TYPHOON GETS ITS SECOND WIND...Bell 360 Invictus specifications Crew 2 Speed 180kt Combat radius...

TYPHOON GETS ITS SECOND WIND

HOW THE FUTURE EVOLUTION OF EUROFIGHTER WILL LEAD ON TO TEMPEST

November 2019

DELIVERING TOMORROW’S TRAINING

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NEWS IN BRIEF

Airbus

NOVEMBER 2019@aerosociety Find us on LinkedIn Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com

Contents

Comment

Hard vs soft power

Regulars

Afterburner

Typhoon gets its second windWhat lies in store for the Eurofighter Typhoon, post Centurion upgrade?

4 Radome The latest aviation and aeronautical intelligence, analysis and comment.

10 Antenna Howard Wheeldon looks at the fall of Thomas Cook and future demand for commercial aircraft.

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

58 The Last WordKeith Hayward on 70 years of the B-52 in service and the past and future role of the long-range strategic bomber.

41

Features

Defence on paradeA report on the 2019 Defence & Security Equipment International (DSEI) exhibition.

Plane SpeakingAn interview with Grazia Vittandini, Chief Technical Officer of Airbus.

26

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Volume 46 Number 11November 2019

Correspondence on all aerospace matters is welcome at: The Editor, AEROSPACE, No.4 Hamilton Place, London W1J 7BQ, UK [email protected]

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It has frequently been said that one of the ‘West’s’ main advantages in the Cold War was not necessarily military technology but the ‘soft power’ it could project around the world. Hollywood, Madison Avenue, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones (and the US dollar) provided cultural power that crossed the Iron Curtain to influence and win over those behind. However, others have learnt those lessons. In addition to displaying its military might for its 70th anniversary parade, Beijing is now exercising its ‘soft power’ derived from its massive economic might in ever more invasive ways. From demanding that Cathay Pacific crew hand over personal devices to be checked for pro-Hong Kong material, to global airlines submitting to renaming Taiwan on IFE maps – no aspect is too small to cause offence. Such is the spread of corporate fear that there is now anecdotal evidence that Western corporations are now starting to pre-emptively self-censor on China’s behalf – terrified as they are by the eye of Sauron alighting on them for displeasing Beijing. Where does aerospace come into this? China undoubtedly represents a valuable market for Western manufacturers and suppliers – who previously have flown under the radar when it comes to taking sides in geopolitics. Yet there is a sense now of progressively increasing demands – making co-operation much more hazardous, as China increasingly flexes these geopolitical soft power muscles and finds, on the whole, a divided liberal west unable to forcefully resist and fearful of missing out on bumper sales. Hypersonic missiles may make for impressive parades but, slowly and surely, it is soft power that can gradually make geostrategic changes and bend adversaries to your will.

Editor-in-Chief Tim Robinson +44 (0)20 7670 4353 [email protected]

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

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

Publications Co-ordinator Chris Male +44 (0)20 7670 4352 [email protected]

Publications Executive Annabel Hallam +44 (0)20 7670 4361 [email protected]

Book Review Editor Brian Riddle [email protected]

Editorial Office Royal Aeronautical Society No.4 Hamilton Place London W1J 7BQ, UK +44 (0)20 7670 4300 [email protected]

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

Chief Executive Sir Brian Burridge CBE FRAeS

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

Unless specifically 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

2019 AEROSPACE subscription rates: Non-members, £170

Please send your order to: Wayne J Davis, RAeS, No.4 Hamilton Place, London W1J 7BQ, UK. +44 (0)20 7670 4354 [email protected]

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

ISSN 2052-451X

38

42 Message from our President

43 Message from our Chief Executive

44 Book Reviews

47 Library Additions

48 New Heritage plaque

49 The Aeronauts film review

50 Highland Branch lecture

52 Diary

54 Obituary

55 Sandy Gunn aerospace careers programme

56 Elections

OnlineAdditional features and content are

available to view online on www.aerosociety.com/aerospaceinsight

Including: Air ambulances, The challenges facing the

introduction of urban air taxis, Accelerating future fighter development, Developing a global flight

training association, In the October issue of AEROSPACE, The Aeronauts film review,

AI and machine learning, 2019 DSEI exhibition report.

Airbus

Front cover: Eurofighter Typhoon over Dubai. (Eurofighter)

Tim Robinson, Editor-in-Chief

[email protected]

Creating a new worldNews from the first Global Urban Air Mobility Summit on the challenges facing developers of eVTOL flying taxis.

BA

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ystems

Fight’s on! Commercial Red Air in the 21st CenturyProviding affordable aggressor tactical training is now a growing trend – with the US leading the way.

Moscow to the MAKSA report on the 2019 Moscow International Aviation and Space Show.

30

Erik H

ildenbrandt.

22 Delivering tomorrow’s pilot trainingAn RAeS conference provides an update on airline pilot training.

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RadomeINTELLIGENCE / ANALYSIS / COMMENT

Bell

4 AEROSPACE / NOVEMBER 2019

Speed kingThe 360 would borrow the rotor system, scaled down to a smaller diameter and with four blades, from the larger 525 Relentless super-medium helicopter. A clean wing would unload 50% of lift from the rotor at top speed.

Optionally pilotedAs a scout/attack helicopter the Invictus would have a crew of two but would also be able to be optionally piloted for maximum flexibility in future missions. The 360 would also reuse the triplex redundant fly-by-wire (FBW) from the V-280 Valor and 525 Relentless.

WeaponsThe Invictus would feature a nose-mounted 20mm cannon, as well as an internal weapons bay for Hellfire class-guided munitions. The stub wings could also carry additional missiles.

WDEFENCE

Bell reveals 360 InvictusBell has unveiled its proposed concept for the US Army’s FARA (Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft) programme – the 360 Invictus. The high-speed 360 Invictus features a shrouded tail rotor, internal weapons bay and a clean wing, as well as retractable landing gear. It would be armed with a 20mm cannon and Hellfire class missiles. Using stub wings, an additional engine would give a dash speed over 200mph. Currently in preliminary design, Bell is aiming to fly the 360 in 2022, with a fly-off expected in 2023.

Bell 360 Invictus specificationsCrew 2 Speed 180ktCombat radius (with 90min on station) 135milesPayload 1,400lb

Extra powerAs well as a T901 ITEP engine, the Invictus would also feature an additional supplemental power unit (SPU). This would be used as an APU on the ground, as well as for providing additional power for dash speeds, hover performance or in autorotation emergencies.

Shrouded tail rotorThe tailrotor would feature a canted ducted Fenestron-style configuration, for low noise and stability in the hover.

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6

Radome

AEROSPACE / NOVEMBER 2019

NEWS IN BRIEF

Embraer and Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo (Ufes) have revealed that they have carried out the first autonomous aircraft demonstration in Brazil.The project saw a Legacy 500 bizjet modified to be a technology demonstrator with laser sensors and cameras. The trial, in the last week of August, saw the aircraft, with safety pilots onboard, successfully taxi from the hardstanding to the runway

completely autonomously. Ufes has been working on autonomous vehicle research for cars since 2009.

Airbus has delivered the 1,000th A320neo family aircraft. The aircraft was handed over to Indian low-cost carrier IndiGo at a ceremony at Airbus’ Hamburg assembly plant.

The US Navy’s last F/A-18C Hornet flew its final active-duty flight at

Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia on 2 October. The USN is replacing its Hornet fleet with the newer Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and Lockheed Martin F-35C. The US Marine Corps is to continue flying the earlier Hornet until 2030 after which it will be replaced by the F-35B.

China launched two Earth-imaging satellites and an experimental solar sail from the Taiyuan space

centre on 17 September. The payload of the Ziyuan 1-2D Earth observation satellite, the BNU-1 Ice Pathfinder environmental-monitoring microsatellite and the Taurus 1 solar sail CubeSat were carried into orbit aboard a Long March 4B launcher.

eVTOL specialist Kitty Hawk has revealed its latest design which it claims is 100 times quieter than a conventional helicopter. Named Heaviside after

the physicist and electrical engineer Oliver Heaviside, the eight-rotor vehicle is said to only generate 38 decibels of sound, compared to around 60dBA from a helicopter.

Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation has announced that it is set to open a new design centre for its SpaceJet regional airliner in Montreal, Canada. The Japanese airframer reached an agreement in the summer

SPACEFLIGHT

Thomas C

ook

The collapse of 178 year old holiday group and airline, Thomas Cook, on 23 September, saw the UK CAA activate the largest ever peacetime repatriation of over 150,000 passengers stranded in 18 different countries when the firm ceased operations. The pre-planned airlift, named Operation Matterhorn, saw 45 aircraft chartered by the CAA and ran from 23 September to 6 October. A number of other airlines were also involved in returning stranded passengers using scheduled flights.

Joint safety group slams Boeing, FAA over 737 MAX

DEFENCE

Biggest ever peacetime repatriation as Thomas Cook goes under

Musk aiming to fly Starship in early 2020

AEROSPACE

SpaceX

An international body of experts tasked into looking at the development and oversight of the grounded Boeing 737 MAX in the wake of two fatal crashes has criticised the FAA and Boeing for safety lapses. The Joint Authorities Technical Review (JATR) highlighted the FAA's lack of oversight in delegating certification to the manufacturer, saying: “In the B737 MAX program, the FAA had

inadequate awareness of the MCAS function which, coupled with limited involvement, resulted in an inability of the FAA to provide an independent assessment of the adequacy of the Boeing-proposed certification activities.” The report also slammed Boeing for “extensive and fragmented documentation” and for failing to inform the FAA about changes to MCAS during the programme.

AIR TRANSPORT

China shows off military might

Supersonic reconnaissance drones, new missiles and two-soldier gyrocopters were among the 100 aircraft and helicopters on display in Beijing for a military parade celebrating communist China’s 70th anniversary. Among the highlights were a previously unseen rocket-powered high-speed reconnaissance drone, believed to be known as the WZ-8 and speculated to be air-launched. A mock-up of the Sharp Sword stealth UCAV was also on display, which is now designated the GJ-11 in Chinese service. Other weapons on display were DF-17 hypersonic glide vehicles and the public debut of the DF-41 intercontinental ballistic missile.

SpaceX's Elon Musk has announced plans to fly his newly completed Starship Mk 1 reusable rocket in an uncrewed flight to an altitude of around 20km within the next one to two months. The full vehicle is now assembled

at Space X's Boca Chica facility in South Texas. The

Super Heavy booster first stage rocket

is also under construction with Musk revealing that

SpaceX aims to conduct an orbital

flight of the Starship in early 2020.

Chinese Internet

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to acquire the remains of Bombardier’s CRJ regional jet programme.

Delta Air Lines is to acquire a 20% stake in the Chile-based airline group LATAM for $1.9bn. Delta is to invest $350m in the strategic partnership and acquire four Airbus A350s from LATAM. Delta will also take over LATAM’s commitment to an additional ten A350s due for delivery between 2020 and 2025.

Airbus Defence has announced it has achieved the milestone of the first ‘dry’ air-to-air refuelling contacts between its A400M and a helicopter. The trials, conducted in the south of France, saw an A400M in the tanker role make dry contact with a H225M helicopter 51 times over four flights. The next step, says the company, will be wet contacts before the end of the year, with

final certification of rotary AAR planned for 2021. NASA’s Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) has been launched into orbit aboard a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket. The rocket was air-launched from a modified L-1011 flying over the Atlantic Ocean on 10 October. Designed to monitor the Earth’s upper atmosphere, ICON was originally scheduled to launch in

2017 but the mission was delayed by technical issues.

Seven people were killed after a WW2-era Boeing B-17 bomber crashed shortly after take-off on 2 October in Connecticut, US. Thirteen people were onboard the aircraft, which was operated by the Collings Foundation. The aircraft ran into trouble five minutes after take-off and was reportedly attempting to land when it crashed.

AeroVironment has conducted the first flight of its HAWK30 solar-powered high-altitude pseudo-satellite (HAPS) UAV. The HAWK30 was flown on 11 September at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in California.

Ukraine Air Alliance has been grounded, following a fatal accident in Lyiv on 4 October with an An-12 that killed five onboard.

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GENERAL AVIATION

Raytheon has revealed it is working on a new compact medium-range air-to-air missile, called Peregrine. The radar-guided missile is half the length and weight of the AIM-120 AMRAAM missile, enabling it to be carried in greater numbers, especially by stealth fighters with internal

DEFENCE

AEROSPACE

weapon bays − doubling the loadout of some

fighters. No exact specifications are available but Raytheon says that the missile

has slightly better range than the AIM-

120, as well as increased speed. The weapon is also half the cost of today's AAMs, enabling more to be procured.

Raytheon unveils new Peregrine AAM

A secretive UK space start-up, Spacebit, has revealed that it is aiming to be the first organisation to land a British-built rover on the Moon in 2021. Its tiny 1.5kg ‘spider’ rover uses four legs instead of wheels and is set to catch a ride on Astrobotic's Peregrine lander − which is scheduled to touch down on the Moon in 2021 carrying NASA science experiments. S

pace

bit

UK private company to land ‘spider’ rover on Moon in 2021

After seven years, students from Bridge Learning Campus have completed the sixth and final Boeing/RAeS Rans S-6 Coyote II light aircraft as part of the STEM outreach project. Six schools in the UK were involved in the kitplane

Final Schools Build-a-Plane completed

German start-up reveals ten seat electric commuter aircraft

A new German start-up, Scylax, has revealed it is developing a ten seat all-electric short-range commuter aircraft – with the aim of flying a demonstrator within three years. The E10 would have a range of 300km using existing battery technology, with the company targeting certification in eight years.

SPACEFLIGHT

Raytheon

challenge for 14-18 year olds, which was supported

by Boeing UK and which was launched in 2008. Funds from the sale

of the finished ultralights were

ploughed back into a follow-up schools project, Falcon Initiative 2.S

cyla

x


Taiwan’s Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC) officially rolled out its Advanced Jet Trainer (AJT) on 24 September.The new XT-5 AJT trainer is based on the dual-seat version of the F-CK-1 fighter but with non-afterburning engines, lighter weight and lower landing speeds. The Republic of China Air Force (RoCAF) is set to receive 66 of the XT-5s.

The Vulcain 2.1 main stage engine which will be used to power Ariane 6, Europe's next-generation launch vehicle, has completed its qualification testing. The engine is now to be refurbished for dynamic and vibration tests.

On 20 September, Leonardo Helicopters delivered the 1,000th example of its best-selling AW139 twin-engine

helicopter at a ceremony at its Verigate facility in Italy.The 1,000th AW139 was handed over to the Italian Guardai di Finanza law enforcement agency which has 22 on order. The aircraft is currently in service with 280 operators in 70 countries.

Delegates at the 40th ICAO Assembly have announced a number of aviation environmental protection initiatives, moving forward on the

implementation of the CORSIA emissions offsetting scheme for international flights and reducing additional emissions. Other decisions included creating a long-term global goal for international aviation CO2 emissions reduction, further elaboration of the 2050 ICAO Vision on Sustainable Aviation Fuel and a call for ICAO’s Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP) to

report on a study of the environmental impacts of new supersonic aircraft under development.

France’s XL Airways and Slovenia’s Adria Airways have both announced they have halted all flights after running into cashflow problems. Adria, the flag carrier of Slovenia, says it needs access to fresh investment, while XL Airways is reported to be discussing a rescue deal with Air France.

DEFENCE

Das

saul

t

First Emirati astronaut visits ISS

SPACEFLIGHT

Radome

On 25 September, the United Arab Emirates’ first astronaut, Hazzaa al-Mansoori, launched onboard a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, to the International Space Station (ISS). A former UAE AF fighter pilot, al-Mansoori was selected from 4,000 applicants in

NEWS IN BRIEF

AIR TRANSPORT

2018 to be one of two UAE astronauts – and joined NASA astronaut Jessica Meir and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka on the flight. After a mission lasting eight days he returned to Earth on 3 October with US astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin.

Dassault delivers first Indian Rafale

WTO trade spat sees tariffs imposedThe World Trade Organization (WTO) has given the US the go-ahead to impose tariffs on $7.5bn of EU imports in the latest twist in the long-running transatlantic dispute over Airbus and Boeing subsidies

Canadian simulator and training specialists, CAE, officially inaugurated a new civil flight simulation training centre in Gatwick, UK, on 1 October.The new centre sees easyJet as the anchor tenant with a ten-year agreement and currently hosts seven (five A320, one A350 and one A330) full flight simulators. A new fixed-base 600XR device is also set to be added before the end of the year. Once fully operational, it will have 18 FFS devices in service and train 12,000 pilots a year, as well as cabin crew.

and state support. This will see 10% import tariffs imposed on Airbus aircraft from 18 October, as well as other goods from the EU. Europe, meanwhile, has threatened to retaliate against US goods.

CAE opens new Gatwick centre

AEROSPACE

At a ceremony at its factory in Merignac, France, Dassault delivered the first of 36 Rafale fighters to the Indian Air Force. The first four aircraft will arrive in India by May 2020. The aircraft were ordered directly by India in 2016 as a government-to-government deal, after the 126-aircraft MMRCA (Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft) competition was axed. New Delhi has since relaunched its search for additional fighters – with an RFI for 110 fighters issued in 2018.

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AIR TRANSPORT

Air New Zealand has appointed Walmart US CEO Greg Foran as its next CE.

Boeing is to separate the position of Chairman and CEO − stripping the title of Chairman from current chief Dennis Muilenburg. It has announced David L. Calhoun as the new non-executive Chairman.

ON THE MOVE

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GENERAL AVIATION

Arg

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Three Chinese carriers, Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines have all placed orders for the Chinese-built Comac ARJ21-700 regional airliner.

UK banks on electric to re-invigorate GA sector

CorrectionIn the October 2019 issue of AEROSPACE, on p16 in the air ambulance feature, a picture of the trauma pack should have been credited to the author, Mike Gething. We apologise for any confusion caused.

The UK Government has revealed new plans to re-invigorate its light aviation sector, by using it as the testbed for innovative electric aviation technologies. Speaking at Cranfield University on 19 September, Transport Minister and GA pilot Grant Shapps MP, revealed that the Government had B

oein

g

Boeing and Porsche team for premium air taxisBoeing-owned UAV and urban air mobility subsidary Aurora Flight Sciences has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with German car manufacturer Porsche to analyse demand for premium electric vertical take-off flying taxis for urban aerial transport. Porsche Engineering Services and Studio FA Porsche are also to assist Aurora to develop and test a prototype eVTOL. Porsche's consulting division has previously said it expects urban air mobility to expand rapidly after 2025. Meanwhile, Boeing has announced it will invest $20m into space tourism pioneer Virgin Galactic via its Horizon X venture capital fund. The strategic investment will see the companies 'work together to broaden commercial space access and transform global travel technologies.'

appointed a new General Aviation Advocate, six Aviation Ambassadors, (including the first female Red Arrows pilot Kirsty Murphy) to raise the profile of the sector – as well as £2.7m in funding to zero-emission hydrogen powertrain company ZeroAvia, which will perform test flights in the UK.

Goodbye Pucara, hello Fenix

INFOGRAPHIC: Airbus predict 39,210 new airliners needed over next 20 years

AEROSPACE

DEFENCE

The Argentinian Air Force is to rerole and rename an unspecified number of its 25 remaining IA-58 Pucara light attack/COIN aircraft into a new Fenix ISR variant. The upgrade includes new mission sensors, satcomms and new P&WC PT6A turboprops.


antenna:

There’s no real correlation between the two issues but it does seem rather strange that, as yet another big UK holiday travel airline company collapses, the world’s two largest manufacturers of commercial

aircraft, Airbus and Boeing, are both continuing to predict massive 20-year expectations of growth.

While the wall-to-wall news coverage of the collapse of Britain’s oldest and supposedly best-known travel company, Thomas Cook, made for shocking news headlines, particularly for the employees and many thousands of those that had booked holidays and flights with the company, suffice to say that for those that have observed how Thomas Cook has been struggling for so many years, the final collapse came as little surprise.

First thing to say though is hats off to the brilliant manner that the Civil Aviation Authority conducted repatriation back to the UK of all those that were on Thomas Cook holidays abroad. Never has an exercise on the scale of bringing in the region of 150,000 people back home been attempted before and all credit to the Government for not prevaricating in terms of the decision to repatriate and to the CAA for arranging over 1,000 flights to bring everyone back home by 6 October.

Thomas Cook may well have been dubbed as Britain’s oldest, largest and sometimes best-loved travel agent over the decades but this was a company that had been badly managed for years. It was laden with unacceptable and unworkable levels of debt, was far too large for the market it served, spent far too much on marketing, maintained an expensive and unprofitable airline, not to mention having lost its way in a fast-changing holiday market in which customers prefer to buy online. There you have it in a nutshell!

Yes, sterling’s devaluation against the euro and dollar hardly helped but for the now former Thomas Cook CEO, Peter Fankhauser, to blame failure of the 178-year old firm on bondholders and the syndicate of lenders that had kept the company going on life support is frankly all but laughable.

Having survived various economic crisis, recessions and massive fuel price hikes over the years, not to mention a long period of being state-owned, Thomas Cook finally went under because no one else, not even the Chinese, had been prepared to

Global Outlook and Analysis with HOWARD WHEELDON

Thomas Cook goes bust while planemakers give rosy forecasts of growth

fund it. That is what happens to companies that hold irresponsible amounts of debt and virtually no assets. While it is easy from a marketing stance to see why operating your own airline provides competitive advantage, similar to the collapse of Monarch Airlines last year, having a large number of expensive leased aircraft on your books can very quickly turn a strategy of competitive advantage to one of having a rope around your neck.

So it was that, in a fast-changing and competitive world, one that provides buyers of holidays with far more options of choice, together with cheaper flights, had finally seen Thomas Cook off.

True, following the history of survival scares of late, many would-be Thomas Cook customers were probably put off. In the end, Chinese interest in financially supporting the company came to nothing, although it would not surprise me to see them buy the company name.

Planemakers talk of even more growth

Up from a range of independent estimates suggesting that there are around 32,000 commercial aircraft currently in service with global airlines today, the most recent 20-year forecast from Airbus points to the global fleet of passenger and cargo aircraft reaching a heady 47,680 aircraft by 2038.

