telecommunications Consultant (AFBE) and Halimatu Abubakar MIET – Engineering Operations Manager (AFBE).

‘HAVE YOU EXPERIENCED RACISM IN THE WORKPLACE OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SETTING?’40% OF THE ATTENDEES REPLIED ‘YES’

The webinar was hosted by the Society online.


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Actions not statements

A common theme throughout the panel discussion and Q&A was focused on identifying the specific actions that can be taken to address issues faced by the BAME communities. Following the unlawful killing of George Floyd and the subsequent global Black Lives Matter protests, many organisations and institutions released public statements in support. However, it has been made abundantly clear that these statements are meaningless without action. Not only is action the only way real progress can be made but a public statement without following through with subsequent actions is perceived to be an act of publicity or following a trend, as opposed to representing the true morals of the organisation.

Numerous different actions were covered by the panellists who emphasised that lots of small steps by many can lead to big change for all. These smaller actions included:● ‘Blind CVs’ where names are left off entirely to

reduce the effect of bias in recruitment processes.● Analysing the diversity of speakers and panellists

at events and webinars and notifying organisers to help them improve.

● Making sure the information and resources that are put out on the topic are positive and are there to educate on the way forward, rather than to reprimand mistakes.

● Organisations assessing their current state and setting up targets using industry benchmarking frameworks.

● Releasing action plans to make the organisation publicly accountable.

● Publish diversity statistics above and beyond the government mandated gender pay-gap statistics.

Sousa pointed to AFBE-UK Scotland’s ‘ACCESS.A Action Plan’ – an action plan for some simple and important steps that any organisation can take.

Encouraging the next generation

Many of the actions suggested by the panel had a focus on inspiring the next generation, including under-represented groups, to consider a career in STEM and aviation by presenting them as careers they can see themselves thrive in. It is important to show that aerospace, aviation and space are global industries in which everyone is welcome. Promotion across all ages, from primary school to university level, was frequently stressed and the push for extensive programmes with a wide variety of opportunities was encouraged.

To reach different audiences and schools who have not had visibility of STEM initiatives before, Abubakar recommended a prominent use of social media aimed at generating widespread awareness. The younger generations use a myriad of social media platforms that can be leveraged

AEROSPACEDiversity and inclusion

candidates to succeed and feel like they belong, as well as understanding what impact experiencing racism has on their well-being and ability to perform in the workplace.

When is banter not banter?

One of the ways in which racism has been experienced by many is under the guise of ‘banter’. Barick described banter as a way for individuals to freely make offensive remarks and derogatory comments, while hiding behind the ‘it’s just banter’ tagline. The panel all agreed that the route forward to tackling this issue is by ‘calling it out’. This is an important action not only for those who are the targets of ‘banter’ but also for those who witness it. Sousa iterated: “any of us can do this… call it out because we won’t change behaviours unless we accept that something is wrong.”

The panel also discussed what organisations, groups and societies can do in order to create an environment in which everyone feels safe speaking up about banter and other associated behaviours. Abubakar raised the issue that, in many situations today, speaking up can have an adverse effect where the individual is labelled and stigmatised for doing so. The panel discussed this further, stressing that representation in HR is as important as representation within the technical fields. Ensuring diversity among those responsible for dealing with reports of discrimination creates a comfortable space for empathy and compassion where concerns are understood and taken seriously.

D&I in a post-Covid world

The pandemic has exposed socio-economic imbalance issues in more ways than previously publicised. On 16 June 2020 the UK Government released a report revealing the negatively disproportionate effect of Covid-19 on the BAME communities. This topic was deliberated on by the panellists who called on organisations to recognise that there is a problem and to embed diversity & inclusion (D&I) as part of the social and economic recovery from the pandemic. The panellists particularly advocated for a shift in recruitment and promotion to showcase what is possible. The method discussed in the session involved instigating a change at all levels within an organisation with recognition of role models at different career stages being key to this change. The panel also addressed the fact that the economic climate has changed, particularly within aviation and, while many of these changes are heartbreaking, the industry’s recovery can be treated as an opportunity to enact the change that is required in a way that makes it resilient to future challenges and avoids repeating history.

IMPROVING DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION IS ONE OF THE STRATEGIC AIMS OF THE ROYAL AERONAUTICAL SOCIETY AND IS A FUNDAMENTAL CONTRIBUTOR TO THE FUTURE OF THE ORGANISATION

The inspirational General Charles Q Brown, Jr is the new Chief of Staff of the US Air Force.


25OCTOBER 2020

as reflecting the changes taking place within our Corporate Partners. Following the release of the Society’s statement on BLM (available to view on the RAeS website), the ‘BAME Perspectives on Aerospace and Aviation: Shaping the Future’ webinar was designed to be a starting point to enable further discussions and debates on race-related matters and to ensure that these issues are not overlooked or forgotten. The points raised throughout the panel discussion and all the questions submitted to the Q&A have been and will be used to inform further activities, drive action for change and improve the inclusivitly of the Society.

The D&I WG would like to thank the panellists and chair for their time and expertise contributing to the first event of this type for the Royal Aeronautical Society. Thank you also to Rishi Radia, RAeS Education and Diversity Officer, who was the MC for the event. For those that missed it, the webinar was recorded and can be viewed on the Society’s YouTube channel. Further information on the Society’s D&I activities, as well as the D&I WG, can be found here. The group welcomes any thoughts and suggestions and will be running further webinars to pick up on related topics in the coming months. If you would like to be involved in any future events, please contact [email protected].

As aerospace faces its biggest challenge yet, we should not forget the struggles that many people within our talented workforce face on a daily basis. Getting from 40% to 0% is not an easy endeavour but, in the words of Eddie Rickenbacker: ‘aviation is proof that, given the will, we have the capacity to achieve the impossible’.

by the Society and the aerospace sectors to show that anyone and everyone can succeed in these industries. She also called on large organisations and government to sponsor and support these programmes to enable their success.

Diversity does not work without inclusion

Attracting and recruiting a more diverse workforce is only half the story – how do organisations keep their recruits and enable them to succeed in the workplace? Reiter advocated for internal support groups, stating that the Society’s D&I WG was a great initiative, as it allows the Society’s members to come together and work through solutions on how to diversify the Society’s membership – a critical component to ensuring the Society’s longevity and relevance in ‘tomorrow’s world’.

Abubakar also praised training and development schemes for managers to help them understand all of their employees and what those employees uniquely need to be able to contribute their best to their teams and thrive, not just survive, in the workplace.

What next?

Improving diversity and inclusion is one the strategic aims of the Royal Aeronautical Society and is a fundamental contributor to the future of the organisation. The future viability of the Society as a membership organisation is predicated on being attractive to the widest audience, as well

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If you would like to be involved in any Diversity and Inclusion future events or discuss employment issues, please contact: [email protected]

This Webinar is available to view on the aerosociety channel: youtube.com/user/AeroSocietyChannel

NASA-TV featured two black co-hosts; retired astronaut Leland D. Melvin and SpaceX Mission Integration Engineer, Lauren Lyons, for their live-streamed launch program, covering SpaceX’s successfully launched manned commercial expedition into space back in May 2020.


Main: The F-35Bs arrived at RAF Marham in June 2018.

‘The Dambusters’ and 207 Sqn based at RAF Marham, Norfolk. While 617 Sqn gets on with sharpening its operational capabilities, 207 Sqn is the F-35B Operational Conversion Unit. Air Cdre David ‘Bradders’ Bradshaw, previously Lightning Force Commander and now the RAF’s Head of UK Combat Air, said of 207: “As our F-35B training unit, the squadron qualifies its staff, instructs the front line pilots and eventually new ab-initio pilots as they come through the training system.”

There is a requirement for 138 F-35s and, to date, 48 F-35Bs have been approved. Eighteen have been delivered, three to Edwards AFB flying with 17 Sqn and 15 to RAF Marham. Another three are expected by the end of the year.

In late-2019, just 18 months after the first 617 Sqn F-35B Lightning IIs arrived in the UK, the embryonic F-35B Lightning Force was declared IOC (initial operational capability) – Land. Air Cdre

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DEFENCEF-35B training

Don’t ever underestimate the difficulties of introducing new capabilities, particularly when they include the new F-35B Lightning on a new aircraft carrier as Alan Warnes has discovered.

Next year there will be a seismic shift in UK capabilities, when the HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier embarks upon its first operational tour – known as Carrier Strike Group 21 (CSG21). With it comes a plethora of new military systems but arguably the most important is the fifth generation F-35B Lightning II combat aircraft. All hands-are-now-on–deck (excuse the pun) to ensure they, like the rest of the aircraft are combat-ready when the ship slips anchor from Portsmouth in mid-2021.

Spearheading the F-35B’s introduction into service is the Lightning Force, a joint Royal Navy and RAF command organisation. There are currently two UK F-35B Lightning squadrons, 617 Squadron

Ahead of HMS Queen Elizabeth’s first operational cruise next year, ALAN WARNES goes behind the scenes with 207 Sqn RAF – the Operational Conversion Unit (OCU) responsible for turning UK pilots into F-35B fighter pilots and readying them for carrier strike.

Lightning Pathfinders

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Bradshaw explains as: “Deploying for any land-based warfighting missions directed by the UK Government.”

Having overcome that hurdle, the Air Cdre now has to guarantee IOC – Carrier by the end of 2020. “Our near-term focus is to ensure the Lightning Force can fight effectively from the Queen Elizabeth carrier. That’s why 207 Squadron deployed to the ship with its F-35Bs for Exercise Lightning Fury in late January for nearly two weeks.”

Working Up

Commanded by Wg Cdr Scott ‘Mox’ Williams, 207 Sqn deployed to the carrier on January 28, marking the culmination of a three-part work up. The unit had spent two weeks at BAE Systems Warton, Lancashire training at the F-35/Queen Elizabeth Carrier (QEC) Integration Simulator facility. This is here the cockpit of the F-35 and the flying control tower (FLYCO) on board HMS Queen Elizabeth

are replicated to provide a complete 360-degree immersive experience for pilots. It has been used to simulate thousands of take-offs and landings and uses highly specialised computational engineering to model the air wake of the ship, which is the way air moves around and behind the carrier and flight deck, to replicate the motions that F-35 pilots will feel in real life.

Wg Cdr Williams, who previously had three tours flying the Harrier GR7/9 before converting to Tornado GR4 and then F-35B in 2017, continued: “We also train LSOs in a separate room, which mimics the FLYCO part of the carrier. We have a person in the loop in the aircraft cockpit, with an LSO looking on in the simulated world from the FLYCO real-time. So any mistakes the pilots make, tests the supervision of the LSO. We get twice as much out of the training during an event when we go up there. It really immerses you into the ship environment day and night and recreates the real experience by more than 90%.”

Once the training at Warton was complete and all the personnel were fully conversant with flying

from the ship, the unit returned to RAF Marham. Back home the pilots trained on full mission simulators, bringing wider ship procedures into play that can’t be replicated at Warton. The unit then deployed to the ship to qualify seven instructors in

day and night ops, while 617 Sqn qualified eight pilots in June during Carrier

Qualification 2 (CQ-2) – four in day and night operations, and four day-only. The remaining four will persevere with their night needs during the next carrier qualification (CQ) in September/

October.In addition to qualifying instructors

during Exercise Lightning Fury, the unit also checked-out an untested carrier syllabus. “We had to provide an objective Central Flying School (CFS) accredited view on the content and syllabus, to see how difficult it was and what pertinent lessons we could bring back and spread to the force”, Wg Cdr Williams said, then adding, “We also had to build the right supervision levels with our Landing Signals Officers (LSOs), allowing us to prepare

and build 617 Sqn in preparation for their June CQ deployment. From a force perspective we were effectively pathfinders in generating core carrier flying skills for 617 to get them ready for going on CSG21 next year. That was key, because it is a massive force effort to generate a carrier capability.”

Lightning Operational Conversion Unit

No 207 Sqn is the Lightning Operational Conversion Unit, responsible for training pilots to fly the F-35B Lightning. Since standing up on 1 July 2019, much of the OCU’s time has been taken up training the broader F-35B force safely and effectively from the aircraft carrier. As an OCU there are many more Qualified Flying Instructors (QFIs) on the unit compared to an operational squadron and Qualified Weapons Instructors (QWIs) too. QFIs concentrate on teaching pilots to fly the F-35B and QWIs teach how to tactically use the weapons carried by the jet. On 207 Sqn, all of the instructor pilots are QFIs but there are three QWIs, including


Above: The F-35B in the the hover showing the doors and inlets for its LiftFan.

Below: F-35B pilots also train on the F-35B/QEC simulator at the same time, before flying from the aircraft carrier.

Bottom: The F-35B/QEC simulator at BAE Systems, Warton is where LSOs can practise their skills before going to the carrier.

