Innovation in Aerospace

Innovation in aerospace Summary of an event held on Wednesday 4 June 2014 at the Royal Academy of Engineering in association with the Royal Aeronautical Society Innovation in aerospace Summary of an event held on Wednesday 4 June 2014 at the Royal Academy of Engineering in association with the Royal Aeronautical Society

Contents

1. Introduction 2

2. The global business 3

3. The UK opportunity 5

4. Innovation in aircraft 7

5. Innovation in flight operations 11

6. Innovation in components and materials 16

7. Further information and reading 20

8. Acknowledgements 21

Royal Academy of Engineering Prince Philip House, 3 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5DG Tel: 020 7766 0600 Fax: 020 7930 1549 www.raeng.org.uk

Registered Charity Number: 293074 Photo © Hybrid Air Vehicles Ltd c2 Royal Academy of Engineering Innovation in aerospace 1 The UK’s aerospace sector contributes billion a year to the economy £24

2. The global business

The UK aerospace sector is a global In addition, aerospace is pioneering 1. Introduction leader, number one in Europe and changes in business process, including second globally only to the US. The the servitisation trend, where customers buy the availability of the UK’s aerospace sector contributes service provided by an engineered £24 billion a year to the economy product, rather than the product with high growth potential in the Over the past three years, Sir John Parker GBE FREng, itself. Airlines, for example, are near future. Aerospace leads in increasingly devolving responsibility President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, has the development and application for aero-engines to manufacturers, chaired a series of events to highlight the opportunities of innovation in both product and rather than owning the power and challenges of innovation in engineering sectors that units themselves. Aerospace is process. With the overriding duty have potential for growth and global reach. at the forefront of product data of safety, aerospace as a sector management, which automates the On 4 June 2014, a half-day event on Innovation in aerospace has a mature and well-defined statutory requirement for traceability brought together leading engineers, businesspeople and innovation methodology that of materials and components. academics to discuss issues and trends in the global and UK makes it a challenging and exciting aerospace industry. field to work in. There is innovation too in manufacturing processes. Aerospace The event heard presentations from industrialists, academic Aerospace is widely seen as the is an important testbed for broader researchers, innovators, and aircraft builders and operators. instigator of technology change developments in automation, There was an emphasis on the application of technologies and in many fundamental engineering assembly and inspection. Aircraft, opportunities for UK-based companies to maintain a leading disciplines, including electronics, seen as highly complex examples role. This report is not a verbatim record of the conference; sensing and communications, the of systems and assemblies, present rather, it seeks to highlight some of the issues raised and to use of new metals, composites and manufacturing challenges that contribute to further discussion. plastics, and the development of new, have implications for many other more efficient and sustainable power engineering sectors. and energy systems.

2 Royal Academy of Engineering Innovation in aerospace 3 As an engine for economic growth, commercial aerospace companies are The UK has 3,000 companies directly involved in the aerospace is prized as an industrial investing heavily in new aircraft and sector worldwide. Air traffic, which more sustainable technologies. There industry, accounting for jobs barely slackened during the recent is a lot of business to be won for the 100,000 downturn, is now forecast to rise at UK but also a lot of competition to win a rate of 4.7% a year between now it. Aerospace is seen as a core sector in and 2030, meaning a doubling in the the industrial development strategies next 15 years. Airlines and other of many countries.

Air traffic is now forecast to rise at a rate of 4.7% a year between now and 2030, meaning a doubling in 3. The UK opportunity the next 15 years

The UK has a lot to win with To support the work of the AGP, the the forecast growth in global Academy and Royal Aeronautical aerospace. The UK has 3,000 Society have been proactive in initiatives to enhance the companies directly involved in the competitiveness of the sector through industry, accounting for 100,000 innovation and skills development. jobs directly and a further 130,000 Together they administer a scheme indirectly. to award Aerospace MSc bursaries to deliver more masters-qualified The importance of aerospace to engineering professionals for the UK Photo © NATS the UK has been recognised by a aerospace industry. government and industry initiative, the Aerospace Growth Partnership The need for special measures within (AGP). The work of the AGP was the aerospace sector, Everitt said, outlined at the event by Paul was identified from the sheer scale of Everitt, chief executive of ADS, the the opportunities: “It’s a £4.5 trillion aerospace, defence and security market in the next 20 years, with industry association. The partnership, a forecast for 29,000 large aircraft, Everitt said, was part of a new maybe 40,000 helicopters and many political consensus in the UK that thousand more business jets”. The saw designing and manufacturing as UK currently has capabilities in all of “a good thing” and that also believed these product areas, and perhaps 16 there was a legitimate role for to 17% of the global market. “With government in helping UK industry the scale of the opportunity, to miss it to win business around the world would be a crime.” through a modern industrial strategy.