Thisis good news for the aerospace industry of course. However, while it is true that, by making aircraft lighter through the use of composite materials and improved aerodynamics, together with the substantial and ongoing improvements being achieved in engine efficiency, have and continue to play a big role in reducing fuel consumption, it is difficult to perceive that such large numbers of new aircraft are compatible with the International Civil Aviation Organizations target, if carbon neutral growth is to be achieved by 2020 – let alone a 50% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions being achieved by 2050.

True, increased use of high-bypass turbofan engines will undoubtedly help to further reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Who, I wonder, 30 years ago, would have thought that aircraft today would be burning significantly less fuel than those flying back then? Technology is always our friend and who

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IS AVIATION INDUSTRY GROWTH ON THE LEVEL FORECAST REALLY SUSTAINABLE?

knows what else will be achieved between now and 2050? The answer is ‘a lot’ but will it be enough for those who fret about the environmental damage that aircraft do and the role they play in climate change and global warming?

Sustainable growth

All this begs the question that, in a more informed world and one in which the public is increasingly aware of the potential impact of CO2 emissions on climate change, is aviation industry growth on the level forecast really sustainable? With the huge increase in global emissions from cargo ships and the automotive sector being equally culpable for damage to the environment as anyone else, no one should blame the commercial aviation industry alone for the part that it plays in environmental damage.

Aviation is continuing to make great strides forward in reducing emissions and next generation aircraft engines, such as Rolls-Royce's Advance and UltraFan, can be expected to set new benchmarks in efficiency and environmental performance. Increased use of biofuels will make a difference too, as will the potential longer-term development of electric propulsion. However, while the aerospace industry is rising to the challenge of achieving greater efficiency and reducing emissions even further, the larger question may be whether the pace of change will be enough to satisfy governments and regulators?

Huge efforts have been made to cut fuel burn, lower emissions and reduce the cost of operation for airlines over the past two decades but is it a case today that industry growth is still outpacing environmental benefits? True, while the aviation industry has worked hard to put its CO2 and NO2 emissions house in order, it seems that the global shipping industry which is equally to blame has yet to even start!

Whatever, more still needs to be done and ways found to reduce emissions and aircraft contrails which are also thought to be playing a significant role in global warming. Aircraft contrails, by the way, are formed by condensation of hot gases and soot from partially burned jet fuel. At high altitudes the prevalence of tiny ice crystals intensifies the heat trapping effect while at low altitudes they do the opposite and reflect sunlight. The solution may appear to be to reduce the height that jet airliners fly!

Inevitable growth

For all that, modern day aircraft burn 60% less fuel than did the first generation of commercial jetliners. However, the industry appears to be growing at a faster rate than the technology needed to keep the overall emissions of climate change gases in check.

Interestingly, while there are variations in the individual Airbus and Boeing growth forecasts, both aircraft manufacturers agree that the requirement for new commercial aircraft build over the next 20 years will be for around 39,000 new aircraft. Of these, Airbus predicts that 25,000 will be required to support global market growth and 14,201 will be required for replacement of existing aircraft.

Airbus and Boeing each have a long and successful history of forecasting market growth and I have no reason to doubt that the latest forecasts have much to commend them. Resilient to the majority of market shocks since 2001, with air traffic having more than doubled since 2000 and average passenger fares, according to Boeing, having fallen 40% since then, in an ideal world, unless you consider that a global recession is in prospect, little reason to disbelieve that growth will continue. Boeing estimate that the air travel market is likely to be 2.5 times larger 20 years from now and that airline passenger traffic will grow by an average of 4.6% and cargo traffic by 4.2%.

Grey skies for Thomas Cook.

Alan W

ilson/Flickr

Informatique

Ameen Budagher [On airborne emergency room(1)] It is of great importance that, the ‘Airborne Ambulance Services’ should cover all cities and communities.

Tim Watkins [On Creating a new world(2)] Great to see the RAeS taking such a strong lead on this topic. Also consider attending the RAeS Light Aircraft Design Conference on 18 November where we will be looking in detail at electric propulsion for general aviation aircraft.

Sohail C There is a definite direction coming from the executive for all the relevant Specialist Groups to work together on these themes.


TransmissionLETTERS AND ONLINE

i

Inspiring pilots

Air ambulances

ATR

eVTOL air taxis

The challenges facing eVTOL air taxis

At the RAeS International Flight Crew Training 2019 conference, the inaugural ‘Most Inspiring Cadet Pilot’ award was presented to Dhak Karanveer Singh (left), trained by Bartolini Air in Poland, and James Couldridge (right) trained by Atlantic Flight Training Academy in Ireland.

Automated flight

Hafidz Abdul Aziz [On Automated flight – AI and machine learning(3)] The efficiencies of AI should be taken advantage of to supplement the role of the human in the flight deck and not remove the human element altogether.

@CyranodEcosse [On Ukraine’s Antonov and Russia] What is the state of Russia large aircraft manufacture now that they are waging war against the country that produced virtually all their large transport aircraft (excluding passenger aircraft)?

Short take-off and landing ATR 42-600S greenlighted

@DarrellAviation [On ATR officially launches ATR 42-600 STOL variant with ability to operate from 800m runways] Need to make it electric but I imagine that option is a few years away. 800m, wow that’s brilliant as it gives access to more potential airports.

@M_McElroy I’m sure @FlyLoganair will read this with interest.

@CJayFla Hmm, looks like it can get in on two of @BRRAirport’s runways. I wonder if they have a tundra tyre option....

@yvemor Nice project. This open operations to many runways. They are usually for GA aircraft, so in some cases there could be runway strength issues, as the ATR is much heavier than usual GA aircraft.

@alexisv42943428 This is a little air bus

@TheWoracle [On Creating a new world – eVTOLs and urban air mobility blog(2)] Can we stop repeating this ‘200 vehicles’ thing? It’s meaningless. Not an indicator of technology feasibility or market viability. At least 90% of them are hopeless hype. Focus on the true barriers to this market becoming a reality.

@NZAircraftFan I think a lot of investors will lose money on this – for want a better word – fad. I can’t really see flying taxis becoming very popular, as I think regulation will kill off a lot of these mad cap schemes.

@yvemor Very thorough. I look forward to Part 2

Kitty Hawk’s new Heaviside eVTOL.

@MichaelJPryce VLJs were part of the last air taxi craze, promoted by NASA. Some designs that came from that are still chasing the old but ever-moving, FAR Part 23, ten or more years after flying. Post 737 MAX, I can’t see the FAA being keen on novel regulation.

@Doctor_Astro Thanks for featuring our Mobi-One tiltwing from @AirspaceXP.

@AIN_SkyWriter Nothing in aviation is ever cheap. And if it is, don’t just walk away – run away, because safety and/or maintenance has likely been compromised to reach that lower price.

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i f@aerosociety linkedin.com/raes facebook.com/raes www.aerosociety.com 13NOVEMBER 2019

OnlineAdditional features and content are available to view online at http://media.aerosociety.com/aerospace-insight

1. AEROSPACE, October 2019, p 14, The airborne emergency room2. https://www.aerosociety.com/news/creating-a-new-world/ 3. https://www.aerosociety.com/news/automated-flight-ai-and-machine-learning/4. https://www.aerosociety.com/news/21st-century-boyds-us-goes-back-to-the-future/

@aerosociety Find us on LinkedIn Find us on Facebook. www.aerosociety.comi f

Accelerating fighter jet development

Sticky situation

Peter Twiss (1921-2011) is credited with flying over 140 types of aircraft. He served as a pilot in WW2 before joining Fairey Aviation as a test pilot. In 1956 he broke the world speed record flying a Fairey Delta 2 at a speed of 1,132mph. He also flew the Fairey Rotodyne compound helicopter.

Peter Twiss – test pilot and Spectre speedboat driver

@securitysplat According to @Wikipedia, he started his career as an apprentice tea-taster!

@phil_rowles [On test pilot Peter Twiss as Spectre speedboat driver in ‘From Russia With Love’ movie] Peter transferred to Fairey Marine developing their power boats in his later career. Fairey Huntsman and Huntress models feature in the film. I believe he is driving the Huntsman in that scene.

@Peter_J_Farrow Another interesting fact: the helicopter pilot was Captain Cyril Sweetman, instructor from Air Service Training, who was uncredited. He was flying a Hiller 12C, also from AST. Another twist to the story is, Peter Twiss learned to fly helicopters with AST on the Hiller, at Hamble.

@MaxK_J Guy and I bumped into Peter with Neville Duke at a Farnborough in the 2000s. They were selling their books from a table in front of the halls. Both were charming, humble gents, despite being aviation legends!

Peter Twiss appeared in the 1963 James Bond film From Russia with Love driving a Fairey Marine speedboat. He also flew a Swordfish biplane in the 1960 film Sink the Bismark.

@frasercorsan [On Extinction Rebellion protester glueing themself to airliner at London City] Next level wing walking or cheap facelift?

@markjabbal Lying down and a bit further forward, they’ll be helping with area rule a la B747 hump.

@andorsey279 If you do the math on humans at terminal velocity of ~120mph, and solve for coefficient of drag * area, you get 5-6ft2. A modern narrowbody in cruise has a total Cd*area in cruise of about 40ft2. So, a person on the fuselage would be ~15% fuel burn. Would help if they laid down …

@lawrieg3 Wasn’t there an advert for adhesive many years ago that stuck a man to a plane? Not sure it was a jet but if they’re stupid enough to try it ...

@aviationcomment Could just park up at the end of the runway so the protester gets a really good close up view of the planes taking off and landing, bit noisy though ...

@AviationLed I’ve watched the fuel burn go up a fraction of a litre per hundred km in my Jeep when driving at 100 km/hr with all of the windows and the sun roof opened. The turbulence is horrendous inside the vehicle though.

@kennethpkatz [21st Century Boyd’s – US goes back to the future(4)] Five years is probably unrealistic and unrealistic program schedule constraints will inevitably drive bad decisions. Ten years is possible realistic and better than the 25-year development times that we have become accustomed to. Can the customer keep requirements under control?

RAeS at New Scientist Live

@hoang_laura [On RAeS Young Professionals Conference on 13 September] “I didn’t want to carry on treating in-grown toe nails, I wanted to contribute in another way” Dr Mark Adams talks about his fascinating career as a pilot physician. #aviationmedicine @AeroSociety #YPC19

The RAeS Careers Service was at the New Scientist Live festival at ExCel London on 10-13 October encouraging visitors to the stand to try out their flying skills on a computer flight simulator.

YPC aeromedicine

@BoeingUK [On Boeing Build-a-Plane] Congratulations to the students from @Bristol_BLC for completing the build of their Rans Coyote light aircraft as part of our Schools Build-a-Plane Challenge with @AeroSociety. G-TBLC is shown at @GlosAirport in front of proud students, volunteers and teachers who all helped build the plane from a kit. The build has enhanced their #STEM skills and given them the confidence to succeed in the future.

Boeing Build-a-Plane

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Project Centurion

358 Hangar sits unassumingly at the southern end of Warton Aerodrome. Inside are six Typhoon jets. BAE Systems may have delivered 153 of the aircraft to the Royal Air Force but development is still far from over. These aircraft are used to test the new technologies and upgrades that BAE Systems is constantly producing.

The Typhoon is vitally important to the United Kingdom. In last year’s Combat Air Strategy, then Secretary of State for Defence, Gavin Williamson affirmed that the UK’s combat air capability will be solely based around Typhoon and F-35 until at least the late 2040s. With the retirement of the Tornado this year, the Typhoon has become paramount to the RAF’s ability to fight.

DEFENCEEurofighter Typhoon - the next evolution

At this year’s Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) Fair, Team Tempest stole the show. The life size concept model was a hub of activity, discussion, photos,

and chatter. The news that Italy would join the UK and Sweden in the programme certainly added to this. Indeed Charles Woodburn, Chief Executive of BAE Systems, said that Italy’s commitment: “demonstrates the growing momentum behind the endeavour.”

However, behind the scenes, the Typhoon continues its development. 2019 has been a crucial year for the fighter, particularly in light of Tornado’s retirement. With that in mind, BAE Systems invited a group of journalists to its base at Warton for an update on future air plans.

HENRY JONES reports from Warton to discover the next evolution of capabilities for the Eurofighter Typhoon.

Typhoon gets its second wind

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15i f NOVEMBER 2019@aerosociety Find us on LinkedIn Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com

Project Centurion, the programme to ensure that theTyphoon could take over from Tornado, was never just about integrating new weapons. Adding the Storm Shadow cruise missile, the Meteor air-to-air missile and the precision attack Brimstone missile was only ever part of the equation. It was also just as much about enhancing the ‘brains’ of the aircraft. The software, sensors, and avionics are all undergoing continuous development.

Indeed Andy Flynn, Capability Delivery Director at BAE Systems, told reporters at Warton that sensor upgrades for Typhoon will be “the next iteration of Centurion.”

No. 41 Squadron, the Royal Air Force’s Test and Evaluation Squadron (TES), is currently test flying the Litening 5 targeting pod prior to it being rolled out across the Typhoon fleet. The latest upgrades to the pod mean it is not only used for targeting but also as an intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance system. Upgrades like this are intended to keep the aircraft ‘relevant’, said Flynn.

“Agile spiral development and keeping the aircraft relevant is the phase we are in. We have done the big leap and it’s now about keeping it relevant.” he said.

Taking over the Tornado’s mission

In the most basic sense, transferring the roles of a two seater aircraft – the Tornado – onto a single seater aircraft – the Typhoon – comes with a unique set of challenges that need to be overcome. Tasks need to become ‘simpler’ for the pilot, and Litening 5 is intended to ease workload in the air. BAE Systems is currently getting feedback from 41 Squadron and, all being well, Flynn said the system will be on the frontline “by the end of next year.”

Elsewhere on the jet, the EJ200 engine is being looked at. At the Paris Air Show in June, Eurofighter announced a deal worth over €53m with the British, German, Spanish and Italian governments. Over the next 19 months, the engine will be evaluated and a long term plan on its

evolution will be drawn up. There are over 50 new technologies being considered for implementation, both on the engine and elsewhere on the aircraft, all of which need to be rigorously tested.

Flynn reassured that Project Centurion had resulted in a “seamless transition” for the Royal Air Force between Tornado and Typhoon. He added that they had received “very good feedback.”

This development may be made available to other international customers. Germany,

for example, is in the process of replacing its older Tranche 1 Typhoon hardware with systems from Tranche 2. BAE says the contract for that move is likely to happen by the end of this year. While much of the Project Centurion development is only useful to the United Kingdom, aspects may be carried over to Germany, though discussions remain ongoing. It also remains possible that Germany may purchase additional Typhoons to replace its Tornado fleet, although Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet is also in the running.

The future of training

BAE is not just focusing on hardware but is also working with the RAF to

look at how training can be better delivered. When a customer buys a Typhoon, the jet will spend on average 90% of its time in the air on training sorties. BAE is, therefore, no longer just a platform business but also provides a huge amount of support for training.

Archie Neill, Director of Operational Training at BAE Systems Air, said that an “asymmetric, changing environment” is forcing an evolution in fast jet training. There is increasing concern that the tactics and manoeuvres employed by pilots in the air can be watched by aggressors. It is no longer the case that the Royal Air Force can train in UK airspace carefree without being monitored.

“The tactics we are using now are being observed,” Neill said, adding that the decision “is not just about cost. It’s about security.”

IT IS NO LONGER THE CASE THAT THE ROYAL AIR FORCE CAN TRAIN IN UK AIRSPACE CAREFREE WITHOUT BEING MONITORED

A Typhoon takes off at RAF Coningsby.

Below, from left to right: A mission planner and debrief tool on steroids – Sceptre will support Typhoon operations.

Project Centurion saw Storm Shadow, Brimstone and Meteor added to RAF Typhoon capability – enabling the aircraft to assume the Tornado’s strike mission and boosting its BVR lethality.


“Sceptre will deliver the RAF a very real and tangible information advantage over its adversaries.” said Aiken. “In today’s world, a pilot does not have time to decipher multiple pages of information and this is where Sceptre gives them information in a clear way to allow them to focus on the mission.”

BAE says that it will allow users on the ground to “make better, more informed decisions” to support the flight crew in real time during a mission. While the RAF will initially use it to support Typhoon, it has been designed to be platform agnostic.

BAE is now having to look into the amount of data that comes off an aircraft at the end of a sortie. This is then feeding into the development of Sceptre. BAE describes it as the ‘data problem’: a Typhoon can complete a combat sortie and come back with up to a terabyte of data from its sensors. Meanwhile, some estimates are suggesting that Tempest could come back from a sortie with one billion times more data than that: a zettabyte. While not all of the information will actually be useful, BAE needs to develop a way to work out which bits of the data will be.

On to Tempest

BAE Systems is also focusing on how these upgrades could find themselves implemented on Tempest, the proposed sixth-generation jet under development. Conversely, some of the technologies being looked at by Team Tempest could, in theory, be pulled back onto Typhoon; both teams are working together and ideas will move both ways.

Clive Marrison, the Industrial Requirements Director for Team Tempest, said: “Typhoon

DEFENCEEurofighter Typhoon - the next evolution

By April 2021 there’ll be a 50:50 Live:Synthetic training balance for the Typhoon. BAE’s plan is that the training itself can be done synthetically on the ground, with only the post-training evaluation needing to happen in the air.

The plan will involve three full mission simulators and three operational mission trainers installed at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire. RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland will receive two of each.

Both Coningsby and Lossiemouth will then be linked to a reference system at the BAE facility in Warton to allow training to be monitored and developed centrally. Once fully operational, pilots will do roughly 20 training events each month but only half of these will be in the air.

The UK is leading the way with this type of training, although the US Air Force reportedly have a similar idea in the pipeline. Neill told me that there is actually scope for more synthetic training than the 50:50 balance planned. He said a 25:75 Live: Synthetic balance has been discussed as a theoretical ceiling.

Sceptre

As part of its efforts to improve support for the RAF, BAE Systems is also developing new software. The company has recently been awarded a contract to deliver ‘Sceptre’, a new mission planning software, to the RAF by November 2020. It draws on technology originally used with Wildcat and Merlin helicopters.

Louise Aiken, Head of Mission Planning Programmes at BAE, said that, unlike previous mission planners, Sceptre will be used throughout a mission, from the initial plan, to the execution of the sortie, to the debrief.

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Above: Ongoing capability development for Typhoon will flow into Tempest - and vice versa.


The news that Sweden has joined the sixth-generation programme was welcome and was an important step forward. Despite the initial £2bn investment from the UK, the programme is going to need foreign partners to bring in money, technology, and markets. Italy has become the second nation to join. Following a meeting between the Italian Defence MInister, Elisabetta Trenta and her British counterpart, Ben Wallace, in late August, an initial agreement was signed at DSEI in September.

The end of Typhoon

The continued work on Typhoon is unlikely to garner much attention. Tempest, the Franco-German project and the USAF’s plan to procure fighters in fewer than five years will likely continue to be the focus. Despite this, the development remains crucial, not just for the UK, but for other international partners too.

That said, question marks remain. It is still unclear when the last Typhoon will roll off the production line at Warton. Much will depend on whether future orders can be snapped up – could Germany be the answer? The concern is whether there will be a gap in production between the end of Typhoon and the start of Tempest. Ideally there would be some overlap but if there is not the inevitable risk of redundancies and loss of skills.

We’ll continue getting fragments of information on Tempest’s progress over the coming years but the team may choose to keep their cards close to their chest, particularly given the Franco-German competition. If that is the case, concerns will mount over the prospect of skills fading. In the meantime, Typhoon will remain a world-class aircraft with a significant amount of potential still to be explored.

could benefit from some of the technologies that Tempest is looking at and, by the same token, Tempest could benefit from some of the technologies that Typhoon is investing in.”

Marrison cited the new AESA (active electronically scanned array) Captor-E radar currently being tested for Typhoon as a technology that may be transferred to the development of Tempest. He said it is seen as being a “baseline underpin for the radar and radio frequency sensor work that will potentially feed a next generation combat air system.”

At this year’s RAF Air Power Conference, the RAF expressed interest in being able to stream satellite imagery directly to the cockpit in real time. This is an example of a technology that may be tested on later iterations of Typhoon before being implemented onto Tempest.

Tempest is also likely to have augmented reality (AR) integrated in its cockpit. This is another example of technology that, if possible, BAE will want to trial beforehand with Typhoon.

Over one year on from its launch announcement, BAE remains confident that they can make Tempest a success. As part of its development, it is having to focus on what warfare will look like in 2040 and beyond. While they will not say who’s conducting this research, it is understood that groups from a wide variety of fields are involved in the study.

The current programme of development expires in April 2027. It is unclear what stage needs to have been reached by them but it is likely that a formal proposal will have been made to the MoD and the Treasury. Marrison is conscious that costs will need to stay down, and he says that there are areas that Team Tempest is not exploring because they are deemed to simply be too expensive.

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PLANE SPEAKINGGrazia Vittadini

Autonomous urban air vehicles, women in engineering, quantum technology,supersonic airliners and certification. AEROSPACE catches up withGRAZIA VITTADINI FRAeS, Chief Technology Officer of Airbus.

AEROSPACE: Since you took over as CTO at Airbus – what have been your priorities or focus?

GV: From the human perspective, building a team. We had a group of brilliant individuals who weren’t necessarily thinking about serving the company as a whole, thinking about engineering but also about manufacturing. We must identify, develop, mature and think about the industrialisation of technologies to serve the full scope of what we do at Airbus. This was not necessarily what was happening. We had brilliant technologies but not at the service of the company. This has been quite a challenge. It’s taken a lot of convincing, reshuffling, reorganisation and restructuring.

From a technology viewpoint, it is clear that environmental sustainability must be the common denominator for aviation but also for space as well, where we’re making and sending a constellation of hundreds of satellites into orbit. Today, space is still quite empty – our own Earth observation satellites only do a low number of avoidance manoeuvres every year – but continuing to invest money into monitoring debris is not sustainable. I think we have a duty to the

next generation of leaving not only a better planet, but also a better space around it. We need to start looking actively into cleaning up space. Proximity management at seven kilometres per second is quite a challenge!

AEROSPACE: When you picked up the team, were they doing the right things? Were they looking at, in your view, the right technologies?

GV: To some extent, yes. There was a strong focus on electrification with an ambition to develop engines of increasing size in terms of megawatts, ultimately to deliver a 20 megawatt electrical engine one day. But I don’t believe that is the right target. Again, it’s a matter of emissions and, if you put electrical into the propulsive equation, then you open the door to novel architectures and distribution concepts not necessarily driven by that type of size. So, yes, it’s the right area but it’s not a matter of size.