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the OC; “I am a Harrier QWI, while the other two are from the Typhoon and Tornado GR4. We have the QWI qualification but it is not necessarily transferrable to being the tactical expert on F-35 that would be expected.” That won’t be the case for too much longer, as Wg Cdr Williams explained; “We will fix that in 2022 by running the first Lightning QWI course at RAF Marham in tandem with the Typhoon QWI course, allowing us to blend the 4th and 5th gen capabilities. It will run for 10-11 months and the product you get at the end of the course should be extremely good.”

Today there are currently eight QFIs on the unit, six are RAF and two RN but the latter are now growing and the mix should eventually be six/four broadly in line with the official 58%-42% Joint Lightning Force split.

Eight ab-initio pilots, have progressed through the training stream, rather than from another front-line aircraft, to join the Lightning Force. The first four went through RAF Valley, flying the Hawk T2 in 2017 before being posted to VMFAT-501 at MCAS Beaufort, South Carolina where they converted to the F-35B. All four are now on the front line with 617 Sqn, two being candidates for the 2022 QWI course.

There are currently four ab-initio pilots progressing through 207 Sqn – two are well into their flying syllabus and the other pair have just started their ground school during early July.

Wg Cdr Williams commented, “We feed back to MFTS the essential attributes that we are looking for in students; namely good captaincy, high levels of mental capacity and the ability to fly accurately whilst operating a high-performance aircraft.”

When arriving at RAF Marham to join the Lightning Force, students undergo seven weeks of ground school at the Integrated Training Centre. In the facility, next door to the unit, pilots, engineers and mission support staff learn their trade. Pilot training aids (PTAs), essentially touch screen cockpit trainers – monitors with PCs and joy-stick/throttle systems are essential tools. Then there is a four-week phase on full mission simulators (FMS) – with each student facing 20 different scenarios to build their knowledge. This includes practising the STOVL (short take-off and vertical landing) regime, so covering short take-offs, slow landings, rolling vertical landings and vertical landings on the pads. To make things a little easier when it comes to flying the aircraft, the FMS’ mirror RAF Marham’s layout.

Once completed, the students then face eight dedicated emergency simulations, like engine flame-out procedures. With a better than 1:1 glide ratio, the F-35 can glide pretty well, so they are taught the art of safely recovering an F-35B without a working engine! Wg Cdr Williams explained; “We want students to make a decision as to whether they have the energy to safely glide the jet back; if they can, great. If not, we want students to make a safe decision to eject.”

DEFENCEF-35B Lightning

Alan W

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Ensuring the F-35B is qualified to operate from the Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier is a major landmark for the fifth gen jet.

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trials aboard the French Navy’s Charles de Gaulle carrier in 2007. When returning to the carrier, an operational airborne Harrier would normally pull up beside the ship and then hover sideways across the deck and land, just as the F-35 does. SRVL allows the aircraft to keep the forward speed, with the on-board computers able to help the jet create wing lift. At the same time, the thrust from its engine and lift fan creates the forward momentum that can directly translate to a bring back capability. This allows the aircraft to accomplish a slow landing speed of 57 knots and the ability to return with more weapons and fuel, especially in hot temperatures.

The SRVL system is intrinsically designed into the F-35B’s control laws, so if you press the button to go from conventional flight to STOVL, all the aircraft’s [engine] doors open up, as Wg Cdr William explains; “Below approximately 45kt air speed you enter the jet borne flight regime and the flight controls behave slightly differently. For instance, pulling or pushing the stick no longer commands a pitch rate but instead commands a vertical climb or descent rate. Applying rudder pedal input generates side-slip ordinarily but in jet borne flight it commands a yaw rate. Throttle movement demands acceleration forward or rearwards from a central detent position.”

It was a different story on the Harrier, as the OC explains; “With Harrier you controlled height with the throttle – a little power off and back on to descend. However, if you tried that in F-35 – where, as explained, the throttle controls forward and backward movement – you’d end up darting forwards or backwards. So, having other STOVL aircraft handling experience can be rather counter-productive.”

The Wg Cdr admitted that landing the F-35 on a carrier at night is one of the most challenging things from a handling perspective. “But there are lots of things we do tactically that are more challenging for the pilots as they come through.”

Completing the simulation work culminates in an emergency procedures validation (EPVal). Until then, pilots have been taught by contracted BAE instructor pilots at the ITC. Come the EPVal, a military instructor steps in for the first time, to check the student’s emergency and general handling capabilities and, if that’s not at the level expected, they will get more time. An instrument rating test immediately follows and, if they pass both, they re-join 207 Sqn to commence live flying on the F-35B. “Once the students have successfully completed the EPVal and general handling check they then become part of the unit. Until then they may have worn a 207 Sqn patch but will only have joined us at social events.”

Landing on a carrier

You might have thought being an ex-Harrier GR7/9 pilot would be an advantage when flying the F-35B but Wg Cdr Williams didn’t necessarily agree; “only 5% of what I learnt flying the STOVL Harrier is any use on the STOVL F-35B.”

He continued; “One thing is for sure, it’s much easier flying a F-35 onto a carrier than a Harrier. I flew day and night ops from the HMS Illustrious and HMS Invincible in my Harrier days. Landing at night with winds up to 35 knots with bad weather and limited visibility on a big pitching deck is the scariest thing I’ve ever done in an aircraft! It was all so manual, with the stick, throttle and nozzle controls needing frequent adjustment.”

Wg Cdr Williams added; “In the F-35B you could take your hands off the the aircraft’s controls in the hover day or night while alongside the ship and, as long as you have set the system up correctly the aircraft will hardly move.”

The shipborne rolling vertical landing (SRVL) concept, as the system is termed, was invented by the UK on the VAAC (Vectored Thrust Aircraft Advanced Control) Harrier, which was proved during

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TARMAC stores aircraft at its headquarters in Tarbes, near Lourdes in France’s southwest, at nearby Toulouse-Francazal (the first airport in what is now France’s aerospace capital), at Vatry airport some two hours to the east of Paris in northeastern France, and at Teruel in the high mountains of eastern Spain. Its shareholders are Airbus, Safran and French water and waste management utility Suez, which each hold roughly a third of the company.

However, there is a crucial difference between ‘active storage’ and ‘prolonged storage’, Lecer tells AEROSPACE. When active, engineers keep the aircraft in flight-ready condition for up to approximately three months, after which it goes into long-term storage, where a range of tests are performed on a regular basis.

United Airlines’ Vice President for Technical Operations Planning and Strategy, Kurt Carpenter explains that; “‘active storage’ can preserve an aircraft safely for a few months while ‘prolonged storage’ can preserve an aircraft safely much longer. It involves covering windshields, landing gears, dispensing a moisture remover in the cabin, anti-growth agent in fuel tanks, openings are covered, [and] applying lubricant to cables and the deactivation of certain systems.”

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AIR TRANSPORTAirliner storage

For those of us for whom seeing commercial aircraft soaring overhead is a part of life – or indeed a part of our lives – Covid-19 has been a very visible change. That is true for the airlines that

operate them too and indeed aircraft that many people consider old friends have been retired, often unceremoniously.

Whether it is the last departure of an iconic 747 or a flagship A380, the niche A340-600 or the last few MD-80 and -90 T-tails, all the way to more surprising final acts for jets like Delta Air Lines’ Boeing 777 fleet, the shape of the aircraft we fly on has been changed by this crisis.

But after those aircraft head off for a well-earned rest to the proverbial or literal desert, what about the far greater number of those that are left behind, whether that is a long-term storage until the industry has recovered significantly, or a shorter-term parking to be part of the immediate response?

The first big question: to park or to store?

“Storing an aircraft means keeping it alive,” explains Patrick Lecer, president of French aeronautical services company TARMAC Aerosave.

With thousands of the world’s airliners currently grounded, JOHN WALTON looks at the challenges of keeping these aircraft stored and maintained.

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United parking

United has parked approximately 700 aircraft from both its mainline and express fleets. The carrier, like most US airlines, sells a substantial proportion of its flights on subsidiary or contract regional airlines, using the United Express brand.

“The mix of aircraft in the storage program will include each type of aircraft that United operates and the quantity of aircraft in storage will vary based on changes to our capacity,” Carpenter explains to AEROSPACE. “The majority were stored where United has in-house maintenance facilities and appropriate staffing. These aircraft tend to be the ones that are stored in such a manner that make them less labour intensive to return to service when demand returns. A smaller portion of the fleet, requiring more substantial maintenance prior to returning to service, will be stored in offsite facilities in Goodyear, Arizona and Roswell, New Mexico.”

Virgin storage

Since hitting pause on its passenger flights in April, Virgin Atlantic flew over 1,000 cargo-only flights during the months of May and June. The airline consolidated these operations, simplifying its fleet onto the Boeing 787-9 and Airbus A350-1000, while putting its Airbus A330-200 and -300 and Boeing 747 aircraft into storage. The A330-200 fleet (former Air Berlin aircraft introduced as

stopgap replacements for the Dreamliner during the latter’s extensive Rolls-Royce engine reliability issues) and 747 fleet will not return to service with the airline.

“The parking and storage of the aircraft is an extremely complex and detailed process,” Denis Brailsford, Virgin Atlantic’s Manager for Aircraft Assets, tells AEROSPACE. “The most interesting part has been seeing how these methods and procedures have developed and adapted to the global pandemic, and how manufacturers and operators have worked together to improve how we park and store aircraft for the years to come.”

Parking an aircraft, says Tarmac’s Patrick Lecer, “takes days to weeks depending on the protocol. When it arrives on our sites, first we park it on hard paved dedicated parking, depending on its weight. We do a complete inspection, tests, empty the liquids – fuel, hydraulic, etc – and we protect each sensitive part: windows, landing gears, probes, engines, wheels, tires, brakes, seats, floor and all openings.”

Flight controls, landing gears and other surfaces are lubricated. Maintenance manual procedures are applied and dessicant substances are placed throughout the cabin, in engines and other spaces in the aircraft, while batteries are disconnected and treatments applied to the fuel tanks to prevent any microbiological growth.

On an ongoing basis, the procedures include checking the aircraft every


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been travelling to parked aircraft in Glasgow and Doncaster every seven days.

Airlines scrambled to park and store

Inside company war rooms and emergency strategy sessions, airlines were forced to respond to the Covid-19 crisis in ways that few had prepared for, both in terms of grounding their aircraft and then reactivating them to serve urgent needs like skeleton essential services and medical cargo transportation.

A tale of two parking cities

“At a time in which the global pandemic had an unprecedented impact upon the aviation industry, our home bases of Manchester and London Heathrow (were) incredible in supporting our parking requests,” says Virgin’s Brailsford. “However, with the majority of the European fleet grounded, tarmac was limited, resulting in parking at a number of locations. Doncaster immediately stood out as a perfect match, allowing us to park our aircraft while using our maintenance teams from Manchester to perform periodic parking checks.”

The two cities’ airports are separated by roughly an hour and a half by car: important, says Brailsford, so that engineers “can regularly perform checks to ensure our fleet is airworthy and ready to return to service when required. Further maintenance requirements are another factor, while we had all seven of our B747 fleet on the ground in Manchester is a great example of this. They underwent a programme of engine changes and other activity in readiness for them to retire from our fleet. It was necessary to reunite engines with their original airframes ahead of the sale or return to the lessor of each aircraft. “

“There are a number of considerations that need to be taken into account when storing aircraft. Key factors include humidity and weather conditions,” Brailsford explains. “For example, the dry air at Ciudad Real (CQM, the somewhat infamous ‘south Madrid’ airport) where we have stored some of our 747s and A330s, is ideal.”

A finnished fleet

Finnair parked the majority of its fleet, including most of its Airbus narrowbody aircraft, while serving strongly reduced domestic Finland demand for urgent travel – some 5% of normal – with its fleets of Embraer E190 and ATR 72 aircraft. Internationally, meanwhile, it operated both its widebody types, the Airbus A350 and A330, with varying mixes of passenger and cargo payloads.

“For our long-haul fleets,” Finnair’s A350 Programme Manager Sara Mosebar explains, “we have our newer A350 fleet which, of course, is more fuel-efficient, more economical to operate


week, performing inspections, adding lubricant and running tests.

“We carry out maintenance checks every seven days,” explains Virgin Atlantic’s Matt Sharp, Senior Manager for Aircraft Maintenance at the airline’s London Heathrow hub. “This is quite a simple inspection where the aircraft is powered up and a few checks are carried out, fluid levels, battery power and any status messages. We also perform a walk around, both internally and externally, to check for any leaks or damage to ensure the aircraft is still correctly blanked.”

Blanking is the process by which all external

openings of the aircraft, everything from engine intakes to pitot tubes and beyond, are covered up.

