AE August 2019 ROSPACE

PARIS AIR SHOW NEWS

BOEING T-X – BREAKING THE MOULD? AI AND LEGAL LIABILITY

www.aerosociety.com A ugust 2019 SWOOPS TO CONQUER V olume 46 Number 8 UK IMAGINES THE FUTURE OF AIRLINERS WITH ITS HYBRID BIRD OF PREY

Royal A eronautical Society EXPERT FORUM

MODERATOR: DR. RAFAEL RAMIREZ, DIRECTOR, OXFORD SCENARIOS PROGRAM

On 14-15 November 2019, the world’s industry leaders will gather at the home of the Royal Aeronautical Society for a forum on the global megatrends and their importance to our industry. WHY SHOULD YOU ATTEND? The objective of the forum is to develop a plausible investigation of these potentially disruptive trends and to co-create a shared vision of the future. Senior Aviation Executives with a strategic perspective will want their voices to be heard in this important dialogue. 14 –15 NOVEMBER 2019 NO.4 HAMILTON PLACE, LONDON Registration Non-member £1450.00 + VAT RAeS Corporate Partner or Member £1200.00 + VAT www.aerosociety.com/megatrends Please contact [email protected] to register your interest to attend the forum UK Govt UK Volume 46 Number 8 Airbus Inspiration nation Plane speaking August 2019 Airbus reveals the An interview with revolutionary Bird of the UK’s new 14 Prey hybrid-electric Minister of Aviation. passenger aircraft 36 Baroness Vere of concept designed in Norbiton. the UK. Contents Correspondence on all matters is welcome at: The Editor, AEROSPACE, No.4 Hamilton Place, London W1J 7BQ, UK [email protected] Comment Regulars 4 Radome 12 Transmission The latest aviation and Your letters, emails, tweets aeronautical intelligence, and feedback. analysis and comment. 62 The Last Word The green challenge for aviation 10 Antenna Keith Hayward looks at Howard Wheeldon reviews the development of the The past half century or so has been a triumph for the democratisation of nations currently seeking to European guided weapon upgrade their air forces with sector. air travel – opening up foreign countries and experiences and stimulating the latest generation jets. trade and tourism. Yet, there is an underlying sense that, at least in the Western hemisphere, the tide may be beginning to turn against unrestricted growth in air travel – much of it connected to the growing sense of Features environmental crisis. But what might have been dismissed in previous decades as just ‘typical students’ or the ‘usual green protesters’ now seems to be gathering momentum in other parts of society. The ‘flight- 20 28 shaming’ eco-movement is spreading from Sweden’s middle classes to other countries – encouraging people to take other forms of transport or not travel at all. Another aspect, perhaps underappreciated, is that, while Boeing electric cars, e-bikes, recharging stations and zero-emission vehicles have proliferated in cities – aviation’s reliance on kerosene has become more Breaking the mould? and more visible. This is despite the fact that aviation has developed more Is Boeing’s new T-X military electrifies trainer revolutionary or A report on the sales fuel-efficient and quieter aeroplanes which are a far cry from the polluting, evolutionary? announcements, aerospace noisy aircraft of 50 years ago. Indeed, aviation has been long aware of news, latest aircraft and new technology on display at the these challenges and is already signed up to tough sustainable aviation 2019 . targets such as ACARE 2050. Yet there is a sense that this message is not getting through and that incremental improvements are too slow for today’s 24 environmentally conscious consumers. It is no longer business as usual. 40 Radical ideas, such as Airbus UK’s Bird of Prey (see p 14) – which could

offer up to a staggering 50% cut in fuel burn – are thus likely to be the RAeS/NAL only way in which aviation can square passengers’ growing concern for the environment with guilt-free freedom to travel by air.

Tim Robinson, Editor-in-Chief The birth of air travel When the first international It’s the Robot’s Fault! passenger flight took off from [email protected] How the rise of artificial London to Paris August 1919, intelligence may affect there was still debate over liability and risk in the whether the future of flight lay NEWS IN BRIEF aerospace sector. with aircraft or .

Editor-in-Chief Editorial Office Printed by Buxton Press Limited, Tim Robinson Royal Aeronautical Society Palace Road, Buxton, Derbyshire +44 (0)20 7670 4353 No.4 Hamilton Place SK17 6AE, UK [email protected] London W1J 7BQ, UK Distributed by Royal Mail 45 Afterburner +44 (0)20 7670 4300 Deputy Editor [email protected] 2019 AEROSPACE subscription Bill Read www.aerosociety.com rates: Non-members, £170 46 Message from our President +44 (0)20 7670 4351 Please send your order to: [email protected] AEROSPACE is published by the Royal 47 Message from our Chief Executive Aeronautical Society (RAeS). Wayne J Davis, RAeS, No.4 Hamilton Production Manager Place, London W1J 7BQ, UK. Chief Executive 48 Book Reviews Wayne J Davis +44 (0)20 7670 4354 +44 (0)20 7670 4354 Sir Brian Burridge CBE FRAeS [email protected] 51 Library Additions [email protected] Advertising Any member not requiring a print Obituaries +44 (0)20 7670 4346 52 Online Publications Co-ordinator version of this magazine, please [email protected] Chris Male contact: [email protected] 54 HSA1011 project Additional features and content are +44 (0)20 7670 4352 Unless specifically attributed, no USA: Periodical postage paid at 55 Women and aviation available to view online on [email protected] material in AEROSPACE shall be taken Champlain New York and additional in Pakistan www.aerosociety.com/aerospaceinsight to represent the opinion of the RAeS. offices. Publications Executive 56 Diary Including: Annabel Hallam Reproduction of material used in this Postmaster: Send address changes Walking on the Moon again, Getting the balance +44 (0)20 7670 4361 publication is not permitted without the to IMS of New York, PO Box 1518, 57 Sir Michael Marshall right, Shapeshifting supersonic airliner, Apollo 11 [email protected] written consent of the Editor-in-Chief. Champlain NY 12919-1518, USA. Lecture competition on the big screen, RAeS flies the flag for diversity, 58  and other In the July issue of AEROSPACE, Flight to Book Review Editor ISSN 2052-451X Brian Riddle launch vehicles aftermarket profits, Five blogs on [email protected] 60 Elections news from the 2019 Paris Air Show.

Front cover: Airbus’ Bird of Prey hybrid-electric concept. (Airbus)

@aerosociety i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com AUGUST 2019 13 Radome

INTELLIGENCE / ANALYSIS / COMMENT Safety fast As well as the F1-style carbon monocoque chassis to provide crash protection for the pilot, the Airspeeder Mk4 also features advanced safety features, including an augmented reality (AR) display for the pilot and LIDAR-based anti-collision sensors.

Prop power The Airspeeder Mk4 is powered by eight 50Kw electric motors which drive eight 60in two- bladed propellers.

Battery swaps The Airspeeder Mk4 features 500Kw swappable battery packs, which provide enough charge for 15mins of flying time. The creators envisage races of 30mins with a ‘pitstop’ to swap batteries.

W

4 AEROSPACE / AUGUST 2019

August 2019 news pages.indd 2 06/08/2019 09:07 W August 2019news pages.indd 3 Flying carairracing AVIATION GENERAL piloted versionissettobegin inMojavelaterthisyear. is plannedtoflyinthe Airspeeder Grand Prix series,settobeginin2020.Flight testingofthe unpiloted threequarterscale versionoftheAirspeeder. The Airspeeder Mk4(picturedabove) is thecreationofAustralian start-upAlauda Racing,which hasalreadybeentestingan power toweightratiothanaF1carorjetfighter. The newairsportfor‘flying car’ eVTOLs championship forpilotedelectricquadcopters,abletoflyup200km/handwith agreater Goodwood Festival ofSpeedinJuly wasAirspeederLaunched − attheUK's @aerosociety FindusonLinkedIn FindusonFacebookwww.aerosociety.com i f circuits andgloballandmarks. four metres above theground atmotorsport 2020, willseefive teamsoftenpilotsracing The Airspeeder Grand Prix, settobeginin Race days Racing altitude W T Pilot specifications Airspeeder Mk4 an aerial racing anaerialracing op speed eight

4m 250kg 200km/h 1

AUGUST 2019 AUGUST 06/08/2019 09:07

Airspeeder 5 Radome

GENERAL AVIATION AIR TRANSPORT Gulfstream G600 BA fined £183m in data breach receives certification

On 28 June the US control sidesticks. The Federal Aviation Pratt & Whitney Canada Administration (FAA) PW800-powered aircraft awarded both type racked up some

and production G 3,200hr of u lf s certificates to t airborne flight r e

a Gulfstream's m testing and

newest 100,000hr of Airbus product, the ground based British Airways has been hit with a record £183m fine after criminal hackers managed to G600 business simulation, breach its IT systems and steal 500,000 customers’ personal data that was revealed in jet. Launched in says Gulfstream. September 2018. The fine, imposed by the UK Information Commissioners Office (ICO), 2014, the 6,500nm First deliveries to is the largest to be handed out and the first to be publicly announced under new rules range G600 features the customers are expected following the introduction of GDPR. The fine, 1.5% of BA’s 2017 turnover, is still less touchscreen Symmetry to commence later this than the 4% maximum punishment that could be imposed. BA has 28 days to appeal the Flight Deck and active year. fine. DEFENCE AEROSPACE

As AEROSPACE goes to press, Sweden and the UK have signed a memorandum of China to develop understanding to strengthen and deepen co-operation on future combat air systems. The ten year MoU will not see Saab, join the UK Team Tempest passenger SST industrial consortium at the moment but FCAS work will According to Chinese supersonic passenger continue in parallel. state media, the country is airliner’ was one of 20 key aiming to launch its own national technical goals indigenously developed revealed at the annual supersonic airliner in meeting of the China the 2035 timeframe. Association of Science The design of a ‘green and Technology.