Quantum technology was not something which was being looked at or applied to how we solve the key questions for the aerospace industry and forever alter how we design, build and fly aircraft in the future.

Finally, artificial intelligence or ‘AI’, maybe

Plane Speaking with: Grazia Vittadini

All images courtesy of Airbus.

15NOVEMBER 2019@aerosociety Find us on LinkedIn Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.comi f

The interesting thing with UAM is that everything we are doing has a high read across to our other products, be it a helicopter or an aircraft.

AEROSPACE: What do you see as the most exciting technology for aerospace?

GV: Quantum. Beyond a shadow of a doubt! Imagine a user case which involves finding ways to travel from London to New York, burning the least fuel, by optimising climb and descent routes. Quantum allows you to optimise your route point by point, taking into account the meteorological conditions at each point in terms of wind, humidity, temperature and, of course, other traffic.

AEROSPACE: We touched on electrification and you are working on the E-Fan X hybrid-electric demonstrator which is set to fly in 2021. What’s the biggest challenge between now and then?

GV: Making it happen. The configuration is frozen. We’ve had, as you know, a change of team players, with Rolls-Royce acquiring Siemens eAircraft in June 2019. The demonstrator aircraft is in Cranfield and the retrofit has started. Operating a two megawatt electrical engine, with a two megawatt battery pack and a 3,000 volt circuit, at altitude, managing the transient and short circuit/arcing protection, is a challenge!

In parallel, it’s also interesting to think about how we would certify such an engine? Where’s the limit? Where is the boundary between an airframe and an engine? Today, we’re used to bolting engines under our wings.

rightly so, because it’s not a technology, more an enabler. But we need to take care on AI because it’s a fashion right now, with a lot of buzz around it and a lot of people doing it but using harvested data sets of poor quality, which are not necessarily the right data sets. So, we need a specific focus on making sure that across the company, we’re looking at AI in a consistent manner, and that we are also relying on the right expertise to guide us through this journey.

AEROSPACE: What do you see as the biggest challenges in making urban aerial mobility possible? Are they primarily technical or social? When do you see the prospect of a revenue-earning UAM network?

GV: There are different perspectives on that very question, and again, it’s a matter of having a roadmap with some ambitious key milestones, which could be in the very near future. Let’s not forget, we are already flying Vahana (single passenger) and we’ve started the flight test campaign of City Airbus (multi-passenger). They are two very different configurations. We are experimenting with different concepts, different configurations and different propulsion principles. We’re looking to mature technologies on the propulsive side, on autonomy, on batteries, on flight controls, as well as on a regulatory framework for certification. For me, however, the biggest question to be answered, is on air traffic management. How do we ensure our future airspace remains as safe tomorrow as it is today? People say that four helicopters over a city is a traffic jam. So, how will it work with 200 flying taxis, some autonomous, some with pilots?

HOW DO WE ENSURE OUR FUTURE AIRSPACE REMAINS AS SAFE TOMORROW AS IT IS TODAY? PEOPLE SAY THAT FOUR HELICOPTERS OVER A CITY IS A TRAFFIC JAM. SO, HOW WILL IT WORK WITH 200 FLYING TAXIS, SOME AUTONOMOUS, SOME WITH PILOTS?

The BAe 146-based E-Fan X hybrid-electric demonstrator is set to fly in 2021.

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PLANE SPEAKINGGrazia Vittadini

AEROSPACE: Thinking of certification, post-737 MAX, do you see a step change coming, particularly regarding how the FAA and EASA will work with OEMs and certification in the future? Has there been a sort of breakdown in trust?

GV: What we learn from the past is that every accident is a tragedy for the entire industry out of which we learn. I would definitely hope that we get out of this stronger as an industry and that also includes the interface and the interaction between the two main certification bodies.

AEROSPACE: Should we worry that they will become perhaps over-prescriptive – especially with new entrants and novel technology?

GV: The industry agrees that the non-negotiable priority is safety. Safety comes first, always. So we need to demonstrate that whatever new technologies we’re introducing are safe. And we need to do so in a transparent manner using a step-by-step

approach. That’s the baseline. Which means reaching out to authorities in the very early stages of a new technology and to start asking the important questions.

AEROSPACE: Across the Atlantic in the US there is renewed interest in supersonic passenger flight – what is the Airbus (co-developer of Concorde) view on SSTs?

GV: Who was the last company to build a supersonic airliner? We have the experience, we have the skills in our military business, on Tornado, Eurofighter and applying it to FCAS in the future. But do we want to do supersonic? How consistent is this with a commitment to cap carbon growth by 2020 and to cut it by 75% by 2050? How consistent is it with reducing noise by 65%? Is that compatible? I don’t think so. We have to be consistent. And we’re serious about our commitments. We’ve put our name on those commitments. And supersonic, amazing technology that it is, doesn’t fit into those commitments.

AEROSPACE: In the past, a chief engineer/CTO of an aircraft manufacturer might have well just been concerned with competitors and progress in aero-engines, aerodynamics etc. With technology that impacts aerospace now including things like AI, quantum computing, software, biomechanics etc, can you give a sense of the breadth of what promising tech you are keeping an eye on? Does a CTO today have to be far more multidisciplinary?

GV: We see that there’s more and more crossover between disciplines, as well as with technologies


Above: Grazia Vittadini briefs the press on E Fan-X progress at this year’s Paris Air Show.

Below: The Airbus Vahana is an electric-powered eight-propeller vertical take-off and landing aircraft prototype.

21NOVEMBER 2019

which are not traditionally aerospace technologies. Which means that we certainly need to think more broadly. Someone may not be an expert in machine learning, or in autonomous systems or in 5G applications but they need to understand it. They need to have the versatility to understand these other disciplines and see how they read across to their own products.

It’s an interesting discussion which I’m having also with several universities. They’re asking me questions like, ‘do we need to steer away from aeroelasticity and invest in X?’ The answer is ‘no’. It’s a matter, again, of getting the best skills and competencies in fields which may be adjacent to ours, while not forgetting that in the end, it needs to fly. It needs to be certified. So, it’s about having that reflection jointly with the authorities, with other key players in the industry on what type of questions will we need to answer, and making sure that we can embed this thinking into our platforms with no compromise on safety.

AEROSPACE: In the UK, we have seen Airbus reveal the ‘Bird of Prey’ concept as a vision of future flight to highlight the importance of high value design (HVD). Is this just a British problem? Are we different from other European nations in our understanding of how to make engineering sustainable?

GV: I don’t see it as a British problem. Instead, I see some reluctance in embracing this type of approach at an industry level, rather than at a national level. The automotive sector is much better at it. You will rarely drive a concept car or rarely see them on the road. But they do visualise an idea. They help bring a trend, an ambition, or an aspiration to life. In aerospace, because of the high costs, because of the need to certify it and say how the design is going to fly, we are less ambitious. As an industry, we should not exclude the capability of expressing our aspirations through a concept, which doesn’t need to exist today.

Designing products which aren’t viable, or

feasible and for which you don’t have a roadmap, should not be seen as an alternative. It’s fully complementary, and we should harness it much more. Good design and the ability to visualise trends helps us to harness successful future products.

AEROSPACE: Many young girls might see you, as a female CTO at a giant aerospace group like Airbus, as an inspiring role model. What steps do you have to take in Airbus to encourage female engineers to join the company?

GV: There are many different parameters in that equation, and it goes from spending time in kindergartens and preschools doing paper aeroplane seminars, speaking at universities, and just showing that we can work in a different way. Without necessarily focusing exclusively on gender or diversity but on diversity as a whole. Across the industry, there is a sort of cookie-cutter type of profile when it comes to what talent should look like. But talent is talent. It doesn’t matter what it looks like and where it comes from. So, it’s a matter of demonstrating that we are open to talent outside of the cookie cutters.

Diversity is an important topic on the agenda of industry CTO roundtables. We are improving. We now have around 20% of females in technical roles which is similar to the university output. If we would just look at that, it would be enough to say, well, the situation is improving and the trend is positive. The problem is the speed. It’s the pitch of the curve. And when it comes to leadership positions, we see that the pipeline is leaky, especially when career and family priorities occur at the same time. It’s difficult to combine the two, and I feel we must do more to make sure that we enable setting up a family, having children, and continuing to have a career.

Coding is an interesting example. The first coders were all women and then something happened around 1980 to turn coding into an almost exclusively male discipline. We shouldn’t be limited by stereotypes. We can do much more.

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Above: The Airbus CityAirbus eVTOL aircraft.

Below: Airbus hosts a reception for the International Aviation Women’s Association (IAWA) at the Airbus Pavilion at this year’s Paris airshow.

presentation. Pilot licences, he predicted, will become electronic, also hosting training and career records. Creamer predicts that the assurance of identity and the trustworthiness of the records should be enhanced by keeping the records digitally but, at the same time, the ‘foundational model’ must guarantee security, protect against cyber threats, and meet standards on privacy. All certification should become digital, he said, because certification status will become easier to authenticate and update.

Competency-based training

At the IFCTC, delegates generally agreed – with a hint of reluctance from a few – that the application of competency-based training and assessment (CBTA) is the way of the future. Considering that this year’s IFCTC theme was: ‘Completing the transformation,’ the implication is that all the industry has to do now is execute the decision. That would be neat if it were true.


AIR TRANSPORTFlight Crew Training Conference report

Agreeing how to modernise airline pilot training has been a long and laborious business but now it seems there is a broad consensus on what is to be done. In some regions, delivery of the

new training philosophy has already started but there will inevitably be geographical variations.

Meanwhile, a significant first step towards enabling greater global harmonisation of flight crew training practices recently took place at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London. The RAeS organised a symposium for approved training organisations (ATO) on 17 September just ahead of the Society’s International Flight Crew Training Conference (IFCTC). At the symposium a resolution was passed to form an international trade body to represent ATOs (for details see panel on page 25).

Another imminent harmonising influence for training and flight crew licensing was predicted by the Director of the International Civil Aviation Organization’s Air Navigation Bureau, Stephen Creamer, who delivered the IFCTC keynote

DAVID LEARMOUNT provides an update on efforts to modernise globalairline pilot training and reports from the RAeS International Flight Crew Training Conference 2019.

Boeing

Delivering tomorrow’s pilot training


Theories of two camps

Anyone who doubts that this represents progress should take a journey back in time to the IFCTC launch in 2006. Two camps were evident there at the time: those who recognised a need for change but were looking for consensus on where and how to start; and a powerful contingent of pilots who believed that, if the existing system had been good enough for them, it was good enough for a younger generation.

Even this year at the IFCTC there were suggestions that CBTA would inevitably contain flaws because it has been framed by ‘a community of mostly white males between 50 and death’ – a description that produced some mirth but which kept recurring through discussions! Nevertheless there was silence when the delegates were asked to ponder whether there was an alternative to CBTA as a training philosophy.

Capt Clive Richardson, who manages flight training and standards at the UK CAA, explains that CBTA is a training philosophy, a set of guidelines, definitely not a set of regulations. This may be where the uncertainty lies among those who are, perhaps, covertly hoping for a tablet of stone prescribing future training methodology. Another way of putting it, according to delegates, is that CBTA outlines a change in training culture, a change of mindset about how it is delivered. Above all, as Richardson and others emphasise, it is about a change in the way instructors think about their training task. One of the most important questions that requires an answers is: who trains the instructors to operate CBTA? Will those who train the trainers inevitably be ‘white males between 50 and death’, and is that a weakness?

Two themes kept resurfacing throughout the conference: the first was that pilot training – not just checking and examining – is a lifelong process made essential by the rapid progress

of technology; and the second is that training delivery at all levels – ab-initio, type rating and recurrent – should be more individually tailored to be effective. A properly implemented EBT programme enables skill and knowledge deficits to be identified and instructors working within a CBTA culture will target the necessary training. This system can identify problems early, preventing the need for expensive remedial catch-up training later. There will, according to several presenters, be an increased emphasis on instructors developing a ‘facilitator’ style, whether in the classroom, flight simulator, or flightdeck. Definitely, according to Capt Harry Nelson of CL Max Consulting, in recurrent training the ratio of training to checking must go up to at least 50/50, but preferably 75/25.

It has taken delegates to the IFCTC 14 years to get to this point. The concepts and details associated with CBTA have been discussed since early in the series of meetings, so they are pretty familiar. Yet it is clear that many who will be tasked with making CBTA work in the real world still struggle to define it.

The latter seems true despite the fact that the principles have been approved by ICAO. Indeed ICAO began developing CBTA in the process of defining the training for the Multi-Crew Pilot Licence (MPL), and has been refining it since then. Now CBTA has been incorporated into the standards for personnel licensing (Annex 1). ICAO says this process should be complete by the end of 2020 and predicts it will bring to an end the hours-based training philosophy, while continuing to acknowledge that experience as represented by hours in a log book has its relevance.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), meanwhile, has set out a programme for CBTA adoption by 2022 – at airlines and ATOs alike. This is an ambitious target and some aspects of the programme may still be a work in progress when 2022 arrives.

Training philosophy evolution

The US FAA, however, is set on achieving parallel results through training philosophy evolution, using its recurrent training Advanced Qualification Programme (AQP) that began back in 1990. The AQP is an evidence-based training (EBT) system for recurrent training that identifies training needs through multiple inputs, including flight data monitoring (FDM), which reveal individual pilot needs but also the effects on pilot performance of changing demands on all flight crew resulting from advancing flight deck technologies. The AQP concept, under various names, is widely used to determine recurrent training practices across most of the world’s major aviation economies, including the EU. Indeed, EASA labels EBT ‘a global safety initiative whose objective is to determine the relevance of existing training according to aircraft generation.’ The FAA, however, is not rushing to extend CBTA culture to ab-initio training because, by law, US pilot licensing is still an hours-based system.

Just as the CBTA philosophy aims to move commercial pilot training away from a formulaic series of pass/fail training tests based on skills needed to fly pre-1980s aircraft, so does AQP. Both are driven by operational evidence indicating where training is actually needed, and the fact that it is essential to provide pilots with the additional skills and knowledge required for operating the current generation of aircraft safely in the more crowded skies they inhabit today.

WHO TRAINS THE INSTRUCTORS TO OPERATE CBTA? WILL THOSE WHO TRAIN THE TRAINERS INEVITABLY BE ‘WHITE MALES BETWEEN 50 AND DEATH’, AND IS THAT A WEAKNESS?

International Flight Crew Training Conference

xx AEROSPACE / NOVEMBER 2019

The European Cockpit Association (ECA), perusing EASA’s Notice of Proposed Amendment 2018-07 on EBT, emphasised the importance of EBT programmes being not only tailored to individuals but also ‘closely linked to the respective operator’s environment, and not generic.’ The ECA noted that the availability of data on flight operations and training activity has ‘improved substantially’ over the past years, and it therefore supports the implementation of EBT as ‘a logical step to update the current training practices in the light of evidence from these data sources.’ It adds: ‘It is, however, of utmost importance that data collection and the protection of data are at an adequate level and only de-individualised data is being used for training purposes.’

Apart from ATOs, airline training departments and instructors preparing for the brave new CBTA world, regulators obviously need to be prepared. Speaking at the IFCTC, ICAO’s Chief Operational Safety Officer at the Air Navigation Bureau, Capt Miguel Marin, said the organisation is working on implementation guidance for regulators. Putting a new training philosophy into place is an intimidating task without guideline, as evidenced by the fact that the delegates to the conference could not actually define CBTA when challenged to do so.

Common standards

Perhaps the broadest challenge for the training world is for the national aviation authorities (NAA) not only to adopt the principle of CBTA but then to agree common standards and to police them at ATO and airline level. NAAs in most parts of the world have insufficient resources and expertise to carry out their tasks as they would wish – and this includes some EU states – so a task such as ushering in a new training philosophy is likely to be unwelcome.

Apart from overseeing this huge cultural change, practical problems and new training policy decisions – like those raised by technical advances in training tools and the need to update existing systems – still have to be tackled or implemented. Flight simulation training devices (FSTD) of all levels are becoming cheaper and more capable, yet the industry has

AIR TRANSPORTFlight Crew Training Conference report

been arguing for ages that too little training credit is given for training in FSTDs, preventing them from being used to maximum advantage. Marin assured the conference that ICAO is working to clarify and extend credits for FSTD training. This will be welcome.

Other training modernisation objectives being worked on but not yet realised include the provision of simulation capable of offering effective upset recovery training (UPRT). This is finally being made a required component of airline pilot training in the light of statistics showing loss of control in flight to be the biggest killer accident category. EASA has set terms of reference for the FSTD manufacturers to be met by the end of this year for approval but they are struggling to meet the deadline for upgrades to the UPRT standard.

Licensed and unfit for flight decks

There is another perennial training problem that CBTA alone will not address. The training system as it is today delivers fully licensed commercial pilots at least half of whom are assessed by airlines as unfit for their flight decks. This 50% failure rate for licensed pilots is a figure that Ryanair’s recently retired Head of Training, Capt Andy O’Shea, has been lamenting for years. In Europe there are estimated to be 7,000 pilots with commercial licences but unemployable by commercial airlines.

This horror story should be sufficient to motivate all wannabe pilots to take full aptitude testing – or ATOs to insist on it – before investing more than €100K in a useless certificate but there are still many self-selectors who persist in ploughing through their courses, despite indications that they are struggling and ATOs that continue to take their money.

Nikki Heath, head of Orbit Performance, a specialist in flight crew selection and performance testing, told the conference that ‘selection focus’ may need to be modified as the job changes and, as new generations of young people with different learning experiences present themselves as candidates. “Soft skills are more important for modern piloting,” emphasised Heath.

IN EUROPE THERE ARE ESTIMATED TO BE 7,000 PILOTS WITH COMMERCIAL LICENCES BUT UNEMPLOYABLE BY COMMERCIAL AIRLINES

25NOVEMBER 2019

Soft skills are the personality- and behaviour-based traits that good selection should also identify. She warned against selection just to pass training while ignoring the candidate’s suitability for his or her ultimate role, which is to command an airliner. Heath suggested assessors should discover “who your candidate is, not just what he or she is”. However, the system is not perfect, she warns: “The industry wants pilots, and assessors want to provide them.” Caveat emptor remains the catchphrase.

Heath revealed that pilots who complete their commercial pilot licence course, having passed an APC MCC (Advanced Pilot Certificate Multi-Crew Pilot Course) over and above the requirements for a CPL/ATPL raise their chances of being employable from 50% to 70%. The APC is a qualification developed and approved by the EASA Air Training Policy Group, of which O’Shea is a leading member. It is designed to turn pilots with a ‘frozen’ ATPL into airline-ready co-pilots but EASA says that it does not intend to make it compulsory.

Outcome-based training

Capt Tanja Harter, a senior Lufthansa Airbus A320 pilot and Technical Affairs Director at the ECA, says that the ECA embraces CBTA, which it calls “outcome-based training”. Like O’Shea and Heath, she emphasises the need to recognise the soft skills in candidates, pointing out that these show up in attitudes like professionalism, operational behaviour and resilience. She also recommends a suite of other training tools beyond those normally offered by an ATO that can help generate the characteristics airlines seek in pilots. These include participation in general aviation via flying or gliding clubs; internship; training involving gamification and virtual reality; and old favourites like participation in sport.

CBTA may indeed define the training industry culture of the future but it is not a magic wand. Many of the personal characteristics that airlines or the military have traditionally sought in candidates will still be needed.

International Symposium of Approved Training Organisations – Report September’s AEROSPACE included an article headed ‘Global Voice for ATOs’ setting out the background to an International Symposium of Approved Training Organisations at the Society’s Headquarters on 17 September 2019. ATO is the term used by ICAO to embrace learning centres approved by civil aviation authorities. The Symposium was successful and was attended by a good cross-section of delegates from a range of ATOs. It concluded with the following statement of intent: Delegates at the Royal Aeronautical Society International Symposium of Approved Training Organisations, held on Tuesday 17 September 2019 at the Royal Aeronautical Society Headquarters in London, agreed to continue to work to form an international body to represent the global community of Aviation Training Organisations. This noteworthy outcome is a significant step towards the creation of an autonomous, independent organisation to represent ATOs internationally. Such an organisation could create an environment for ATOs to work collaboratively on safety concerns; share best practice; improve international harmonisation and standardisation; and liaise with other industry stakeholders. It could also help deal with the complex issues that arise when pilots, air carriers, OEMs and ATOs come from different regions and operate under different jurisdictions. Much remains to be done, notably on a governance structure, a constitution, aims and objectives, terms of reference and finance. While Symposium delegates agreed that the organisation should ultimately represent all ATOs, they also agreed that the organisation should be limited initially to ATOs for air transport pilots. The implementation work will be led by a group co-chaired by Philip Adrian and Peter Barrett under the auspices of the Society’s Flight Crew Training Working Group (FTG). A timetable, with milestones, is being developed and the group will maintain good two-way communications with symposium delegates and issue regular updates. Contact: [email protected] to be added to the group’s mailing list.

Peter Barrett FRAeS

RAeS Approved Training Organisations symposium attendees.

Flight Training Conference – The Aircraft Commander in the 21st Century17-18 March 2020 – RAeS HQ London

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Technology, autonomy and the environment

The reason for the sudden rise in interest in UAM and air taxis has come about from a variety of factors – the first of which is technology. In recent years, there have been breakthroughs in new materials and manufacturing techniques (such as lightweight composites and 3D printing), powerplant technology (with the development of more powerful electric engines and advances in battery and fuel cell technology) and the development of autonomous and AI systems.

Exciting visions

Even since the 1920s, popular science pundits have predicted a future in which everyone travels about in


AEROSPACEUrban Air Mobility

Air taxis are coming! This year, over 200 companies are working on designs for electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) platforms designed for passenger transport.

By 2035, it is predicted that up to 6,000 flying air vehicles could be providing passenger transport services in 90 cities around the world, completely transforming the urban environment. But how will this transport revolution be achieved and what needs to be done to make this vision a reality? On 2-3 September, the organisers of the Farnborough Air Show, Farnborough International, held the first Global Urban Air Summit (GUAS2019) to focus on the challenges that lie ahead for urban air mobility (UAM) systems before they can become an integral part of a city transport infrastructure.