Further checks are then carried out at 14, 30, 60 and 180 days. The 30-day checks include removing blanks, running the engines at idle, turning the air conditioning system on, and moving the aircraft in order to rotate the wheels and power up the brakes. These checks take some 60 person-hours to complete.

At 180 days, the aircraft enters a maintenance hangar for a full check and inspection: lubrication of flight controls, removal of wheels for axle inspections, and so on, taking some 300 person-hours.

This can be complex logistically, Virgin Atlantic’s maintenance staff in Manchester have

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or leased also comes into play. “We think about the leasing conditions we have for certain aircraft, we see costs of utilisation but primarily one of the things we took into consideration with the A330 modification was that we have half of our A330 fleet as owned and half of it as leased,” Mosebar notes. “For Finnair, it was easier to do the cargo modification in terms of changing the passenger configuration into cargo for the aircraft that we own versus those that we lease. For the A350 there were a lot of fuel conditions, weight savings, leasing terms – while, on the A330 it was primarily the lease conditions we were looking at.”

As the crisis continued, it became clear that a key part of the puzzle is not storing any one aircraft for too long. Aircraft are, after all, made for flying and, the longer they sit on the ground, the more maintenance they require, both to be kept in readiness and to return to service. As a result, Finnair had a crack team of specialists deciding which particular tail numbers would be passing in and out of service.

“At the very beginning,” Mosebar explains, ‘it seemed as though it would be as simple as ‘okay, we’re going to store those, we’re going to operate these three. Then it very quickly evolved into a regular process of trying to rotate the tails as much as possible to minimise the amount of manpower utilisation from the maintenance perspective.”

and with a larger cargo capacity. The A350 was the obvious choice for most of our cargo operation. It’s highly dependent on the distances you’re flying and then the size and capacity of what you’re carrying. It is like any normal operation but then it’s highly specific: where could we fly our customers? Where was the cargo demand?”

The A350 operated with belly cargo and, for the most part, passengers in the passenger cabin but some flights were in an EASA-approved all-cargo layout, where lightweight freight – usually Covid-19-related items like personal protective equipment (PPE) – was shipped in boxes on passenger seats in the main cabin.

For those missions, Mosebar says; “we primarily focused on hubs where we already had established route structures, because there is a lot that goes into an aircraft to any hub. Do you have the appropriate maintenance personnel available? Is there someone available to service the aircraft? Do we have all the flight permissions to go to certain airfields? All of that is already in place when we focus on places where we are already operating.”

Some of Finnair’s A330s, meanwhile, saw passenger seats removed to become all-freight aircraft, allowing the transportation of even more lightweight cargo in the passenger cabin. “The seats were removed, carpeting put down over the rails that you would normally have exposed, and then points were made for the attachment points for netting, so that way everything could be secured,” Mosebar explains. “One of the interesting things about that is that in the cargo hold of a normal commercial aircraft there are smoke detection systems installed. In the interior of the aircraft, it’s mostly reliant on the fact that people are present most of the time, so the smoke detection is only in the lavatories and in specific areas in the passenger compartment. So we had to have someone monitoring the interior of the cabin and the load during the flight for smoke detection purposes.”

Which to store?

Nonetheless, almost every Finnair aircraft, including the widebodies, have been stored at some point, with only three A350s flying at the nadir of operations. But how does an airline decide which aircraft to store?

“For the A350s, there’s a lot that goes into it,” Mosebar says. “Some of the aircraft are heavier than the others, so obviously that immediately impacts fuel efficiency. The older aircraft, specifically our first three aircraft, are line numbers 18, 19 and 20, so they’re something like four tonnes heavier than the latest standard of the A350s coming off the line. So those were some of the earliest aircraft parked, and will continue to be parked until we return to full long-haul operations for the A350s.”

The question of whether aircraft are owned

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For the A350, there’s a single parking procedure that allows you to store for up to three months. There’s not too much difference in terms of what’s involved.”

External protections

That list is certainly extensive. “External protections have to be applied, every part of the engine covered – engines, thrust reversers, inlets, all of that. APU protection is installed. The doors need to be lubricated. Every external probe is capped and covered. Landing gears are checked and protected in terms of lubrication. Fuel samples are taken from the fuel tanks to make sure there is no present microbial growth, and that’s monitored throughout the parking period as well. The waste system is cleaned and drained. The potable water system is drained. Everything is checked, preserved, and then ready for storage,” Mosebar explains.

Finnair estimates that some 30 person-hours of work are required to store a widebody aircraft per calendar day, with teams working at pace to park an aircraft.

But few airlines were prepared to park their entire fleets at once. Airline schedules are designed to keep aircraft in the air and most hubs do not have space for all the aircraft notionally based there to be parked normally. That is both a delicate ballet of parking on aprons, taxiways and runways – especially those in unusual places, as the various

A giant task

So, how do you park an aircraft? Finnair’s Sara Mosebar jokes: “very carefully! One of the revelations that we had during this period is that not a lot of consideration has gone into the parking of aircraft historically, because normally you don’t see this scale of parking anywhere. The world has never seen this scale of parking for this period of time.”

“Airbus – and any OEM (original equipment manufacturer) – has published storage and parking procedures for every aircraft as part of their maintenance documentation but it’s not something we generally would have used. It’s not as though we just had these regular job card templates available in our system: we had to develop all of that on our end, review all the procedures and figure out exactly what does go into parking.”

An immense amount of work was needed to review every task required, both for operators and airframers, and to optimise processes to park an unprecedented number of aircraft, at speed.

“When you park an aircraft, the first thing that you have to consider is maintaining the asset value and protecting the aircraft, as well as maintaining the safety,” Mosebar says. “In terms of the initial parking procedure, depending on the aircraft type, you can choose your parking period at the beginning. For instance, the A320s and A330s, you can choose up to 15 days or one month procedure, and then you can choose to park it for three months.


THERE ARE THESE PROBLEMS THAT YOU WOULDN’T EVEN NORMALLY THINK ABOUT GOING INTO THIS. YOU THINK: WHERE ARE WE GOING TO GET 500 CHOCKS?


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pictures of aircraft sinking through the surface of taxiways show – and a need for hardware.

As the fleet took to the ground, Mosebar recounts; “there are these problems that you wouldn’t even normally think about going into this. You think: where are we going to get 500 chocks?”

“Finnair”, Mosebar says, “needed chocks for every single airplane: almost for the whole grounded fleet and, of course we don’t have that many chocks. So Finnair Engineering commissioned what we call our Corona Chocks, made by local Finnish carpenters. That was a great example of the resourcefulness of engineering and of the cooperation here in general.”

Keeping aircraft maintained is a complicated endeavour

There is a reason why the famous boneyard storage sites are in the desert, explains TARMAC Aerosave’s Patrick Lecer. “Moisture, condensation and salt are the enemies of storage, which can lead to corrosion. A temperate environment, far from the salt air without strong temperature variations, is therefore recommended but, above all extensive monitoring, in order to anticipate premature aging, is essential. The protection and associated periodic checks of the aircraft are also very important to avoid intrusions of all kinds – animals, objects, etc. In addition, heavier maintenance expertise is essential to control and

rectify faults that may occur in the context of storage and its monitoring.”

That work can be performed by a storage specialist such as TARMAC, by an airline’s own maintenance staff, or by a combination of the two.

“United Tech Ops technicians, engineering, quality control personnel and others are responsible for performing and overseeing the storage of our aircraft at our in-house locations,” United’s Carpenter explains, noting that “at the off-site locations where work is being performed by our FAA approved essential maintenance providers, United has a vendor management team providing oversight of all maintenance activity being performed. This includes ongoing quality assurance audits that ensure adherence to proper procedures while maintaining the integrity and safety of the fleet.”

Modern technology is certainly helping engineers: tablets mean that critical information about processes and procedures are at maintenance teams’ fingertips, while online databases can show the condition and status of aircraft in storage, scheduled for storage, scheduled to return for storage, or in active service.

It is technology – or, more accurately, the expertise that it amplifies and multiplies in terms of person-hours, management information and other advantages – that will help airlines to make informed choices about aircraft as they start returning to our skies.


project can have far less distinct markers of success. Is it an absence of accidents or incidents? These are usually rare enough that their perceived absence may be a statistical anomaly. A decrease in safety reports? Perhaps something has happened in the company that has made employees less likely to file reports. These problems can often make it tricky for operators and instructors at the sharp end of the organisation to convince stakeholders to make, maintain or increase investment in these areas. The best organisations account for this and invest anyway and it is to their credit that they do. However, in this article we hope to demonstrate that there are tangible benefits to investing in human factors beyond improving safety.

Investing in people

In order to define the scope of this article a little more clearly, we are looking at the non-safety

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AIR TRANSPORT Investing in safety

In these unprecedented times for the aviation industry, many airlines are desperately trying to survive and are reviewing the investments they make in different areas of their operation. So, what are the considerations that drive

investment in the airline industry? Load factors, certainly. Profit, most definitely. Safety, absolutely. Since the advent of human factors (HF) and, more specifically, crew resource management (CRM), safety and training departments within airlines have made their case for investment in this area on the basis of improving safety.

Demonstrating a return on investment in safety-related areas can be difficult because the endpoints which demonstrate success can be far more abstract and nebulous than the bottom line. An investment in marketing, for example, can be seen to have worked if there is an increase in public awareness of the company and a corresponding increase in sales. An investment in a safety-related

The Royal Aeronautical Society HUMAN FACTORS in FLIGHT OPERATIONS and TRAINING GROUP explains, why, despite these unprecedented times, aviation organisations need to aim to exceed, not just meet safety standards.

Beyond safety

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related benefits of CRM/HF training in airlines. The table below shows a selection of the topics/competencies in the regulatory guidance that are required to be covered during classroom, simulator and line training for pilots and cabin crew. These topics have been selected as they illustrate how this kind of training can confer benefits to the airline in addition to improving safety:

To construct this article, the members of the Royal Aeronautical Society standing group for Human Factors in Flight Operations and Training were asked to look into ways in which investment in human factors training benefits organisations with the exception of the obvious safety benefits. As we have worked on this as a team, it is being published without the names of the individual members.

Operational efficiency

When managing non-normal situations on board aircraft, in all likelihood one of the decisions which will need to be made either explicitly or implicitly is whether the flight will continue, divert or return to the departure airport. Such situations may arise because of technical failures, changes in the weather or, indeed, events in the cabin (medical issues, disruptive passengers, etc). In all but the most critical emergencies (for example, where getting to an airport is not an option), the flight will do one of these three things – continue, divert or return. Experienced pilots will be aware that there are a huge number of variables that affect this decision but, as any simulator instructor will tell you, different crews often arrive at different conclusions based on how they have carried out the decision-making process.

A technical failure resulting in an increase in the length of runway required for landing may lead crews to seek out the longest runway available,

irrespective of whether that runway is at an airport served by their airline, is close to the planned destination or has effective engineering support which will get the aircraft back into service again quickly. A more nuanced decision-making process that factors in the input from ground operations, engineering support and flight operations control may lead crews to select an airport with a shorter runway (but still long enough to land safely) but which offers far more chance of getting the passengers to their destination efficiently and the aircraft back into operation quickly. All other things being equal, a longer runway is theoretically ‘safer’ than a shorter one (for example, a grossly unstable approach that lands well outside the touchdown zone would have a better chance of avoiding an overrun on a longer runway). Why then would it be acceptable for crews to land on a shorter one? The nature of commercial aviation requires operators to balance safety and efficiency. It is theoretically safer from a fatigue point of view that pilots only operate one flight per day. However, this would be highly inefficient and so, a trade-off between efficiency and safety needs to be made. A longer runway may be safer but this doesn’t necessarily mean a shorter runway is ‘unsafe’. If a landing distance calculation can be made accurately and the input of other parties be solicited, a robust and defensible decision may be to continue to the planned destination or divert to an airport that is an engineering base and offers transit links for the passengers, despite it not having the longest runway of the potential diversion options.

The role of the airline is to make sure that crews are equipped with tools to allow them to make these decisions and to ensure that they are trained to use them effectively. Formal decision-making tools can be taught in the classroom and reinforced in the simulator and on the line. These skills may also be of benefit to employees in other departments and several members of the Human Factors Group who work with organisations in this way have reported great success when training groups comprising employees from all departments within the organisation, not only the flight operations department.