Sweden partners with UK on future combat air Chinese state media BAE Systems NEWS IN BRIEF

The incident occurred on the aging CC-155 Buffalo range at Edwards Air Force Namibia, Malawi, Ethiopia, Boeing’s airliner deliveries 30 June when a body and CC-130Hs in the Base in California. Zanzibar, Tanzania and IAF MiG-21 Bison shot down in for the first six months of was found in a garden in RCAF SAR role, will be Uganda. this year 2019 fell by 37% Clapham. delivered later this year. A kit-build light aircraft skirmish over Kashmir from 378 in 1H 2018 to built by South African high NASA and the FAA 239 in 1H 2019. The main Airbus has flown the first Virgin Orbit has school students has flown have conducted a reason for the fall was a prototype of its modified successfully conducted 6,500nm from Cape Town, crashworthiness test reduction in 737 deliveries twin-engine C-295 tactical a drop test of a full-scale to . The Airplane involving dropping a which fell from 269 to 113. transport for the Royal model of its LauncherOne Company Sling 4 kitplane Fokker F28 regional jet Canadian Air Force’s Fixed small launcher. was assembled in three from a gantry 150ft in A suspected stowaway Search and Rescue The launcher, which was weeks by 20 students and the air. The aircraft, which was killed after falling (FWSAR) programme. filled with water and then flown in stages by six was acquired by NASA from the The first flight took place antifreeze instead of fuel, of the students who had from Canadian Regional well of a Kenya Airways’ on 4 July from Airbus’ was dropped from a pylon qualified as pilots under in 2000, was flight from Nairobi while Seville factory in Spain. on the wing of the ‘Cosmic the name of the U-Dream populated with 24 crash it was flying over London The first C-295 of 16 Girl’ modified Boeing 747 Global project. The journey dummies designed to towards . aircraft, which will replace on 10 July above a test to Egypt included stops in simulate a range of adults

6 AEROSPACE / AUGUST 2019

August 2019 news pages.indd 4 06/08/2019 09:07 Enter the Dragon

SPACEFLIGHT DEFENCE Japanese probe lands First S400 SAMs on asteroid − again delivered to Turkey On 12 July, the first flown in to an airbase elements of a Russian- near Ankara, where the

built long-range S400 Ministry S400 system ce en ef surface-to-air D will reportedly h is k missile battery r be deployed. u T began arriving Meanwhile, in Turkey, in the US has defiance of US previously protests over the warned that taking

JAXA NATO member and delivery of this SAM On 11 July the Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced that its F-35 partner accquiring would be a ‘red line’ and unmanned spacecraft Hayabusa 2 has landed for a second time on the Ryugu asteroid this system from Moscow. would see Turkey removed 185million miles from Earth. The probe made a brief touchdown in February when it fired The first components were from the F-35 programme. a 5g ‘impactor’ pellet to stir up dust for collecting before returning to a holding position above the surface. AEROSPACE The aim of the mission is to collect pristine materials from beneath the surface of the asteroid which could provide US electric-aircraft startup, Zunum Aero has run out of funding and virtually ceased insights into what the solar system was like at its birth operations, according to news reports. The company was developing a nine-passenger 4.6bn years ago. Hayabusa 2 is due to return to Earth in hybrid-electric regional aircraft. Boeing's Horizon X venture capital arm, JetBlue and 2020. the State of Washington had all invested money into the programme. AIR TRANSPORT Singapore, Malaysia Airlines deepen ties

Flag carriers Singapore partnership areas between Airlines and Malaysia Airlines the two airlines include have signed a memorandum cargo, maintenance and of understanding to extend expansion of code-sharing their codesharing agreement beyond Singapore- Zunum pulls plug and co-operation. Malaysia and frequent flyer on electric dreams Potential strategic programme. Zunum Aero

and children. The test was narrowbodies at the Paris 22-satellite navigation killing all eight passengers Swiss-based aeropsace carried out at the Landing Air Show in June. positioning network which and eight crew. According group, which has the and Impact Research went out of service on 12 to reports, the twin-engine Swiss state as its only Facility at NASA’s Langley Embraer has secured July due to a technical aircraft reached a height shareholder, realigns itself Research Center in the first international problem relating to its of 200ft before veering to focus on aerostructures Hampton, Virginia. customer for its KC-390 ground infrastructure down into an empty hangar and space. tactical transport/tanker, in . Galileo's critical and catching fire. The US Saudi low-cost carrier with Portugal having seach and rescue NTSB is now investigating China Southern Airlines flyadeal has cancelled signed up to for five services were unaffected the crash. has taken delivery of the European an order for up to 50 aircraft. First deliveries in the widespread outage, first of an order for 20 budget carrier of Boeing’s 737MAX are set for 2023. which was down for six 's -900s. The Ryanair has posted a net airliners. The airline will days. has acquired Switzerland’s aircraft will begin operating loss of €19.6m (£17.2m) now switch to Airbus As AEROSPACE goes RUAG business aviation on domestic routes from for 2018 Q4, the airline’s A320neos after its parent to press, engineers have A Beechcraft King Air 350 division. The divestiture of Guangzhou to Shanghai first quarterly loss since March 2014. While group Saudi Arabian now restored services crashed on take-off from its business aviation MRO and Beijing, followed by passenger levels rose to Airlines placed an order from the European Addison airport, north of operations in Geneva and flights to international 32.7m compared to 30.4m for up to 50 of the Airbus Galileo GNSS orbiting Dallas in Texas, on 30 June Lugano, comes as the destinations. for 2017 Q4 and revenue rose 9% to €1.53bn, @aerosociety i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com AUGUST 2019 7 Ryanair

August 2019 news pages.indd 5 06/08/2019 09:07 attributed AEROSPACE

Radome

AEROSPACE DEFENCE EASA publishes eVTOL RAF Poseidon makes first flight ‘flying car’ rules The European Aviation people-carrying VTOL with Safety Agency (EASA) nine or fewer passengers has published a final and a maximum certified Special Condition to take-off mass up to act as a framework for 3,175kg. manufacturers to develop EASA says that it is new hybrid and electrical ‘actively engaging with the vertical take-off and landing industry to develop the right (VTOL) aircraft. Opened technical requirements to for public consultation take benefit of the new in October last year and technologies bringing safety published on 2 July, the and environmental benefits Special Condition applies to to the community’. Royal On 12 July the first of eight Boeing P-8A Poseiden GENERAL AVIATION multi-mission maritime patrol aircaft, ZP801, named 'Pride Researchers at the Technical University of Munich, , have sucessfuly demonstrated an of Moray' for the Royal Air Force, made its first flight optical-imagery-based system able to auto-land a twin-engine DA-42 with a safety pilot. The from Boeing Field in Seattle. The first aircraft is set to be formally handed over to the RAF in October, and arrive in system uses cameras (including one infra-red) and satellite positioning data, rather than ground- the UK at RAF Lossiemouth in 2020. based navigational aids to recognise a runway and perform an approach and landing. SPACEFLIGHT Arianespace Vega rocket lost on launch

An Arianespace Vega the UAE FalconEye-1 launcher failed to reach spy satellite in what was orbit on 10 July after the described as a ‘major Vision-based second stage failed to ignite anomaly’. The Vega rocket two minutes after lift-off had previously flown 14 system lands DA-42 from Korou, French Guiana.. times successfully since The rocket crashed into 2012. An investigation into autonomously the Atlantic Ocean carrying the cause is now underway. Technical University of Munich Technical NEWS IN BRIEF

lifted off from Cape as well as other tweaks to launcher from Cape Saab Digital Air Traffic Canaveral on 2 July for a reduce the lst price below Bulgaria has approved Canaveral, Florida. Solutions has won an four-minute flight during $10m. the acquisition of eight The launch, the third order to install a digital which the abort system Lockheed Martin F-16V overall for Falcon tower at NATO Air Base was used to separate Safran is to open a new fighters. The $1.25bn deal Heavy, saw the rocket Geilenkirchen in Germany. the capsule from the carbon brake manufacturing includes six single-seat successfully put 24 The digital tower, which refurbished Peacekeeper factory in Lyon, France. To and two two-seat fighters, into orbit – is due to be delivered in test booster and then to by operating by 2024, the together with training including payloads from 2020, will operate while separate the abort system factory will employ up to and support packages. the USAF, NASA and The the current control tower is from the capsule. 200 workers. The aircraft will replace Planetary Society. Two being refurbished. Russian-built MiG-29s, side boosters successfully Bombardier has unveiled Romanian carrier TAROM which date back to the landed back vertically at NASA has successfully a new more affordable is to lease nine new ATR 1980s and 1990s. Cape Canaveral, while completed a test flight of version of its Learjet 75 72-600 turboprops. The the central core booster the abort system for the − the Liberty. It features aircraft will be delivered On 25 June SpaceX narrowly missed landing Orion ascent capsule. The two fewer seats than the from October through to conducted the first night on SpaceX’s drone barge unmanned test booster normally eight-seat aircraft 2020. launch of its Falcon Heavy landing pad in the Atlantic.

8 AEROSPACE / AUGUST 2019

August 2019 news pages.indd 6 06/08/2019 09:07 AEROSPACE

SPACEFLIGHT AIR TRANSPORT On 27 June, NASA announced that the next space mission in its New Frontiers Qantas to boost pilot exploration initiative will land a robotic quadcopter on Titan – Saturn’s largest moon. The Dragonfly mission, would see a flying lander equipped with rotors to fly short hops in training pipeline Titan’s dense nitrogen-based atmosphere. Launch is scheduled for Australian flag carrier September which will train 2026 with arrival at Titan in 2034. Qantas is to open a second up to 250 pilots a year. The pilot training academy airline notes that around in the coastal town of 790,000 more airline Mackay, Queensland. The pilots will be needed over airline already has one the next 20 years, with academy in Toowoomba, one-third of them being in which is set to open in Asia-Pacific.

On 4 July, the Light Armed , developed by Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) made its first flight at the company facility in Sacheon, .The first flight saw the LAH, developed from the Airbus H155, get airborne for 20 minutes. South Korea is NASA to send rotorcraft to Titan expected to acquire over 200 LAHs. NASA AEROSPACE GENERAL AVIATION Boeing to donate $100m INFOGRAPHIC: One More Orbit to 737 MAX families circumnavigates globe to mark Apollo An ex-NASA and team of aviators has broken the 1977 record for Boeing has announced it is over multiple years, will see circumnavigating the globe via both north and south poles in a time of 46 to make a $100m charitable Boeing partner with local hours, 39 minutes and 38 seconds. The One More Orbit used a Qatar Airways' Gulfstream G650ER to set the record, starting and ending the challenge from the donation to the families of governments and NGOs to Kennedy Space Center in honour of Apollo 11. the 346 victims that died in provide living and education both Ethiopian Airlines and expenses for families Lion Air 737 MAX airliner affected by the tragedies, crashes. as well as fund community The donation, to be released projects. ON THE COO is to leave his job at MOVE the end of this year. Powerscourt's Ben The CE of Norwegian Air, Griffiths is to become Bjørn Kjos, has stepped the new Head of down after 17 years in Communications at charge at the airline. 2Excel Aviation.