The introduction of electric-powered air taxis as an alternative form of urbanair transport will require major changes in regulations, air traffic control and infrastructure. In Part 1 of a two-part overview, BILL READ FRAeS reports from Farnborough on the first Global Urban Air Summit (GUAS 2019) whichlooked at the challenges facing developers of eVTOL flying vehicles.

Airbus

Creating a new world


carrying flying vehicles over cities can be conducted safety. In the past, regulators had sometimes been accused of being ‘behind the curve’ when it come to dealing with new technology but, in the case of UAM, the regulators are well aware of the situation and the work that needs to be done.

“We’re trying to be ready,” said Tim Johnson, Policy Director from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). “We want to have type certificates for UAM platforms used for different missions, for cargo and for both piloted and autonomous operation. “We’re being asked to bring systems to the same safety levels as road transport But we want it to be as safe as air transport.”

One problem faced by the regulators is a lack of information. “Because UAM is still evolving, we haven’t yet got any safety data,” said Jay Merkle, Executive Director, Office of Unmanned Aircraft Systems at the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). “The closest statistics we’ve got at the moment is for sports aircraft. We look at UAM missions and risks and apply

those risks to that area of spectrum. The platform innovators think that they are on lower end of the safety spectrum and we think that they are on the higher”.

At present, there still seems to be a lack of communication between eVTOL designers and regulators. Jay Merkle from the FAA said that there was a problem with UAM developers and regulators having to second-guess each other. “People with ideas need to realise the safety implications,” he said. “Many of the UAM manufacturers are focused on their flying platforms but we have to look at the bigger picture of how to integrate UAM into wider airspace,” added Tim Johnson. “There are lots of new players out there and we don’t know quite how to interact yet.”

Meanwhile, the designers are also finding problems with dealing with the regulators. “Presently we’ve got a patchwork but we need an integrated

flying cars. However, it is only in more recent years that the technology has become available to actually make this vision possible. The past few years have seen a sudden explosion of interest in small flying platforms with more and more companies, both large and small, announcing new projects illustrated with eye-catching futuristic concept art of swarms of eVTOLs flying over inner cities.

Challenges

However, for the introduction of UAMs to become a reality, there are still many challenges to be faced. Guillaume Thibault, from Oliver Whyman identified four:

1. Reliability, testing and certification – eVTOLs must prove that they are safe to carry passengers;

2. Energy performance – more development work is needed on battery technology to double their current energy density;

3. Airspace management – an air traffic management system is needed for eVTOLs operating in lower airspace over cities;

4. Infrastructure development – a network of vertiports is needed for eVTOLs to operate within which is linked to the city’s current transport infrastructure

Safety, regulation and standards

Looking first at safety, if UAMs are to be used for transporting people, then they will have to meet the safety standards and approvals as are required for other forms of air transport.

A key player in the development and introduction of UAM systems will be that of the regulator who will need to be assured that the operation of hundreds of autonomous passenger-

Opposite page top: Airbus’ CityAirbus as imagined over New York.

Above: A panel of experts from the first Global Urban Air Summit in Farnborough.

Above right: Hopes of personal flight have long since been a source of fascination throughout the history of popular culture.

Global Urban Air Summit 2019


regulatory approach,” said Mildred Troegele, Director, Global Airspace Integration, Boeing. “Safety is not just in design but is also part of infrastructure and maintenance. This can be a challenge for regulators who are often focused just on design.”

Speakers also agreed that manufacturers and regulators needed to get together to sort out standards. “We can’t have different systems – industry needs to come to a consensus,” stated Jay Merkle. “We need to work on collaboration on standards. International standards are fundamental but are presently still fragmented.”

Airspace and autonomy

However, the development of urban air mobility systems is not just a matter of safety approval for the new eVTOL designs but also a consideration of the environment in which they will have to operate. While the original concept of a flying car envisioned people being able to fly from anywhere to anywhere, this is not a practical model for hundreds of eVTOLs flying over populated areas. “There are too many constraints on urban airspace,” said Jay Merkle. “You can’t have point-to-point transport because of conflicting arrival and departure points.”

Filip Verhaeghe, CEO, (UN)MANNED, explained how UAMs will be operating in a different flight environment from previous flying platforms. Instead of flying on long-distance routes with large separation

AEROSPACEUrban Air Mobility

distances at high altitudes. UAMs will have to fly short routes at low altitude with a much larger concentration of traffic, including helicopters, drones and other UAMs. Adverse weather and winds could have a much more significant effect on flight safety and operations.

Initial plans for the first eVTOL air taxi flights are that they will fly along dedicated air corridors separate from other traffic so that they cannot conflict with other lower airspace users. However, the conference speakers were not convinced that this was a viable long-term solution. “Perhaps we should start with segregated air corridors but that’s not the endpoint,” said Jay Merkle. “If you segregate eVTOLs they’re never going to reach their full potential. We need to look for integrated solutions which will allow eVTOLs to operate will all other air space users.”

A second issue is how will the new eVTOLs be controlled? Many experts believe that, in order for UAMs to be granted flight certification for carrying passengers, the first eVTOL flights will have to be piloted. Having a pilot would also help build public confidence in the safety and reliability of the UAM concept.

However, piloted eVTOLs would not be a practical long-term solution, as more and more flying vehicles take to the skies. “UAMs will have up to 10,000 vehicles but we haven’t got 10,000 pilots,” pointed out Filip Verhaeghe, CEO of (UN)MANNED.

The solution is to have vehicles that can fly themselves without pilots. “Doing without pilots will save 30-40%,” said Guillaume Thibault. “Yes, we need autonomy,” agreed Bob Pearce, Deputy Assistant Administrator of NASA. “We can’t have 100s of small aircraft flying in the same space without the help of artificial intelligence (AI).”

However, before autonomous air vehicles can be introduced, there needs to be confidence in their reliability and safety – both real and perceived. “If humans experience problems during flights, they can fix them,” said Bob Pearce. “That’s a harder problem for AI.”

In addition to passengers, regulators will also need to be convinced that autonomous flying vehicles are safe. “The traditional roles of pilot and air traffic control that we are used to with conventional air transport are not there when the pilot’s role is taken on by a machine,” remarked Tim Johnson from the CAA. “Regulators are used to having a human that they can hold accountable,” agreed Jay Merkle from the FAA. “How can that work with an autonomous system?”

Airspace E

xperience Technologies

The MOBI – One eVTOL passenger and cargo aircraft concept from ASX – Airspace Experience Technologies.

Below: Embraer’s eVTOL design.

What’s in a name?Because the concept of urban air mobility (UAM) is so new, the words used to describe it are still being created.

UAM is currently being used as an acronym both for the flying vehicles themselves and the system they will operate in.

UAMs – the flying vehicles – are also referred to as eVTOLs, flying taxis and aerial vehicles. Other suggestions for more ‘public-friendly’ definitions are electric helicopters or passenger drones.

UAM – the hologistic whole encompassing all the different systems, agencies and stakeholders – is also being termed the ecosystem or the environment.

The bases that UAMs will operate from also have a variety of names, including skyports (which is also being used as a tradename), vertiports or urban air ports.

Em

braer

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Gaining public acceptance

However, of all the challenges facing the development of UAM systems, nearly all the speakers agreed that the greatest was that of social acceptance – both from the people using the service and those living underneath the flightpaths.

As already highlighted above, users will need to be convinced that flying in an autonomous vehicle is safe. More important, however, will be the views of those on the ground. For UAM services to succeed, the general public need to be convinced that eVTOLs flying over cities is a good thing, rather than just a luxury form of transport for the rich and famous.

Current public opinion is likely to be influenced by experience with drones which have had both a good and bad press. Noise (and even the perception of noise) could also be a factor. Richard Matthews from Arup gave the example of how the full potential of Concorde was never fully utilised because of objections related to noise. “For every supporter, you’ll have 100 protestors,” he said.

However, public acceptance may change over time. “The younger generation are more accepting of new technology and keener on flight sharing,” said Harini Kulatunga, VP, Head of Solutions, Unmanned Aerial Mobility at Airbus.

Don’t forget the environment

Many speakers also believed that another important factor would be that of the environment. Increased concern about global warming has already led to public criticism of conventional air transport. Will eVTOLs be welcomed by environmentalists because they do not emit polluting gases or will they be condemned because they are considered as noisy or because their operation creates other external environmental problems – such as where does the power to charge the batteries come from or the source of the rare metals that were used to create the batteries?

Vertiports and other infrastructure

While there has been plenty of activity in the development of flying vehicles, there has been rather less focus on where they will actually operate to. One company that is actively looking at the practical issues of where UAMs could take off and land is Skyports. “Currently, manufacturers are focused on getting vehicles developed,” explained Skyports’ MD, Duncan Walker. “Air taxis will operate between vertiports which will need to be in place before the vehicles themselves. However, building the infrastructure has a long lead time. Uber may have a 2023 timescale for commencing air taxi services but the infrastructure may not be there.”

Skyports is already on the case. In partnership with EVTOL manufacturer Volocopter, the company is currently constructing the world’s first vertiport in Singapore to open for flight trials in October with a view to begin the first air taxi services in 2022. There are also plans for other vertiports. “We’re out there working on it now,” said Duncan Walker. “We’re finding locations and talking to manufacturers and landowners”

Towards the total UAM ecosystemHowever, airspace and infrastructure are only part of a bigger picture. The introduction of UAMs will have wider implications for a whole range of different organisations, manufacturers and service providers. “We can’t work in isolation,” said Gary Cutts, Interim Challenge Director, Innovate UK. “You can’t slot these vehicles into an existing system because they will change the system. To cope with the volume of vehicles, you have to look at the systems as a whole. Existing air traffic management systems are incredibly safe but it did take time to get there. The new air system will have to be just as safe.”

Duncan Walker from Skyports added how decisions would have to be made on who would be responsible for air traffic management, what types of eVTOLs could be operated, passenger-handling facilities, passenger and baggage security, eVTOL maintenance and repair, landing and take-off procedures and prices for different services such as parking and hangarage. To these factors, Mildred Troegeler from Boeing added data sensors, flight operations, after market support and autonomy.

Another organisation that is already looking at UAM operations in its wider context is NASA. Davis Hackenberg, Advanced Air Mobility Project Manager at NASA explained how the agency had devised a UAM Vision and Framework which was looking at all aspects of urban air mobility, encompassing vehicle, airspace systems and community. “It is an exciting time to be in the industry,” concluded Gary Cutts, Interim Challenge Director, Innovate UK.

Volocopter

Part 2 of this report will look at how UAM systems are predicted to develop over the next few years, how the system would work for passengers and the economics of how operators would make the service financially viable.

eVTOL Conference – RAeS UAM Conference 2020 24-25 March 2020 – RAeS HQ London

Volocopter and Skyports are to open the world’s first eVTOL airport in Singapore in October.

Global Urban Air Summit 2019

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More orders for the MC-21

Demand for the MC-21 is steadily growing and was boosted by a number of new contracts signed during the show. The largest contract was for 20 aircraft from the Kazakh Bek Air airline. Firm orders for the MC-21 now stand at 175 aircraft with first deliveries scheduled to begin in the second half of 2021. It is claimed that the new aircraft will be 20% cheaper than the equivalent models from Boeing and Airbus. The MC-21 will be offered with the alternative of either US-made powerplants or Russian PD-14 engines. The PD-14s are the first turbofan engines for civil aviation which have been completely developed in Russia since 1992.

MiG-35 export model

An export model of the MiG-35 fourth-generation fighter was officially presented by the Russian MiG


AEROSPACEMAKS 2019 airshow report

The 14th Moscow International Aviation and Space Show (MAKS) was held in the Zhukovsky International Airport on 28 August – 1 September. This year’s show saw record numbers of

visitors and participants. According to data from the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, there were over 600,000 visitors, including Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, who attended the opening ceremony.

This year’s MAKS featured over 800 companies from 33 countries across 50,000m² of exhibition space. Among the 200+ products on show were examples of civil and combat aircraft, helicopters and UAVs. A central focus of the show was the official presentation of the newly-developed Irkut MC-21 single-aisle twinjet airliner while the biggest interest on the military side was on Russia’s new Sukhoi Su-57 fifth-generation fighter.

New fighter and civil aircraft designs, supersonic research and hydrogen-powered aircraft. EUGENE GERDEN reports from the 2019 Moscow International Aviation and Space Show (MAKS).

Moscow to the MAKS!

Corporation during the MAKS Show. According to the company, the new fighter will feature a new geometry airframe such as revised vertical tails, as well as an updated airborne radar system. The upgraded aircraft is also equipped with optical-electronic reconnaissance systems, as well as an EO/IR system for searching, tracking and viewing of both air and ground targets. Specially developed for the export version of the MiG-35 is a modular avionics system that significantly expands its combat potential, making it possible to install both Russian and foreign weapons on it.

According to Ilya Tarasenko, General Director of MiG Corporation, the new MiG is also equipped with a special radar fitted with a smart antenna, which can conduct locking and tracking of up to 30 air targets at once.

Focus on the Su-57

One of the highlights of this year’s show was the public premiere of the new Sukhoi Su-57 fighter. Although the new aircraft is being proclaimed by the majority of local analysts as a fifth-generation fighter, it does not fully comply with this status, mainly due to its radar visibility and installed engines. A date for the commencement of serial production and deliveries to the Russian Air Force has not currently been disclosed. Some Russian analysts consider the Su-57 as a pre-production fighter, and do not expect major deliveries to the Russian Air Force to start before 2027/28.

However, this view is contrary to those of some higher command representatives of the Russian Air Force, who expect the first deliveries in the coming years.

New civil supersonic technology R&D centre

A new R&D centre focusing on supersonic technologies for commercial aviation will be established at the Zhukovsky Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI), a Russian leading aircraft design bureau, according to recent statements from the organisation. Kirill Sypalo, Head of TsAGI, said the centre will focus on the design of next-generation supersonic equipment and technologies that will be used during the development of Russian supersonic civil aircraft. He also added that work on such aircraft is currently underway and involves the participation of a number of Russian leading design bureaus in the field of aviation. During their research, TsAGI scientists plan to address some major challenges currently preventing the use of supersonic technologies in commercial aviation, such as high sound impact and noise, low efficiency of propulsion systems and the inability to ensure thermal strength of aircraft travelling at supersonic speeds.

Kirill Sypalo commented: “Increasing the flight speed of commercial passenger aircraft by 2 to 2.5 times by the use of supersonic technologies, is a super-ambitious task for us that requires the consolidation of both design and research efforts at the new centre.”

Russia and China expand military co-operation

Russia and China have significantly expanded co-operation in the field of military aviation in recent years and are ready to implement new joint projects in this field, according to recent statements made by representatives of leading Russian aircraft enterprises


The 14th Moscow International Aviation and Show static display, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan inspect the Su-57 fighter, Russian helicopters, aerobatics display, the crowds appeared to enjoy the displays, the new Irkut MC-21, and the Sukhoi Su-57 fighter. (All images MAKS).


Ivchenko says: “The current classical approach used to design wings for civil aircraft significantly limits their aerodynamic properties, as well as the take-off and landing performance of the aircraft itself. However, the use of adaptive wings may change the current situation, due to their ability of change geometry without affecting surface integrity.” It is planned initially to test the new adaptive wing on some Russian UAVs and then later on manned aircraft.

Hydrogen-power

Another aircraft design on show was Russia’s first environmentally friendly and almost silent manned aircraft powered by hydrogen. The two-seater Sigma-4 has a 9.8m wingspan and a length of 6.2m. The aircraft has a take-off weight of 600kg and a flight range of up to 300km. The Sigma-4 was jointly developed by scientists from the Russian Institute of Problems of Chemical Physics and engineers of the Baranov Central Institute of Aviation Motors. The aircraft’s distinguishing feature is a power cell which converts the energy from the reaction of hydrogen with oxygen into electricity. According to the engineers, the hydrogen in the engine is not burned but has an electrochemical reaction with oxygen, ensuring electricity supply to the propellers. The aircraft is 100% environmentally friendly, as it does not discharge carbon exhaust gases into the atmosphere. The energy efficiency of a hydrogen plant is 2.8 times higher than burning kerosene. The hydrogen fuel cells used in the aircraft could also be applicable to other means of transport, such as ships, all-terrain and mass transit vehicles, as well as household appliances, including gadgets.

The designers of the Sigma-4 have said that the new aircraft will be ideal for the needs of agriculture, as

AEROSPACEMAKS 2019 airshow report

and senior state officials during MAKS 2019. The Russian Minister of Industry and Trade, Denis Manturov, commented that: “In addition to CR-929 aircraft – the most ambitious joint project of Russia and China for the past several years – the list of joint projects under development includes the AHL heavy civil helicopter, as well as a heavy amphibious aircraft”. Manturov added that Russia also plans to increase supplies of its engines over the next years for the needs of Chinese military aviation.

Modernised Mi-24P combat helicopter

Russian state and defence corporation Rostec presented a new modernised version of its Mi-24P-1M transport and combat helicopter, based on an upgraded version of the iconic Mi-24. The new helicopter has been equipped with an updated set of avionics and a modern unified sighting and navigation system. In addition, it also features a modern optoelectronic system, a fully-fledged autopilot and an onboard defence system. The weight of the new helicopter was reduced by 430kg while simultaneously raising its combat survivability. It is planned that deliveries of the new Mi-24P-1M for the Russian Air Force will begin soon.

Adaptive wing of the future

An adaptive wing of the future, an innovative wing specially designed for civil aircraft, was revealed during MAKS 2019 by its developers from the Russian aircraft design bureau TMPK-Volgograd Association. According to Aleksey Ivchenko, TMPK’s Chief Engineer, the new adaptive wing has no retractable parts, which allows it to change configuration during the flight, depending on the flight path. Aleksey

From left to right: Tu-160 Bomber, Mi-28, export version of the MiG-35 fourth generation fighter, Sukhoi Su-57 and the whole of the Moon, flyboarder, Sukhois in flight, experimental Russian forward swept-wing fighter Su-47.

Hydrogen-powered Sigma-4.


Russian superheavy rockets. According to an official spokesman from NPO Energomash, the RD-171MV is the world’s most powerful liquid rocket engine, which will be installed on the Soyuz-5 medium-class rocket and the Yenisei superheavy rocket designed for lunar missions.

Other engines from the company include the RD-191 for Angara launch vehicles, as well as the RD-180 and RD-181 engines for the US Atlas and Antares boosters.

Reverse swept-wing fighter

Leading Russian aircraft engineering company, Sukhoi Corporation, gave a presentation on its Su-47 fighter prototype. The presentation attracted interest from both Russian and foreign media, mainly due to some unique features of the aircraft. One of these is reverse sweep wings, which improve handling at low speeds and positively affects its takeoff and landing performance. The design also enables the aircraft to have reduced radar cross section in the front hemisphere and higher aerodynamic efficiency.

Indigenous tanker

The Ilyushin Design Bureau, a former Soviet and now Russian aircraft manufacturer and design bureau, revealed details of its IL-78M-90A tanker. The new aircraft is based on the Il-76MD-90A military transport aircraft and, according to an Ilyushin spokesman, is the first tanker aircraft to be designed and built in Russia in the post-Soviet period. It is planned that the IL-78M-90A will become the main tanker for refuelling Russian aircraft, both long-range and front-line, as well as those of special aviation.

well as air medical services. In addition, it could also be used as an air taxi.

Nuclear space tug

A mock-up of a new space transport and energy module, equipped with a nuclear power plant, was officially launched during MAKS 2019. Developed by the Arsenal design bureau, the nuclear module is designed to transport cargo in space, including interplanetary space stations. According to an official spokesman from Roscosmos, the design of the new megawatt-class nuclear transport module has been conducted in Russia since 2010. It will be used during Russia’s missions to outer and near-lunar space and currently has no equivalent in the world.

Kronstadt’s range of UAVs

Kronstadt Group, a Russian designer and producer of high-tech equipment for aerospace and aircraft engineering, presented a range of its innovative drones. There was much interest in its Orion-E ISR platform, which is the first airborne reconnaissance MALE UAV of its class in Russia.

Another interesting drone presented by the company was Frigate – an innovative UAV, which operated on the basis of a vertical take-off and landing concept. Primarily designed to operate in the Arctic and the Far East, Frigate can operate from minimally prepared sites for landing and does not need ground-based infrastructure.

New rocket engine

Major Russian rocket engine manufacturer, NPO Energomash, unveiled a new rocket engine for

the 18th Aggressor Sqn at Eielson AFB, Alaska. Following sequestration in 2013-2014, the USAF inactivated the 65th in what would become the start of an adversary shortfall across all major commands (MAJCOMs) and the genesis of the Combat Air Force (CAF) Adversary Air (ADAIR) programme.

Contract Air Support is not a new concept in North America. Airborne Tactical Advantage Company (ATAC) pioneered outsourced adversary support in the 1990s and the United States Navy (USN) were the first to embrace the opportunity due to a decline in organic aggressor capacity. Since 1997, ATAC has delivered both ship services and tactical flight services with demilitarised L-39s, Hunter Mk58s and Kfir F-21s.

Canada also embraced the concept in 2005 when Top Aces were awarded the Interim Contracted Airborne Training Services (ICATS) contract by the Department of National Defence (DND). This replaced an organic capability provided by the Royal Canadian Air Force’s (RCAF) 414th Combat Support Squadron. This provision continues today with ex-Luftwaffe Dornier Alpha Jets delivering what is referred to as Type 1 ‘fast-jet’ and Type 2 ‘tactical business jet’ capability.


DEFENCECommercial aggressor training

“I’d hate to see an epitaph on a fighter pilot’s tombstone that says, “I told you I needed training”…How do you train for the most dangerous game in the world by being as safe as possible? When you

don’t let a guy train because it’s dangerous, you’re saying, ‘Go fight those lions with your bare hands in that arena, because we can’t teach you to learn how to use a spear. If we do, you might cut your finger while you’re learning.’ And that’s just about the same as murder.”

Lt Col. Lloyd ‘Boots’ Boothby.

From the lessons of Vietnam, and the revolt of the majors, the United States Air Force (USAF) established four dedicated Aggressor Squadrons over the period 1973-1975 to deliver representative adversary training. With the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the USAF terminated the entire Aggressor programme, with the last squadron being inactivated in October 1990, something that would last for the next decade.

The 64th Aggressor Sqn was re-activated at Nellis AFB in October 2003, the 65th Aggressor Sqn in September 2005, and in September 2007,

MARK BATE, Business and Capability Development Europe, DrakenInternational, considers the rise of private ‘Red Air’ contractors – and the approach to providing tactical training for US forces.