Crew management, absenteeism and retention

Estimates suggest that the number of pilots and cabin crew working in the aviation industry pre-Covid-19 amount to just over one million. That number approaches two million when other airline employees are included. The working environment on an aircraft is somewhat unique given that one crew member must work for extended periods of time and in close proximity to other crew members whom they may have only met for the first time at the start of the duty. In other

Classroom Simulator and Line Training Human performance and limitations Communication

Personality awareness Leadership and teamwork

Attitudes and behaviours Problem solving/decision making

Self-assessment Workload management

Stress management

Information acquisition and processing

Fatigue

Effective communication and co-ordination Leadership, co-operation, synergy and delegation

Resilience development

Organisational factors and safety culture

Cultural differences


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Reducing absenteeism

Absenteeism due to stress and fatigue can be partly addressed through CRM training and other related human factors interventions. Employee morale and the perceived friendliness of the workplace is undoubtedly going to affect an individual’s level of work-related stress. Since the advent of fatigue risk management, crew are a lot more aware of how best to ensure they get an adequate amount of restful sleep. Additionally, peer support programmes are being introduced across the industry. Some organisations are going further than the regulations require and are implementing them for all staff, not only flight crew. This investment clearly demonstrates a commitment towards employee’s well-being. A study by Deloitte found that, for every £1 an employer invests in mental health and wellbeing programmes for their employees, they receive a £5 return on that investment through decreased absenteeism and increased productivity and retention.

There are significant costs connected with the turnover of crew in an airline associated with the recruitment and training processes, as well as the time that this takes. Some studies suggest that the cost of replacing a pilot may be 50% of that pilot’s annual salary and that some companies experience a turnover of more than 30% of their workforce annually. Various studies in aviation and non-aviation companies have tried to determine the factors that affect an individual’s desire to leave a company. In one study of airline pilots, job satisfaction was a stronger predictor of a pilot’s intention to leave a company than annual salary

AIR TRANSPORT Investing in safety

environments, one gets to know one’s colleagues and this increasing familiarity can help the working relationship, as people get accustomed to each other’s personalities. In the dynamic, multi-cultural, multi-generational, increasingly diverse and frequently stressful world of commercial aviation, this familiarity may be missing, which presents a greater opportunity for misunderstanding and, potentially, conflict.

While such conflict will have an adverse effect on team cohesion and overall safety, it can spill over into more formal recrimination. The culture of an airline, or a base within an airline, may be such that crew engage in tit-for-tat reporting of colleagues which increases workload for crew managers. The European syllabus for CRM training contains many topics which relate to this problem and the regulations give operators quite a lot of scope in how they cover these topics. For example, a training session on ‘effective communication’ may include guidance on how best to give feedback. A session on ‘leadership and co-operation’ may cover guidance on conflict solving. These are skills that not only have safety advantages when employed in non-normal situations but can also equip airline employees with the tools they need to successfully manage other work-related difficulties without the need for higher level intervention. Employees who are well-trained in these areas are more likely to have the capacity to deal with complex, dynamic situations. This ability increases the resilience on the individual level and, once well established, increases the resilience of the team/s that employee is a part of and, ultimately, the organisation as a whole.

THE CULTURE OF AN AIRLINE, OR A BASE WITHIN AN AIRLINE, MAY BE SUCH THAT CREW ENGAGE IN TIT-FOR-TAT REPORTING OF COLLEAGUES WHICH INCREASES WORKLOAD FOR CREW MANAGERS.


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Only with an understanding of passenger and crew human factors can the next generation of ultra-long-haul flights be successful. Qantas has recently been investigating this in advance of its planned ultra-long-haul flights from Sydney to Europe and the east coast of the US. Project Sunrise was established to determine how to maximise crew and passenger well-being during ultra-long-haul flights, although Covid-19 means this project may well be delayed.

Conclusion

It can be difficult to present evidence for the safety benefits of CRM training. It can be even harder to do so for the non-safety related benefits. The skills taught in the classroom and consolidated in the simulator and on the line are elaborations on what we do every day.

We all make decisions but how well do we make them? We all have to manage disagreement in the workplace but how well do we manage it? There is no denying that CRM training came into being to address the human element in aviation accidents and incidents but it also presents another opportunity for us. It would be wrong to suggest that an airline should shift focus away from CRM training being primarily about improving safety but the techniques taught are more widely applicable. While it is good to know that crew have these skills at hand when things go wrong, these same skills can be applied far more frequently to benefit an airline beyond safety, a fact that might be useful to remember during these unprecedented times.

alone. In this study, job satisfaction increased with factors such as organisational commitment, supportive management and interpersonal relationships. For example, an organisation that can demonstrate a commitment to improve and invest in safety will reap the additional benefit that this demonstration of commitment brings to employee job satisfaction.

Brand reputation and customer engagement

Airline employees, especially cabin crew, are increasingly aware that potentially any inflight event may end up being recorded by one or more passengers. The announcements made by pilots and cabin crew, how the crew appear to interact with each other and how passengers are treated may all be uploaded to social media and beyond incredibly quickly. As such, the performance indicators which demonstrate the presence (or absence) of particular human factors competencies may be on display to the world. In one particular case, would greater cultural awareness have prevented a pilot from suggesting that passengers pray for a successful landing? Conversely, the actions and behaviour of the cabin crew of Asiana Flight 214 that crashed on approach to San Francisco International were widely and positively reported in the media. There have also been cases where disagreements between crew members have become apparent to passengers with some media reports of physical aggression between crew members in flight.

RAeS Human Factors in Flight Operations and Training (HFG[Ops]): www.raes-hfg.com/hfg-ops-membershipLinkedIn group: Royal Aeronautical Society Human Factors Group – Flight Operations and Training

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braer


flight simulation that is not only the best looking sim available but possibly the best looking current video game as well. In screenshots it is sometimes impossible to tell it apart from a real photo.

Key to its appeal is how it deals with scenery allowing for low-level VFR flight anywhere on the globe by using Microsoft’s Azure Cloud AI, Bing aerial and satellite images and Black Shark AI to create an immersive and highly realistic world – that is so detailed that you will be able to find your street and house.

Photo or satellite scenery is not new but used to be limited to 2D overlays over 3D terrain meshes. In recent years, sims have tried blending generic autogen buildings with satellite imagery, with varying results, as one style of architecture looks completely out of place in other parts of the world. Using AI though, you can train agents to interpret and recognise not only houses, flats and factories and render their shape but also to know that a Middle-Eastern dwelling will be different to an LA suburb and apply details. The result then is spellbinding, with red tiled roofs in Italy, slums in Mumbai, chalets in Switzerland and so forth. Night lighting too has been

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AEROSPACEMicrosoft Flight Simulator review

The big news is that, after 14 years, software giant Microsoft has returned to flight simulation – a genre that it first pioneered back in 1982.

Its latest offering, developed by French games studio Asobo, features 30 aircraft in the Premium Deluxe edition, ranging from the Zlin Savage Cub and Cirrus SR22 to the A320neo and 787 Dreamliner. Meanwhile, more than 37,000 airports and airfields across the entire globe are modelled – with 40 hand-crafted ones, including global hubs like JFK, Heathrow and Dubai in the Premium Deluxe version, as well as smaller but iconic ones, such as Courchevel, Gibraltar and Aspen.

But why is this version causing such a stir? Let’s take a look at the top ten reasons.

1. The entire world to explore in VFR flight

The last Microsoft flightsim, FSX, was released back in 2006 and the jump in PC graphics, processing power in the past 14 years has meant the Asobo has been able to produce a truly next-generation

In the cockpit of MS Flight Simulator

Recommended System Specs (high graphics): ● OS: Windows 10 ● Processor: Intel i5-8400 | AMD Ryzen 5 1500X ● Memory: 16 GB RAM ● Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 970 | AMD Radeon RX 590 ● DirectX: Version 11 ● Storage: 150GB available space Joystick, internet Stream £59 Standard/£79.99 Deluxe/£109.99 Premium Deluxe

The biggest name in PC flight simulation has returned. TIM ROBINSON FRAeS casts a critical eye over the latest 2020 reboot of Microsoft’s long-running Flight Simulator series. Why is this one so significant?

Return of the king

Above: The most spectacular journeys are possible including a meeting with Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro.

Below: Athens and the Acropolis in MSFS. Note how the autogen AI renders the buildings as typical Mediterranean sun-bleached white.

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In the cockpit of MS Flight Simulator

Recommended System Specs (high graphics): ● OS: Windows 10 ● Processor: Intel i5-8400 | AMD Ryzen 5 1500X ● Memory: 16 GB RAM ● Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 970 | AMD Radeon RX 590 ● DirectX: Version 11 ● Storage: 150GB available space Joystick, internet Stream £59 Standard/£79.99 Deluxe/£109.99 Premium Deluxe

carefully colour-matched so that a UK city at night looks different to Singapore, for example.

Some 300 cities (such as New York and Las Vegas) also benefit from additional photogrammetry which uses low-level oblique aerial photos taken from various angles to construct a virtual 3D model of the city.

However, the biggest stumbling block to using high-resolution satellite images in flight sims until now has been disk space. The solution is to stream the data directly from cloud servers – allowing simmers to fly over any part of the world in incredible detail. On Microsoft’s cloud system, there are two petabytes of satellite data that cover the entire planet. (One petabyte is 1,000,000Gb). This obviously needs an always-on online connection for it to work properly but the sim can be run offline, in which case it reverts to FSX-style ‘autogen’ scenery.

However, this does not mean that the scenery is perfect and much amusement can be had by finding glitches in the terrain and rendering, including a giant tower in Melbourne, roads that go vertical and buildings that the AI renders as vegetation. In particular, the AI seems to have difficulty in recognising bridges, cranes, aerials and vertical objects – church steeples, for example, in the UK and northern Europe are missing.

These however are minor quibbles and make no mistake – MSFS is an absolutely jaw-droppingly beautiful piece of software, prompting a huge surge in PC hardware as people rush out to upgrade their computers and explore the world. One estimate that this could lead to $2.6bn in PC hardware and peripherals.

2. Weather is now scary

If terrain looks amazing – the lighting and weather system is phenomenal – with atmospheric scattering and 3D volumetric clouds that make the landscape change with the weather. Breaking through thick overcast into bright sunlight and seeing towering canyons of cloud around you produces a ‘wow’

See the world with MS Flight simulator! From top: Flying over Dubai, Egypt’s Pyramids, New York city and Uluru in Australia.


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distance would be welcome, although low visibility seems to work fine when using live weather. Oddly, despite the amazing cloudscapes, high-level cirrus clouds also seem to be missing.

3. Improved FMs

Perhaps the weakest part of Microsoft’s previous FSX vs its X-Plane rival was in the flight modelling. Previous legacy editions of the sim featured look-up tables that meant that, as long as the virtual pilot kept within the centre of the flight envelope, a convincing recreation of published performance figures could be simulated. However, this started to break down where stalls, spins and unusual attitudes at the edge or even beyond the envelope occurred. It was left for third party developers to improve and produce more aerobatic aircraft and realistic flight modelling.

In MSFS, this has now been rectified and aircraft are now split up into 1,000 surfaces – each reacting with airflow, air pressure and temperature separately. This approach of ‘blade element theory’ allows wings to stall and rudders to be blanked from airflow. The result is that aircraft now demonstrate highly convincing dynamic and fluid manoeuvres in a much wider envelope. Stalls and spins are now possible and aerobatics a joy to fly and experience.

On larger aircraft, such as the business jets and airliners, however, this is more of a work in progress. Some seem overpowered and have a disinclination to lose speed, even with the throttle in idle. The glass cockpits, autopilot and FMS systems that are included in many of the aircraft are extremely useful but do not have the deep systems modelling of some payware add-ons – and some functions seem to be missing.

4. Regular updates to look forward to

Another way in which this differs from previous versions is that it is a living, evolving product. Unlike previous boxed versions of the sim, the ‘always on’ broadband world we now live in means that MSFS


moment similar to the real experience. What’s more in that there are no sudden transitions from fog to clear skies – everything is natural. Hit the right conditions and rainbows will appear.

This means the weather now demands your utmost respect as a virtual pilot – especially in light aircraft. In MSFS even the hint of dark clouds on the horizon becomes a cause for concern – especially if you are flying in a small aeroplane with ‘live weather’ drawn from real-world weather stations. Can you fly through? Go round? Divert? Venture into storms and you can enter a world of hurt. The aircraft shakes, the airframe creaks and icing can obscure your vision and build up on your wings. MSFS becomes a valuable interactive lesson in the dangers of scud-running.

Even in clear conditions, fly too close to mountains and updrafts and downdrafts can catch you – and the developers have now modelled the air mass reacting with mountains, terrain and even buildings. There are also subtle visual cues on the strength of wind. Waves and whitecaps at sea give an indication on speed and direction. For hands-on, seat-of-the-pants flying in a small aircraft, windy and stormy conditions constitute a real challenge.

You can, of course, set whatever weather you like, and part of the fun of this for many is playing ‘weather God’ and creating the perfect conditions for screenshots.

One or two minor points remain. Ground fog or CAT III conditions seem difficult to achieve in the custom settings – a visibility slider to set the exact

Above: More cities are likely to get the photogrammetry treatment as Bing maps and data sources get updates.

Top left: Portsmouth’s harbour, rendered using this method. Premiership champions, Liverpool FC’s Anfield Stadium and Cherynobl use AI and autogen but the effect is still convincing.