4 Royal Academy of Engineering Innovation in aerospace 5 In order for the UK aerospace industry industry in the Aerospace Technology to capture a significant share of this Institute over the next six years. growth, the UK must position itself for This investment into technology and 96% the next phase, making investments manufacturing is intended to build both to increase capacity of the on existing strengths in areas such of those who took the survey agreed that they industry to meet growing demand as wings, aeroengines and advanced wanted flying to be more environmentally friendly and capability to match customer systems. A key message here, Everitt requirements. highlights, is that the investment horizon extends beyond the next two Those requirements are not simple. UK general elections, indicating the “For example, you can see that the degree of political consensus. volumes are growing, but at the same time the airlines are not getting At the same time, the UK industry’s richer,” he said. “One of the reasons ability to export components and for growth is that the cost of travel systems to other countries is also 4. Innovation in aircraft is going down, and we have to have being developed. The National to have products that will be cleaner, Aerospace Technology Exploitation more efficient but still cheaper.” Programme has been set up with a £40 million fund specifically aimed to The strategy for innovation within develop innovation within the supply Most fixed-wing aircraft in Demands from the public are for the AGP is founded on a £2 billion chain outside the big name companies service today are recognisably more sustainable forms of aviation: investment by government and such as BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce. the descendants of the first planes 96% of those who took the survey agreed that they wanted flying to that flew just over a century ago. be more environmentally friendly. There has been limited change in The same demand can be heard from The Rolls-Royce their configuration and reliance on the regulators. The European Union’s Trent XWB fossil fuels since the introduction Flightpath 2050 strategy, which set © Rolls-Royce of the jet engine in the early targets for the European industry to 1950s. The predicted demands 2050, wants to see carbon dioxide emissions associated with aviation on aerospace industry as 2050 reduced by 75% and noise by 65% approaches suggest that more compared to the year 2000. radical change will be needed if CO2 emissions targets are to be met. These targets, Remy said, demanded a new approach: “We have to rethink the nature of the basic vehicle for the More electric flight first time since about 1950,” he said. Recently, Airbus Group’s all-electric Sébastien Remy, Head of Airbus Group technology demonstrator, the E-Fan, Innovations, said that the pressure made its maiden flight. The small to change the norms of the aerospace plane has two 30kW motors, using industry was coming from consumers lithium-ion batteries, and can fly for as well as regulators. A survey of around 45 minutes. airline passengers indicated a finding that was apparently contradictory: Airbus Group is not the only company 32% of those polled said that flight that is investigating electric delays and late arrivals are the propulsion, but it is the biggest. greatest annoyance of air travel, yet Remy highlighted the potential for two-thirds said they still expected to electrical concepts to be transferred fly more. to helicopters or regional jets. Despite

6 Royal Academy of Engineering Innovation in aerospace 7 the existence of the prototype, The hybrid air vehicle however, and the intention to build several more examples from 2017, Innovation is also being seen in earlier there are fundamental questions aerospace vehicles. Airships never that need to be addressed before quite went away, but attempts to electric flight becomes a viable option. commercialise their development Aircraft have to undergo rigorous and operation have proceeded very certification processes before they slowly over the past 60 years, in are allowed to operate commercially contrast to the rapid growth in more and this would need to be adapted for conventional aerospace. electric aircraft, he pointed out. What makes a return to airships There are technological attractive, said David Stewart, Photo © Hybrid fundamentals that have to be Head of Flight Sciences at Hybrid Air Vehicles Ltd tackled as well. As illustrated in the Air Vehicles Ltd, is their inherent automotive industry, low battery sustainable credentials and a series storage capacity is a current barrier. of operational virtues that have been Weight and power density also are rather overlooked in the period when problems that have appeared in the aerospace growth was achieved demonstrator. The E-Fan has been an through increasing passenger not just on the smaller version, but also being developed. The hull fabric attempt to design an electric aircraft numbers and a concentration on also using CFD software and in a is a combination of strong materials from first principles, but Remy said speed. wind tunnel. and is designed not to stretch; the there was a lot further to go in terms vessel as a whole has been designed of rethinking aircraft architecture. “There are in fact a lot of persistent The Airlander 10, which is already for safety and stability, with a small This had to be done within the airborne applications and some new the biggest aircraft of any type in the pressure differential so that any leaks context of customers – both the ones for which lighter-than-air hybrid world, has a payload of around 10 would be very slow. operators and potential passengers vehicles are a real option,” he said. tonnes, but the Airlander 50 will lift – who now expect improving These include tasks such as telecoms up to 65 tonnes and can accommodate The Airlander series is seen as a cross technology and costs kept down. relay work and climate observation, up to six standard 20-foot ISO between an aircraft and a blimp-style where the ability to fly for five shipping containers, as well as 50 balloon. It has attracted government days at up to 100 mph without passengers. The aircraft includes research funding as well as significant refuelling is more important than features such as vectored thrust financial backing from the lead singer any requirement for speed. “We also for lifting, landing and precision of the heavy metal rock band Iron see a big opportunity in supplying positioning control at low speeds, Maiden. very remote areas,” Stewart said. with a hovercraft landing system “Essentially, hybrid air vehicles can take off and land on any flat surface.”