Above: The last L-159E ‘Honey Badger’ delivered from Aero Vodochody to Draken International.

Draken International

Fight’s on! Commercial Red Air in the 21st Century

Enter the Draken

In November 2011, step-in Jared ‘Rook’ Isaacman, the CEO of the newly incorporated Draken International, who saw an opportunity to revolutionise an industry that had become stagnant. He struck a deal that acquired a national treasure: the remnants of the Royal New Zealand Air Force’s (RNZAF) Strike fleet that consisted of Douglas A/TA-4K Skyhawks and Aermachhi MB-339 aircraft.

This equipped Draken with the key differentiator from those established in the industry – the APG-66NZ radar, ALR-66 radar warning receivers (RWR) and ALE-40 countermeasures dispensing system. In short, the ability to provide representative early 4th Generation effects. This was the beginning of Isaacman’s speculative stratagem of ‘Build it and they will come’ and ‘Amass Iron on the Ramp’.

Even after regeneration in early 2013, it would not be until October 2015 that Draken secured an 800hr proof-of-concept contract with the USAF at Nellis AFB. This was extended on a yearly basis to 3,500hr and finally, the award of a five year, $280m contract that commenced in October 2018. This same period saw the introduction of 21 virtually new Aero Vodochody L-159E ‘Honey Badger’ aircraft, equipped with the Grifo-L radar and Sky Guardian 200 RWR, with full OEM support as the design authority behind the aircraft.

The key behind this success is simply that of capacity, capability and credibility that is delivered to the customer at an affordable price enabling cost savings and beneficial training to the USAF. On average, Draken provides four contracted sorties for the price of a single USAF Aggressor sortie which enables the warfighter to concentrate on his ‘blue air’ training. In an era where budgets are stagnant, the warfighter this matters, a lot.

Combat Air Force Adversary Air (CAF ADAIR) Programme

So, what does the USAF require of its 10 year, 45,000hr per year, $6bn CAF ADAIR programme? Unlike the United Kingdom’s failed Air Support to Defence Operational Training (ASDOT) programme, the CAF ADAIR programme has constantly engaged with industry through a series of engagement days, refining requirements to those that are realistic, representative and ones that industry can resource for their available budget. It even acknowledges those which are aspirational and enables a variety of capability exchange options that are far too diverse for this article.

What will surprise many though is this: the answer to the question is not the Saab Gripen Aggressor variant which was unveiled at DSEI 2017 in London, nor Leonardo’s M-346. The acquisition and sustainment cost for these platforms is not

viable for an industry that exists based on the relative savings it offers. Once you approach charging the customer $25,000 per flight hour, the Department of Defense (DoD) start to ask ‘why are we not doing this inhouse?’ Meanwhile the Boeing lobby on The Hill quietly whispers that an additional purchase of T-7A Red Hawk advanced trainers is the answer. The budget for CAF ADAIR averages at around $13,333 per flight hour, so just like other programmes there is no capital for expensive multi-million dollar platforms.

CAF ADAIR is best summarised as comprising 12 operating locations (OLs) throughout the continental United States (CONUS), 30,000 sorties per annum with contractors providing three aircraft category types, the main differences of which are found in kinematics and avionics capabilities. Unsurprisingly, Nellis AFB has its own unique mix due to being the home of the 57th Adversary Tactics Group and

the USAF Weapons School.Across all three categories, kinematics require an

aircraft capable of M0.8 -M1.5 at 30,000ft, operating in Block 3 through 5, and a minimum instantaneous turn of 8 to 15° per second at 15,000ft on a standard day. In terms of avionics; radar (50% chance of


Frank Crebas/D

raken International

Right: In 2015 ex RNZAF A-4K Skyhawks of Draken International provided adversary support to F-35A testing.

ON AVERAGE, DRAKEN PROVIDES FOUR CONTRACTED SORTIES FOR THE PRICE OF A SINGLE USAF AGGRESSOR SORTIE WHICH ENABLES THE WARFIGHTER TO CONCENTRATE ON HIS ‘BLUE AIR’ TRAINING TOP GUNS for

hire − private companies battling for big business

Tactical Air Support F-5E Top Aces AlphaJetsATAC Mirage F1

Top Aces

ATAC

TacAir


than turn performance, speed and altitude performance are more important than turn performance.

4th Generation Fighter Training Units – Active detection is more important than aircraft performance and significantly more important than passive detection. Turn performance, speed and altitude are all equally important and more important than passive detection.

Enough work to go around?

With the challenge set, four companies have declared that they submitted Request for Proposals (RFPs) which the USAF is now finalising its evaluations. Once evaluated and approved as a potential supplier, industry can bid against individual Task Orders for each of the 12 OLs. As Air Force Magazine revealed in March 2019, the first two have been identified as Kingsley Field, Oregon and Holloman AFB, New Mexico. These contracts are scheduled to commence in October 2020.

What have the four known respondents been up to? In a single word ‘speculating’, trying to identify suitable platforms from around the world that are available at the right price point, supportable by OEMs or those able to support under licence, ones that are upgraded or are able to be upgraded and

DEFENCECommercial aggressor training

detecting a ‘fighter sized’ target at 20- 80nm head-on aspect), RWR, countermeasures, electronic attack (EA), infra-red search and track (IRST) along with items such as high-off boresight (HOBS) captive air training missiles (CATMs) are either minimum capabilities, or are able to be exchanged for items that enable the desired training effects.

The USAF has been very clear that capabilities that are able to deliver the desired training effect are more important than aircraft performance. The following should come as no surprise to those familiar with the subject:

Nellis AFB – Active and passive detection are equally important, both are more important than aircraft kinematic performance, speed and altitude are more important than turn performance.

5th Generation Fighter Training Units – Passive detection is more important than active detection, active detection is more important than aircraft kinematic performance, speed and altitude are more important than turn performance.

5th Generation Operational Units – Passive detection is more important than active detection, both active and passive detection are more important than speed and altitude, active and passive detection are significantly more important


Ex-Spanish AF Mirage F1Ms are set to have a second life as aggressor aircraft with Draken.

Locations, quantity and type of aggressor tarining support aircraft required by the USAF’s giant $6bn ADAIR commercial Red Air series of contracts.


Why no 4th Gen Aircraft?

Many readers will ask why 4th Gen platforms are not already on contract. First, a generational leap in platforms brings supportability challenges, the issue of composites, fly-by-wire and an absolute must for active OEM and design authority support to your operation as a private entity. Second, the acquisition and subsequent operating costs are likely to place you close to, if not above the magical $25,000 per flight hour. Third, and most importantly, relates to any US Defense Article on the US Munitions List which is governed by the US International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).

For any private entity to acquire an F-16 capability, it would require approval from the Department of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) in the State Department that issue Third Party Transfer (TPT) approval and the Defense Technology Security Agency (DTSA). Likely provisos may well include for use within the CONUS and non-acquisition by a non-US private entity. Finally the reader will be aware that most nation states operate a 4th Gen fighter as their primary combat capability.

The past is the future and it’s here to stay

CAF ADAIR is here today and, by its very nature, no single company can hope to fulfil its volume. The above gives a very high-level overview as to where it is heading. Those nations starting nascent programmes, those recompeting existing programmes and those returning to the drawing board all face the same common problem – what effects and capability can I get for the price I’m willing to pay, as none of the programmes comprise CAPEX?

There is also another more pressing issue, that of whoever joins the merge last with a new programme will be left with the resources nobody else requires as the pool of acceptable used aircraft is evaporating every month. My closing comment is an addition to Isaacman’s original stratagem, that of “Sustain it and they’ll remain.”

most importantly, have enough fatigue life and hours left to be viable for 10+ years adversary service.

Tactical Air Support Inc (TacAir) recently imported 21 ex-Royal Jordanian Air Force (RJAF) F-5E/F Tiger II aircraft which it is modernising with Garmin COTS avionics and replacing legacy systems with equipment from US company DuoTech who advertises a bespoke adversary radar, RWR and other open architecture systems. Interestingly, TacAir won the competition for a 4th Gen Adversary to support the USN at Fallon Naval Air Station, the home of the Naval Air Warfare Development Centre (NAWDC) and ‘Top Gun’, with these aircraft as its offering.

Top Aces has not added any new aircraft since acquiring Air Training Service International (ATSI) way back in 2013 and putting its A-4N Skyhawks on contract in Germany. Despite aggressive marketing and promises of demonstrations of capability, its much-vaunted acquisition of ex- Israeli F-16 Netz delivered under the Peace Marble I Foreign Military Sales (FMS) Programme appears to be mired in both legal and policy issues. Only time will tell if this leads to ‘iron on the ramp’ or whether they remain PowerPoint aircraft.

ATAC has explored the French Connection, and acquired some 63 Dassault Mirage F1B, CR and CT aircraft retired by the Armée de l’Air in 2014. It is currently in the process of regeneration, with the aim to return 40 to airworthy condition at its newly established Adversary Centre of Excellence located at Fort Worth Alliance Airport, Texas. ATAC is also said to be in the advanced stages of acquiring seven surplus RJAF F-16A/B aircraft obtained under the Peace Falcon 2 FMS Programme, all of which are at MLU standard and have received Falcon STAR and UP programmes.

Draken has continued to do its own thing, identifying aircraft that have already been modernised and are able to be further upgraded as required. At its Lakeland facility in Florida, it is in the process of regenerating 22 former Spanish Dassault Mirage F1Ms retired by the Ejército del Aire in 2013. All are low hour airframes and were modernised in the early 2000s. The acquisition programme saw Spain cede everything required to support the aircraft, even down to an Operational Flight Programme lab. In-service support will be provided by the Paramount Group of South Africa, under licence.

Which links us to Draken’s most unusual acquisition, that of 12 Denel (formerly Atlas Aircraft Corporation) Cheetah aircraft, all of which accumulated fewer than 500 flight hours with the South African Airforce (SAAF) prior to retirement in 2008. While essentially a Mirage III clone, with the assistance of Israel, the aircraft packs a potent EL/L-2032 radar, said to be superior to the APG-68 and APG-73, and an Elisra RWR system. Denel, as the OEM and Design Authority, will provide continued in-service support. Coincidently, the Cheetah utilises the same Snecma Atar 9K50C-11 as the Mirage F1M.


Ex-SAAF Cheetahs with low hours and Israeli avionics will provide a high-end supersonic threat.

MBDA. While some of these (including the supersonic and stealthy cruise missiles) had appeared at the Paris Air Show in June, new at DSEI were tandem within-visual range air-to-air missiles (WVR AAM), ‘increased calibre’ WVR AAM, hard-kill self-defence and ground attack micro-missiles and the SPEAR EW – appearing for the first time at a defence trade show. The tandem WVR AAM missiles are based on advanced short range air-to-air missiles (ASRAMM) but aerodynamically cleaned up and shortened to fit inside a Tempest internal weapons bay. Unlike the rail-launched ASRAAM, these would need to be ejected from the bay. The ‘increased calibre’ WVR AAM, meanwhile, designed to fit more snugly in an internal bay, could also offer expanded capabilities over ASRAAM – such as a dual-mode infra red/active electronically scanned array (IR/AESA) seeker.

Meanwhile, the ‘last-ditch’ hard-kill self-defence micromissile, revealed at Le Bourget, was accompanied by a new ground-attack micromissile.


DEFENCEDSEI 2019 show report

Italy partners on TempestUndoubtedly the biggest, yet least unexpected news in the air sector from this year’s Defence & Security Equipment International (DSEI) exhibition, saw Italy sign up to become a partner on the UK’s Team Tempest future combat air systems programme. Signing a government-to-government statement of intent (SoI) on 10 September, Italy became the second nation (after Sweden in July) to agree to co-operate on the Tempest ‘sixth generation’ combat aircraft project. The agreement followed on from a joint government feasibility study launched last year in the wake of the release of the UK’s Combat Air Strategy.

MBDA shows off potential Tempest weaponsWith Italy boosting Tempest’s credibility as a new partner, on display alongside the Tempest fighter full-scale mock-up were potential weapon concepts from

TIM ROBINSON reports on the military air and space sector news highlights from this year’s DSEI defence exhibition, held on 9-13 September in London.

Defence on parade

Sixth gen trainer for sixth-gen Tempest?Talking up the potential of its highly innovative modular basic/advanced trainer and leased training business model was the UK’s Aeralis, which is aiming to position itself as ‘flight training for Tempest’.

While it had originally planned to bring a full-size common fuselage demonstrator of the Aeralis jet to this year’s DSEI, the company revealed that the focus had now shifted to going straight to building two-preproduction prototypes – with the goal of flying the basic trainer variant at Farnborough in 2022. As well as lower cost and a leasing approach (enabling air forces to surge capacity), Aeralis’ fresh approach to fighter pilot training could include ‘gamification’ of learning, wearable biosensors to

measure stress of students and even synthetic loyal wingman/remote carriers to prepare pilots for ‘sixth- generation’ fighters.

UK to develop SAR radar sat constellationFollowing hard on the footsteps of the Royal Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO) Carbonite-2 imagery satellite demonstrator and the announcement of UK/US Project Artemtis spy-sat constellation in July, there was more UK military space news at DSEI.

At the show, it was announced that Airbus Space had won a design study from UK defence lab DSTL for a cluster of ultra-high resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites for the UK MoD,

Italian MoD

TEMPEST WHIPS UP A STORM

Italy’s Secretary General of Defence, Lt. Gen. Nicolò Falsaperna, and the UK’s Sir Simon Bollom, CEO of Defence Equipment & Support, sign the SoI.

Tempest full-size mock-up and MBDA weapons.

Below: Aeralis’ proposed sixth generation trainer.

Right: QinetiQ’s Banshee NG target drone.

Aeralis


under Project Oberon. The expanding ‘umbrella’ origami– style antenna would be provided by Oxford Space Systems.

Unlike optical sensors, these satellites would be able to offer 24hr day and night coverage and see through clouds – boosting the UK’s space surveillance capabilities. It is also planned that Project Oberon will also have an electronic intelligence (ELINT) capability – giving the satellites the capability to locate radio signals. An in-orbit demonstration is planned for 2022, with an initial operational capability in 2025.

Skynet 6 ground segment contest launchedThere was also news on the planned replacement for the UK’s Skynet5 military satellite communication network – with Defence Secretary Ben Wallace MP announcing the launch of a competition to operate and manage the ground-stations segment for the £6bn Skynet 6 system. This will see 15-year-old incumbent Airbus Space go head-to-head with new bidders after its Skynet5 contract runs out in 2022.

BAE Systems to acquire PrismaticThere was news ahead of DSEI in the world of HAPS (high altitude pseudo satellites) drones when aerospace and defence giant BAE Systems announced that its was acquiring Prismatic Ltd – a company formed by ex-Zephyr staff. Prismatic is developing the solar-powered PHASA-35 UAV, designed to operate at 65,000ft for up to a year – as a lower-cost, more flexible alternative to satellites.

In 15 months, Prismatic has already delivered two full-size PHASA-35 prototypes to BAE at Warton,

Air-to-air C-UAS from Steel RockWandering around the stands at DSEI there was no shortage of companies offering counter-drone solutions. New from the UK’s Steel Rock, (which already supplies its rifle-like jammer to ‘Tier 1’ special forces units), was a combination of Steel Rock’s SR-1 multirotor UAV equipped with NightFighter jammer to take down rogue UAVs. With the hand-held NightFighter and a longer-range vehicle-mounted variant, it might well be asked – why turn a drone into a air-to-air platform? However, a drone equipped with a counter-unmanned aerial system (C-UAS) system, it was explained is especially useful for urban areas with cluttered lines of sight, where ground units may have trouble taking down rogue drones that hide behind buildings or trees. The NightFighter, as a non-kinetic C-UAS, also has the advantage of being able to ‘capture’ and take over control of a hostile drone and land it safely. This is extremely useful, even for weaponised IED drones, as it allows forensics to then disassemble the UAV and its bomb to learn about the makers.

Skeldar ‘ahead of the pack’ with EASA requirementsMeanwhile, over at UMS Skeldar, the Swedish VTOL UAV company revealed that the first operators from the German Navy were set to begin training on its V-200 rotary-wing drone in October at the firm’s expanded facility in Sweden. The German Navy is acquiring two V-200s and control-stations for its new K130 corvettes. With Royal Canadian Navy also operating the V-200 under a service-based model from QinetiQ, this is only the second shipborne vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) drone to be fielded by NATO navies after the Northrop Grumman FireScout.

UMS Skeldar foresees that new incoming EASA regulators on drone operators – and mandating that they operate like manned aviation operators – will have the effect of shaking up the industry. Having invested in developing new training strategies and courses, it is confident that it will be ‘ahead of the pack’ when it comes to meeting these new standards.

DRONES

with flight testing to take place at an undisclosed location in 2020.

With the UK MoD already trialling Airbus Defence’s Zephyr HAPS, Prismatic say that its PHASA-35 will be more robust (its monocoque structure consists of just 12 parts), productionised HAPS, with off-the-shelf lithium-ion batteries and useful (15kg) payload capacity.

Banshee NG unveiledThe UK’s QinetiQ unveiled its newest target drone, the Banshee NG, at the DSEI exhibition. The twin-engine transonic (560mph) Banshee NG is agile up to 9G, features a lower radar cross section (RCS) for more realistic threat but is able to use existing Banshee infrastructure and ground stations. Some 7,500 Banshees have been built as aerial targets.

RAF taps Leonardo to evaluate C-UASIn more counter-drone news at DSEI, the Royal Air Force announced that it had selected Leonardo to carry out a three-year study into C-UAS threats and technology. The goal of the research, which starts in 2020, is to evaluate counter-drone technology with a view to informing the best way to protect RAF bases from this growing threat.

DESI – Can the UK join the hypersonic weapons race? 21 November 2019 – RAeS HQ London

Greener by Design

Conference 2019

7 November 2019, No.4 Hamilton Place

Aviation and the Net Zero Emissions Challenge

Climate Change is the aviation industry’s biggest environmental challenge. The industry can

already boast the first global, sector-wide, market-based climate measurement in CORSIA

and is also committed to a net 50% reduction in emissions by 2050.

However, there is growing evidence of climate warming and the latest IPCC report urges the

world to aim for a tighter limit on warming and that to do so requires a reduction to “Net-Zero

Emissions” by the middle of this century.

Should aviation now raise its own ambition? If so, how? What contribution can technology

and operational efficiency make and how much will this hard-to-abate sector depend on

replacement, zero-carbon, fuels and market-based mechanisms?

This year’s annual Greener by Design conference will debate this crucial strategic issue with

senior speakers from within and outside the industry.

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41NOVEMBER 2019

Afterburner

42 Message from RAeS– President“The Young Professionals Conference held at No.4 was attended by a large and enthusiastic audience consisting of early-career professionals, apprentices and students. The day was billed as providing a platform to learn, discuss and network and it certainly did that.”

– Chief Executive“The Government has also committed “to making the UK a global science superpower and a magnet for brilliant people and businesses from across the world” and to the creation of a Cabinet-level National Space Council through which to launch a comprehensive UK Space Strategy. It remains to be seen how much of this reaches the statute book.”

44 Book ReviewsThe Grand Designers, 21st Century Airlines and Plane Crash.

47 Library AdditionsBooks submitted to the National Aerospace Library.

49 The AeronautsA review of the new feature film starring Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones which tells the story of the record-breaking balloon flight by Society co-founder James Glaisher.

50 The Alex Gray LectureProf Iain Gray delivers the inaugural Alex Gray Lecture to the Highland Branch on the subject of ‘Scotland’s Contribution to Aerospace – What’s Next?’.

52 DiaryFind out when and where around the world the latest Society aeronautical and aerospace lectures and events are happening.

54 ObituaryDr John Dunham CEng FRAeS.

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Diary

18 November

Light Aircraft Design Conference 2019

Electrifying General Aviation

The CityAirbus was presented on 11 March at the City of Ingolstadt to members of the German government and the public who had the opportunity to ask Airbus experts questions about the vehicle and the concept of Urban Air Mobility. Airbus.

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42

Message from RAeSOUR PRESIDENT

Prof Jonathan Cooper

ALTHOUGH WE MUST ALWAYS BE A FORWARD-LOOKING SOCIETY, IT IS IMPORTANT THAT WE REMEMBER NOTEWORTHY CONTRIBUTIONS UPON WHICH THE AEROSPACE AND AVIATION SECTORS ARE BASED

Afterburner

The past month has been very busy and I was pleased to be able to attend a number of Society events covering a broad range of our activities.

The Young Professionals Conference held at No.4 was attended by a large and enthusiastic audience consisting of early-career professionals, apprentices and students. The day was billed as providing a platform to learn, discuss and network and it certainly did that. There was a great range of speakers covering areas such as the space industry, the future of aerospace and the importance of technology in Formula 1 car design. There was also a discussion where the panel participants discussed their journeys and experiences, giving valuable advice to the young aerospace professionals. All of our younger members are recommended to take part in the Young Persons Network, who helped to organise this conference, as a way to stay connected, get involved and open up new opportunities with the Royal Aeronautical Society. Many thanks must also go to Laura Hoang for fronting the event.

I was also fortunate to attend two events organised by the Society’s Flight Crew Training Group. Trade associations exist for many sectors of the aviation industry, nationally, regionally and internationally but, while there are some regional associations of Approved Training Organisations (ATOs) for air transport pilots, there is no international association. ATOs cover initial training, type conversion and recurrent training, with some 2,500 ATOs operating worldwide. An international ATOs’ association would facilitate collaborative work on safety concerns; best practices; international harmonisation and standardisation; training material; standard operating procedures and liaison with other industry stakeholders. It could also assist in negotiations with multiple Civil Aircraft Authorities and provide a highly effective consultancy service for ATOs with slender back-office resources. The Flight Crew Training Group organised a one-day symposium of ATOs, with attendees from all over the world, for ATOs to explore further the association’s rationale and construct and whether it is timely to create an international ATOs’ association to provide a global voice. This activity is an excellent example of how RAeS Specialist Groups can lead and influence the aviation sector.