Left: Boeing 787 Dreamliner in the sim.


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a chore. While more experienced users can still download and install from third parties, there is now an inbuilt marketplace that allows new simmers to quickly and easily browse and buy add-on content. Spotted your favourite airport or aircraft in the in-game shop? (Almost) one click and you can add it to your base game and never have to worry about extra add-on codes, passwords or keeping it up to date.

6. Living world, multiplayer

This edition of MSFS also fills out the simulation to create a living breathing world, with AI aircraft,

cars, ships, airport ground vehicles and even herds or flocks of animals to share your flights and find. Again, this is nothing new and third party add-ons in previous versions could enhance your simming experience by adding real-world airliners and their schedules. However, with MSFS this has been taken to new heights by pulling live ADS-B data into the sim to generate AI traffic in the world.

There is also multiplayer – which has expanded massively in the past 16 years. People now want to game, share and stream with their friends. It is no

can be constantly upgraded with regular updates, patches and improvements. In fact, it is designed this way. The navigation data from NavBlue for example, will be updated (in line with real-world flight data) every 28 days. The satellite and aerial photography via Bing maps will only get more accurate and higher resolution over time. The developers meanwhile, say that they plan to support MSFS and its massive and highly talented flightsim community too, is also expected to fill out missing landmarks, bridges, castles, extra aircraft etc. In short, we can look forward to years of support and this simulation getting even better.

5. Integrated marketplace

For third-party developers too, MSFS represents the next level and a massive opportunity to put your airport, aircraft or utility in front of many more customers with an ‘in-game’ marketplace. Previously, the huge ecosystem of thousands of add-ons that MSFS required either the consumer to buy hard copies in the form of CDs or DVDs to install, or more recently digital downloads. However, installation could be tricky and keeping it up to date was often

Right: The in-game marketplace streamlines hunting for new add-ons and means keeping these up to date will be easy.

Far right: Animated airport ground vehicles and marshallers can be seen going about their business at airfields.


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9. Virtual reality is coming

MSFS has also been released at a very exciting time in that it is set to take advantage of the second generation of Virtual Reality (VR) devices, such as the HP Reverb G2, that will be released this autumn. These feature a higher resolution than the original Oculus devices and thus are even more suited to flight simulation where complex displays and instruments are present. In particular, the clouds, terrain, airports and cockpits of MSFS in virtual reality will take this already stunning simulator to breathtaking levels. Flight simulation fans already have been eager adopters of VR for sims such as DCS World, IL-2 and X-Plane but, so far, VR has been missing a ‘killer app’ that rewards the cost and bulkiness of headsets. However, judging by the response to MSFS already, this well could be the software product that sends VR sales through the roof.

10. A taste of the freedom of flight

Finally, there is also the fact that MSFS comes at a time when much of the world is restricted from travel, especially internationally. Holidays have been on hold and people have been yearning for a taste of the freedom of flight that is now denied. Indeed, whether it is jumping in a Piper Cub to fly around a local area, or staring out of the window of an airliner on your way to your holidays, both experiences tap into the freedom to travel and escape that flight provides. MSFS then, does not replace actual travel but for millions of us it does remind us of what we are missing.

In summary then, MSFS (or FS2020) is a landmark for PC flight simulation and video games and something that is right at the start of a very exciting journey. In these dark times, it also has the ability to excite and create a wonder about flight that could well inspire a whole new generation into learning more about aerospace and aviation. The technology meanwhile, drawn from AI, satellite and aerial photos, also has other applications across aerospace and beyond.

surprise that multiplayer mode is included, allowing people to fly with their friends. Of course, you can turn it completely off to fly solo, or there is a third setting that locks any human players in the world to use the same real-world time and live weather settings.

However, while players can fly formation, perform landing challenges and have virtual fly-ins together, one aspect of FSX that is still missing shared cockpits – allowing players to share the same aircraft.

7. Professional applications

Although Microsoft has sold the licence for professional commercial usage of its previous sim, FSX to Lockheed Martin to develop into P3D, time on MSFS hours does not count towards flight training hours. It is not hard to foresee that real-world aviators and the aerospace industry could take advantage of this sim. This could include using it to brush up knowledge of VFR landmarks at a local flying club, licensing the Azure Cloud AI for another simulator, or using the amazing graphics to market airline livery designs or new aircraft concepts or renders of airports. The possibilities could be endless.

8. Potential to inspire wider audiences

One of the most exciting aspects of this latest incarnation is that it is causing jaws to drop of gamers and consumers who would normally steer well clear of anything marked PC ‘flight simulation’ in online stores. Media coverage has hit the mainstream and the sim is also set to be released on Xbox – potentially opening up thousands, if not millions, of young eyes to the beauty and magic of flight. There is already anecdotal evidence that children are being captivated by a ‘video game where you can fly over your own home’.

For an industry that, pre-Covid-19, has been struggling with a pilot shortage, this is a welcome shot in the arm that makes the flightdeck office look like an incredible place to work.


Above left: Aerobatics over Paris – imagine this in virtual reality!

Above right: Flying over a volcano in Japan.


Afterburner

46 Message from RAeS

– President“In these challenging times there has been a scarcity of good news, so it was very pleasing to hear that the Society has been awarded the Best Professional Engineering Institution Prize as one of the inaugural Engineering Talent Awards.”

– Chief Executive“Staying with young professionals, their annual conference has been replaced by a video series, Aerospace and Aviation until 2050: What’s Next? with some really inspirational speakers. There will be five weekly inputs on our YouTube and Instagram TV channels from the 30 September.”

48 Book Reviews

American Aircraft Development of the Second World War, From Kites to Cold War, The Challenges of Fly-by-Wire and Winning Armageddon.

52 New Member Spotlight

54 No dream is beyond reach

For Black History Month, Dr Onalenna Nako-Phuthego describes her personal story from an African village to becoming Botswana’s first ever aerospace medicine specialist with a Masters degree.

56 Elections

www.aerosociety.com

Harbour Air DHC-2 Beaver fitted with Magnix all-electric motor. Harbour Air.

45OCTOBER 2020

Diary

3-4 November 2020

Recovery strategy with climate gainOnline RAeS Climate Change Conference 2020

www.aerosociety.com

Message from RAeSOUR PRESIDENT

Prof Jonathan Cooper

I AM CONTINUINGLY IMPRESSED AS TO HOW MOST OF THE SOCIETY’S ACTIVITIES ARE CONTINUING TO FLOURISH, ALBEIT IN A DIGITAL FORMAT, AND THIS INCLUDES OUR PUBLICATIONS

In these challenging times there has been a scarcity of good news, so it was very pleasing to hear that the Society has been awarded the Best Professional Engineering Institution Prize as one of the inaugural Engineering Talent Awards. The award ‘recognises PEIs who go above and beyond to support their members and who are particularly increasing awareness of D&I and positive mental wellbeing’. We were shortlisted against two of the larger professional institutions, so this outcome is particularly welcome. The award highlights some of the exceptional work that is being done by the Headquarters staff and many of our volunteers. Many thanks must go to Lt Cdr Richard Gearing FRAeS and the D&I Working Group who put the nomination together. Congratulations to all involved.

I am continuingly impressed as to how most of the Society’s activities are continuing to flourish, albeit in a digital format, and this includes our publications. The Aeronautical Journal continues to publish high quality research papers covering all forms of aerospace vehicles. As well as a continuing expansion of the number of internationally renowned Associate Editors, who co-ordinate the manuscript review process, it is satisfying to note that downloads from the Journal have increased by a third in the past year – a substantial rise. We are always looking for ideas for review articles or subject-based special issues, so if you have any suggestions for good topics and/or individuals whom we should approach, please contact the editor Prof Holger Babinsky FRAeS [email protected]

As I mentioned in the last edition of AEROSPACE, the Society has started its virtual conference programme using the new digital platform. I tuned into both days of the Safeguarding Earth’s Space Environment conference and was very impressed with the number of excellent speakers and panel members from across the world who participated. The conference addressed the increasing amount of debris and defunct objects in Earth orbit, which is likely to constrain our future exploration of space, and discussed both the technical approaches to tracking, avoiding collisions and de-orbiting large objects and the need for enhanced international regulations and global collaboration. I would like to thank President-Elect Howard Nye FRAeS and the Space Specialist Group for organising such an excellent event.

I also recently attended the committee meeting of my local RAeS Branch and was pleased to see that a programme of lectures was being put together for the coming season, of course in an online mode. The intention is to provide a mixture of local presentations coupled with offerings from the main Society and other Branches. I would encourage all our local Branches to make each other aware of events that

they are putting on and to share them digitally. One positive outcome with the move to a digital lecture programme has meant that we now have had many 100s of attendees to lectures in Hamilton Place that would have not been able to travel to London in normal times. I hope that this is will be the case with future branch lectures.

In my last column I mentioned the homework that I had set Council over the summer to consider the future operation of the Society and September’s Council meeting included a very useful discussion about the outcomes from this exercise. Bearing in mind that we don’t have the resources to tackle everything, it was considered that the most important areas where focus is needed to meet the Society’s strategic aims (outlined in the October 2019 issue of AEROSPACE) are:● Become genuinely international with more

international reach by increasing global and diverse participation in activities with target audiences around the globe, remaining relevant and in the forefront of global aviation (in totality) as a Think Tank for generating new ideas and providing well-considered professional advice, and enabling greater international participation in the Society’s Specialist Groups and Committees.

● Digitisation of the Society needs to improve further so that digital delivery becomes an integral part of our day-to-day business facilitating meetings, interviews, workshops, conferences and lectures, etc, making more of our own important historical information assets widely available via digital means, using digital technologies to encourage individuals to join the Society or volunteering their time to support its activities.

● Our volunteer strategy needs considerable work so that a larger diverse, engaged, and inclusive global group of volunteers are recruited across the aviation and aerospace sectors for different types of volunteering experiences. We need to support, inform and develop these volunteers and encourage them to be true ambassadors of the Society and enable volunteers to take a more leading role in delivering activity.

● The Society still needs much improvement in our progress to meet our aspirations to be a truly diverse and inclusive organisation in both word and deed by reaching out to a much wider talent pool, increasing the D&I both within our membership and the Sector at large. The Society’s regulation and governance needs to embrace D&I by pushing D&I within its Boards and Committees and showcasing D&I role models within its Boards.

In the coming months I will let you know about some of the specific actions that are going to be brought in across the Society to enable the above.

46 AEROSPACE

Sir Brian Burridge

OUR CHIEF EXECUTIVE

● The President has highlighted our selection as the ‘Best Professional Engineering Institution of the Year’ at the inaugural Engineering Talent Awards. This justly recognises the effort that we are putting into diversity and inclusion largely through the compelling contribution of volunteers. Elsewhere in this issue there is a report on our recent BAME webinar but October is also Black History Month in the UK. As such, the Learned Society Board (again volunteers) has approved a new Named Lecture to be known as the Mary Jackson Lecture in honour of the first black female aerospace engineer to work at NASA. Meanwhile, food for thought from the Royal Academy of Engineering: only 37% of black engineering graduates enter engineering occupations, compared with 60% of their white counterparts. Moreover, only 8% of apprentices in engineering and associated subjects are female while just 6.5% are from Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups. These are good enough reasons for the Council telling us to do more and do it faster, particularly in addressing unconscious bias.

● On External Affairs, we submitted a critical response to the CAA on its proposals for the classification of airspace courtesy of our volunteer specialist experts (www.aerosociety.com/policy). In Parliament, our input to the Defence Select Committee featured in their report In Search of Strategy – The 2020 Integrated Review which is available on the link above. The UAS Specialist Group also provided expert opinion to ICAO where we are privileged to be an ‘approved organisation’. In addition, both staff and volunteers have been working with the Department for Transport on decarbonising aircraft and on roundtables with the Secretary of State on skills and future aviation. Meanwhile, August saw extensive news coverage of the Flight Operations Group’s Evacuation Report, tied to an emergency at Stansted Airport where passengers carrying cabin baggage hindered escape: the report has stimulated further AAIB research on the issue.

● We are also pleased that the National Aerospace Library has re-opened such that members and non-members alike can make an appointment to consult our contemporary and historical collections in person. To book, visit www.aerosociety.com/nal and follow the links. As ever, you can consult our e-books and new e-journals collection at www.aerosociety.com/elibrary. As well keeping up-to-date with a range of papers and articles via the e-journals package,

members now have access to a new collection of material aimed at young professionals.