Boeing 737 MAX NASA’s Director of programme chief Eric Human Spaceflight, Lindbald, is to retire. Bill Gerstenmaier, His place will be taken has been replaced by by Mark Jenks, Vice Ken Bowersox. Bill President of Boeing’s Hill, Deputy Associate New Mid-market Airplane Administrator for (NMA) programme. Exploration Systems Development, is also to Peter Bellew, Ryanair be replaced. One More Orbit

@aerosociety i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com AUGUST 2019 9

August 2019 news pages.indd 7 06/08/2019 09:07 Global Outlook and Analysis with antenna: HOWARD WHEELDON Fighter replacement dogfights heat up

ith the UK planning to order The decision taken earlier this year by the Danish further F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Government to purchase 27 Lockheed Martin F-35A jets from Lockheed Martin over fighter jets for delivery between 2021 and 2026 to the next few years, Belgium replace an ageing fleet of Lockheed Martin F-16s. having decided to follow the UK, This followed an intense competition that saw both NetherlandsW and Italy in buying F-35s, the French Boeing’s F/A-18F Super Hornet and Eurofighter Air Force and Navy continuing to receive deliveries Typhoon lose out. of Rafale jets, Germany planning to replace its 90 Undoubtedly, the constant flow of verbal and Panavia Tornado jets with more Eurofighter Typhoons tweeted warnings from US President Donald Trump and Finland looking to replace its ageing fleet of has played a part in forcing European governments Boeing F/A-18s, Western governments can hardly be to rethink defence strategy. There are pros and cons accused of failing to modernise their fast jet fleets. in this and, while there is a general consensus and The UK and, separately, Germany, France and understanding that European NATO members must Spain have also realised the importance of investing pay more for the defence of Europe, it is important in sixth-generation jet fighter technology. To that to ensure that European defence is not allowed to end Germany, France and Spain signed a deal at become more fragmented. NATO must remain the the Paris Air Show that aims to jointly develop a overarching alliance for European defence, no matter sixth generation European fighter jet and air combat what. system known as the Future Air System (FCAS). Last summer, the UK formally launched Team A Swiss decision Tempest, a consortium that includes HM Government, the Royal Air Force Rapid Capability Office (RCO), Although not a member of NATO, Switzerland has, IT IS PLEASING BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, Leonardo and MBDA, to just as it also does with the European Union, long TO SEE THAT develop a next generation manned/unmanned stealth collaborated with NATO strategy. Even so, while MORE WESTERN fighter jet. The UK is unlikely to do this alone and is the Swiss Government and Swiss Air Force rarely NATIONS, NOT currently talking to a number of potential international produce headlines in relation to defence, the Swiss partners, the first of which is quite likely to have been Government’s decision to call for bids for up to 40 JUST THOSE announced at the Royal International Air Tattoo held at new military jets in a programme – suggested to be IN NATO, ARE RAF Fairford in July. worth CHF 8bn – to replace a fleet of very elderly NOW ACTIVELY Northrop F-5 Tiger fighters and Boeing F/A-18s Future jet planning has aroused considerable interest among military jet PLANNING manufacturers. TO REPLACE While France, Germany and Spain and, separately, The result is an intense competition in which the AGEING FLEETS the UK, are busy sorting the requirements for future French fighter manufacturer, Dassault, is bidding the OF MILITARY sixth generation fighter requirements, it is pleasing Rafale, Airbus the , Boeing the to see that more Western nations, not just those in F/A-18E Super Hornet and Lockheed Martin the JETS NATO, are now actively planning to replace ageing F-35A. The Swedish-based aircraft manufacturer, fleets of military jets. A resurgent , combined Saab, had also entered the Swiss Government’s with concerns over China and an increased focus Air2030 fighter competition with its Gripen E fighter in Middle East instability, with eyes on Iran, may be but later withdrew. seen as a wake-up call to some, while warnings The assessment phase of the Swiss Government’s and increased pressure exerted on European NATO Air2030 programme is due to be completed by members by the US that Europe must take more the end of 2020. As has become customary in responsibility for its defence have combined to play a Switzerland with regards to large defence equipment part in forcing governments to increase spending on purchases, a referendum will be held to allow voters defence. to decide whether the country should acquire new While questions remain on whether countries such military jet. However, assuming the decision is positive, as the UK have sufficient available fast jet capacity, it is they will not be asked to decide on the aircraft type. particularly good to see NATO member countries such Finland is yet another hugely important non-NATO as Denmark, Finland and Canada launching major new country currently seeking to replace an ageing fleet fast jet equipment procurement programmes. of Boeing F/A-18C Hornets. To that end the Finnish

10 AEROSPACE / AUGUST 2019 US Gov/ JovanteUS Johnson

Government has called for bids for up to 64 new Two US Air Force F-35A of the BAE-designed Canadian Surface Combatant multirole fighter jets in a procurement deal expected Lightning II , ships for the Royal Canadian Navy, to enter the F-35 to be worth somewhere between $9bn and $12bn for assigned to the 421st into the combat jet competition. the eventual winner. Again, interest has been intense Fighter Squadron, Hill Air These specific changes announced will allow for Force Base, Utah, right, with no fewer than five competing jets. Lockheed a more flexible approach in determining the value fly in formation with two Martin has entered its F-35A, BAE Systems is bidding Finnish F/A-18 Hornets. of the benefits bidders are able to offer Canadian the Eurofighter Typhoon, Saab has entered the Gripen defence firms: they come after a series of discussions E, Boeing the Super Hornet and Dassault its Rafale. with the US Government and threats by the Pentagon to withdraw the jet from consideration. The Canadian restock Under the current terms, bidders were required to offer industrial benefits to Canada as part of Across the pond and notwithstanding that a Federal the competition. That system, which would have election is due to take place sometime during later in disadvantaged the F-35, will now be amended, the year, meaning that most formal business of the sources say. However, those companies that do Canadian Parliament has already been completed, guarantee work for Canadian firms will receive more the Canadian Government has been pressing on with consideration under the new rules. its hugely important fast jet procurement competition US officials had warned that the agreement at the time of writing, hoping to have despatched Canada signed to be a partner nation in Lockheed the final bidding criteria and the formal requests for Martin’s development of the F-35 prohibits those proposal by late July to the various competing jet partner nations from imposing requirements for manufacturers, calling on them to submit bids for up industrial benefits in fighter jet competitions. “We to 88 new fighter jets. cannot participate in an offer of the F-35 weapon In what will no doubt be another politically system where requirements do not align with the charged competition between US and European F-35 Partnership,” US Navy Vice-Adm Mathias Winter military aircraft manufacturers, the procurement told Canadian officials in a letter sent in December. plan is based around replacement of ageing Boeing CF-18 Hornet jets by the mid 2020s. Canada was Luftwaffe requirements forced to acquire some F/A-18s from to supplement the existing fleet of CF-18s. The The decision by Germany to knock the F-35 importance of acquiring new aircraft to replace these Joint Strike Fighter out of the Panavia Tornado was highlighted by a report recently issued by the replacement competition which has left an upgraded Canadian Auditor General, Michael Ferguson which version of the hugely successful Eurofighter Typhoon suggested that, without combat upgrades the CF-18 to compete against the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super fleet will be less effective against adversaries in Hornet, caused significant initial surprise. However, if domestic and international operations. The report Germany does decide to go for Eurofighter Typhoon, also highlighted the serious shortages of pilots, the question arises that the aircraft is not currently technicians and maintainers. certified to carry US-made nuclear for the The Canadian Government has already been NATO nuclear mission. The most likely outcome forced to change the terms of what is expected to be is that Germany will probably acquire additional a competition worth in the region of $19bn to allow Eurofighter Typhoons and a fleet of Boeing F/A-18E Lockheed Martin, which was recently awarded build Super Hornets.

@aerosociety i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com AUGUST 2019 11 Transmission

LETTERS AND ONLINE

737 MAX MCAS software upgrades Helicopter conference Philippe Mairet [On The news item in the June that it should be perfectly RAeS Onshore helicopter issue of AEROSPACE possible to establish a safety conference 3-4 refers to Boeing having correlation relating flow July] Interesting! completed work on development about the upgrading the software fuselage nose to aircraft involved in the MCAS incidence. However, such i system(1). Presumably, a correlation would need this refers to the to apply to the possible algorithm interpreting flow development at all HSA1011 aircraft incidence from relevant flight conditions, Geoffrey Wardle [On measurement of flow and this might be more shapeshifting supersonic development on one or tricky. Alternatively, airliner(3)] An interesting both sides of the fuselage upgrading the software f article on the HSA1011. nose. The nose-down might simply involve Given all the issues of movement needed to correcting an error, or weight growth that dogged (3) reduce the incidence the stalling incidence, to errors, in the program HSA1011 the Boeing 2707 due below the stalling angle allow the flow to stabilise algorithm or text, or largely to its variable will, of course, generate and the aircraft incidence something else altogether. Steve Howe It’s just a fly geometry configuration, it upwash about the nose. to be deduced. Having a I believe that it is faster ! would be interesting to see I understand that this is fair amount of experience incumbent upon Boeing where a VG HSA1011, taken into account by of interpreting aircraft flow to clarify what is meant by would have led. Also the freezing the movement for development from CFD ‘upgrading the software’. Namviator Petty extreme area rule fuselage a certain amount of time predictions and wind- Tjitemisa ... this may well have presented at a few degrees below tunnel test data, I believe Allan Bocci is why the Concorde was aircraft evacuation issues. way too early...

A tribute to Roger Béteille of Airbus

It was quite a coincidence Airbus old terminal building at on the Concorde project that in the July 2019 airport to keep from 1968 to 1972, it edition of AEROSPACE, them isolated from the was always obvious to which contained Howard main Airbus offices (or so me that Concorde would Wheeldon’s article on ‘New I was told). I produced the be a commercial failure. I Management for a new first marketing brochure for was one of a few at Filton age of Airbus’(2) there was the A320 and supported who agreed with Mary also the announcement early marketing missions Goldring of The Economist of the death of Roger to Australia, Japan and in 1968. It was reassuring Henri Béteille at 97 (an Scandinavia. The A320 that Aérospatiale had obituary of Béteille is was finally launched in come to the same on p52 fof this issue). 1984 and it is with my conclusion. We should Roger Béteille was one great satisfaction that the accept that Concorde of the founding fathers A320 family has sold well was a commercial failure of Airbus Industrie. I was over 14,000 aircraft. It is with totally unacceptable employed by Aérospatiale Roger Béteille, left, secured the first US sale of the Airbus one of the most successful noise and pollution and we in 1982/83 and worked A300 with of Eastern Airlines in 1977. commercial aircraft ever. should stop romanticising in Airbus Industrie’s It was also interesting to about it. Instead, we should Blagnac headquarters the presence of a giant sales in 1982 were more note that during an Airbus celebrate the contribution under Dennis Little, Head of the aviation industry. interested in promoting employee ‘family open day’ made by the Airbus of Sales Technology. I often passed him in the twin-aisle market in Blagnac in 1982, only founding fathers and the Dennis was a wonderful the corridors of Airbus rather than the single- aircraft were fantastic success of the and inspirational leader headquarters and he was aisle concept. One of my on display. I noticed a real Airbus aircraft, especially and was very effective a quiet, polite but very tasks was to work with Concorde aircraft hidden the A320 family, and the in Airbus. On occasions, impressive gentleman who the 12 staff members of in the back of a hangar, huge commercial benefits Roger Béteille visited masterminded so much the single-aisle project not to be seen by the they have brought us. Dennis to discuss issues of the Airbus we know team under Derek Brown’s families. It was clear that and it was, for me a today. It was interesting to Directorship. The small the future was with Airbus. Adrian Sayce great privilege to be in note that many in Airbus team were housed in the Although I had worked FRAeS

12 AEROSPACE / AUGUST 2019 Mike Stanberry Pre-Concorde supersonic swing-wing design(3) @MichaelJPryce Designed by Jim Floyd, who also designed the Arrow and led the team on the M2.0 SST competition, realised through that work that the boom would be a show stopper. So this… Sweden and Tempest

@chodpollard [On The 1961 HSA1011 model photoshopped against a sky background. @Trokii_UAV Shades of Sweden joining UK Team Backfire/Blinder in that... Tempest project] Huge @PaulMarks12 @PaoloNurra One looks @BurkhardDomke Was wouldn’t mind it taking me boost, no? Fascinating. It has like a Valkyrie that configuration really on holiday! something of an evolved about noise or about area VC10 about it. ruling and low(er) drag? @maou42 We could do @graysonottaway I’d @AusRailHistory Looks worse when it comes to suggest HS at the time like the perpetually ill-fated partners. The Gripen is @tropicostation That is were more than capable of @AvHistorian Shades of ‘’ from the original a very decent airplane. just lovely. Concorde meets doing it too! the Carreidas 160? Thunderbirds series. Model of cheap and fast . maintenance/modularity and sensibly priced. Moon landing films Quad racing RAeS Pride flag

@PhSw2016 Sweden @LettersfromTim [On @jonowstrower [On could contribute at Armstrong and Apollo 11 Airspeeder piloted least Saab’s software film reviews(4)] Exactly the quadcopter racing] Humans architecture which makes right guy to take that first might be the only species those quicker-than- step. Ad Neil that dreams up more and competitors updates more fun ways to limit their possible. life expectancy.