The Symposium was followed by the International Flight Crew Training Conference with the theme ‘Modernising Flight Crew Training – Completing the Transformation’ (see p 22). An almost full Bill Boeing Lecture Theatre listened to a noteworthy series of papers, workshops and panel discussions, delivered by world-leading experts, examining why and how training strategies and systems need to exploit evolving technologies to progress the various aspects of flight crew training towards improved safety. An important part of these aims will be achieved through a greater understanding of human interactions and the modernisation of flight crew training made possible by introducing competency based training and assessment (CBTA). Thanks to Peter Barrett, secretary of the Flight Crew Training Group, for his tireless efforts in organising both events.

I was honoured to unveil, on behalf of the Society, an Aeronautical Heritage Award for Pegasus House on the Airbus UK site at Filton, Bristol (see p 48). Nominated by the Bristol Branch of the Society, this was the design office where famous aircraft such as the Blenheim, Beaufighter and Concorde were created. The Heritage Award Scheme exists to erect plaques across the UK to commemorate significant people, places and things, with the intention of celebrating technological or operational achievements that have made an original and unique contribution of world significance. Although we must always be a forward-looking Society, it is important that we remember noteworthy contributions upon which the aerospace and aviation sectors are based. I encourage the local branches to make more nominations to the scheme.

Finally, I would like to thank the Yeovilton Branch for inviting me to attend this year’s Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown Lecture held underneath Concorde at the Fleet Air Arm Museum. This was a fascinating talk given by Richard Browning of Gravity Industries describing how he was ‘Re-imagining Human Flight’. I have already been able to visit several of the local Branches, the backbone of the Society, since becoming President and intend to attend many other events during the rest of my term of office. I strongly encourage you all to make contact with your local Branch, and perhaps those slightly further away, and to support their activities.


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Sir Brian Burridge

OUR CHIEF EXECUTIVE

● As I write, we are in the critical week of the EU Brexit summit with little certainty on the outcome. Clearly, the industrial trade bodies have grown more nervous of late. For our part, in responding to my letter to the Prime Minister on his appointment in which I emphasised the criticality of the UK’s continued relationship with EASA, Chris Heaton-Harris, the Minister of State for Transport assured us that: “The UK is seeking continued close co-operative arrangements with the EU on aviation safety as part of an ambitious and comprehensive air transport agreement.” We shall see!

● Meanwhile, it was a welcome change to see a focus on the domestic agenda in the Queen’s Speech. For us, advancing the bill on air traffic management and airspace modernisation is a significant move as is the drone bill which will include new police powers to tackle the unlawful use of unmanned aircraft. There is a hint in the former that measures to reform the airline insolvency process will be included, following the high-profile collapses of Monarch and Thomas Cook. The Government has also committed “to making the UK a global science superpower and a magnet for brilliant people and businesses from across the world” and to the creation of a Cabinet-level National Space Council through which to launch a comprehensive UK Space Strategy. It remains to be seen how much of this reaches the statute book.

● Meanwhile, the Science and Technology Select Committee published its report entitled Commercial and recreational drone use in the UK, which highlights the need for a vision for the future for drones in the UK, drawing on the opportunities and lessening risks presented by increased drone use. We submitted a written input and I gave verbal evidence to the enquiry in a session held jointly with the Defence Committee. Our contributions are referenced throughout the report with the conclusions and recommendations broadly in line with our proposals, particularly in acknowledging the economic benefit of drones. However, on the technology side, the report recommended that all drones, including existing drones, should be electronically conspicuous within two years. This represents a considerable burden on individual recreational users but is a key requirement of the regulators.

● At the end of September, Ros Azouzi our Head of Skills and Careers and I were at the launch at Cranfield University of the Sandy Gunn Aerospace Careers Programme (see p 55). Sandy Gunn was a photo-reconnaissance Spitfire

pilot whose unarmed aircraft was shot down in Norway. He was subsequently captured and sent to Stalag Luft III where he was an instigator of the Great Escape. The aircraft wreckage was found on a Norwegian mountain in 2017 and has since been brought back to the UK where it will be restored and returned to flight. The programme will provide significant STEM activity for schools but will undoubtedly reach a wider audience because of the human dimension of Sandy’s wartime experiences and the recovery of the aircraft.

● As the President records opposite, congratulations are due to Neeral Patel and all of the Head Office team involved in The Young Persons Conference. The Bill Boeing Lecture Theatre was full to the seams and the audience enthusiasm was palpable. If only we could bottle that and use it to pull through a larger cohort of younger members which is the key requirement for a sustainable Society. Here at Hamilton Place, we are working relentlessly to upgrade the appeal of our ‘offer’ to this important group.

● I was fortunate enough to visit the Munich Branch at the end of last week to deliver a lecture at the Defence University and to catch-up with local industry and research institutions. Every time I go to Germany, I am staggered by the pace at which they adopt novel technology and new ideas. This has always been as aspect of German industrial culture but it is clearly also driven by both local and national government. It was striking how much relevant ‘close to market’ research and development is being conducted in the technical universities on aspects such as automated air traffic management and eVTOL.

● Also last week, we had an excellent Corporate Partner briefing from Air Vice-Marshal ‘Rocky’ Rochelle, the Chief of Staff Capability at Air Command, on Future Combat Air Strategy and the future Defence use of space. Coming-up in November, we have Hans Büthker, the CEO of GKN Aerospace with the title, ‘From first flight to electric flight: transforming for a sustainable future’. We are also creating an exciting programme of briefings for 2020 of which more next month. Finally, we still have some availability here at No.4 Hamilton Place for Christmas parties and are currently offering 10% off our Christmas packages (for a minimum number of 80 guests) which include the venue hire and catering. Our beautiful Edwardian townhouse provides the perfect setting for a festive celebration – please do get in touch with our Venue Hire team at [email protected] for further details.

THE UK IS SEEKING CONTINUED CLOSE CO-OPERATIVE ARRANGEMENTS WITH THE EU ON AVIATION SAFETY AS PART OF AN AMBITIOUS AND COMPREHENSIVE AIR TRANSPORT AGREEMENT

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Book Reviews


Afterburner

THE GRAND DESIGNERS

Top left: Captain Frank Sowter Barnwell OBE AFC FRAeS, 1880-1938. RAeS (NAL).

Top right: Bristol Bulldog IIA, K2227, formerly G-ABBB, alongside a Bristol Fighter. Both aircraft types were designed by Frank Barnwell. RAeS (NAL).

Above left: Edgar O Schmued 1899-1985. San Diego Air and

Space Museum Archive.

Above right: The North American P-51 Mustang was one of several types designed by Ed Schmued. RAeS (NAL).

The Evolution of the Airplane in the 20th Century. Cambridge Centennial of Flight seriesBy J D Anderson

Cambridge University Press, University Printing House, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge CB2 8BS, UK. 2018. x; 306pp. Illustrated. £39.99. ISBN 978-0-521-81787-5.

“In the first over-all design .... no pains should be spared to get the best and most compact disposition of external parts, and the best sizes and forms for them. .... If this is done, using with due common sense every source of reliable data, and doing everything methodically and thoroughly, it is highly probable that the results will be good, and if one goes on working thus in subsequent designs, altering up empirical constants as found necessary or advisable from increasing experience, one will design better machines, and will know why they are improved.”[From F S Barnwell and W H Sayers Aeroplane Design and A Simple Explanation on Inherent Stability (London: McBride, Nast & Co. 1917)]

In his latest book John Anderson has extended his historical survey of aviation by selecting and comparing six aircraft designers who he considers worthy of the accolade ‘Grand Designer’. Noting the enormous development in the capability of aircraft through the 20th century he asks whether this was driven by ‘a parallel advancement in the intellectual methodology of airplane conceptual design’.

Anderson is well known for his numerous books on the theory of flight and the history of aviation, characterised by their clear and easy to read style. This, too, is an informative text from this much respected author. His chosen designers are the Wright brothers, Frank Barnwell, Arthur Raymond, R J Mitchell, Edgar Schmued and Kelly Johnson, ‘arguably the grandest’.

The account given for each subject includes their background, entry into the aviation business, education and practical training, their work and achievements. Note is made of the technical information that was available to each of them, from letters and papers, experience from racing, and technical reports from research bodies such as NACA and NASA, to proprietary research from their own organisations. Contemporary textbooks and available publications supporting design methodology are identified. Anderson gives particular emphasis to Frank Barnwell’s textbook Aeroplane Design published in 1916.

The justification Anderson uses for writing

this book is itself questionable, asking whether conceptual design changed during the century. Briefly, by the end of Chapter 3, he declares that it didn’t but, that the advances in aircraft capability were achieved through the correspondingly huge developments in technology. He concludes that Barnwell’s published methodology from 1916 remains substantially the same today.

Why would he ask this question (attributed to his colleague at the Smithsonian, Dr von Hardesty)? Could it be because he is an aerodynamicist, not a designer? Certainly the major focus throughout this book is on aerodynamic developments with less comment on the other aspects of the overall ‘system’ he so admires in the Wright brothers’ approach. Anderson first declared his interest in this question in a three-page ‘Aerospace Letter’ to the AIAA Journal in 2006 and claims to have had a quite positive response. Given that there is interest in the question, has he given a reasoned argument for his answer? Not really.

Anderson appears in thrall to Barnwell’s book, but does not try to explain how Barnwell could have come to write it. He does not expand on the design and drafting skills and disciplines Barnwell would have learnt working for a Clydebank shipyard, drawing up scantlings and hull lines, establishing displacement, waterline and metacentre, preparing parts lists and quantified bills of material.

Design involves a continuous stream of iterations right from the start, covering all aspects of the finished product. Labels such as conceptual and preliminary are used to distinguish phases in this stream and at best are arbitrary and used for convenience; they have been used differently at different times and by different authors and organisations. This is not a matter to be too prescriptive about. In comparison Barnwell describes clearly the iterative process, explaining

His chosen designers are the Wright brothers, Frank Barnwell, Arthur Raymond, R J Mitchell, Edgar Schmued and Kelly Johnson, ‘arguably the grandest’


The cabin of an easyJet Airbus A319-100. Adrian Pingstone.

21st CENTURY AIRLINESConnecting the DotsBy N K Taneja

Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon OX14 4RN, UK. 2018. liv; 228pp. £44.99. ISBN 978-1-138-09313-3.

Nawal K Taneja’s book 21st Century Airlines: Connecting the Dots looks at air transport management from mainly a digital perspective, highlighting the most current and anticipated future developments of airlines and the wider air transport industry. Particularly this last point, the wider air transport industry, encapsulates new business ideas and business models, such as ‘platform businesses’, ie organisations with limited physical assets that connect buyers and sellers while adding additional value in the process.

The book has an interesting setup, with no fewer than 12 forewords by senior executives from the aviation industry, followed by six chapters written by the author. These six chapters cover important functions within airlines from network planning to revenue management and customer experience and how changes in technology, society and other industries (the book extensively refers to companies such as Uber, Airbnb and Google) have an impact on these functions.

Unlike other books in air transport management, this book has a forward-looking perspective, identifying latest trends and future developments

Overall the book gives a very good overview of the digitalisation of the airline sector and the associated potential benefits

Clarence ‘Kelly’ Leonard Johnson 1910-1990, Advanced Development Projects, the Skunk Works, Lockheed Martin. Among the many aircraft types that Kelly Johnson was responsible for were the F-104 Starfighter, U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird. RAeS (NAL).

with regards to the digitalisation of aviation management. Despite its focus on digitalisation, it is written in a way that is understandable by readers without any significant expertise in information technology; it is very much a management book, rather than an IT book. Therefore, readers who are looking for technical explanations or solutions might be disappointed, while others will find it thought-provoking and stimulating. At times the link to the physical side of the airline business (ie the operation of aircraft) could have been stronger, nevertheless anyone coming from a more ‘traditional’ airline background will find the new developments that are being discussed, very interesting.

The second part of the book (Chapter 7) consists of 13 contributions from industry experts. The contributions are a bit ‘hit-and-miss’ though. Some of the sections are excellent, providing relevant insights and discussions on some of the most recent developments from an industry perspective. However, other contributions are a bit superficial and at times feel like an advertorial and can be a bit repetitive with regards to aspects covered in other parts of the book.

Overall the book gives a very good overview of the digitalisation of the airline sector and the associated potential benefits.

Dr Robert MayerAMRAeSCentre for Air Transport ManagementCranfield University

that a number of iterations would typically be required even to achieve the example he gives, which he labels a preliminary design.

More could have been made of how to use available data and summarised experience. There is no talk of parametric studies such as found in Torenbeek, Howe, Raymer and others. There is no talk of the accuracy of initial assumptions versus the designer’s feel for what to accept. Early in the book, Anderson mentions optimisation (Intellectual Pivot Point number 7), then does not talk about it. There is no mention of sensitivity analyses, carpet plots, trade studies or reverse engineering.

Anderson talks of the importance of selecting a design point and sizing to achieve it. But, for example, structural considerations cover the whole flight envelope. As Barnwell points out “the unfortunate designer is expected to be able to produce reasonable figures showing that his detail design is such that no part of the machine has a ‘factor of safety’ of less than six under such condition , between slowest and fastest flying speeds, as imposes the greatest strain on such

a part.” Recognising the designer knows such constraints will have to be met, a more balanced book might for instance have included with the other short appendices one commenting on Barnwell’s pre-Schrenk approximation for wing spanwise loading.

Although this book is brimming with useful information and anecdotes, it seems to have missed its point. Starting by talking about “the evolution of the intellectual methodology for airplane design” invites too many preconceptions. The development of the argument from there is littered with unsubstantiated claims and unwarranted sweeping generalisations. Anderson keeps returning to his point but if you want to know about the early stages of design disregard this and go and read the opening chapters of Raymer or Gudmundsson.

In summary, The Grand Designers is an entertaining and informative book which fails to support its opening premise.

John M RobertsonCEng MIMechE MRAeS

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Book ReviewsAfterburner


payload and wheel speed, all factors which a crew must consider on a routine basis at high altitude airports.

In a chapter titled ‘Vanished’, Bibel deals with Air France Flight 447, which was missing for nearly two years, and makes comparisons with the search for Malaysian Airlines flight MH 370 which is still missing. In the same chapter the authors also deal with aerodynamic stalls, pitot probe icing and issues surrounding fly-by-wire aircraft, helping the reader to understand the complex interactive environment in a modern airliner and the adverse effect which that may have on basic piloting skills.

There are chapters on flight simulators and on turbulence, and a lot of information on modern ‘glass’ flight decks. Captain Hedges’ explanations of these bring out many operational perspectives. For example, there is a discussion of autopilot flight modes, and the Asiana Flight 214 accident at San Francisco is used to illustrate the implications of this automation for the pilot trying to manage the descent profile.

This book is a good read. It may not appeal to some, because at times it becomes a bit technical, resorting to graphs and formulae to explain things like co-ordinated turns and balanced field lengths. It reminds me most of the invaluable talks I had with the aircrew and engineers from whom I learned my trade as an accident investigator. As such, I think it will appeal to those who are considering such a career, and to those who want to delve into the technicalities of aircraft accidents more deeply than some other books or TV programmes tend to do.

Alan SimmonsCEng FRAeS

PLANE CRASH

The Forensics of Aviation DisastersBy G Bibel and R Hedges

Johns Hopkins University Press, c/o The Oxford Publicity Partnership Ltd, 2 Lucas Bridge Business Park, Old Greens Norton Road, Towcester NN12 8AX, UK. 2018. xi; 312pp. Illustrated. £22. ISBN 978-1-4214-2448-4.

Notwithstanding the dramatic title of this book, there is little of the sensational in its content or layout other than the events with which it deals. The book describes some of the principles and techniques by which aircraft accidents may be analysed, dividing into chapters by phase of flight, and using real-life examples as teaching aids. Accordingly, there are chapters on take-off and rejected take-off accidents, a chapter on loss-of-control in flight, and chapters on approach accidents and landing accidents, and others.

George Bibel is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of North Dakota: he has previously published similar volumes including Beyond the Black Box: the Forensics of Airplane Crashes (Johns Hopkins University Press. 2008). In this book, however, he is aided by Captain Robert Hedges, who brings his military and airline flying experience into each chapter, usually in the form of an inset box in which he outlines operational aspects which may not be well understood by the lay reader. For example, in the chapter on take-off accidents, Captain Hedges discusses the effects of density altitude on decision speed, flap setting,

It reminds me most of the invaluable talks I had with the aircrew and engineers from whom I learned my trade as an accident investigator

On 17 January 2008, British Airways Flight 38, flying in from Beijing, China, crashed just short of the runway of its destination airport, London Heathrow. All the 152 people on board escaped. Marc-Antony

Payne.


Library Additions

GENERAL

Global Megatrends and Aviation: the Path To Future-Wise Organizations. P Coutu et al. The ASI Institute, Aviation Strategies International, 440 René-Levesque Blvd West, Suite 1202, Montréal (Québec) Canada H2Z 1V7 (https://asi-institute.aero/megatrends). 2019.xv; 474pp. Illustrated. $165. ISBN 978-1- 9990077-2-0.

Various authors contribute to this review of how the world’s aerospace industry could/will be affected by climate change, economic shifts, urbanisation, demographic changes, technology innovations and global connectedness and how it should respond.

HISTORICAL

B-58 Hustler Units. Combat Aircraft 130. P E Davies. Osprey Publishing, Bloomsbury Publishing, Kemp House, Chawley Park, Cumnor Hill, Oxford, OX2 9PH, UK. 2019. 96pp. Illustrated. £14.99. ISBN 978-14728-3640-3.

Including colour markings diagrams, a detailed history of the design evolution and variants of the Convair supersonic bomber and of its operational role within Strategic Air Command (SAC).

A Pilot’s Tales. H T Murley. Published by Elizabeth Murley. 2017. 181pp. Illustrated. ISBN 978-1-7240-2700-9.

Published posthumously, the author recalls his pilot training and later operational experiences during WW2 and his later post-war career which included flying at the US Naval Air Station at Patuxent River, flying research aircraft (including the de Havilland Vampire I, Gloster Meteor FMk8 and Armstrong Whitworth AW52 among other types) at the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE), NGTE and Martin-Baker and serving as Flight Commander of RAF

No12 Squadron during the Low Altitude Bombing System (LABS) weapons delivery trials among many other experiences recalled from a flying career of over 45 years.

Dorset Aviation Past and Present. Royal Aeronautical Society Christchurch Branch. 2016. 50pp. Illustrated.

A concise illustrated history of the development of aviation in Bournemouth, Poole, Portland, Weymouth, Chickerell, Bridport, Toller, Upton, Moreton, Christchurch, Swanage, Weymouth, Warmwell, Tarrant Rushton and Hurn.

Douglas D-558: D-558-1 Skystreak and S-558-2 Skyrocket. X-Planes 12. P E Davies. Osprey Publishing, Bloomsbury Publishing, Kemp House, Chawley Park, Cumnor Hill, Oxford OX2 9PH, UK. 2019. 80pp. Illustrated. £13.99. ISBN 978-14728-3621-2.

Including cutaway sectional views and contemporary photographs, a well-illustrated history of the supersonic research aircraft programme with adjustable tailplanes which contributed to the understanding of buffeting, longitudinal stability and aileron effectiveness.

British Combat Aircraft in Latin America. S Rivas et al. Crécy Publishing, 1a Ringway Trading Estate, Shawdowmoss Road, Manchester M225LH, UK. 2019. 621pp. Illustrated. £44.95. ISBN 978-1-90210-957-2.

Commencing with an alphabetically arranged country-by-country survey of the involvement of British aircraft types in the evolution of military aviation in Central and South America in each country prior to 1940, the main focus of this book is a very detailed account illustrated throughout with numerous contemporary photographs of British aircraft types (Avro Lancaster/Lancastrian/

Lincoln, Bristol Beaufighter, de Havilland Mosquito/Vampire/Venom, English Electric/BAC Canberra/Strikemaster, Gloster Meteor, Hawker Hunter/Sea Fury, Hunting Percival Jet Provost, Short Sunderland/Sandringham, Supermarine Walrus and SEPECAT Jaguar among other aircraft types) that were either sold to or operated in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela and the British colonies of British Guiana/Belize and the Falklands, Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Paraguay among the other countries featured. An appendix recording individual aircraft histories concludes the volume.

Hawker: the Story of the 125. B Gunston. Airworthy International Publications Limited, Bury. 1996. 157pp. Illustrated. ISBN 0-9528845-0-X.

A detailed history of the design evolution of the de Havilland DH125 and its later variants including the Dominie, Series 400/600/700/800, British Aerospace BAe1000 and Raytheon Hawker 800XP.

Spitfire: Icon of a Nation. I Rendall. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London. 2008. 288pp. Illustrated. ISBN 978-1-407-23095-5.

A well-illustrated large format history of the design evolution and air operations of the iconic Supermarine fighter aircraft and of its post-WW2 legacy.

MANAGEMENT

Management of Defense Acquisition Projects – Second edition. Edited by R G Rendon and K F Snider. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Reston, VA. xvi; 373pp. 2019. Illustrated. Distributed by Transatlantic Publishers Group, 97 Greenham Road, London N10 1LN, UK. £73 [20% discount available to RAeS members on request; E [email protected]]. ISBN 978-1-62410-509-8.

SERVICE AVIATION

Winning Armageddon: Curtis LeMay and Strategic Air Command 1948-1957. T Albertson. Naval Institute Press, 291 Wood Road, Annapolis, MD 21402, USA. 2019. xxii; 279pp. Illustrated. $40. ISBN 978-168247-422-8.

‘Sam’ Marshal of the Royal Air Force The Lord Elworthy: a Biography. R Mead. Pen &Sword Aviation, Pen & Sword Books, 47 Church Street, Barnsley, S Yorkshire S70 2AS, UK. 2018. xiii; 330pp. Illustrated. £25. ISBN 978-1-52672-717-6.

A biography of the New Zealander Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Elworthy MRAF (1911-1993) – subsequently the Lord Elworthy – who, from initially joining the Reserve Air Force Officers in 1933, rose to being appointed both Chief of the Air Staff in September 1963 and also in 1967 Chief of the Defence Staff during a turbulent period of British defence cuts overseen by Denis Healey.

Camel Pilot Supreme: Captain D V Armstrong DFC. A Carson. Air World, Pen & Sword Books, 47 Church Street, Barnsley, S Yorkshire S70 2AS, UK. 2019. vii; 264pp. Illustrated. £25. ISBN 978-152675-267-3.