● Staying with young professionals, their annual conference has been replaced by a video series, Aerospace and Aviation until 2050: What’s Next? with some really inspirational speakers. There will be five weekly broadcasts on our YouTube and Instagram TV channels from 30 September. Soon afterwards comes our autumn careers fair. In these difficult times, we want to increase our reach to young people so Careers in Aerospace & Aviation LIVE 2020 will take place as a virtual event on 4 November using a new platform to retain interaction between exhibitors and visitors, run competitions and deliver a great programme of insight talks for all career levels. We are very grateful to the support of Boeing for this event. To register your interest as a visitor please contact [email protected]. For Exhibitor package details, please contact [email protected] and help us come together to support the future needs of the industry and its recovery.

● As for Corporate Partners, Monday 12 October sees Glenn Llewellyn from Airbus briefing on zero emissions research. In November we have Professor Sir Charlie Bean from LSE and formerly the OBR to talk about the post-budget and post-Brexit economy. In December, Professor Mike Clarke, formerly Director-General at RUSI, will give an analysis of the Integrated Defence and Security review. The dates will be firmed-up as the Government’s timetable becomes clearer.

● Finally, some special recognition: Keeley Scott and her team have delivered the transition to virtual conferences with great success. Congratulations also goes to Tim Robinson, the AEROSPACE Editor-in-Chief, on receiving the Honourable Company of Air Pilots Award for Aviation Journalism. In terms of long-serving volunteers, Sir Peter Norriss was the inaugural chair at the 2003 creation of the Centennial Fund panel and is now handing over. The fund has since provided over 390 awards with a value of some £940,000 to individuals and teams. Meanwhile, Dr Kit Mitchell was the founding editor in 2009 of the Society’s Journal of Aeronautical History which has since gone from strength-to-strength. In his place, we welcome Dr Robert Hopkins who is an eminent and widely-published aviation historian. Finally, thanks to all our volunteers, without whom little of what I have written could have been a reality. And a last piece of good news: 2021 fees have been frozen at 2020 levels!

AND A LAST PIECE OF GOOD NEWS: 2021 FEES HAVE BEEN FROZEN AT 2020 LEVELS!

OCTOBER 2020 47

Book Reviews

AEROSPACE48

One category of aircraft that is dealt with in some detail is army co-operation aircraft, which evolved from large dedicated designs to smaller aircraft adapted from commercially available types. The contributions of foreign nations, primarily the UK, are acknowledged, ranging from well-known areas, such as aerial refuelling and jet engines, to less recognised contributions, including the use of papier-mâché drop tanks. Considerable efforts were also expended on the test and evaluation of enemy aircraft and weapons and the US even produced substantial numbers of a copy of the German V-1 flying bomb.

The book contains many photographs and other illustrations, including those of little-known test and prototypes aircraft and the text contains liberal amounts of data on weights, performance and the costs of most of the projects. In summary this book presents tantalising glimpses into a vast range of topics, most of which have received little if any attention in previous publications.

Colin FrazerAMRAeS

AMERICAN AIRCRAFT DEVELOPMENT OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR

Research, Experimentation and Modification 1939-1945By B Norton

Fonthill Media Limited, Millview House, Toadsmoor Road, Stroud GL5 2TB, UK. 2019. 446pp. Illustrated. £45. ISBN 978-1-78155-725-9.

As the latest in a series of books, following on from volumes on WW2 fighters, bombers, gliders and special types, this publication – as suggested by its title – deals with a far more diverse area, much of which has received little exposure elsewhere. The first chapter sets the scene by describing the existing structure of research facilities at the start of the war, including those of NACA, the Army Air Corps, US Navy and private industry. It also introduces some of the major personalities including Theodore von Karman, Hap Arnold and Jimmy Doolittle. One of the more familiar topics addressed is laminar flow, which was investigated in wind tunnels and by airborne test beds, before being applied to production types, notably the North American Mustang, albeit with less than the anticipated success. However, many of the programmes described never saw full production, including such radical ideas as the Custer Channel Wing, tracked undercarriages and the launch and recovery of light aircraft from a suspended cable (The Brodie system). Other innovations, including pressurised cabins, jet engines, ejection seats and air-to-air refuelling, did not see full scale use until after the conflict.

One chapter is dedicated to the efforts to improve propulsion, including superchargers, methanol-water injection, high octane fuels and propeller design for piston engines and early efforts with turbojets. Another chapter deals with the development of both solid and liquid fuelled rockets primarily to boost take off performance but also, in the later stages, for primary propulsion. Moving on to the problems of near sonic speeds, the issue of conventional aircraft avoiding compressibility effects is addressed, before efforts to reach and exceed sonic velocities are described, including the initial designs for the Bell XS-1. More obscure, but often just as important subjects, include cockpit design, aircraft ditching (including full scale tests), icing, casualty evacuation and others too numerous to mention.

One actual operation that is dealt with in some detail is the April 1942 Doolittle raid on Japan, concentrating on the improvements and modifications required to the aircraft involved. The preparations for the use of atomic bombs against Japan are also addressed.

Above: A captured Focke-Wulf Fw190 in US markings over North Africa. RAeS (NAL).

Right: By testing a North American XP-51B Mustang with cropped wings in the 16ft High-Speed Tunnel, researchers at Ames traced the source of a serious rumble to the location of the aircraft’s radiator cooling scoop below the fuselage. NASA.

The book contains many photographs and other illustrations, including those of little-known test and prototypes aircraft

FROM KITES TO COLD WAR

The Evolution of Manned Airborne ReconnaissanceBy T Morton

Naval Institute Press, 291 Wood Road, Annapolis, MD 21402, USA. 2019.xvii; 305pp. Illustrated. $49.95. ISBN 978-1-68247-465-5.

I was very impressed with this book. As one would expect from a Naval Institute Press publication it is well shaped to provide researchers, aficionados or just interested readers with what they require. There is a comprehensive introduction with a description of the story, as well as the author’s explanation of the scope and intention.

Conveniently divided into sections in a chronological order, the book covers a large and essential period in the story of airborne reconnaissance. It was commissioned as part of the History of Air Power series, also published by the Naval Institute Press and edited by Paul Springer. The book has thorough notes expanding on issues covered in the main narrative, as well as a comprehensive bibliography and a very good index. This makes it ideal as a reference book for military libraries, as well as for those wishing to research further the absorbing topic of airborne reconnaissance.

In handling such a far-reaching subject, the author keeps within his intended boundaries and does not stray elsewhere.

The book starts with man’s need to gain altitude to increase surveillance capability. It covers the important point that without adequate surveillance and the intelligence it provides, both defence and offence are largely ineffective. In the main narrative, Tyler Morton embraces the histories of kites,

balloons and onwards to sophisticated manned aircraft. He points to the fact that in drawdowns after war, reconnaissance assets are often the first to go, and the last to be redeveloped, even when the contingencies of war demand such action. This lesson was not learned both before and after the two World Wars, and for that matter various conflicts since. Nevertheless, in his historical narrative, he covers well the development and the innovation and energy which engineers and operators gave to their projects. Particularly, he relates how fittingly British and US reconnaissance intelligence co-operated effectively to speed the process. Although, he writes more fully about advances within the US forces, the author doesn’t neglect the important historical roles played by the RAF, the French and the Germans.

The book concentrates on piloted reconnaissance systems and, for security reasons, only alludes briefly to satellite reconnaissance. However, as time progresses, more and more information is released from security caveats and constraints and it is to be hoped that space reconnaissance will soon be the subject of another book in this excellent airpower series.

If there is a minor criticism it is that, although the author provides comprehensive coverage of photo reconnaissance, airborne SIGINT and ELINT, he does not, in my view, cover well the difficulties of integrating the intelligence from these assets. This was primarily caused by security compartmentation and it often had an adverse impact at national level during the Cold War. Nevertheless, this is a relatively small point in what is a very readable and a thoroughly enjoyable book which I commend to you.

Geoffrey OxleeOBEFormer Commanding Officer of The Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre

OCTOBER 2020 49

This makes it ideal as a reference book for Military Libraries as well as for those wishing to research further the absorbing topic of airborne reconnaissance

Above left: Samuel Cody on horseback with one of his man-lifting kites in 1901. RAeS NAL.

Above right: USAF Lockheed Martin U-2 Dragon Lady high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft. Lockheed Martin.

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THE CHALLENGES OF FLY-BY-WIREThe Role of the Royal Aircraft EstablishmentBy G T Shanks

Published by the author, Bedford. 2018. 173pp. Illustrated. £20 plus £5 postage/packing (Available from the Bedford Aeronautical Heritage Group E [email protected]).

This account of the research into fly-by-wire (FBW) in the UK is a good historic and detailed record of the work that spans a generation. It mainly covers the work at the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) Bedford and its collaboration with industry. Later, after privatisation, the scene continues at Boscombe Down. The author is authoritative, as he was part of the research teams for a number of these projects.

The book is self-published but is not, as one might fear, a self indulgent account of the writer’s working life, but stands as a well-balanced, detailed and reliable account of each programme the RAE was involved with. It gives the details of what was actually done in each programme and the results obtained but given at a level that was informative but not soporific. Of importance is that the learning from each of the research programmes was used to inform the next and this is clearly shown. Thus it is easy to see the development route in FBW aircraft control.

The pictures on the front cover of the book gives you an expectation of the contents of the book with pictures of the Rolls-Royce ‘Flying Bedstead’, Short SC1, Avro 707C, the ‘Green Hunter’, FBW Jaguar, the Experimental Aircraft Programme (EAP) and finally the VAAC (Vectored Thrust Aircraft Advanced Flight Control) Harrier. Each of these flying programmes is covered by chapters in the book. There are also pictures of the Tornado, F-35B STOVL (short take-off and vertical landing) variant and Typhoon but no chapters are included on these aircraft. This might be considered a cheat but we learn in this book how the research informed the development of these aircraft. This is the payback to industry.

FBW was necessary for the autostabilisation of the early experimental hover machines because of the high workload. The story starts with the Flying Bedstead and the electrical signalling for autostabilisation. Some purist might feel that this is not genuine FBW but it is the start. It had an analogue signalling systems as digital flight computer did not exist for some time after this programme.

The next programmes were the VTOL Short SC1 and followed by the Avro 707C. These were again stabilised through an analogue controller with analogue signalling to actuators. Throughout

the book the author starts the discussion of each aircraft programme with a short description of the aircraft enough to situate the technical discussion on FBW. He concludes each chapter by collecting the summary of the outcomes of the experiments to show the positive results of the programme.

The digital era starts with the two-seater ‘Green Hunter’ rewired for digital control but retaining the mechanical control links for safety. Apart for the demonstrably improved flying performance of digital aircraft, this programme included research into different ‘inceptors’ or hand controllers (‘sticks’) for controlling the aircraft.

All these RAE aircraft retained the mechanical control links and the two seaters had a safety pilot who used the mechanical system.

In a similar vein a Jaguar was taken out of service, stripped down and rewired as a digitally-controlled aircraft. The leap forward on this aircraft was that there was no mechanical backup or safety pilot. Instead everything was quadruplex redundant and the work with this aircraft informed the great leap of faith to remove mechanical control system from future systems.

The FBW research moved on to the EAP aircraft with the statically unstable longitudinal axis. The programme de-risked the next generation highly manoeuvrable fighter that became the Typhoon.

The final programme was the VAAC Harrier which was a two-seater. It retained the safety pilot and mechanical control systems but was rewired by Cranfield for digital FBW flying. The main objective was to make flying the Harrier that much easier and particularly in the STOVL regime. Interestingly a dichotomy arose. Inexperienced pilots found the process difficult in the normal Harrier and a few got bent in training. Experienced pilots loved their Harriers with its three inceptor controls (for two hands!) and they did not want anything changed. Yet the inexperienced pilots loved the new two inceptor FBW system. This made test pilot assessment interesting. The research tried out various controlling

This book should be read by aviation historians with technical knowledge. It is a very important contribution to the history of aviation in this country

Short SC1, XG905, left, and Rolls-Royce Flying Bedstead experimental VTOL aircraft at RAE, Bedford. RAeS (NAL).

50

Book Reviews

AEROSPACE

-

Curtis LeMay and Strategic Air Command 1948-1957By T Albertson

Naval Institute Press, 291 Wood Road, Annapolis, MD 21402, USA. 2019. xxii; 279pp. Illustrated. $40. ISBN 978-168247-422-8.

Trevor Albertson is a former assistant professor on the Air Command and Staff Course at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. His wider research focuses on diplomatic and political history of the US. This book was based on an earlier dissertation and is extremely well researched.

Curtis LeMay is one of the legendary high commanders to have come out of WW2 where he established a reputation as a leader who could be relied upon to get things done, almost at whatever cost. Although this book does not attempt to cover LeMay’s entire career, it takes the firebombing of Japan as its starting point and quickly transitions to his prolonged command of the Strategic Air Command.