Launch your own Saturn V rocket @daveoflynnBill Booth (a seminal figure in the history @Flyingarchivist That’s @wraillantclark [On @PrideInAviation You of sport parachuting) refers one short flight for an app RAeS Flies the flag would be most welcome at to it as risk homeostasis – but the stairs to the top for diversity blog(5)] @PrideInAviation event as you make an endeavour floor are exhausting... Great to see so many @city_airport on 18th safer, humans deliberately inclusive tweets August – World Helicopter add more risk. coming from the British Day @steerwithmyrear I’ve #aviation community just downloaded that and today! #PRIDEinSTEM it is wonderful! Blowing so Airbus 50 years book #PrideInLondon @Joshlesh This means many minds at RIAT HQ. @JetCityStar [On Airbus the world. Well done and pulling 50th anniversary thank you book] Lawyers firmly in @HurleyRob YES!! You @JohnChinner It’s control of both Airbus and did it! Great work gonna need more than a Boeing. Sad times. @JeffinerB !!! @AeroSoph Fame at roll program to get out of last! there. Love it.

1. AEROSPACE, June 2019, p 6, Boeing completes 737 MAX software update @RichardGearing As an 2. AEROSPACE, July 2019, p 10, Antenna 3. https://www.aerosociety.com/news/shapeshifting-supersonic-airliner/ @AeroSociety Trustee, I’m The lobby of No.4 4. https://www.aerosociety.com/news/apollo-50th-on-the-big-screen/ glad there was no damage Hamilton Place as seen 5. https://www.aerosociety.com/news/raes-flies-the-flag-for-diversity-in-aerospace-and-aviation/ to the building Look out through a Smithsonian @SpaceCornwall – you app showing a virtual might have a competitor as reality launch of an Apollo Online a UK launch site! 11 Saturn V rocket. Additional features and content are available to view online at http://media.aerosociety.com/aerospace-insight

@aerosociety i Findlinkedin.com/raes us on LinkedIn f facebook.com/raesFind us on Facebook. www.aerosociety.comwww.aerosociety.com AUGUST 2019 13 AEROSPACE High value design

Inspiration nation UK experts imagine the future of passenger flight – a hybrid, bio-inspired green airliner for sustainable aviation that could cut fuel burn by up to 50%. TIM ROBINSON reports on the Airbus ‘Bird of Prey’.

irbus has revealed a visionary concept engineering with creativity to define a product. from its engineers in Filton for a Explains Martin Aston, Senior Manager, Airbus and ultramodern, green airliner of the future project lead for Bird of Prey: “It’s that combination of – one possible outcome of where imagination, innovation and awareness of science, today’s advanced technology may take then converting that into a viable product.” usA when designers’ imaginations are truly unleashed. Thought up by Airbus engineers at the UK’s Filton The Bird of Prey is a 80-seater, 1,500km range site who were given a brief to imagine the future of hybrid-electric regional airliner that incorporates the flight without any limits, the Bird of Prey was brought latest thinking in aerodynamics and flight control, to life by a British superyacht and industrial designer – structures and distributed propulsion to create the Rob McPherson of BezierLab. McPherson remarked: greenest ever future airliner. Using technology now “When I was approached to see if I’d be interested in under development, the Bird of Prey could provide creating a vision for a future airliner I jumped at the a 30-50% reduction in fuel burn compared to chance,” adding: “The brief was to create a concept equivalent aircraft today – a major leap in efficiency. which would be technically possible if we pushed Says Jeremy Greaves FRAeS, Vice President, ourselves to the limits but futuristic enough to inspire. UK Corporate Affairs and Strategy, Airbus: “This is It was delightful to be encouraged to think freely and a visioneering project where we asked our talented could only be done with such a visionary client!” flight physicists to imagine what the future could look The company stresses that the Bird of Prey should like.” The Bird of Prey then, is an example of critical not be seen as a firm Airbus programme, “or even as High Value Design (HVD) that combines preliminary having an entry-into-service date assigned to it.” Says

14 AEROSPACE / AUGUST 2019 Greaves: “It may not be real in current Airbus strategy Biomimicry as design inspiration or financial planning but it provides a headmark for future inspirations.” “The birds fly a lot better than we do,” observes Leslie As well as Airbus, the initiative (which includes a Howard as legendary Spitfire designer Reginald J large 2.5m wingspan static model unveiled at RIAT) Mitchell in the film ‘First of the Few’, “See how they is supported by the UK’s Air League, Aerospace wheel and bank and glide. Perfect. And all in one: Technology Institute, IET, Whitehall’s ‘Britain is Great’ , body, tail. All in one. And when we try, we build campaign and the Royal Aeronautical Society. This something all stuck together with strings and struts model will make for an impressive talking point and and wires. But, you wait. Someday, I’m going to build centrepiece at future aviation events and functions. A a plane that will move just like a bird.” That aircraft, ‘Phase 2’ of the initiative, says Airbus, could see this of course, was the iconic Spitfire, a paradox in being non-flying model transformed into a flying prototype perhaps one of the world’s most beautiful aircraft but as an exciting student design project for control built with a deadly purpose. systems. ‘Strings and struts and wires’ may have been Says Aston on the model and Bird of Prey replaced today by ‘nacelles, engine pylons and concept: “What we want to do is get people to look fuselage belly fairings’, but, some 83 years after the at that and say, ‘right, how would I design that’? What Spitfire’s first flight, modern design tools, advanced technologies would I put on there? How would I make materials, , brought together with ‘high it work? How would I make it? How would I maintain it, value design’ (HVD) may allow tomorrow’s aircraft how would I make sure that it’s reliable?” engineers to pursue Mitchell’s vision of a perfectly The aviation industry has set itself tough targets streamlined ‘bird-like’ aircraft to its ultimate form for a to reduce its environmental impact – such as the EU’s more peaceful role, the Bird of Prey.

Flightpath 2050 – which calls for a reduction in CO2 Says industrial designer McPherson: “During

by 75%, NOx by 95% and noise by 65% by 2050. the initial meeting at Airbus I was briefed on the Above: Airbus’ incredible Concepts such as Bird of Prey will help turn these technology that was currently being developed and Bird of Prey concept airliner on which The Royal aspirations into reality by showing what might be one aspect was biomimicry. The talk was about making Aeronautical Society is possible and inspiring a new generation of aerospace wings more flexible/adaptive like a bird’s wing. Wing proud to be a partner. professionals to dream big. tip ‘feathers’ were discussed which led me to create a

@aerosociety i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com AUGUST 2019 15 AEROSPACE High value design

couple of concept sketches of a more natural looking may be ‘spray painted’ on using today’s automated wing. I wanted something that would look powerful systems. and purposeful, so decided to look at birds of prey for inspiration.” Moveable wingtips This is no mere aesthetics but would result in improved aerodynamics by taking cues from nature. Perhaps one of the most radical aspects of the Bird An albatross, with wing aspect ratio of 18:1 compared of Prey is in its individual wingtip ‘feathers’ – which to around 9.5 on an A320 is able to travel 1,000s of combine the drag-reduction function of traditional kilometres by barely using any energy. Blending the winglets, seen on many aircraft today, with the control wing and fuselage in an arch, mirrors how a bird’s and stability function of a bird’s feathers, replacing body blends into its wings and provides for maximum traditional ailerons and flaps. Only recently an idea aerodynamic efficiency. Instead of hinged ailerons like this might have seemed like science fiction. or flaps, the Bird of Prey would use highly-efficient However, advances in active and passive ‘morphing’ wing-tip feathers to ‘morph’ and control its flightpath, using shape-memory materials has now brought this as well as shaping the wing for various phases of advanced control system technology, a call-back to flight. Control using these active wingtip devices and the Wright brothers ‘wing-warping’, closer to practical distributed propulsion applications. would also allow the As well as NASA in the US, the UK is making tail empennage strides in this field. Earlier this year Airbus revealed that to be it had flown AlbatrossOne – a sub-scale demonstrator reduced in developed by its British size and Filton engineers which weight featured a movable hinged wingtip. The ‘semi-aeroelastic hinge’ on the AlbatrossOne allows the wingtips to freely – cutting down on turbulence and gusts, while

and radically reimagined into a bird’s tail feathers to provide precision control. No vertical tail, as in the B-2 stealth and various also reducing overall weight. Airbus Filton engineer UAVs, would allow for reduced drag and increased Tom Watson explains: “The Airbus demonstrator is the aerodynamic efficiency. first aircraft to trial in-flight, freely-flapping wing-tips As Mitchell’s Spitfire demonstrates, taking ideas to relieve the effects of wind gusts and turbulence”, from nature is nothing new for aerospace, but todays adding: “We drew inspiration from nature – the scientists are constantly discovering new applications albatross marine bird locks its wings at the shoulder for of biomimicry. Sharks and whales, for example, have long-distance soaring but unlocks them when wind- rough skin that paradoxically reduces drag in the gusts occur or manoeuvring is required.” water. That adaptation has been investigated by Airbus “The AlbatrossOne model will explore the benefits in a series of operational trials using test patches of unlockable, freely-flapping wing-tips – accounting of ‘riblets’ applied to aircraft surfaces. A further for up to a third of the length of the wing – to react All images used by kind permission from Airbus unless stated. development is that these rough drag-reducing skins autonomously during inflight turbulence and lessen