Hybrid Air Vehicles’ current Airlander “We also see a big opportunity in supplying very 10 is due to make its first flight in late 2014. It will act as a testbed for remote areas… essentially, hybrid air vehicles can take a range of innovative technologies off and land on any flat surface.” to be used in a much bigger version, the Airlander 50, that the company intends to launch before the end of the decade. “The Airlander 10 will tell Photo © Hybrid us a lot,” Stewart said. New systems Air Vehicles Ltd for the Airlander 50 are being tested

8 Royal Academy of Engineering Innovation in aerospace 9 “Our goals are to improve safety, reduce delays, improve flight efficiency and reduce the costs…”

5. Innovation in flight operations

Proposals to expand airport Innovation in air traffic control capacity in South East England have been controversial for more David Hawken, Engineering Director of Operations at NATS (formerly the than a generation, and are part of National Air Traffic Services), outlined a wider debate about the need to the existing system of complex add flight infrastructure capacity to sensors that are used to schedule the cope with projected increases in air 6,000 flights each day in the UK. The traffic. Ground-based infrastructure system comprises a vast network of is only part of the debate. radars, ground-to-air communications systems, ground-to-ground Increasing numbers of flights infrastructure, other navigational create the need for continuous aids and links to satellites. The Photo © Hybrid innovation in air traffic control to challenge is to optimise flights that Air Vehicles Ltd keep the skies safe. are, by their very nature, difficult to predict and control. There is additional pressure on systems from the different kinds of Delays in the air and on the ground aircraft now under development, rated as some of the most complained including airships and unmanned about features of air travel, and are air vehicles, that do not fit into the used by NATS as the base measures of current patterns of air traffic and that its success. Increasing traffic is driving need to be integrated into control new ways of thinking. “Our goals are systems. to improve safety, reduce delays,

10 Royal Academy of Engineering Innovation in aerospace 11 Innovation in flight operations

previous manual systems, the new Unmanned air vehicles software-based system enables direct links to be made to the cockpit Fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, of each individual flight for seamless airships – what most ‘air vehicles’ data flow. have had in common is that they are piloted. The pilot’s responsibilities Further innovation in software is also include the safety of any passengers proving the safety case for a change and cargo, liaison with ground-based to landing patterns at UK airports. air traffic control, monitoring the Air traffic control uses a time-based health of the aircraft and the difficult separation of aircraft, which gives manoeuvres of take-off, landing and the required safety margin with an avoiding others in the same airspace. element of contingency for factors Unpiloted aerial vehicles such as such as gusty headwinds. “We’re rockets and drone planes have been now doing a simulation to see if, by used as weapons and for surveillance slowing the landing speeds down, we in times of war, but have otherwise could bring aircraft closer together,” been rigidly segregated from other Hawken said. “The evidence so far airspace users where they might is that we might save about half the cause problems. delays we get at Heathrow, which could be around 1,300 hours a year, and the hard part in all of this will be convincing ourselves that it is safe.” Photo © NATS Watchkeeper unmanned aircraft © Thales improve flight efficiency and reduce The 18 minutes are not an arbitrary the costs,” Hawken said. Aircraft measure: “It proved to be the best being forced to circle before landing optimisation between accuracy are an environmental and economic and usefulness,” he said. Aircraft cost as well as an annoyance. “But vary in their performance and in we also see flight operators wanting the way they are piloted, so any to start up a new route in a matter of longer extrapolation would create weeks rather than years,” he said. uncertainties. The system works from the aircraft’s current position, Innovation in air traffic control means its flight plan, weather conditions and being “more dynamic and more agile” aircraft type. – and increasingly, that means using the power of software systems to Results so far have been encouraging, optimise the complexities. “Our future Hawken said. “Our estimate is air-traffic control tools are a four- that there has been about a 20% dimensional control system. It enables improvement in the safety risk index. us to look ahead by 18 minutes to You can also measure it in terms of see where individual flights might fuel saved through more efficient come into conflict on their flight plans aircraft handling, and we think it’s and what we can then do about it,” saved around £6 million or 10,000 Hawken said. tonnes of fuel.” More than that, unlike