At this time ‘strategic’ as a term in the military lexicon was also changing from its traditional meaning, implying long-range bombing aircraft through their ability to have strategic effect on

enemy countries, populations and economies, to the later definition which encompassed the use of nuclear weapons. At the beginning of LeMay’s tenure, the US only had a limited number of these weapons and of the specially modified aircraft that could deliver them. One of LeMay’s key tasks from the outset was to ensure that the weapons were targeted as efficiently as possible. As the Soviet Union acquired its own nuclear capability, LeMay became a leading exponent of using nuclear weapons in a pre-emptive strike to prevent the Soviets from gaining a matching capability.

Albertson expertly charts the rise of this theory and LeMay’s efforts to get his controversial theory accepted at the highest levels of US decision making. The early period of the Cold War deserves far more scholarly attention than it has received hitherto and this book makes a valuable contribution to the body of knowledge. In an ideal world more could have been made of the relationship with the UK in general and with Slessor in particular (see the various articles by Ken Young to remedy this) but this is a minor criticism. Overall Winning Armageddon is essential reading for the study of the early Cold War.

Professor Peter Gray FRAeSUniversity of Wolverhampton

General Curtis Emerson LeMay (1906-1990). USAF.

regimes and the two inceptor winner informed the F-35B for STOVL operation.

This work of the RAE should be known about and have a wide audience. The book gives a good historical account of the technology and the testing tribulations of each aircraft as it contributed to the pool of knowledge. Effectively, it shows how the UK was leading the world in FBW research and the results can be seen in modern-day aircraft.

This book should be read by aviation historians with technical knowledge. It is a very important contribution to the history of aviation in this country. It should also be read by modern day practitioners of aircraft control, so that they know and understand the roots of their trade and why things are as they are today, particularly relating to the overarching problem of safety. Of course, all technical ‘aeroheads’ should enjoy this book, as should test pilots who will discover that pilot assessment was the main feedback from a test flight. They should also note that the test pilot’s clothing of choice in the Short SC1 was white shirt and bow tie.

The book will be understandable to those that know the difference between an analogue and digital computer and the advantages that each brings to the control application. They should also be comfortable with the use of gyros in stabilisation.

DERA/QinetiQ VAAC (Vectored thrust Aircraft Advanced Control) two-seat Harrier. QinetiQ.

If I have to find criticism with this book the language construction is sometime a bit ‘clunky’ and the block diagrams a bit fuzzy for studying. However, there are plenty of photos of each of the aircraft and lots of cockpit shots to show the layouts under test. There are no formulae to faze the reader but a nice lot of block diagrams to show the different control arrangements.

The author is to be thanked for the great effort he has put into providing this authoritative account of FBW research in the UK.

Eur Ing Mike StanberryFRAeS

OCTOBER 2020 51

WINNING ARMAGEDDON

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AEROSPACE52

NEW MEMBER SPOTLIGHTDidunoluwa Obilanade MRAeS, 28

Location: Bristol, UK

Job Title: Aerospace Growth Partnership Programme Manager, GKN Aerospace Secondee. Additionally, incoming Doktorand (PhD candidate) at Luleå University of Technology researching Additive Manufacturing for Space Applications.

What inspired you into aerospace? My childhood next-door neighbour as, when I was very little, I lived next to a WW2 RAF veteran named Ozzy. He used to tell me across our wall about all the planes he flew and worked on throughout his career, while I listened absolutely fascinated. The day we moved, he came over to our house and gave me a model Spitfire and one of my earliest childhood books, an illustrated guide to the US Air Force which I still have to this day.

What is the best thing about your current role? Working for the Aerospace Growth Partnership (AGP) I have seen the big picture of the UK aerospace industry through its interactions with Government. I have worked with senior leaders of industry and government on a range of activities that focus on improving the skills of the industry, the competitiveness of the manufacturing supply chain and the industries engagement with the nation. This has given me opportunities to visit amazing sites across the UK such as Bombardier in Northern Ireland, the Airbus facilities at the AMRC in Wales, Spirit AeroSystems in Scotland and Collins in England.

What challenges have you faced and what do you feel is the biggest challenge for the industry (if any)? My undergraduate degree was a challenge for me, as imposter syndrome mixed with a variety of other things led to me failing my fair share of exams. However, after each hurdle and through asking for help, I worked harder the next time to pass and was encouraged that I belonged. My mantra becoming ‘Fail fast, Fail forward’. Accepting quickly where I had made mistakes and looking at how I can turn that mistake in to a lesson that moves me forward.

I think the biggest challenge facing the industry is the downturn in air traffic due to the pandemic. This downturn in traffic cascades through the industry into reduction in revenues due to cancelation of orders, reduction in MRO and, inevitably, loss of jobs. As an industry, we need to improve the public’s confidence in flying and work with the government to get planes back in the air and provide work to the SME community.

What made you join the Royal Aeronautical Society? I joined the RAeS as a student for its

networking opportunities and the many careers advice events.

What do you hope to get out of your membership? I am still making fantastic use of the networking and career advice opportunities, through being a part of the Young Persons’ Committee and attending the professional registration events. My next step is to submit my application to become a Chartered Engineer and use this to get the professional recognition for the work that I have done in my career so far. I hope to then develop my mentorship skills through the Society and pass down the good advice I’ve been given so far from my mentors.

What’s your favourite aircraft and why? Going for a bit of a workhorse, the A320 family. I have spent most of my flying time on these beauties and it was the first aircraft that I got a basic maintenance certification on during my grad scheme.

Who is your biggest inspiration? My biggest inspiration is my parents. They came to the UK from Mauritius and worked extremely hard to build the life that they wanted. My mum studied for her degree while caring for my brother and me and working part time. They showed me that hard work pays off and their mentality has stuck with me.

Who is your biggest inspiration? Leland Melvin and Charles Bolden. Both are black American astronauts who have achieved fantastic things throughout their careers, Charles becoming the NASA Administrator and Leland playing in the NFL prior to becoming an astronaut. I am a firm believer in ‘If you can see it, you can be it’ and that representation truly leads to aspirations. Both of these men gave me the ability to see myself in high positions of science and engineering, not just by looking like me, but by being fantastic ambassadors for the industry and actively encouraging the next generation space engineers.

Piece of advice for someone looking to enter your field? Try to attend and apply for everything that you find interesting! Be it that seminar, internship, apprenticeship, grad scheme, university course or secondment. One can be interested in many different things with lots of options, often leading to choice paralysis or worry if you have made the right choice. The only way to know is to try! By attending events it will give you a taster of what could be in store. Also, if under 35 and interested in the space industry, join the Space Generation Advisory Council – a fantastic network of space professionals conducting a variety of space projects.

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FEES HELD AT 2020 RATES

53OCTOBER 2020

The National Aerospace Library has re-opened to member and non-member visitors on Wednesdays and Thursdays. To book a visit please go to the NAL website. Online services remain available so

you can continue to browse the catalogue and download e-books and e-journals as well as contact our expert Librarians for advice and

enquiries.

E [email protected]

NAL www.aerosociety.com/nal

Catalogue www.aerosociety.com/catalogue

Film Archive www.aerosociety.com/movies

e-library www.aerosociety.com/elibrary

NATIONAL AEROSPACE LIBRARY

NOW OPEN

RAeS 2021 MEMBERSHIP SUBSCRIPTIONSMembership Grade 2021 Subscription Rate £Fellow or Companion 363Fellow or Companion – 20% discount 290Member 245Member – 20% discount 196Associate Member 152Associate 139E-Associate 49Affiliate 125Student Affiliate 47Apprentice Affiliate 0Baseline Rate 125

Notes1. CPIH Rate: Average 12 months to July 2020 – 1.4%.2. 2021 Membership Subscriptions held at 2020 rates.3. Members who have reached normal retirement age in 2021 are entitled to

pay subscriptions at the Baseline Rate.4. Members who have will be retiring during the course of the year can apply for

the 20% discount on their subscriptions. Note – if the 20% discount takes the subscription below the Baseline Rate then the Baseline Rate will apply.

5. Members have the option to pay their subscriptions by Direct Debits either in one sum in January 2021 or in ten monthly instalments from January 2021.

Administration Fees Grade Application Transfer Fee FeeFellow or Companion £153 £55All other grades £77 £55

2021 Engineering Council Registration Fees 2021 Annual Fees 2021 Entry FeesCategory CEng IEng EngTech/ CEng IEng EngTech/ ICTTech ICTTechFull £40.90 £34.70 £19.90 £53.20 £44.90 £18.40Interim £14.60 £14.60 £14.60 £10.90 £10.90 £10.90Reduced £18.50 £15.40 £8.82 – – –

54 AEROSPACE

Top: Onalenna talks with UK astronaut Major Tim Peake HonFRAeS during a visit to ESA.

Above: Onalenna during her studies at King’s College London.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

For Black History Month, Dr Onalenna Nako-Phuthego describes her personal story from an African village to becoming Botswana’s first ever aerospace medicine specialist with a Masters degree.

I am a 32-year-old aerospace medicine specialist working for my country’s military organization on aviation health matters, the first and only doctor in Botswana, (possibly in the whole of Africa) to hold a Master’s degree in Aerospace Medicine, acquired at King’s College London. I hold a Doctor of Medicine (MD) and degree in teaching Russian Language (Rostov State Medical University, Russian Federation).

I was the first female in my country to join the military as a fully qualified and registered doctor with Botswana Health Professions Council. I am also the first and perhaps the only Motswana to ever visit the European Space Agency (European Astronaut Centre) in Germany, Koln, where I had the privilege to meet astronauts such as Tim Peake. I am a member of the Aerospace Medicine Association (AsMA) and currently actively involved with the UK’s Royal Aeronautical Society in improving my professional development.

Per Aspera Ad Astra

I was born in Ramotswa village, South Eastern part of Botswana in Africa. I grew up underprivileged, with a single mother and my amazing late grandmother in an extended family. Like most households at the time, we had no electricity, running water nor television in the house. Things improved at the age of 12, when my mother acquired a home with all basic life necessities. My source of entertainment has always been books that I initially read through a candlelight. Just going to school meant a 14km walk each day.

These early hardships only motivated me even more to study and excel, keeping in mind the common mantra, “education is the way to a better life” and I applaud my mother for nurturing my ambitions by being a good provider without fail. My basic education began with kindergarten and proceeded to free government education. I never attended private school and I never took for granted the free education opportunity our government provided. I studied hard with the result that I excelled academically and was elected for student leadership roles in school. Because of

this, I acquired confidence and a positive mind that propelled me through life.

But this was not without hardship and my high school years were particularly difficult. I had been enrolled in the country’s top high school (St Joseph’s College) where I was now amid academically stronger students. In this new setting, I was unaccustomed to being outsmarted and that became a challenge. I had to develop a survival strategy and I learned that competition can either encourage or demoralise you. It is critical to identify which category you belong to, that can best work for you based on your capabilities to ensure that either way you excel. I realised that it is important to sometimes escape the land of competition, focus on your uniqueness, abilities and your strengths to become the best version of yourself.

From that point on, my goals were dominated by always identifying and focusing on things that were distinct from what everyone else would normally go for, no matter how challenging. Hence why I chose Russia for my medical education after winning a Russian sponsorship, which not only earned me an MD (Doctor of Medicine) but also a Degree in teaching Russian language. Studying medicine in Russia was exceptionally difficult but adjusting back to medical English after returning home presented an even greater challenge. I found myself struggling with speaking and writing English as fluently as before as my vocabulary was insufficient. My confidence was dented and I felt inadequate especially during my medical internship year. However, I didn’t give up, I worked hard the best way I knew how, until my English improved again.

No dream is beyond reach

OCTOBER 2020 55

Thereafter, I joined the military; something unusual for female doctors in my country and then choosing a medical speciality that is niche and unfamiliar to most, which I studied at one of UK’s top universities.

The start of my aviation medicine career

My interest in aerospace medicine began when I was still in medical school. My thoughts, however, were that, given that in my country and continent, this avenue of medicine is unexplored, underestimated and overlooked, my chances of ever pursuing it were close to zero. Joining the military seemed as the only way to achieving this and in 2016 I was commissioned at a rank of Captain into the Botswana Defence Forces.

However, the road ahead was still unclear and, to realise my ultimate goals, in 2017 I self-funded a flight surgeon course in South Africa. With no clear path ahead of me, my journey a that time was filled with discouragement including words like “it’s not a speciality, don’t waste your time”. However, I didn’t deter. Later on, my employer sent me for a Postgraduate Diploma in Aerospace Medicine in UK and my good academic performance allowed for my transfer into the Master of Science programme. What I am grateful for is the opportunity to have studied my dream course in the UK where aerospace medicine is a speciality.

My challenges were further compounded by that I had left my three months old daughter and my fiancé (now husband), to go for my studies. Being post-partum and away from my loved ones, simultaneously pursuing the most challenging course was the hardest thing I have ever done, however, through hard work I managed to successfully complete my Master’s Degree.

Above: Onalenna at King’s College London.