Including colour artist impressions by Lynn Williams, a biography of the South African RFC pilot D’Urban Victor Armstrong (1897-1918) who, during WW1, was to serve with Nos 39, 44, 60, 78 and 151 Squadrons and tragically was to die on 13 November 1918 – two days after the Armistice – when his Sopwith Camel C6713 failed to recover from an aerobatic spin and crashed at Bouvincourt aerodrome. Includes posthumous tributes by General Jan Smuts, Air Marshal William A (Billy) Bishop, Air Commodore Lionel E O Charlton, Wing Commander M G Christie, Air Marshal John M Salmond and Air Vice Marshal Sir Leslie Brown.

Shackleton Boys Volume 2: True Stories from the Shackleton Operators Based Overseas. S Bond. Grub Street, 4 Rainham Close, London SW11 6SS, UK. 2019. 288pp. Illustrated. £25. ISBN 978-1-911621-33-1.

The Royal Air Force air operations of the Avro Shackleton maritime reconnaissance aircraft in Gibraltar, Singapore (RAF Changi), Maldives (RAF Gan), Malta (RAF Luqa), Aden (RAF Khormaskar) and the Trucial States (RAF Sharjah) and the South African Air Force (SAAF) operations of the MR3 variant are recalled by the service personnel involved.

Ploesti 1943: the great raid on Hitler’s Romanian oil

refineries. S J Zaloga. Osprey Publishing, Kemp House, Chawley Park, Cumnor Hill, Oxford OX2 9PH, UK. 2019. 96pp. Illustrated. £14.99. ISBN 978-14728-3180-4.

A very detailed analysis of the operational effectiveness of the USAAF ‘Tidal Wave’ mission of 1 August 1943 during WW2 which aimed to destroy strategically important oil refineries in Romania using Consolidated B-24D Liberators flown from Benghazi in Libya.

German Flak Defences vs Allied Heavy Bombers 1942-45. D Nijboer. Osprey Publishing, Kemp House, Chawley Park, Cumnor Hill, Oxford OX2 9PH, UK. 2019. 80pp. Illustrated. £13.99. ISBN 978-14728-3671-7.

An overview of the Allied RAF and USAAF bombing campaign over Germany during WW2, summarising the leading aircraft types involved and the German ground-to-air defence system mounted against them.

SPACE

Returning People to the Moon After Apollo: Will It Be Another Fifty Years? P Norris. Springer. 2019. vii; 231pp. Illustrated. £24.99. ISBN 978-3-030-14914-7.

One Giant Leap: the Impossible Mission that Flew Us to the Moon. C Fishman. Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 1st Floor, 222 Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1X 8HB, UK. 2019. xiii; 483pp. Illustrated. £25. ISBN 978-1-5011-0629-3.

BOOKS

For further information contact the National Aerospace Library.T +44 (0)1252 701038 or 701060E [email protected]

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Society NewsAfterburner


AERONAUTICAL HERITAGE AWARDS

The Society launched the Aeronautical Heritage Awards Scheme as part of the celebrations of the Centenary of British Aviation in 2008. The Awards commemorate people, places or things that have made contributions of world-class significance to the art, science and engineering of aeronautics. Since then, over 20 plaques have been unveiled, most recently the plaque recognising the historic Pegasus House at Filton. The locations of these plaques are in public view and have been chosen to make the public aware of the aeronautical achievements associated with that location.

Pegasus House, one of the buildings at Airbus Filton, was proposed for recognition by the Bristol Branch. From 1936 it was the headquarters for the Bristol Aeroplane Company and many of the world’s most iconic aircraft and aero engines were designed there, including Concorde. Trevor Higgs FRAeS, Airbus Head of Engineering UK, Sir Brian Burridge and Prof Jonathan Cooper duly unveiled the plaque on 19 September, above right. Prior to the unveiling, invited guests gathered inside the historic building and listened to a series of speeches from guests, including Jenny Body FRAeS Past-President of the RAeS and currently Vice-Chair of the RAeS Medals and Awards Committee (responsible for the Heritage Plaque Scheme).

For more information about the Heritage Plaque Scheme and how to make a nomination, please contact Scott Phillips [email protected]

New Heritage Plaque unveiled

NATIONAL AEROSPACE LIBRARYThe Hub, Fowler Avenue, Farnborough Business Park, Farnborough,

Hampshire GU14 7JP, UK

Aviation Book FairThursday, 14 November 2019 10.30am – 4.30pm

100s of donated aviation historical books, biographies, memoirs, aircraft histories,aeronautical textbooks and 1,000s of magazines for sale

Free Admission

All proceeds to conserve historic aviation material in the Library’s archives

T +44 (0)1252 701038/701060 E [email protected]

Filton House, now Pegasus House, Bristol, when part of BAC. RAeS (NAL).

49NOVEMBER 2019i fFind us on Twitter Find us on LinkedIn Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com

FILM REVIEW

Balloonist ANIKA VED takes a look at a new blockbuster movie celebrating the balloon pioneers – and based on the exploits of one of the founders of the Royal Aeronautical Society.

The film, The Aeronauts, is inspired by the story of James Glaisher (1809-1903), played by Eddie Redmayne, a meteorologist, aeronaut and astronomer, in 1862, broke the altitude record during an ascent to look at how to better map weather. James later became one of the founding members of the Royal Aeronautical Society when it was established in 1866. This film is visually stunning with a score to match portraying the sense of pushing the boundaries of flight and, to my knowledge, the first of its kind to be based on a pioneer of balloon flight rather than space exploration. The film definitely feels like a mixture of The Greatest Showman (bar the songs) and Gravity with the cinematic beauty of the sky.

It starts with the fictional Amelia Wren (a nod to Earhart) played by Felicity Jones, having flashbacks to a previous disastrous balloon flight and perhaps giving the audience a clue that the flight about to be portrayed in the film is not going to go according to plan. The spectators in Victorian London gather to watch the balloon launch and have an expectation to see a show which the protagonist, Amelia, is more than happy to provide, with her acrobatics, matches with how it is to be a part of public balloon festivals that take place every year around the world in the modern day. Throughout the film, audiences are reminded of the altitude of the balloon and a time check as the balloon ascends to give a real sense of the feat the characters are faced with to be the first to break the altitude record which, at one-point, leads them to feel physical pain from hypoxia.

What I particularly enjoyed about this film is that it showed the wonder and freedom of floating up in the sky – to feel completely alone which is very different to being in a closed aircraft. There are moments in the film where there is no dialogue, the audience is left to soak in the magic as the flight progresses. There are reminders of the personal and professional adversity Glaisher and Wren faced by convincing members of the Royal Society to pursue a feat that had not yet been achieved by anyone in the race for flight.

The script is littered with phrases and metaphors about flying and, while beautiful to hear how the English language is used to describe the feeling of ascending in to the sky, after the fifth grandiose statement, it does get a bit tiring.

Fact vs fiction

There are also numerous artistic licenses that have been taken with this film, firstly the couple’s ability to see the stars from the balloon at 35,000ft which is not strictly possible, and they do not seem to be wearing adequate protective clothing. To set the record straight, James Glaisher was accompanied by his friend Henry Coxwell who is not mentioned in the film. I can forgive the writers, in this diverse world of cinema, for trying to encourage more women to be pilots and work in the aerospace industry. It needs to be said there were plenty of other female balloon pioneers around at the time the film is based that could have been spotlighted, though it probably would not have provided the drama of this flight.

In all, this film does provide a pleasing view of flying in a balloon (at one point flying through a swarm of butterflies) and it shows one man’s determination to push boundaries and prove to stuffy city dwellers that there are possibilities to explore the skies, without which the aviation industry may not be as advanced as it is today.

Anika Ved

The Aeronauts (2019)

Director: Tom HarperEntertainment OneUK Release: 4 November 2019 – ONLY in cinemas as well as IMAX and 4DX

A new film shows pioneering flight

WIN – 2 x signed vintage posters from The Aeronauts film, signed by stars Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones in our competition. Simply answer the question: What other passengers accompanied James Glaisher and Henry Coxwell on their record breaking balloon ascent on 5 September 1862? Send answer to: [email protected] with email subject line: Aeronauts Competition First two correct entries out of the hat will each win a copy of the poster. Closing date 1 December 2019

WIN a movie poster! signed by stars Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones

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Afterburner

Above: Harold Barnwell at Stirling in 1910 in the cockpit of the fourth powered aircraft built by the two Barnwell brothers (Frank S and R Harold Barnwell). The aircraft was powered by a two-cylinder, horizontally-oposed water-cooled 40hp Grampian engine designed by Harold. RAeS (NAL).

HIGHLAND BRANCH

although it was not clear just how far he got off the ground or for what distance. There was a competing and better documented claim to this milestone, by the Barnwell brothers from Balfron in Stirlingshire. Harold and Frank Barnwell’s first successful powered flight took place on 28 July 1909 but their big achievement was their mid-wing monoplane, which won the prize for the first flight of over half a mile in Scotland on 30 January 1911 at Causewayhead under the Wallace monument in Stirling. Prof Gray recounted how, when visiting the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, he had noticed that the Barnwell brothers from Balfron were one of the few UK aerospace names to be noted in the American version of the history of flight.

No lecture covering Scotland’s aeronautical heritage would be complete without discussing Captain Edmund ‘Ted’ Fresson and Eric Gandar Dower. Fresson pioneered air transport in the Highlands & Islands in the 1930s onwards and formed Highland Airways. In 1947 Highland Airways, along with all other UK domestic air services, was nationalised into British European Airways, and Fresson and many other early pioneers of air transport were evicted from their businesses without compensation. Gandar Dower was a contemporary of Fresson, MP for Caithness and Sutherland, and the airlines’ nationalisation also took his airline. Gandar Dower is probably be best remembered as the founder of Dyce Airport in Aberdeen, which today is the world’s busiest heliport.

Prof Gray’s lecture brought the picture to the present day, through Scottish Aviation Limited’s role in the Bulldog and Jetstream aircraft, to the number of roles that Scottish industry played in both the manufacture and operational support of Concorde. Scotland’s role on Concorde is recognised and celebrated at the Scottish National Museum of Flight, which is now the permanent home of Concorde G-BOAA. Prof Gray’s own career moved from the supersonic speeds of Concorde to the much slower but very effective BAE 146 aircraft, when he was part of the structural certification team for the aircraft in

Professor Iain Gray CBE FRAeS FREng FRSE delivered the Highland Branch’s inaugural Alex Gray Lecture on 28 May in Elgin, at the Moray College campus of the University of the Highlands & Islands. The subject was ‘Scotland’s Contribution to Aerospace – What’s Next?’

The Alex Gray Lecture is the named lecture of the Highland Branch. Alex was the Branch Secretary at the establishment of the Branch when it was founded in the late 1990s, enthusiastically representing the Highlands branch at the annual branches conference for many years. He began his career as an aerospace engineer and spent his life thereafter supporting the profession and developing the next generation of engineers. After graduating in Physics at St Andrews University he studied Aeronautics at Glasgow University, graduating in the mid-1950s. An engineering apprenticeship with English Electric followed, where he gained early design experience on the English Electric Lightning. His first full job was on structures design and clearance work at Avro on the Vulcan. Following the early 60s’ Wilson budget cuts he progressed to work at GEC on radar mast structure design before taking up a role as a lecturer in Engineering at Aberdeen University in 1965, where he remained until retiring aged 70 in 2002.

Alex passed away in February 2018 and so it was fitting that the inaugural lecture named after him was delivered by his son Prof Iain Gray, Director of Aerospace at Cranfield University. Prof Gray held various engineering positions before taking on the roles of Director of Engineering, then Managing Director at Airbus UK. He became the first Chief Executive of Innovate UK following its establishment in 2007 and assumed his current role at Cranfield in 2015.

Prof Gray began the lecture by reflecting on his father’s career in aerospace and how his father’s passion for aerospace was passed onto the young Iain when the family attended airshows at RAF Leuchars and RAF Lossiemouth where they marvelled at the Vulcan and Lightning displays. He then turned to the early days of aerospace in Scotland, starting with Percy Pilcher who worked on the control of gliders and may have beaten the Wright brothers’ first powered flight milestone if he hadn’t been killed demonstrating an earlier glider model in 1899. Prof Gray described how Scotland has had its own aviation debate as to who made the first heavier-than-air flight in Scotland. Andrew Baird was credited with the first attempted heavier than air ‘entirely Scottish built’ monoplane flight, at Rothesay beach in 1910,

Inaugural Alex Gray Lecture


the 1980s. BAE still supports the 200 plus 146s still in service around the world from its site at Prestwick, and Prof Gray’s involvement with the type continues to this day because the FAAM aircraft (Future Atmospheric Airborne Measurement) uses the first 146, MSN001 – the test aircraft – as its platform and operates from Cranfield University’s airfield. This aircraft is equipped as a chemistry lab in the sky and is one of the most sophisticated research aircraft in the world today, equal to anything that the US can offer. Iain also recounted the significance of Scottish engineering on the Airbus A380 programme. Scot Bob McKinlay, the Concorde assistant Chief Engineer and assistant Director Flight Test to Chief Test Pilot Brian Trubshaw, later became Managing Director of BAe Commercial Aircraft and Chairman of BAe Airbus where he fought hard to ensure the UK played a key role. Iain’s own role in Airbus was in leading the team developing the wing of the A380. Engineers in Scotland played a big part in the development of parts of the A380 wing – particularly at Spirit Aerosystems in Prestwick who were responsible for designing and building the inner fixed leading edge of the wing. Coincidentally, on the same day the A380 made its first flight the citizens of Stirling were unveiling a commemorative statue in honour of Frank Barnwell.

Turning to the present day, Prof Gray reflected that Scotland continues to play its part in today’s global aerospace market – whether it be the development of new composites parts, new manufacturing processes at Strathclyde University with the Advanced Forming Research Centre or new companies, such as the satellite company ClydeSpace. Scotland also plays its role in new technology development, such as the ASTRAEA Jetstream which made aviation history when it flew from Warton to Inverness in May 2013 as the first surrogate unmanned flight in civil aerospace. From his role at Cranfield, Prof Gray remarked on their strong links back to BAE Systems at Prestwick with its current ‘classroom in the sky’ Jetstream aircraft, and a Scottish Aviation Bulldog flight test aircraft used for researching advanced in-flight instrumentation including fibre optic pressure and strain sensors.

Overall Scotland has an active aerospace industry, including companies like BAE Systems, Copernicus Technology here in the North East, GE Aviation, Leonardo, Raytheon, Spirit, Rolls-Royce, Teledyne, Thales, Vector Aerospace and many others all contributing to the Scottish Aerospace cluster at different levels in the supply chain and in supporting airlines around the world.

The final segment of the lecture looked to the future. The RAF is preparing to start maritime patrol operations with Boeing P-8A Poseidon aircraft from nearby RAF Lossiemouth, a very busy airbase which is already home to four Typhoon squadrons. The commercial use of drones was being pioneered

across the country by companies like CyberHawk, Sky Future and FlyLogix. Primarily used in surveillance and photography to begin with, drones were increasingly being used for inspection of North Sea oil and gas rigs – with FlyLogix routinely flying BVLOS drones out of Aberdeen to the rigs and back – and for inspection of the fast-growing numbers of offshore wind turbines.

Cranfield University is also involved in the future of Scottish Aerospace, as part of a project consortium working on the electrification of a Britten-Norman Islander for use on the island-hopping routes of the Scottish Highlands. The ‘Project Fresson’ consortium includes Cranfield Aerospace Solutions Ltd, Cranfield University, Rolls-Royce and electric motor specialist Dennis Ferranti, Battery management from Delta Motorsport and batteries with the Warwick Manufacturing Group. The project will work very closely with Loganair, with Highlands and Islands Airports and with Island councils such as Orkney. Future aerospace developments in Scotland are not only electrically-powered…they are also rocket-powered! In July 2018 the UK Space Agency announced that it was backing the ambitious proposals by Highlands and Islands Enterprise to develop a vertical rocket launch site at the A’Moine peninsula in Sutherland. The site will be used by Lockheed Martin and Moray-based Orbex. Orbex’s orbital launch vehicle, ‘Prime’, will deliver small satellites into Earth’s orbit using a single renewable fuel, bio-propane, cutting carbon emissions by 90% compared to hydrocarbon fuels. At the same time, there are also plans for a horizontal space launch capability from the proposed Spaceport at Prestwick.

In closing, Prof Gray acknowledged that it is a great time to be joining the aviation and space industries and that Scotland has a key role to play in these sectors.

“I will be forever grateful to my father for those initial visits to Lossiemouth. I know that, through his involvement in the Highlands Branch, he always loved the history of aerospace in Scotland but, more importantly, saw a future for aerospace in Scotland building on this history. I thank you for the opportunity to present to you tonight in this Alex Gray Lecture. He would have been very proud to know of the recognition you have given him and that he played a small part in setting the sector’s future.”

In addition to local Branch members and invited attendees, the lecture was attended by other very special guests: Alex’s wife, Mrs Mary Gray, and Iain’s sisters. It was also attended by Sir Brian Burridge, RAeS CEO. Gifts from the Branch were presented to Prof Gray and to Mrs Mary Gray, and the vote of thanks was provided by the then Branch Chair, Wg Cdr Mark Quick.

Giles Huby CEng FRAeS

From left: Sir Brian Burridge, Society CEO; Prof Iain Gray, lecturer and Wg Cdr Mark Quick, then Chair of the Highland Branch.

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EVENTS7 NovemberAviation and the Net Zero Emissions ChallengeGreener by Design Conference

8 NovemberCareers in Aerospace & Aviation LIVE 2019

12-13 NovemberRotorcraft Simulation – Trends and Future ApplicationsFlight Simulation Group Conference

12 NovemberEdwin A Link LectureMike O’Donoghue CBE FRAeS, Chief Executive, General Aviation Safety CouncilFlight Simulation Group Named Lecture

14-15 NovemberGlobal Megatrends and Aviation Forum: Co-creating Visions for the Future of the IndustryConference

18 NovemberLight Aircraft Design Conference: Electrifying General AviationGeneral Aviation Group Conference

19 NovemberSopwith Lecture: F-35 Lightning II testingLieutenant Colonel Billie Flynn, Test Pilot, Lockheed MartinNamed Lecture

20 NovemberModern Airline Fleet Planning – Art or Science?Paul Clark, Managing Director, Through The Looking Glass Ltd Air Transport Group Lecture

21 NovemberCan the UK join the hypersonic weapons race?Weapons Systems & Technology Group Conference

21 NovemberCapability-Based Test & EvaluationCaptain Benjamin W Harris, Test Design Division, COMOPTEVFOR Norfolk, VA, and Alex Ordway, Capabilities Based Test and Evaluation Lead, NAWC WDFlight Test Group Lecture

26 NovemberThe Engine MRO Crisis – Challenges and OpportunitiesConference

2 DecemberWW2 Fighter Aircraft Piston Engines – How British Management Excellence SucceededCalum Douglas, Director, Scorpion Dynamics LtdHistorical Group Lecture

All lectures start at 18.00 unless otherwise stated. Conference proceedings are available at www.aerosociety.com/news/proceedings

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7 NovemberBrabazon LectureShai Weiss, Chief Executive Officer, Virgin Atlantic LimitedNamed Lecture

LECTURESThe first Fairey Delta 2, WG774, after modification into the BAC 221 with a sharp-edged ogival wing for flight validation of a Concorde-style delta wing. The BAC 221 and the early days of Concorde will be discussed by John Thorpe at Weybridge on 6 November. RAeS (NAL).


BEDFORDARA Sports and Social Club, Aircraft Research Association, Manton Lane, Bedford. 7pm.11 December — Flying business jets. Paul Catanach, Line Training Captain, TAG Aviation (UK) Ltd.

BIRMINGHAM, WOLVERHAMPTON AND COSFORDNational Cold War Museum, RAF Museum Cosford, Shifnal. 7pm. Chris Hughes, T +44 (0)1902 844523.12 December — From Comet to Dreamliner: a history of aircraft fatigue. Dr Andrew Halfpenny, Director of Technology, HBM Prenscia – nCode Products Division.16 January — Hawk at 40+. Stephen Blee, Chief Airworthiness Engineer, Brough.

BOSCOMBE DOWNLecture Theatre, MoD Boscombe Down, Salisbury. 5.15pm. Visitors please register at least four days in advance (name and car registration required) E [email protected] November — Apollo 11. Pat Norris.

BROUGHCottingham Parks Golf Club, Woodhill Way, Cottingham, Hull. Ben Groves, T +44 (0)1482 663938.13 November — Branch AGM followed by Navy wings – flying historic aircraft and the organisation.27 November — A lesson in chemistry. Hull University, Robert Blackburn Building.

CAMBRIDGELecture Theatre ‘O’, Cambridge University Engineering Dept.

T +44 (0)2476464079.7 November — Annual Dinner and Talk. Brandon Hall Hotel, Brandon.4 December — Airbus electric-engined BAe146 programme. Riona Armesmith, Rolls-Royce E-Fan X Programme Director.22 January — The return of the DH88 Comet. Roger Bailey, Chief Test Pilot, The Shuttleworth Collection.

CRANWELLDaedalus Officers’ Mess, RAF Cranwell. 7.30pm. Please allow enough time to visit the Guardroom for your pass.4 November — Flying the English Electric Lightning. John Ward.9 December — Christmas event and RAF Presentation Team.

DERBYNightingale Hall, Moor Lane, Derby. 5.30pm. Chris Sheaf, T +44 (0)1332 269368.13 November — The global impact of eVTOL technology on the aerospace market. Dan Hayes, CEO and co-founder, VRCO, and Michael Smith, Chairman and co-founder, VRCO.15 January — Ice crystal icing and its impact on engine certification. Martin Maltby, former Chief Powerplant Engineer, BAe Regional Aircraft; and Geoff Jones, Engine Environmental Protection Technologist, Rolls-Royce.

FARNBOROUGHBAE Systems Park Centre, Farnborough Aerospace Centre. 7.30pm. Dr Mike Philpot, T +44 (0)1252 614618.19 November — The past, present and future of air

7.30pm. Jin-Hyun Yu, T +44 (0)1223 373129.7 November — Throwing away the rule book, Electric Air transport, Lilium Aviation. Lauren Hazlett, Lilium Aviation.28 November — Team Tempest, the future of UK air power. Michael Christie, BD Director, BAE Systes.19 December — Airborne electronic warfare – the Cold War legacy. Gordon Slater. Mulled wine and mince pies after lecture.