16 AEROSPACE / AUGUST 2019 the load on the wing at its base, so reducing the need Lower fuel burn would also translate into lower for heavily reinforced wing boxes.” operating costs, lower ticket prices for passengers and Combining these wingtip functions of gust thus potentially open up wider networks of regional response, drag and load reductions, with roll control airports for point-to-point travel. functions, as well as locking for long-range cruise, thus As well as its incredible fuel efficiency, the Bird brings an aeroplane close to the ultra-aerodynamic of Prey would also be a greener neighbour, as its efficiency of birds that are able to constantly reshape short-take-off capability would also allow it to climb their wings for different phases of flight. Bird of Prey out steeper, thus reducing the noise footprint on could be thought of as the ultimate extrapolation of the ground. With distributed power, the propellers, AlbatrossOne. too, could potentially act as yaw controllers, allowing smoother and more stable landings in crosswinds. Hybrid-electric power Indeed, with distributed hybrid-electric propulsion there may even be ways to ‘tune’ the propellers as The Bird of Prey would use a next-generation hybrid a form of ‘active noise control’ to redirect or reduce electric propulsion system for eco-efficient power, noise downwards to the ground. Germany’s DLR driving four A400M-style scimitar-shaped propellers. lab is already investigating this concept for a small The benefits of hybrid-electric propulsion is that regional airliner with distributed propulsion. An ultra- kerosene-powered engines (whether or quiet regional airliner would open up the possibility of turboprops) can be resized and optimised for the 24hour operations or increased frequencies at a far cruise phase of flight, rather than take-off and climb wider number of airports. where electric power is added to boost performance. Finally, a distributed hybrid-electric propulsion Fuel savings could thus be as much as 30% compared system would also provide additional levels of system to today’s designs – a massive jump compared to the redundancy and safety. A (highly unlikely) propeller average 1% that engine manufacturers can squeeze failure on one, two or even three propulsors could just The 2.5m wingspan Bird out of architectures each year. see the system reroute power to the other remaining of Prey model is set to Airbus is already leading the charge towards propellers. Four-engined aircraft (like the B-17) have provide an inspirational hybrid-electric propulsion with its E-Fan X landed before on single engines but a distributed talking point. A flying sub- demonstrator which it is set to fly in 2021 with propulsion system able to reconfigure and reroute scale demonstrator may partner Rolls-Royce. That ‘X-Plane’ which will fly with power dynamically as needed would provide far higher follow. the world’s largest (2Mw) airborne turbogenerator margins of safety. as a demonstrator for this large and powerful hybrid- electric system. 3D printing and geodesics Moving to a hybrid-electric propulsion system also allows aircraft designers to decouple the ‘propulsor’ Another advance that could be used on the Bird of (fan, ducted fan or propeller) from the ‘engine’ Prey is 3D printing and advanced composites to create (turbogenerator or battery), opening up radical an ultra-lightweight, almost ‘bird-like’ skeleton and new configurations in distributed propulsion structure in place of traditional fuselage frames, or that optimise aerodynamics, increase wing spars and structures. Parts made by additive layer redundancy and boost fuel manufacturing (ALM) or 3D printing have the potential Hybrid-electric propulsion technology is being efficiency. “We are at the to be up to 55% lighter than traditional parts. Already investigated with Airbus/ dawn of a new age in small 3D printed parts are appearing on aircraft such Rolls-Royce E-Fan X aviation,” says Rolls-Royce’s as the Airbus A350 – and these will continue to demonstrator, set to fly in Chief Technology Officer, expand in numbers and applications. 2021. Paul Stein. While long-haul, twin aisle aircraft will still need to rely on kerosene-powered aircraft, Airbus’ Chief Technology Officer, Grazia Vittadini, notes that the benefits of hybrid-electric power are such that: “It is definitely one of the configurations we are exploring injecting into our core products” when Airbus finally comes to design a replacement for its short-haul A320neo family.

Distributed propulsion

Distributed propulsion, too, may have other benefits. Much like an A400M or C-130J can perform short landings and take-offs using its propellers, so too could a propeller-driven hybrid airliner. This would enable it to operate into smaller airports and airfields.

@aerosociety i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook.com www.aerosociety.com AUGUST 2019 17 AEROSPACE High Value Design

Even more excitingly, as well as using 3D printing aerospace, rather than sub-system design or ‘build to to replace existing parts on conventional configuration print manufacture’ where work can be easily shifted aircraft, ALM can free designers from thinking about around the world to cheaper workers. AlbatrossOne traditional shapes for structures, ushering in a new era Airbus’ Aston explains: “In 1998 the Ford Motor – a sub-scale of organic-looking aircraft. Airbus has already hinted at Company produced a study. What they found is that demonstrator future possibilities with its 2050 concept airliner which 70% of a product’s complete life cycle costs are features a geodetic-style fuselage structure. locked in at the preliminary or HVD phase. Which developed by Interestingly, the Bird of Prey’s geodesic (or means that, if you control that part of the process, you Airbus’ British geodetic) structure harks back to another famous are very, very influential. If we don’t do that, all we do Filton engineers aircraft built at Airbus UK’s Broughton site in the is become a build-to-print nation, take other people’s 1940s – the bomber. Geodetic designs and make them. Whereas, if we control the featuring technology, developed by , produced a product definition, we control what comes next.” advanced passive light but immensely strong and durable structure able However, that position (and the UK’s part in it) is movable wingtips. to take large amounts of punishment and damage, yet not guaranteed. Leaving the politics of Brexit aside, still remain airworthy. it is clear that the UK has been ‘living on past glories’ Twenty-first century 3D printing and computer where key decisions and research made years ago design make it feasible that this lattice-work style have allowed Britain to retain its crown as the designer structure could return in a more elegant form, and manufacturer of Airbus wings. The incremental combining beautiful organic shapes with extreme improvements to airliners such as the A320neo and strength. A330neo have resulted in conservative safe design choices, rather than radical configurations. Even the The need for HVD A350 XWB, while sporting elegant winglets, conforms to the ‘dominant configuration’ of tube, wings and To help develop an aircraft like the Bird of Prey, the UK engines set in the 1950s by the Boeing 707. Says needs to refresh and reinvigorate its shrinking HVD Aston: “We’ve taken the Wright brothers, aeroplane pool of talent. It is estimated, for example, that between and got it about as far as it’s going to get for now. It 1990 and 2015, UK HVD capabilities declined by now needs the next generation to come along and do around 30%. This is a relatively recent development. something really clever.” For the UK, its HVD contribution to Airbus has centred Today though, there are new challenges. The around wings, engines (via Rolls-Royce) and landing retirement of skilled and experienced aerospace gears. Research, begun decades ago with wind tunnels engineers and intense competition from new sectors and design tools which has allowed Airbus to soar to a such as IT or web start-ups, have stoked fears of a position where it commands a duopoly with Boeing. future skills gap for aerospace engineers. There is also HVD − or the ability to apply advanced competition from new entrants, such as China, which engineering from concept to market, is the ‘noble work’ is innovating at an incredible pace. China, although its that truly creates long-term value, growth and jobs in new C919 airliner looks highly conventional, is already looking to a future replacement with a potential V-tailed COMAC airliner model. It has to be remembered that it was Airbus’ willingness to take risks with a widebody twinjet, composites, a two-person flightdeck and FBW that allowed it to leap-frog over US competitors and see off both Lockheed and McDonnell Douglas as commercial rivals. Stagnating is a sure-fire way to decline. Says Aston of the UK’s position: “We’re on the edge. I think Far left: HVD never stands at the moment there is still real excellence in UK still. China’s COMAC, engineering, certainly in aerospace. But, unless we for example, is studying a actually invest in that capability and actually put it ahead V-tailed design airliner to of the global competition, we risk going into decline.” follow the C919.

18 AEROSPACE / AUGUST 2019 Biomimic influences can be clearly seen in the Bird of Prey.

Neglect HVD and the consequences may not The cusp of an aerospace revolution? just be economic and the gradual decline and slow death of the UK aerospace industry as it fades into Although the Bird of Prey may just be CGI and a irrelevance but can also prove fatal and result in lives model at the moment, progress in aviation, particularly being lost. The current 737 MAX crisis, for example, in electric/hybrid electric technologies and advanced goes back to a HVD engine-airframe integration structures, is now moving faster than many might challenge where a more complex and expensive grasp. The recent Paris Air Show, for example, showed (longer landing gear) solution was rejected in favour several examples of distributed propulsion which, of what seemed at the time to be a low-risk cheap fix. when combined with hybrid electrics, biomimicry, The retirement of these engineers, the decline of advanced composites and 3D printing, has the these HVD skills and increased competition, comes at potential to unlock a revolution in eco-efficient flight. a critical time for the UK as it wrestles with its place Says Aston: “It was engineering excellence that is why in a post-Brexit world. ‘Disruptive’ technology in the we are where we are today. And that’s why, when the form of 3D printing, hybrid-electric propulsion, AI, self- next generation of aircraft come through, we want to healing smart materials, VR/AR and digitisation means be in the same position. that tomorrow’s aerospace engineers will require new Jeremy Greaves from Airbus UK is optimistic of skills, education and training to be able to harness the possibilties: “Today we can’t say how much of the HVD for the next generation of aircraft – which will reality of this ‘visioneering’ will come to fruition but also require diverse, creative teams to think about the we can say that, even if only 20% of ideas come to whole design. Tomorrow’s aircraft designers will need reality, we will be at the cutting edge of tomorrow’s to view aircraft as an integrated ‘whole’ rather than technology.” systems or subsystems, such as wings, fuel or landing Make no mistake, those at school, university, or gear. For radical configurations like the Bird of Prey, or college or just entering the aerospace industry, are even nearer term advances such as short-lip engine about to enter a new age of aerospace innovation nacelles, integration between airframers and engine where the sky is literally the limit and over half a manufacturers will become even closer. century of established textbook wisdom of ‘this is There are bright spots on the horizon. For what an airliner should look like’ is set to be thrown example, the UK’s Aerospace Technology Insitute, the out of the window. The next generation of engineers, Brunel Challenge, launched earlier this year and the empowered with new tools, material and digital savvy, Team Tempest consortium are all working towards a are thus set to ‘re-engineer engineering’. common goal of revitalising and re-energising HVD For budding aerospace engineers who dream of in the UK where for many years the sector has been designing aeroplanes that fly like a bird – your time content to ‘play it safe’ and focus on its strengths. has come!