12 Royal Academy of Engineering Innovation in aerospace 13 Innovation in flight operations

“The challenge now is to get out of for tasks such as televising sports and This flight showed the potential ASTRAEA is now setting out a follow- this constraint of segregation,” said aerial archaeological investigation. of unmanned flight, but it also on programme of work to verify Lambert Dopping-Hepenstal FREng, highlighted areas for further research. and validate the key technologies, Programme Director of ASTRAEA, “Essentially, this is a systems which include detect and avoid, the UK consortium of aerospace engineering problem,” Dopping- “We could transmit all the on-board and communications integrity and companies that is researching how Hepenstal said. “If we take the pilots data to the ground pilot, but there security. The programme team is unmanned aircraft might be allowed out, we have to be able to replicate would be a lot of it,” Dopping- working with the aerospace industry’s to operate safely in non-segregated the tasks that are done by them.” Hepenstal said. “We have limited new Aerospace Technology Institute airspace. ASTRAEA is not talking To some degree, this can be achieved bandwidth and we also have to allow as well as regulatory bodies in the about dropping the pilot from regular by transferring some of the pilot’s for the possibility of losing the link UK, Europe and beyond. Technology scheduled passenger flights, Dopping- responsibilities to a ground-based and for aircraft technical failures. innovations, Dopping-Hepenstal said, Hepenstal stressed. Rather, there pilot, perhaps sitting alongside air For that reason, we need to transfer are only part of it, there are also legal are a wide range of applications in traffic control, but some will have to some of the pilot’s intelligence into and societal issues that need to be areas such as telecommunications, remain in the aircraft. the aircraft itself, our autonomous addressed. agriculture, and search and rescue, system.” where unmanned aircraft can take Last year, the ASTRAEA project flew a advantage of longer endurance and small turboprop aircraft under ground an ability to operate in hazardous control from BAE Systems’ Warton environments as they are not carrying base in Lancashire to Inverness, using a pilot on board. Already, there are the commercial airways. There were examples of small-scale unmanned safety pilots on board, but the flight “If we take the pilots out, we have to be able to aircraft being used in restricted areas was controlled from the ground. Agricultural replicate the tasks that are done by them.” monitoring with unmanned aircraft © Callen-Lenz

14 Royal Academy of Engineering Innovation in aerospace 15 Innovation in components and materials

“Weight is a key factor in today’s industry, and Composites are also an important “We can look at other functions as technology in terms of meeting other well by bringing metallic elements composites have a role to play in taking weight out.” requirements, Hancock said. “Weight such as aluminium into the composite Lower weight can be equated directly to savings in is a key factor in today’s industry, construction,” Hancock said. and composites have a role to play in Resistance to physical phenomena both fuel usage and emissions taking weight out.” Lower weight can such as lightning strikes, erosion, be equated directly to savings in both bird strikes and thermal performance fuel usage and emissions. might be built in, but there is scope too to design composites specifically Technologies such as carbon for other factors, such as their nanotubes and high temperature manufacturability. resins offered potential for weight- saving within their own right. But This kind of thinking could go further Meggitt is looking beyond the material still. If a new layer within a composite 6. Innovation in gains that can be made to a new material is a sensor of some kind, kind of ‘multi-function composite’ then there is potential to modify its that blends material properties with behaviour during a flight: to switch components and materials component functions in the same functions on and off. Further layers structure. “It’s about composites that might add new functions such as bear load but are also carrying out prognostics and diagnostics. other functions,” he said. Hancock said that these ideas from Since the very beginning of What the two share from their Functions that might be considered an integral part of both the Clean different perspectives and their manned flight, aerospace has for incorporation in future composites Sky programme, which is funded different technologies is the broader been a testbed for new materials, include cost, weight, power efficiency by the EU, and internally funded innovation challenge that faces especially composites, and or diagnostics. A current Meggitt programmes to support the ‘more the whole aerospace sector: how project is looking at an ice protection electric aircraft’. Their potential also for broader technology to make the projected growth in air system where an electrofoil with effects on weight and reaching innovations in the engineering traffic to 2050 sustainable in terms of a low-power heating element is sustainability challenges facing the of power efficiency. Although environmental impact, fuel efficiency encapsulated inside the composite. industry are large. the engineering of subsystems and cost. such as aero-engines and the air frame might appear very diverse Multifunctional composites in in terms of technology, there has components been surprising crossover and commonality in some aspects; Composites that combine the for instance, titanium alloys and properties of one set of materials with ceramics have found applications those of another have been widely used in the aerospace industry since in both. the 1950s, said Mark Hancock, Chief Engineer at Meggitt Polymers and The final session of the event brought Composites. The benefit that the together two of the UK’s world- industry has derived from them has leading aerospace groups. Meggitt is been the ability to ‘tune’ materials to a diversified materials, components survive the range of harsh conditions and sensors group, while Rolls-Royce that aerospace structures meet in is one of the global giants of the aero- service. engines business.