CARDIFFCardiff & Vale College, ICAT, Cardiff Airport. 7pm.20 November — Miles M52. Tony Buttler.15 January — Atmospheric research flying in the UK. Dr Guy Gratton. University of South Wales, Treforest Campus, Pontypridd.

CHESTERRoom 017, University of Chester, Beswick Building, University of Chester, Parkgate Road, Chester. 7.30pm. Keith Housely, T +44 (0)151 348 4480.13 November — War and Peace – 1956-1962. Peter Radcliffe, Grosvenor Museum Society and former Army Sergeant and Carl Mann, RAeS Chester Branch and former RAF Corporal. Joint lecture with The Grosvenor Museum Society.8 January — The preservation of Britannia Charlie Fox at Speke. Alan Pennington and Robert Carroll, Britannia Aircraft Preservation Trust.

COVENTRYLecture Theatre ECG26, Engineering & Computing Building, Coventry University, Coventry. 7.30pm. Janet Owen

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weapons integration. Gregory Nicholls, BAE Systems, Warton.10 December — RAF Reaper force – the human dimension of remote air warfare. Peter Lee, Professor of Applied Ethics, Portsmouth University.

GLOUCESTER AND CHELTENHAMSafran Landing Systems, Restaurant Conference Room, off Down Hatherley Lane. 7.30pm.19 November — Urban Air Mobility – A Technical Insight. Guillermo Durango, Modelling & Simulation Engineer, Lilium.17 December — The ACCEL Project – Accelerating the Electrification of Flight. Matthew Parr, Rolls-Royce ACCEL Project and Roger Targett – Electro-flight.21 January — Active Rotor Blade – The next great leap in rotor performance improvement. Simon Stacey – Active Rotor Studies Technical & Programme Lead, Leonardo.

HAMBURGHochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften Hamburg, Hörsaal 01.13 Berliner Tor 5 (Neubau), 20099 Hamburg. 6pm.7 November — winglets@Airbus. Dr-Ing Gerd Heller, Senior Aerodynamics Expert, Airbus Operations. Joint lecture with DGLR, HAW-Hamburg and VDI.26 November — Annual Christmas Dinner and Lecture. Anglo-German Club, Harvestehuder Weg 44, 20149 Hamburg. 7pm.23 January — BelugaXL – oversize transport for the 21st century. Veronique Roca, BelugaXL Technical Director & Chief Engineer, Airbus. Joint lecture with DGLR, HAW-Hamburg and VDI.

HATFIELDLindop Building A166, University of Hertfordshire. 20 November — Student Lecture Competition.11 December — Conservation at the RAF Museum. Darren Priday.22 January — easyJet flight operations. David Morgan.

HEATHROWBritish Airways HQ Waterside Theatre, Harmondsworth. 6.15pm. For security passes, advance registration (at least two days prior) is required. Please contact William Li, E [email protected] or T +44 (0)7936 392799.21 November — Charles Abell Lecture. Performance-based oversight in the aircraft MRO environment. Paul Griffiths, Engineering Safety

heavy, a life in civil aviation. Chris Cowpe and Brendan Bocker.

SOLENTPortland Building, University of Portsmouth, Portland Street, Portsmouth. 6.30pm.21 November — Developments in UK manufacturing. Phil Spiers, Head of Laboratories, Advance Manufacturing Research Centre.

SOUTHENDThe Holiday Inn, Southend Airport. 8pm. Sean Corr, T +44 (0)20 7929 3400.12 November — The Hawker Siddeley Trident. Stephen Skinner, Aviation Author and Historian.26 November — Informal evening with films. The Southend Air Show. Roger Campbell, Southend Branch Chairman.14 January — The Boeing 707. Charles Kennedy, Aviation Author.

STEVENAGEMBDA SG1 2DA. 6pm. E [email protected] November — Gravity Jet Suit. Sam Rogers. Leonardo LU1 3PG.3 December — Merry Quizmas Christmas Quiz Event. Bar and Beyond SG1 2UA.21 January — Tales from a pilot’s unofficial notebook – the art of bush flying – a pilot’s life in the bush. Capt Bryan Pill.

SWINDONThe Montgomery Theatre, The Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, Faringdon Road, Shrivenham, Swindon. 7.30pm.6 November — Enabling worldwide logistics for a

global Britain. Neil Cloughley, Managing Director and founder, Faradair Aerospace Ltd.4 December — The Royal International Air Tattoo – from small beginnings. Tim Prince.8 January — H-bombs and hula girls. Wg Cdr Paul Shepherd Ret’d.

TOULOUSESymposium Room, Building B01, Airbus Campus 1, Blagnac. 6pm. Contact: http://goo.gl/WbiKtV to register.19 November — Launching Satellites from UK Space Centre in Scotland. Chris Larmour, CEO, Orbex Space.10 December — Family Christmas Lecture. Thunderbolts and lightning – are they really frightening? Rhys Phillips, Electromagnetism Scientist, Airbus Central R&T. International School of Toulouse (IST), 2, Allée de l’Herbaudière, 31770 Colomiers.14 January — 29th Gordon Corps Lecture.

WASHINGTONBaker-McKenzie, 815 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington DC. 6pm.7 November — Space – the final frontier or next battlefield? Moderator: Steve Trimble, Defense Editor, Aviation Week.

WEYBRIDGEBrooklands Museum, Campbell Gate entrance. 6.45pm.6 November — The BAC 221 programme and early days of Concorde. John Thorpe, former member BAC Flight Test Department.27 November — 67th R K Pierson Lecture. Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine (SABRE). Dr Helen Webber, Heat Exchanger Team Leader, Reaction Engines Ltd.15 January — Film show – ‘Back to the Future’ Farnborough air shows of the 50s and 60s.

YEOVILDallas Conference Room 1A, Leonardo Helicopters, Yeovil. 6.30pm. David McCallum, E [email protected] November — What’s the difference between a helicopter and a rollercoaster? James Chestnutt.12 December — hypersonic Santa – a family Christmas lecture. Reaction Engines. Ticket only.6 January — Gulf War the differences in US and UK strategic planning. Sir Brian Burridge, CEO, RAeS.

Systems (Rochester), Marconi Way, Rochester. 7pm. Robin Heaps, T +44 (0)1634 377973.20 November — The John Shepherd Lecture. The F-35. Peter Kosogorin.

MUNICHDeutsches Museum, Vortragswesen, 80306 München. 7pm.13 November — Willy Messerschmitt Lecture. Struktureller Wandel des Flugzeugbaus aus Sicht eines führenden deutschen Systemausrüsters. Arndt Schoenemann.

OXFORDThe Magdalen Centre, Oxford Science Park, Oxford. 7pm. 19 November — Lift is a gift but thrust is a must. Anita Mays.21 January — First with the truth – Ops in Afghanistan. Dave Best, Operations Director, Nova Systems.

PRESTONPersonnel and Conference Centre, BAE Systems, Warton. 6.30pm. Alan Matthews, T +44 (0)1995 61470.13 November — Young Persons Network Mini Lecture Competition.11 December — F-35 into service.

PRESTWICKThe Aviator Suite, 1st Floor, Terminal Building, Prestwick Airport. 7.30pm. John Wragg, T +44 (0)1655 750270.11 November — Rolls-Royce Spitfire. lan Craighead.12 December — British independent airlines of the fifties and sixties. Tony Merton-Jones.13 January — From light to

& Quality Team Leader, British Airways Engineering.13 December — Richard Fairey Lecture. Sabre – a new class of propulsion. Sophie Harker, Senior Engineer Flight Control Systems, BAE Systems Air.9 January — The commercial viability of ultra long-haul operations: evidence from Qantas’ Perth-London service. Linus Benjamin Bauer, Independent Aviation Consultant.

LOUGHBOROUGHRoom U020, Brockington Building, Loughborough Building. 7.30pm. Colin Moss, T +44 (0)1509 239962.5 November — Elfyn Richards Lecture. Battle of the X-planes – the competition for the Joint Strike Fighter programme. Rear Admiral Simon Henley, RAeS President, 2018-19. Joint lecture with IMechE.19 November — The Fairey Rotodyne. David Gibbings.10 December — The Heathrow air traffic control system at 99% capacity – even under crash conditions. Adam Spink, London Heathrow ATC.21 January — Nanosatellites: enabling technologies for novel mission architectures. Dr Kate Smith, Lecturer in Aerospace Engineering, University of Manchester.

MANCHESTERRoom D7, Renold Building, University of Manchester. 7pm.14 November — Meggitt into the Future – The ANSTY Project. Stephen J Pilling, Meggitt Production System Lead, Meggitt.

MEDWAYConference Room 1, BAE

Fairey Rotodyne, XE521. David Gibbings will describe the Rotodyne programme at Loughborough on 19 November. J Thinesen, SFF photo archive.

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ObituaryDR JOHN DUNHAM

John Dunham was a leading member of the UK research community for gas turbine engines during a professional career of over 60 years. A gifted mathematician, he was well known for the rigour and clarity of his scientific thinking, which he applied to the research programme into gas turbines sponsored by the UK Government. Internationally, he served on the Propulsion Panel (later the Propulsion and Energetics Panel) of the NATO research group AGARD for 25 years, contributing to many conferences and publications. Even after his retirement, he continued to contribute as the editor for a working group providing test cases for validation of CFD methods.

John was born on 9 July 1932 in Walsall, UK, to Edward and Marjorie. He won scholarships to both Repton School where he gained a reputation as a mathematician of great ability and became head of school, and then to Cambridge University where he studied Mechanical Sciences, gaining first class honours with distinction and winning the Ricardo Prize in Applied Thermodynamics. Following this he spent a period with Rolls-Royce at Derby, gaining practical experience of axial compressors under the direction of H Pearson and A B McKenzie. Notably, he won the 1959 N E Rowe Medal from the Royal Aeronautical Society for his paper ‘Damage to Axial Compressors’, which was a significant problem particularly for military aircraft at that time.

John returned to Cambridge in 1959 as a Research Fellow to investigate non-axisymmetric flows in axial compressors. His PhD thesis on this subject was completed in August 1962 and parts were published as ‘Non-axisymmetric flows in axial compressors’, Mechanical Engineering Sciences Monograph Number 3, 1965. This was an influential and illuminating document in the early days of dealing with inlet distortion. John presented rigorous arguments for such aspects as the assumption of neglect of crossflow in a multistage compressor, plus corrections to take this into account. He also was one of the first to give arguments for the association of zero slope of the exit static pressure compressor characteristic with the onset of instability. These results were

for two-dimensional flows, basically high hub/tip radius ratio compressors, but John was also one of the first to analyse three-dimensional distortion, deriving solutions for a free vortex swirling flow at a low hub/tip radius ratio.

After completing his PhD, John began a long and successful career at the National Gas Turbine Establishment, Pyestock, UK. There, one of his earliest fields of study was axial turbine performance; this research, when subsequently published (Dunham and Came, 1970) by ASME, became his most widely known and used work, adopted and further developed at least twice in later years by other research teams (Kacker and Okapuu, 1980, Moustapha et al, 1989). He was promoted to Head of Turbomachinery in 1970 and a few years later moved to Head of Engine Research, before returning as Head of Turbomachinery in 1982. In these roles his clear scientific thinking was applied to both the internal research programme at NGTE and to the monitoring of the government-sponsored research carried out at Rolls-Royce and UK universities. John’s courteous but confident handling of research meetings and presentations and his command of any issues which arose earned great respect. He was also able to call on his PhD research in guiding the work investigating flow distortion at inlet to both the RB199 engine in the Tornado aircraft and to marine gas turbines. In 1990 he satisfied a long-held desire to return to his own research by gaining an Individual Merit appointment. This meant he was able to develop a new streamline curvature program for axial turbomachinery, known as SC90.

When John retired from Pyestock in 1996, he took up a position as Consultant Engineer at PCA Engineers. Here he made rapid developments to his streamline curvature method, which became divided into a compressor program, SC90C, and a turbine program, SC90T. These codes quickly became widely-used design and analysis tools, both within PCA and in the turbomachinery industry worldwide. They are likely to remain in use well into the future.

John fully retired in 2015. A devoted family man, his other interests included tennis and music. He is survived by his wife, Charlotte, his three children Anne, Liz and Peter, and seven grandchildren.

MA PhD CEng FRAeS FIMechE1932-2019


Society NewsAEROSPACE CAREERS PROGRAMME

The Royal Aeronautical Society was delighted to attend the launch of a new programme to promote aerospace career pathways to 15-18 year-olds in UK schools being led by RAeS Fellow Dr Michael Smith MA FCIPD CMC FRSA FRAeS and Tony Hoskins, Programme Director, pictured right.

The programme uses the inspirational story of WW2 hero Sandy Gunn, a pilot who flew the reconnaissance Spitfire PR.IV AA810 and was shot down in 1942 while searching for the Nazi battleship, Tirpitz. He was sent to the prisoner of war camp Stalag Luft III and helped dig the famous Tunnel Harry, escaping through it with 75 other prisoners of war in 1944. Sadly, however, he was then re-captured and murdered by the Gestapo aged just 24.

His aircraft, AA810, was recently found and brought back to the UK from Norway by Hoskins and is now undergoing reconstruction with the aim of taking it to the skies again in 2023. As part of the ACP Programme, Michael and Tony, supported by representatives from across the aerospace sector and RAeS will provide inspirational large-scale careers sessions

to showcase future opportunities in the sector. Furthermore, young people will have the chance to enter a competition to be selected for restoration workshops to work on the AA810 reconstruction itself.

The programme will launch in 2020 and you can find further details at the dedicated programme website: www.spitfireaa810.co.uk

Launch of the Sandy Gunn Aerospace Careers Programme

THE PROGRAMME USES THE INSPIRATIONAL STORY OF WW2 HERO SANDY GUNN, A PILOT WHO FLEW THE SPITFIRE PR.IV AA810 AND WAS SHOT DOWN IN 1942

During a trial of its multi-role humanitarian UAV earlier this summer, UAVAid’s co-founder Daniel Ronen CEng MRAeS made a presentation on the aims and purpose of the Royal Aeronautical Society to the Malawi CAA, one of the key stakeholders in approving this multi-agency project. Daniel Ronen will be speaking about this pioneering initiative at an IMechE lecture on 19 November at IMechE, 1 Birdcage Walk, London.

From left: Daniel Ronen, UAVaid Co-founder; Hastings Jailosi, Malawi Department of Civil Aviation; and Sarah Pannell, UK Department of International Development, Malawi office.

Presentation to Malawi CAA

UA

VAid

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Elections


SOCIETY OFFICERSPresident: Prof Jonathan CooperPresident-Elect: Howard Nye

BOARD CHAIRMEN

Learned Society Chairman: Air Cdre Peter Round

Membership Services Chairman: Philip Spiers

Professional Standards Chairman: Hilary Barton

DIVISION PRESIDENTS

Australia: AVM Mark SkidmoreNew Zealand: Des AshtonPakistan: AM Salim ArshadSouth African: Marié Botha

Afterburner

Ian BondAlcino CardosoAndrew FullickAjit Prabhu

Andrew AllcockMarius CoetzeeJohn Shuttleworth

FELLOWS

Emily AnsellJoseph ClearyTodd DonaghyAkitha GunarathnaNaqash Khan

Christopher EdwardsonNathan Mann

Jonathan ByeSharon DaviesErica JacksonBernard NgwenyamaDarryl RabotDean Van Aswegen

Charlotte BassettLeo Breedt

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

ASSOCIATES AFFILIATES

E-ASSOCIATESMEMBERS

Please note: Attendance at Corporate Partner events is strictly exclusive to staff of RAeS Corporate Partners. Both individual and corporate members are welcome at the Annual Banquet and the Aerospace Golf Day.

Wednesday 6 November 2019 / LondonFrom first flight to electric flight: transforming for a sustainable future Corporate Partner Briefing by Hans Büthker, Chief Executive Officer, GKN Aerospace

Sponsor:

CORPORATE PARTNER EVENTS

Michael Lawson CEng MRAeS 61

Victor William Page IEng AMRAeS 92

50 YEARS OF MEMBERSHIPThe Society would like to congratulate the following members who have reached 50 years of membership in 2019:

STUDENT AFFILIATES

Thursday 21 May 2020 / LondonAnnual BanquetCorporate tables and individual tickets available

Tuesday 18 June 2020 / Frilford Heath, OxfordshireAerospace Golf DayIndividual players and corporate teams are welcome

www.aerosociety.com/eventsFor further information, please contact Gail WardE [email protected] or T +44 (0)1491 629912

Mr Bryan Haynes MRAeSDr Leonard Squire FRAeSMr Trevor Wilcock FRAeSSqn Ldr John Walker AMRAeSDr John Ollerhead MRAeSMr Melvyn Reynolds AMRAeSMr Philip Jarrett HonCRAeSMr Terence Faithfull MRAeSGp Capt Peter Akehurst FRAeSMr James David Babbington AMRAeSEUR ING Dr John Hobbs FRAeSMr Alan Geoffrey Fieldhouse AMRAeSMr Peter Perry FRAeSMr Christopher Harper MRAeSMr John Blakeley FRAeS

Mr Victor Card MRAeSCdr Trevor Kirby FRAeSEUR ING Michael Lister MRAeSMr Ian Massey FRAeSEUR ING Anthony Lain MRAeSMr John Holt FRAeSMr Shoong Ho AMRAeSMr Cameron Macphee FRAeSWg Cdr Horace Hopkins MRAeS Mr David Pilkington FRAeSEUR ING Robin Cork MRAeSMr Gerard Terry MRAeSMr David Jennings MRAeSWg Cdr Harold Dunne MRAeSEUR ING Christopher Taylor MRAeS

To mark the occasion, they have been awarded a Golden Kestrel stickpin. Thank you to these members for their ongoing support to the Society.

Society News

Editor-in-Chief:Professor Holger Babinsky FRAeS University of Cambridge, UK

Chairman of the Editorial Board: Professor Mike Graham FREng FRAeS Imperial College London, UK

Deputy Chairman of the Editorial Board: Professor Chris Atkin CEng FRAeSCity, University of London, UK

Get FREE ACCESS to a sample collection at

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we need members of Council from every part of the aeronautical community and this is where you come in.

As such, please give serious thought to whether you could serve the Society in this most important role. If you are interested, or require further information, please visit our website at www.aerosociety.com/councilelection or contact Nigel Dingley, the Society’s Governance and Compliance Manager, on +44 (0)20 7670 4311 or [email protected].

Please note that all nominations must be submitted no later than 31 January 2020 at 23.59 GMT.

NOMINATIONS FOR THE 2020 RAeS COUNCIL ELECTIONS ARE NOW OPEN

Would you like to help guide the Society?The Society would like to hear from members who are interested in standing for the Council in the 2020 elections to be held next spring. Only by having a good number of candidates from all sectors of the aviation and space community can the Council benefit from a variety of backgrounds and experience.

As members will be aware, the Council now concentrates on the outward facing aspects of the Society’s global activities. Indeed, as the Society becomes ever more global, it is critically important that our offerings to members, to Corporate Partners and especially to the public are of the highest quality. To lead output of the highest quality

COUNCIL ELECTIONS 2020

but again the primary role has been to project conventional power over distance. The strategic bomber is an expensive way of delivering air power (the B-2 force weighed in at over $1bn a copy) but an impressive display of might when delivered halfway around the world. That, of course, is its intrinsic value; using this kind of firepower is an unmistakable demonstration of political will to use force or the threat of force to deter hostile action. It is also immune to allied moaning and cold feet, although access to the odd staging post in the Indian Ocean – legal judgements notwithstanding – does help.

On to the next generation

Preparations are already under way in South Dakota to receive the first of the $5.9bn B-21 Raider force in 2025. This aircraft will continue the line of American airpower thinking and application that began with ‘Billy’ Mitchell (and we are two years away from the centenary of his famous air power demonstrations against old battleships).

The new twist is the threat of area exclusion emanating from China in the Pacific. The Chinese are already showing some capability of deterring American naval operations within a 500-mile radius of the Chinese coast. This is believed to be the start of a major challenge to US unilateral intervention and action in support of regional allies over the next decade. The B-21 is part of the US response; to project power from distance with less threat to tankers and basing infrastructure (on land or at sea) that short-range aircraft necessarily require.

What do we also see coming along the track? Chinese and even Russian equivalents: with reported plans to roll out the Tupolev-designed Promising Aeronautical Complex for Long-Range Aviation (PAK DA) within two years and hints in China from AVIC officials of the imminent roll out of the new H-20 bomber, the big bomber is truly alive and well.

The Bomber Barons don’t die; they don’t even fade away − perhaps they just hibernate for a while. Back in the 1960s, strategic analysts were writing off the strategic bomber as an

essentially non-credible weapons-system. Major ‘King Kong’, aka Slim Pickens, astride his bomb in Dr Strangelove seemed the last satirical throw of the era (I was told by a veteran B-52 pilot that his wing celebrated the anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis with a showing of that film). And indeed the B-52 itself seemed destined for the Smithsonian.

Certainly, the path to high command in the USAF was already opening up to the missileers and, in time, tactical air power experience was another route to the top. The days of Curtis LeMay seemed numbered. And with the passing of the V-Bombers as front line aircraft, the legacy of Bomber Harris was also passing in the UK. The French sort of took up the tradition with the Mirage V as a long-term element of the Force de Frappe, but the Soviet strategic bomber force only limped on as a periodic pest testing the RAF’s interceptors.

Bomber Centennials are lining up

The B-52 was reborn over Vietnam and Cambodia as a tactical support vehicle – and indeed now looking to become the world’s first in-service centenarian (2022 sees the 70th anniversary of its first flight). The Russians have also rediscovered the utility of the long-range bomber standoff attack for operations in Syria. In general, tactical airpower has come to play a dominant military and political role in military conflicts (next year is the 100th anniversary of the RAF’s part in the ‘aerial policing’ of Iraq).

Indeed, rather than fading away, the US built two successive generations of strategic bombers, the B-1 and B-2. Both have played some part in maintaining the American nuclear strategic triad

The Last Word

The bomber barons live on

Professor Keith HaywardFRAeS

COMMENTARY FROM

THE STRATEGIC BOMBER IS AN EXPENSIVE WAY OF DELIVERING AIR POWER ... BUT AN IMPRESSIVE DISPLAY OF MIGHT WHEN DELIVERED HALFWAY AROUND THE WORLD


RAeS, No4 Hamilton Place, London W1J 7BQFriday 8 November 2019

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