The Aeronautical Journal Morphing Technology collection of research papers can be found at: www.cambridge.org/core/journals/aeronautical-journal/collections/morphing-technology

@aerosociety i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook.com www.aerosociety.com AUGUST 2019 19 DEFENCE Boeing T-X design Boeing

Breaking the mould?Boeing

The latest in model-based systems engineering, an ‘agile mindset’ and help from Sweden. Has Boeing has broken the mould for military aircraft development? TIM ROBINSON reports from St Louis on Boeing’s T-X advanced trainer.

n September 2018 the USAF selected the the USAF (along with simulators and support) for Boeing T-X for its Advanced Pilot Training a cost of $9.2bn, and this could eventually rise to a System (T-X) programme, designed to replace total of 475 airframes. its aging T-38 Talon advanced trainers, which The Boeing T-X (which also saw Sweden’s initially entered service over 50 years ago. Saab as a partner) was remarkable in not only IThis giant win sees Boeing provide 351 aircraft for being a clean-sheet design that triumphed

20 AEROSPACE / AUGUST 2019 against existing ‘lower risk’ competitors, already Fifteen flights without a single snag in service, such as the Lockheed Martin/KAI T-50 and Leonardo/Raytheon T-100(M346) but that The results of harnessing the latest in high-fidelity 50% also came in $10bn cheaper than the $19.2bn model-based systems engineering have been reduction in the USAF had forecast. Post-contract award, impressive. The 3D digital modelling of T-X, says software hours some observers thus wondered – had Boeing Niewald, with one master tool, “allowed us to have aggressively ‘low-balled’ its bid by 50% to win a 75% increase in engineering first time quality.” T-X at any cost? Or had it managed somehow to He added: “This also enabled us with self-locating reverse the seemingly inevitable trend of the ever- parts. We were able to splice the fuselage in 80% increasing cost of military aircraft? under 30 minutes where traditionally it would reduction in touch take us 24 hours.” The canopy was another area labour Boeing/Saab T-X design secrets where advanced manufacturing was coupled with the model-based design, with an injection sealant At a media briefing at Boeing, St Louis, the home gluing the transparency to the frames replacing of T-X, as well as F/A-18 and F-15, Paul Niewald, 600 traditional fasteners. Says Niewald: “We had 0.3% Senior Director & Chief Engineer, T-X, gave an planned for six weeks in the schedule to be able insight into the design and development process to assemble the canopy. It took us eight days. rework of this supersonic trainer developed in only three Techniques like this allowed us to reduce touch years, crediting the latest in ‘model-based systems labour on the aircraft by 80%.” engineering’ and an ‘agile mindset’ being behind Thanks to the increased fidelity of today’s the programme’s success in winning the contract. model-based engineering, this rapid design and Currently lacking an official designation and assembly did not lead to any lowering in quality. name, Boeing’s T-X is an advanced jet trainer “The rework was very small – 0.3%”. Indeed, powered by a single GE404 engine. It features Niewald says that the two T-X demonstrators twin tails, fly by wire and a tandem cockpit with should not be classed as traditional ‘prototypes’: a side-opening canopy. In configuration it looks “We didn’t build just one aeroplane – we built two rather like a single-engine Hornet, with the jets that are not prototypes. They are production front section of a Gripen (ironically it is Saab jets. We built them with the same processes that that provides the rear fuselage from behind the we are going to build hundreds more and we’ve cockpit). It first flew in December 2016. validated those processes with these two. In my Says Niewald: “The T-X programme and T-X mind these are the most identical jets we’ve ever aircraft features a lot of disruptive technology both built.” in design as well as in the manufacturing aspects. Perhaps the most impressive statistic from We were competing against proven in-production Niewald is that, ‘prototype’ or not, it took a full 15 aircraft, so we had to do things differently if we flights before a T-X recorded the first were going to compete and have an aircraft that ‘squawk’ or defect on an aircraft. Indeed, during was viable for that campaign.” the 71-sortie flight test campaign, the second He explained: “We had to rapidly get out there flight was made on the second day and at one and get a configuration. We used the latest in point the aircraft were flying up to four times a model-based engineering to help define what that day. configuration was and set that configuration. We As well as the manufacturing and tooling, care used computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to go has also been taken to make the T-X as easy to ahead and get the aero and loads that we would maintain as possible from the ground crew’s point need for detailed design. This allowed us to go of view. For example, the aircraft features quick- much faster, with much more understanding of access panels at head height, a high wing, and T-X HAS the configuration earlier than if we had to go and interchangeable left and right stabilators. A team INCORPORATED design wind-tunnel models, put those into a wind- of four technicians, meanwhile, can change the tunnel test and analyse those.” engine in hours. Finally, a side-opening canopy LESSONS FROM Niewald also credits an ‘agile mindset’ in the means that ejection seats can be removed SAAB’S GRIPEN small ‘Skunk Works’-like team and its suppliers individually, without having to remove the canopy that meant that everybody was on the same page itself. and working to the same ‘cadence’. This agile mindset saw a block plan for hardware and software Swedish partners integration, with software being updated every eight weeks. This saw a 50% reduction in software hours Boeing’s model-based engineering and ‘agile needed. Quicker updates also allowed the mindset’ has also benefited from outside help simulators to stay concurrent with the aircraft – a from Sweden’s Saab – well known for developing feature that will be extended into service – removing a highly affordable, yet capable, fourth generation, the negative training where simulators ‘lag’ avionics fighter in the Gripen. Having signed a partnership

and features in the real aircraft. in 2013 with Boeing as prime contractor, Saab Saab

@aerosociety i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com AUGUST 2019 21 DEFENCE Boeing T-X design

was given the rear fuselage to develop and fuel etc), making for an extremely intuitive and assemble. In May 2019, Saab announced it is to user-friendly cockpit for student pilots, who can invest $37m in a new factory in Lafayette, Indiana, concentrate on flying the aircraft and the mission. to produce its share of the T-X. The avionics suite includes synthetic radar and Notably, Saab’s Gripen shares much of the weapons, as well as datalinks to link with other focus on affordable, simple maintenance that T-Xs, and being future-proofed for LVC (live-virtual BOEING HAS informs the design of T-X – a hold-over from the constructive) training. TAKEN THE days where Swedish conscripts with Boeing is providing some 46 associated AVIONICS minimal training were expected to be able to simulators and training devices for T-X. These DEVELOPMENT turnaround jet fighters in austere conditions. How feature Boeing’s Constant Visual Resolution much of the Gripen mentality has leaked over to System (CVRS) graphics technology, which OF T-X IN- Boeing on T-X is difficult to judge but, without features pin-sharp graphics wherever you look HOUSE TO mentioning Saab directly, Niewald says: “From a around the dome – whatever the field of view. CREATE A partnership standpoint it was very refreshing to (Other visual systems, says Boeing, can cause have teammates that thought and had the same ‘negative training’ when pilots work out the ‘best’ COCKPIT sort of goals that we did as to how we wanted to place to spot bandits on the screen – effectively DISPLAY AIMED innovate going forward on T-X.” cheating.) AT THE SMART- Powered by a GE F404 (the same as in a PHONE SAVVY A 21st century trainer cockpit Gripen C/D), the T-X has no shortage of power. T-X Chief Test Pilot Steve ‘Bull’ Schmidt says ‘DIGITAL One aspect of T-X that Boeing has kept close to of the aircraft: “It flies like a fighter – extremely NATIVE’ PILOTS its chest in the development of T-X for the USAF, crisp roll, with no AoA restrictions. Fun to fly and OF TOMORROW. has been the cockpit layout. This features a large really zips around the sky.” Excess power, LERX touchscreen display and digital up-front controller, and twin tails also mean it can provide the perfect as well as hands on throttle-and-stick and low- lead-in to the higher performance US front-line profile head-up display as sidestick. In particular, fighters, such as the F-22, F-35 and F/A-18E. the large single widescreen display echoes the Schmidt will not name the T-X’s maximum angle- F-35 display, as well as the single display for the of-attack but did admit that it is beyond the 25° Block III F/A-18 Hornet, F-15QA/EX and Saab’s requirement from the USAF. Gripen E. In short, while the T-X may replace the T-38 The large screen size is only part of this. As Talon, the USAF also sees the introduction of part of its ‘agile mindset’, Boeing has taken the its first advanced trainer in over 50 years as an avionics development of T-X in-house to create opportunity to streamline, accelerate and get a cockpit display aimed at the smart-phone savvy aircrew to the front line faster and at a higher ‘digital native’ pilots of tomorrow. The interface, level of readiness – saving money by allowing for example, features iPhone/Garmin G1000- operational squadrons to focus on high-end like ‘app’ icons for different functions (checklist, training and tactics. Boeing

22 AEROSPACE / AUGUST 2019 T-X on the international market? sub assembly jigs and reduction in parts count from the earlier F/A-18 Hornet. One of the two Under an initial $813m contract, Boeing/Saab Dr Michael Pryce, Academic Lead for Policy are to deliver the first five EMD T-X aircraft to Engagement, Cranfield Defence & Security and T-X prototypes at the USAF at Randolph AFB, Texas, in 2023, with member of the MoD Independent Scientific & Boeing Defense initial operating capability set for 2024 and full Technical Advice (ISTA) register, notes that: “T-X in St Louis. The operational capability is planned for 2034. However, is small, simple and largely made of traditional aircraft has yet to while Boeing has focused so far on winning the materials, without stealth coatings etc. All that helps big USAF prize, it is now talking up potential make it predictable and maybe sound a bit boring.” receive an official international export orders and T-X growth into Pryce also points out that McDonnell Douglas’ USAF designation new capabilities, such as aggressor, ‘companion’ British partnerships with the Hawk (T-45) and or name. trainers or light fighter/attack. Indeed, as part of the Harrier (AV-8B) may also lie in the DNA of T-X. “Of design process, potential for future growth, such as course, Kingston and St Louis are linked by Harrier adding weapons or sensors, has been built in from and Hawk. The canopy idea mentioned is the same the start, although the company is coy about the as the Hawk, for example, as is the ground crew specific number and carrying capacity of . of four. Saab also designed the Gripen with these Boeing’s Ted Torgerson, T-X Senior Director, features (conscripts can only do simple tasks). believes that T-X enters a worldwide market of So, 70s and 80s ideas from abroad, along with, 2,600 advanced trainers/light . 90s CAD and Boeing’s 00s shop floor experience This is an extremely crowded market, with equals model-based systems engineering?” existing jet aircraft (Hawk, M346, T-50, L159NG), While the ideas may not be new, Pryce as well as turboprops such as the Super Tucano, notes: “The real area of interest is in the reduced dominating light attack. Torgerson, though, is bullish maintenance and operating costs Boeing promise,” about the competition, saying: “They can’t touch our adding. “If this low maintenance approach works, cost.” it could be a very valuable lesson for (UK’s) Team Tempest, as does the fact that Saab seem, very Revolutionary or evolutionary? happy to work in novel ways with partners, not simply old fashioned ‘work share’. Less money for So, is Boeing’s approach to T-X a revolution maintenance means you can buy more aircraft and in military aircraft design and development or competent partners mean you can develop them simply an evolution of older tools and techniques? more rapidly.” computer aided design (CAD), for instance, The T-X’s approach to rapid design and dates back to the Boeing 777, and its first ‘digital development, along with affordable support, could twin’ created in 1989 some three decades ago. have lessons for more complex and sophisticated Meanwhile, another St Louis product, the F/A-18E aerospace projects, not just in Boeing, but around Super Hornet in the early 1990s, also saw the the globe as companies and nations aim to break the introduction of single assembly fixtures in place of mould on the spiralling cost of military aircraft.