Aspirations

My dream is not over yet. My approach is different from what is generally the existing practice in aviation medicine in our region because of the influence and the education I received from Europe. I hope to bring change to the way aerospace medicine is perceived in Africa.

My current focus is raising awareness on aerospace medicine and its role in aviation safety. I aspire to work not just within the military but hope to see integration and collaboration between military and civilian aviation medicine in addressing unique health needs of aviation professionals in my region as seen in first world countries. I hope to establish a fully functional Aviation Medicine Society within the organisational structure of SADC Aviation Safety Organization (SASO), ran by rightfully qualified aviation medicine specialists.

I also dream to establish a Centre of Excellence in Aviation Medicine in Botswana, with state-of-the-art and fully-fledged clinic to cater for health needs of our aviation professionals and ensuring a ‘unique to aviation holistic approach’ to their entire well-being, eventually extending such services to the entire Africa, in accordance with international standards.

I acknowledge how challenging it will be. However, I am counting on the support from international societies of relevance to health and aviation safety, such as the RAeS, to assist in getting my voice heard and my efforts recognised.

My story shows no dream is beyond reach, no matter where you are from in the world. Your background and your past do not dictate your future. All it takes is a dream, determination, hard work towards it and a positive mind. These are the forces that will propel you to your success.

As part of our activities to celebrate Black History Month this October, we have recorded a podcast with Kerissa Khan MRAeS, right, RAeS Council Member and Innovation Lead for the UK FutureFlight. Tune in now to hear more about her career story, what drew her to aerospace engineering, future technologies and meeting the green challenge. Kerissa also talks about the impact of Covid-19 and why diversity and inclusion matters, including what industry leaders can do to create and sustain a more diverse and inclusive workforce.https://www.careersinaerospace.com/news/

Podcast by RAeS Council Member Kerissa Khan

Inaugural Mary Jackson LectureWe are also delighted to announce that the LSB approved a request by the Society’s Diversity and Inclusion Working Group to create a new annual Named Lecture. This will be the Mary Jackson Lecture in honour of Mary Jackson (1921-2005), who became the first female black aerospace engineer at NASA in 1958 and was featured in the film Hidden Figures. We are aiming to launch the inaugural event in late October which will be held online due to the Covid-19 pandemic. If you would like to be put on the mailing list for further details please contact [email protected]

ElectionsBrian BeesleySriram BellamkondaAndrew BelshawJoanna BoundyShawn BullardFernando CruzPhil CullenRoderick DennisColin DobsonTanya DolanChristian FaheyRonald FrostSanjiv GhuratiaWarren GravellJohn HolmesRobert HowellPaul HurstBruce JacksonGlenn JohnsonTracy LambGlenn LittlejohnsJohn McFallBrian MillenDuncan MitchellJeremy MorganStephanie MorganRichard (Rick) NewsonHoward PoveyRohit RamachandranMohammed RasheedJeremy RemachaFiona SmithMalcolm TerryMike ThrowerAndrew TiedeBrian WheelerMichael WigginsBenjamin Wilson

Sohail AhmedRafic AjajRichard AlexanderStephen AshworthChristopher BacskosJames BarnettDavid Baty

Dinesh BhatiaGavin BishopNeil BrizlandGeoff BrownNicholas BrusbyWilliam CamilleriAntonio CarannateCharlene CarelessAlexander ChapmanThomas ChattertonKudzanai ChikohoraDavid ClarkeMatthew CockramJack ColemanChristopher ConroyJames CornickEdward CourtleyAndreea CristoloveanuAkshay DewanGareth DixonPhillip DuncanJohn DwyerDave FarrellRobin FellCristina Garcia DuffyEnrique Gómez SanchaDaniel HabashiBenjamin HallQazi Mansoor HameedMike IrvingSubash P JohnLeighton JordanPujit KanabarStuart KayMuhammad KhalidKieran KilroyEdward KinghamHeather LawtonSarah LayAndrew LlewellynDustin LoudonDaniel LundonMark LynottKenneth MacdonaldLouise MacLeodRichard MacPhersonMichael MaddenKonstantinos

MalandrakisGiulio Malinverno

MEMBERS

56 AEROSPACE

WITH REGRETThe RAeS announces with regret the deaths of the following members:

Eric Norman Allen CEng MRAeS 90

Stanley Murrey Fletcher Affiliate 86

Elling Halvorson FRAeS 88

Nigel John Pearson FRAeS 74

FELLOWS Laurie MarchantJohn MarkowMark MartinDennys MayerPaul McCarneyJesus Valentin Medina

SandovalLetsika MokoenaDaniel OlaiyaAdrian OliverThomas OnninkDavid OrrJeffrey PayneMatthew PearsonJeremy PrettyFares QatarnehMuhammad RasoolRavinder Singh RathoreOwen ReesSimon ReeveChristo Ambrose

RetnarajColin RobertsonThusitha RodrigoAndrew RotheroeShem SasiEmily SelfPrathikshen SelvadoraiTimothy SimpsonGary SizemoreCharles SkiltonAnthony SnookFrank StefanEmma StringerDennis SumnerSnijith Roop SurendranDaniel TadicAlessio TarantinoNicholas TregliaGary WhitecunasAlan Wotton

Omer AamirEnrico De DonatiRonan DohertyJennifer EdwardsChatura Gunaratne

Jack InglebyMark IngramSamith JeanandoHemant JoshiCharlotte KeenanJeremy KimmonsSam LawtonElliot MorrisMatthew NashDavid Newbrook-

GreeneChristopher PadMacaulay RhindEwan Roberts-EllisStephen RossJoanna SavageJames ShipwayJames ThomasMatthew Walmsley

Robin BrandTim BridgeEd Parsons

Matthew ArnaoutisLeon ChambersAbdullah EhsanAllison KingMuhammad Issam

ParachaPui Lam TangKen YauJason Zhang

Thomas GunyonBlessen JosephAriel LevienJoseph PalmerStephen PeakeAli Bin QamarErika Ramos da Silva

TeixeiraGiacomo SartorScott ShevelsFahad TariqAndrew WhiteAlastair WyattChristopher Young

Daniel BlochAnthony FenwickTinashe GwaringaHuzafa KhanThomas MillerAzeem Ghulam NabiDaniel SandomDavid StoneChris WallisAlex Wright

Jack AndersonDaniel BoothJames CalfordRebecca CaulfieldHei Nam Janice ChoiLauren DugganPierre GhaliJoseph Holden

AFFILIATES

STUDENT AFFILIATES

ASSOCIATE MEMBERS

ASSOCIATES

E-ASSOCIATES

The Royal Aeronautical Society is celebrating being named Best Professional Engineering Institution of the Year at the Engineering Talent Awards in September 2020.

The award recognises Professional Engineering Institutions who go above and beyond to support their members, and who are particularly increasing awareness of diversity, inclusion and positive mental wellbeing.

The RAeS has a multi-strand Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, led by its Diversity and Inclusion Working Group, which aims to

improve the Society’s own approach, alongside providing wider leadership on the subject. A few of the milestones the RAeS reached in 2019 are:● The launch of Alta, a mentoring platform for women.● The continued success of the Amy Johnson Lecture, which

draws in senior women from across the aviation and aerospace sector.

● The Society’s Women in Aviation and Aerospace Group celebrated its tenth anniversary, and is a founding member of the Women in Aviation and Aerospace Charter which now has over 200 signatories.

● Cool Aeronautics, the Society’s school outreach programme, engaged with almost 2,000 children in 2019.

RAeS wins Award

OCTOBER 2020 57

To apply login here: www.aerosociety.com/login Contact us: [email protected] or +44 (0)20 7670 4384 or 4400

24 November Final closing date for 2020

Apply now for Membership and Professional Registration

Do you need guidance on applying for membership, upgrading or professional registration with the Engineering Council?

Join us for a webinar, a one-to-one support appointment or contact the membership team for guidance on:• Requirements for membership grades or CEng,

IEng & EngTech registration• Information on benefits and the Society• How to apply and documents required

Find out more: www.aerosociety.com/support

Have you graduated or completed your apprenticeship this year?

To upgrade visit: www.aerosociety.com/eassociate and download the form.

Then email this to [email protected]

If you are a student member you can upgrade to e-Associate at a discounted rate

Your qualification may mean you are eligible for Associate membership meaning instant recognition and the use of ARAeS postnominal letters

Access career services including one-to-one appointments

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Join our Young Professionals Network

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*If you have completed an accredited degree you are eligible to apply for Interim IEng or CEng registration now.

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hour’ service-based contracts; airlines are delaying new orders and retiring larger aircraft.

Not the same company now as in 1970

Yet the contemporary Rolls-Royce is a global ‘energy generation’ company. It has a stable defence business, especially from inside the US market, thanks to its mid-90s acquisition of Allison and a share in F-35 contracts. Non-aerospace activities have bolstered its fortunes, even if some of these are now vulnerable to sell-off pressures. On a parochial note, the globalisation of operations affords some protection for core facilities in the UK (a warning perhaps where the boot is on the other foot for UK-located, foreign-owned firms).

If one is also looking for some Job’s comfort from the Covid-induced aviation recession, delays in new airliner launches may take some of the investment pressure off Rolls to develop a range of new engines. However, future survival will still need an R&D programme – again the part MoD-funded Tempest programme will bring some relief in this respect. Still, there will be a need in the medium term to ramp up commitments to new products at a time when Rolls’ finances could still be in recovery.

The shades of January 1971 still beckon

There is no escaping the fact that Rolls-Royce is still the smallest of the world’s ‘Big Three’ engine manufacturers and lacks the protection of a conglomerate’s embrace. Its travails have already reduced share valuations to junk status. So far the management team has ruled out the need for even a temporary injection of public money but the company (along with the rest of the UK aerospace industry) may need a dedicated support programme from the British Government à la française focused on next-generation civil technology acquisition. No need yet to brush off the play book for 1971 but us historians are not crossing their fingers.

Fifty years ago this autumn, Rolls-Royce was struggling for survival. Borne down by the costs of developing its innovative three-shaft RB.211 engine for Lockheed, it looked to a combination

of private and government funding as part of a £70m bailout. This would be worth some £1.2bn in today’s money. The roots of this saga are complex, encompassing some poorly negotiated contract details with Lockheed, a huge belief in an ability to deliver the RB.211 on time and a misperception that any British Government (Labour or Conservative) would not abandon the most successful post-war UK aerospace company to bankruptcy.

In the event, the collapse in January 1971 was left to the Heath administration to sort out. Nationalisation was the immediate route out of the crisis – if only to protect core defence contracts – but it was another two months before the RB.211 and Rolls’ civil business was saved. And saved only after direct negotiations between No.10 and the White House and a nerve-wracking single vote majority in the US Senate for a rescue loan to Lockheed.

History repeating itself?

Flash forward those fifty years and Rolls-Royce is looking to raise £2bn to keep afloat after declaring a record £5.4bn loss for the first half of 2020. It is also having some expensive problems with its latest engines – another unfortunate echo of 50 years ago. A premature end to currency hedging contracts accounts for some of the losses but the main cause of the company’s travails is the Covid-19 crisis. Nobody is flying; nobody is buying – well, in very much fewer numbers than forecast. Rolls-Royce has been especially hard hit by the fact that the worst affected sector has been long-haul and the world fleet of widebodies on which Rolls has focussed for over a decade. Both aspects of the crisis are causing pain to Rolls; aircraft grounded means less revenue from ‘Power-by-the-

The Last Word

An unfortunate historical symmetry?

Professor Keith HaywardFRAeS

Commentary from

58 AEROSPACE

BUT THERE IS NO ESCAPING THE FACT THAT ROLLS-ROYCE IS STILL THE SMALLEST OF THE WORLD’S ‘BIG THREE’ ENGINE MANUFACTUR-ERS AND LACKS THE PROTECTION OF A CONGLO-MERATE’S EMBRACE

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Register now for the RAeS careers and recruitment fair dedicated to supporting current and future

aerospace and aviation professionals

Going virtual on 4 November 2020!

RAeSCareers www.careersinaerospace.com #CIAALIVE20 www.aerosocietycom/events

Club Class Event Partner

Covid-19 has had a huge impact on the aerospace and aviation industry and this year our event will be very different. To keep people safe, we will be holding our annual careers fair online using new technology to retain interaction between exhibitors and visitors, with competitions and a fantastic programme of insight talks for all career levels, from early talent to experienced.

Despite the challenges many employers currently face, we hope to highlight opportunities in the industry including future tech, emerging aviation and space tech, as well as career transition roles and training opportunities to capitalise on the incredible skills and knowledge that our people can offer.

Help us come together to support the future needs of the industry and ensure we are ready for future technological challenges and recovery.

Our thanks to Club Class partner, Boeing, for their support in moving the event online.

For visitor registration please contact [email protected]. For exhibitor packages please contact [email protected]

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