16 Royal Academy of Engineering Innovation in aerospace 17 Rolls-Royce is close to achieving these targets, but then there are even bigger targets for the middle of the century. “We still have a long

way to go on CO2, NOx and noise,” he said. And the pressure is on. The rise of fuel cost over the lifetime Photo of the Trent engine © Rolls-Royce series, since 1995, means that fuel now accounts for around half of the cost of flying.

The pace of technology change and the introduction Specific goals to achieve by 2020 are carbon dioxide The optimum of new product in something emissions reduced by 20%, nitrogen oxide reduced by aeroengine as complex as aeroengines is © Rolls-Royce necessarily slow. Rolls-Royce has 60% and noise halved from levels in 2000 a highly structured innovation Innovation in propulsion units strategy: Vision 5 is about near- market innovations that will be Rolls-Royce, one of the most powerful realised within the next two to five The breadth of technologies that and fundamentals such as the basic companies in world aerospace, years; Vision 10 concepts are under Rolls-Royce has to investigate in architecture of the aircraft and where is under constant pressure to development today for potential order to achieve gains in these areas propulsion units are sited are also improve the fuel efficiency and introduction in perhaps 10 years’ is huge: from high temperature questioned. the environmental impact of its time; and Vision 20 technologies are materials to combustion technologies aeroengines. Alan Newby, Chief a distant view of ideas that could to infinitesimally small changes in The experience of Rolls-Royce, Engineer of its Future Programmes make a big difference over a longer fan design and operation. Innovation Newby said, is that there will and Technology Division, told the time scale. at Rolls-Royce is about continuous continue to be no shortage of event that two-thirds of the group’s improvement that feeds into what challenges that will require £1.118 billion a year research and The targets for 2050 are challenging, is already a well-defined path of innovation. There will be no shortage, development expenditure went on Newby said, “but we’re confident new engine launches scheduled either, of potential technologies environmental issues. that there is a lot of life still in the for the next 10 years. At the same that will be brought in to fuel the gas turbine engine. To get to all time, more novel concepts such as growth of the future in this globally The environmental targets that Rolls- of the Trent engines achieving gear-driven fans, variable pitch and important industry. Royce has been set are pressing and environmental goals is going to open rotor engines are investigated, ambitious. Specific goals to achieve require some radical solutions at the by 2020 are carbon dioxide emissions engine and air frame level. On our reduced by 20%, nitrogen oxide side, we are working on improving reduced by 60% and noise halved the propulsive efficiency and the from levels in 2000. Newby said that thermal cycle.”

18 Royal Academy of Engineering Innovation in aerospace 19 7. Further information 8. Acknowledgements and reading

Unmanned air vehicles We would like to thank the following speakers for their contribution to CAA CAP 722: Unmanned Aircraft System Operations in UK Airspace – Innovation in aerospace: Guidance Chair European Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems Roadmap www.ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/aerospace/uas/ Sir John Parker GBE FREng President, Royal Academy of Engineering

ASTRAEA programme Speakers www.astraea.aero Paul Everitt Chief Executive, ADS Group Autonomous Systems Social, Legal and Ethical Issues Sébastien Remy www.raeng.org.uk/news/publications/list/reports/Autonomous_ Head of Airbus Group Innovations Systems_Report_09.pdf David Stewart Head of Flight Sciences, Hybrid Air Vehicles Ltd David Hawken Engineering Director Operations, NATS Lambert Dopping-Hepenstal FREng Programme Director, ASTRAEA Mark Hancock Chief Engineer, Meggitt Polymers and Composites Alan Newby Chief Engineer – Future Programmes & Technology, Rolls-Royce

20 Royal Academy of Engineering Innovation in aerospace 21