@aerosociety i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook.com www.aerosociety.com AUGUST 2019 23 AEROSPACE Artificial Intelligence and legal liability

It’s the robot’s fault! Artificial intelligence in the aerospace sector

LUCY and SIMON PHIPPARD from law firm Bird & Bird examine how the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) may affect the legal liability and risk in the aerospace sector.

ecent tragic events such as the Lion Air customer experience, thereby increasing customer and Ethiopian accidents will inevitably loyalty. focus attention on the use and But what are the legal implications of this regulation of technology and automated technology transformation, and how does the systems in commercial airliners. Even increased use of automation − in particular AI – Rif the technology is not at fault, events such as this change the aviation industry’s well-trodden liability are likely to make the industry scrutinise the current regime? This article looks at some of the legal technological revolution more than ever. challenges this increase in automation is bringing to Hailed as one of the most disruptive the aerospace sector and offers some legal food for technologies, artificial intelligence (AI) brings a thought. number of commercial and technical advantages to the aerospace sector; it offers manufacturers and A well-rehearsed liability operators the prospect of reducing operating costs environment and improving efficiency and, of course managing the world of predictive maintenance. It also offers The air transport world already has a well- commercial airlines more opportunity to improve the established liability regime in the event of an

24 AEROSPACE / AUGUST 2019 accident. For international commercial air transport Evolution, not revolution? the operator is presumed liable − in some instances is strictly liable − for compensatory So what does AI change? AI has been heralded as damages in the event of an accident and for revolutionary but in fact it is not a new technology. practical purposes there are no financial limits on It was mooted in the 1940s but it is only more that liability. recently that its use has become more widespread For all intents and purposes then, commercial with the ability to capture and store more data. air transport works on the basis of operators AI needs data, and a lot of it. Many businesses paying full compensatory damages if passengers in the sector have been making use of AI-based are hurt or killed. The same regime usually applies capability on an incremental basis and the debate to domestic transport, even if the international about levels of automation, in particular on the convention regime does not apply. Commercial air flight deck, has been running for many years. transport operators insure their liabilities − and indeed are usually obliged to do so − and, in the Why we need ‘explainability’ event of an accident, insurers seek to settle claims as quickly as possible. AI applications and their algorithms tend to operate In most cases, aircraft owners or operators are in black boxes – closed systems that give limited also strictly liable for damage occasioned on the insight into how they reach their outcomes – and ground, subject to financial limits. Although there this can pose problems for key (human) decision has not been universal ratification of the Rome makers in a business, many of whom are unaware Convention, many countries have adopted a strict of how AI systems make their decisions. Data is liability regime and, in most instances, the operator, input and trained by the AI solution but the output if not the owner, accepts that they will carry the – the decision on what the next move should be – cost of any damage caused on the surface in an is made by the software. accident, and insures its liability accordingly. For applications which promise commercial benefits, such as predicting spare parts Unmanned automation: do the requirements or scheduling maintenance, disputes same liabilities apply? may arise as to whether the supplier’s product or service is at fault, The supplier may in fact not It is wrong to think that the terms autonomous and know why the decision to act (or not act) was made unmanned are interchangeable, or even that an by the black box. If the levels of understanding of unmanned system is an AI system. Automation is, exactly how the AI solution functions are reduced, of course, a large part of unmanned operations and the scope for disagreement among experts an AI solution may form part of the platform or the determining what was at ‘fault’ increases. supporting operations. Until now, there has been Of greater concern to manufacturers, operators an assumption that unmanned systems would not – and passengers – is more a moral dilemma than involve people on board and so considerations of a legal one. To borrow an example often cited in surface damage, rather than passenger liability, the context of driverless cars: how does a wholly have been the major issue. In this regard, the automated aircraft decide where to carry out a position for unmanned operations is no different to forced landing if the choice is between a school manned operations but the current increasing pace playing field and the gardens of a retirement HOW DOES of interest in urban air mobility applications shows home? In considering this, people forget that a A WHOLLY that it is now time to consider the passenger human could be faced with the same decision AUTOMATED situation further. points; so why does the fact that a machine has What is not addressed specifically in the made the ultimate decision in this abnormal AIRCRAFT current aviation liability regime, whether for situation matter? DECIDE WHERE manned or unmanned flights, is the air-to-air risk. Despite the ‘explainability’ problem and the TO CARRY OUT No strict liability regime governs that situation ethical issues that this technology raises, the A FORCED and, happily, instances have been rare. But what if introduction of AI technologies into the supply an unmanned aircraft causes a mid-air collision? chain, and into aircraft themselves, does not alter LANDING IF The risk of this for unmanned operations is the basis on which the victims of an accident would THE CHOICE perceived to be higher, perhaps because of the be compensated. In very few instances does a IS BETWEEN potential number of unmanned aircraft and, often, victim have to demonstrate ‘fault’ on the part of a their pilots’ lack of experience. There are some supplier or operator and this is true regardless of A SCHOOL suggestions that unmanned aircraft should face a what has made the decision. PLAYING FIELD presumption of strict liability for damage to other So what difference does AI make? The answer AND THE aircraft but is that a logical position to take if the lies in two factors. First, how will regulators GARDENS OF operations in question are lawfully authorised? In go about approving systems that depend on any event, the operator will be liable to passengers AI or machine learning? Second, what are the A RETIREMENT on board or for damage occasioned on the surface. implications within the supply chain? HOME?

@aerosociety i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com AUGUST 2019 25 AEROSPACE Artificial Intelligence and legal liability

if the ‘logic’ by which the AI solution functions is unclear, the regulator may be reluctant to permit use in safety critical applications. Will this limit the development of very highly automated systems, including those that make decisions on their own? For safety critical ones, quite possibly: manufacturers will need to convince regulators that these systems are as safe, if not safer,

eHang than if the role were still being carried out by a Who is legally responsible for an AI mistake? human.

What does this mean for Regulatory challenges: safety manufacturer liability? remains key The principles regarding claims by anyone who A change in the way equipment is designed or suffers injury or loss from a defective product are functions presents challenges for the regulators. also well established. Since the mid-1990s, EU Civil aviation authorities will need to be satisfied product liability law has made a ‘producer’ strictly that a system reliant on increased automation or AI liable for injury suffered as a result of placing a achieves the appropriate level of safety. Historically, defective product on the market and a product is certification processes have relied on a highly defective if it does not provide the safety which analytical approach to all elements of the system, the public is entitled to expect. That product might how it functions under all operating conditions be a food processor or a commercial airliner; if it and the consequences of any given failure. This is not sufficiently safe while in use, and injury or approach is then backed up by an analysis of damage to goods results, the producer is liable. performance in service and a detailed examination The producer may be the manufacturer, someone of instances in which equipment does not perform who has branded the product as its own, or an as expected. importer into the EU. Uber Elevate’s air-taxi It is yet to be seen how regulators may adapt Similar principles apply in the US and in many as seen in an artist’s their approach to these new technologies but other countries. It is important to recognise that − impression. Uber

26 AEROSPACE / AUGUST 2019 again − product liability arises regardless of fault. A manufacturer may exercise great care in designing or selecting equipment, but if the equipment fails in service in a way that is dangerous, there may be a product liability exposure. The risk is usually AN channelled through the ‘highest’ player in the UNEXPECTED supply chain. So, if a control module employing RESULT – EVEN AI technology malfunctions such that the entire module is not sufficiently safe, both the AI system WHEN AN supplier and the integrator – say an aircraft ACCIDENT manufacturer – would face a product liability IS FATAL − exposure. MAY NOT BE In this situation nothing precludes an operator or manufacturer that is facing a product liability THE WRONG claim from seeking recourse against another RESULT; MUCH supplier who is at fault or in breach of contractual WILL DEPEND obligations. New technologies do not change contractual relationships in that way and those ON WHAT avenues of recourse remain open. The difficulty, DATA THE AI however, may be in determining that the AI system SOLUTION provided was at ‘fault’. An unexpected result – WAS TRAINED even when an accident is fatal − may not be the wrong result; much will depend on what data the WITH AND THE AI solution was trained with and the parameters PARAMETERS within which it has been trained. This is where WITHIN WHICH these new technologies will start testing legal IT HAS BEEN boundaries. TRAINED Commercial risk management

What, then, should businesses do? As with any increased automation, AI and machine learning technology brings both advantages and disadvantages and may or may not be welcomed by the more conservative parts of the aerospace

sector. It will, however, find more applications, even Andrew Middleton/Flickr if its application in safety critical roles is adopted more slowly. In any event, businesses need to consider the implications carefully when employing it. The outlook That will require a proper risk assessment. To what extent do AI functions need to be fail-safe Aviation lawyers are used to the paths that allocate and what is the default situation if they are not risk and liability in the event of accidents and functioning correctly? The risk involved is not only incidents. While much will stay the same − and we about safety and operational standards but also do not believe an entirely new regulatory regime the commercial implications. If a business makes is needed, as some commentators suggest − commitments in terms of equipment reliability or automation, and in particular AI solutions, will spare parts availability in reliance on AI solutions, continue to challenge not just regulators but those it needs to ensure that it has confidence in its own looking to use AI-based systems to gain significant applications or, if AI software has been supplied competitive advantage. by a third party, that it is satisfied, not only with the Historically, aviation has relied heavily on the supplier’s integrity, creditworthiness and support training and skills of flight crew as the last line of capability, as usual, but also with understanding defence when other systems fail; those who are what data has been used to train the AI solution, able to make judgments in the face of competing how much it has been tested and what the priorities and when procedures no longer offer an parameters of the expected outcomes from the AI appropriate solution. There is no single view as solution could be. Businesses will need to ensure to how the legal challenges will be resolved, but that contractual commitments and limitations replicating the human capabilities on which our are accurately defined and appropriate to the industry is based will continue to be an interesting equipment or service in question. challenge to observe.

@aerosociety i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook.com www.aerosociety.com AUGUST 2019 27 SHOW REPORT Paris Air Show 2019

isitors to this year’s Paris Air Show new electric, hybrid-electric or distributed propulsion

Airbus were no doubt be relieved to have projects underway or being launched − as aviation missed the scorching hot weather the steps up to its enviromental responsibilities. following week − as the aerospace New aircraft making their Paris debut included: industry gathered for the traditional the all-electric Eviation Alice, Boeing KC-46 Pegasus biennualV trade exhibition and air show at Le Bourget. tanker, Embraer Praetor 600, Gulfstream G600, This year there was an unusual atmosphere − at Russian ' Ansat, Bell 505 Jet least for the commercial duopoly of Airbus and Ranger X, Diamond Dart 550 and Kawasaki C2 − as Boeing. Reduced sales figures, a new leadership well as the Airbus Vahana and Boeing PAV eVTOLs. team at Airbus and Boeing’s attendance dominated Let’s take a look at some of the highlights. by question marks over the 737 MAX, made for an Airshow atypical show. That said, Airbus ended the week Supersonic sustainable passenger anniversaries having launched its ultra-long-range A321XLR flight? with over 200 commitments from airlines. Boeing, This Paris was a notable meanwhile, having begun the week with a mea culpa Over at Boom Aerospace, CEO Blake Scholl outlined one for aerospace over its 737 MAX, gained a massive boost to the a number of recent milestones as the company gets anniversaries − with the grounded jet with a 200-aircraft letter of intent (LoI) ready to fly its XB-1 demonstrator in 2020, after a Boeing 747, Concorde, from BA and Iberia parent group, IAG. roll-out in December. Ground testing of the three- Airbus, Embraer and There was big news, too, in military aviation, engined, two-seat Mach 2.2 demonstrator technology, the Apollo 11 Moon as the wraps came off two next-generation stealth including CFD, wind tunnel and engine are now landings all celebrating fighter mock-ups − the France-German FCAS and the wrapped up. their 50th anniversary Turkish TF-X. It is early days yet but how international The XB-1 is the technology demonstrator for in 2019. partnerships will coalesce around these projects and Boom's larger 55-seat Overture supersonic airliner the UK's Team Tempest will define the next phase of – which is aiming to bring Mach 2.2 supersonic European air power. passenger flight back, at the price of a business- There were also corporate shake-ups and class ticket. Scholl says that modern materials and rebrandings too − whether it was Raytheon and UTC, technology means that Overture will have 75% lower Mitsubishi buying Bombardier’s CRJ division or the operating costs than Concorde, opening up some return of Aircraft of Canada as the new 500 viable overwater routes that are not reliant on owner of the Q400. overland sonic boom restrictions. Modern technology, Perhaps the biggest story from Le Bourget was he explained, now means that supersonic flight can the acceleration of ‘the third revolution in aerospace’ be sustainable – both from an environmental and − electrification. Everywhere, it seemed, there were economic viewpoint. Paris electrifies! Future fighters, 737 MAX crisis, longer-range narrowbodies and the electric aviation revolution – TIM ROBINSON, BILL READ and KHALEM CHAPMAN report from the 2019 Paris Air Show. SIAE/Paris Air Show 28 AEROSPACE / AUGUST 2019 PAS19 IN BRIEF

Engine manufacturer CFM won a $20bn+ order from Indian carrier IndiGo for CFM LEAP- 1A engines to power 280 Airbus A320neos and A321neos. The SIAE/Paris Air Show contract includes Next Generation Fighter unveiled as Spain joins spare engines and an overhaul support Franco-German FCAS initiative agreement. Peach Aviation has also Dassault's static display area was the place to be on the first day for the unveiling of the Franco-German FCAS ordered 20 LEAP-1A future stealth fighter mock-up – by French President Emmanuel Macron himself. Stressing the European engines for its new fleet nature of this programme, to develop a successor to the Eurofighter Typhoon and , and joining of Airbus A320neo President Macron, was Germany's then Defence Minister and Spain's Defence Minister, family aircraft first Margarita Robles. Spain is a new partner on this FCAS (now called Next Generation Fighter (NGF)). As well ordered in 2016. as politicians, the unveiling also saw Eric Trappier, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Dassault Aviation and Dirk Hoke, CEO of , present an agreement to deliver joint demonstrator programmes covering FCAS, the Remote Carriers and Combat Cloud architecture. A two-year demonstration programme will run from 2019 to 2021 with a first flight planned by 2026. Externally, the big twin-engined, twin-tail fighter has similarities with the UK's Team Tempest sixth-generation fighter – but with a sleeker look and YF-23 style highly canted tails. No undercarriage was shown, nor was the cockpit accessible.

MRJ rebranded At the show, Scholl also announced an intriguing designers and engineers who have been developing as SpaceJet new partner − low-carbon fuel specialist Prometheus. a range of all-electric and hybrid electric propulsion Mitsubishi Aircraft It is set to provide the alternative fuel for the XB-1 solutions for the aerospace industry. Rolls-Royce has Corporation announced that Baby Boom prototype − making the test flights already worked with Siemens eAircraft on the Airbus it has renamed its delayed 'zero-carbon'. Even more excitingly, tests show that E-Fan X demonstrator aircraft project. MRJ regional airliner to this alternative fuel actually gives a 2-3% increase be the SpaceJet. The in efficiency − a definite win-win for speed and the in-development MRJ90 Chinese AEW UAV spotted becomes the SpaceJet environment. M90, while a new smaller However, while Boom has revealed partners in Making its Paris debut in model form on the China 65-76 seat (designed to 3D printing, digital design and cabin design – one Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC) be US scope compliant) significant supplier for Overture still eludes them stand was an unusual JY-300 AEW MALE UAV. While version, the SpaceJet – an engine manufacturer. Scholl says that Boom superficially looking like the ubiquitous Predator (or M100, is set to be officially is in discussions with a number of engine makers, Chinese Wing Loong), the UAV features conformal launched later this year. On the third day of the show with solutions that range from higher-risk, higher radar arrays built into the fuselage sides and wings. the airframer announced performance bespoke engines, to lower-risk, lower- that an undisclosed North performance derivatives. These would be the focus pitches up to American customer had of ongoing talks over “the next months and years,” he Europe for civil roles signed an MoU for 15 of said. the rebranded SpaceJet The first day of the show saw the formal launch of M100 aircraft. Rolls-Royce to acquire Siemens Russian Helicopters’ multi-role Ansat helicopters eAircraft propulsion business into the European market – which the manufacturer claimed was the first participation at the Paris Air Rolls-Royce is to acquire the electric and hybrid- Show by a Russian-made civil helicopter since 1989 electric aerospace propulsion business (eAircraft) of and an EMS-modification of the Mi-17. Russian Siemens − boosting its presence in the fast-growing Helicopters showcased two modernised light-medium ‘third revolution’ of electric/hybrid-electric flight. The twin Ansats painted in a livery combining elements acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of of the national colours of Russia and France. Fitted next year, following a period of employee consultation. with glass cockpits, one Ansat was configured in Based in Germany and Hungary, the eAircraft VIP transport mode while the other was adapted for business employs around 180 specialist electrical medical evacuation missions. Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation SIAE/Paris Air Show @aerosociety i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com AUGUST 2019 29 SHOW REPORT Paris Air Show 2019

Send a drone to kill a drone or even anti-drone drones like Raytheon’s Coyote. This tube-launched killer drone, fielded by the US military as Over at Raytheon, making headlines with its mega- a matter of urgency following the rise of airborne IED merger with UTC, the company briefed reporters on drones, is able to provide UAV defence at range – once potential answers to the growing problem of small the intruder is positively identified as a hostile threat. A drones − whether they are rogue hobby operators, new version, the Coyote Block 2, is faster and able to criminals or terrorist or state-backed weaponised take on larger drones up to the size of a helicopter. UAVs. The company stressed that, in defending both civil and military assets from drones, there was no 'one Aerospace comes together for size fits all' solution. sustainability Turkey unveils In defending civil infrastructure, such as a large its TF-X fighter airport, Raytheon highlighted its Windshear counter- When seven Chief Technology Officers from different mock-up drone C4I system which takes in information from companies stand on a stage together to issue a joint existing sensors (eg ATC radars) and dedicated CUAS statement, you know that something unusual is about In the Turkish ones (eg electro-optic) to provide enhanced situational to happen. One of the show’s most significant meetings Aerospace’s static awareness of the low-level airspace. Once an intruder was a joint presentation from seven CTOs representing display area the covers drone is found, non-kinetic ‘effectors’, such as RF some of the world’s leading aircraft and engine came off another sleek (radio frequency) or GPS jamming can then be turned manufacturers, together with additional representatives future combat aircraft onto the UAV to safely disable it or ground it. from international aviation fuel suppliers, to announce concept. This is Turkey's For militaries seeking to defend forces (eg a how they are collaborating and sharing approaches to National Combat forward operating base) from weaponised drones, promote the sustainability of aviation. Aircraft (MMU) TF-X − more options to take out the UAV come into play in The CTOs’ joint statement declared that: “Aviation an indigenous-designed a layered defence that can include non-kinetic and connects our world by efficiently and rapidly moving and developed ‘5.5’ kinetic options, such as high-powered microwaves people, opening new economic opportunities and generation fighter. (able to defeat drone swarms), such as Stinger transporting food and goods all over our planet. Aviation Designed to replace F-16s in TuAF service, Turkey is aiming at an ambitious timeline for 737 MAX wins reprieve as Boeing stress the TF-X with the first flight in 2025 and entry safety, not sales into service in 2028.

Despite predicting a bumper $8.7trillion combined commercial, defence and services market over the next decade, the mood was sombre at Boeing's first briefing of the air show, where it rolled out its ‘top team’ of executives covering the heads of Commercial Airplanes (Kevin McAllister, President and CEO, Boeing Commercial Airplanes), defence and space (Leanne Caret, President and CEO, Boeing Defense, Space & Security), services (Stan Deal, President and CEO, Boeing Global Services), as well as Greg Smith, CEO & EVP Enterprise Performance and Strategy. On the 737 MAX, McAllister said: “We are very sorry for the loss of lives as a result of the tragic accidents... our thoughts and our prayers are with their families.” Coupled with this remorse, he stressed that there was now a company-wide ‘relentless’ drive to make sure that this could never happen again. However, in the big surprise at the show, International Airlines Group (IAG) announced its intention to buy 200 MAXs with a letter of intent valued at over $24bn at list prices. Interestingly, IAG described the deal as a mix of 737-8s and 737-10s in its press release − dropping the ‘MAX’ from the designation. IAG chief Willie Walsh, who has flown the updated MCAS 737 MAX simulator himself, said: “We have every confidence in Boeing and expect that the aircraft will make a successful return to service in the coming months.”

30 AEROSPACE / AUGUST 2019 Regional aircraft lessor Nordic Air Capital (NAC) signed a letter of intent for 35 ATR 72-600 turboprops. The deal also includes options for 35 more -600s and purchase rights for another 35. Deliveries of the initial 35 aircraft are scheduled between Electric revolution gets supercharged 2020 and 2025. One of the biggest stories from Le Bourget was an announcement that the world’s first all-electric commuter aircraft, the Eviation Alice, had secured its first launch ‘customer’ in the form of US GA airline Cape Air for an unspecified ‘double-digit’ number of this nine-seat, two-pilot revolutionary aircraft with a 600nm range. On display at the show was its first prototype Alice which, according to CEO Omer Bar-Yohay, is set to make its first flight at the end of 2019 or early 2020. Certification is planned for 2021/22. Key to Alice's design, says Bar-Yohay, is ‘innovation within regulation’ for this aircraft designed from the ground up as an all-electric aircraft. Eviation sees a potentially giant market of 40,000 GA aircraft worldwide, with around 700 aircraft being replaced each year. In the first phase, Alice and other electric aircraft might replace existing types one for one − but, as the ticket prices drop thanks to lower operating costs − this might explode into a wholly new disruptive mode of affordable point to point travel from local airports. Leonardo Eviation was not the only electric aircraft company to announce orders at the show. A second company, unveils biggest Ampaire, also announced an order for 50 hybrid-electric aircraft derived from a Cessna 337 to charter operator Personal Airline Exchange. ever MALE drone

Also unveiled at promotes global understanding, generating rich cultural Eurofighter to be upgraded to fight Le Bourget was exchanges and thereby contributing to peaceful on into the 2040s Leonardo’s Falco co-existence. At the same time, climate change has Meanwhile, there was a significant announcement Xplorer unmanned become a clear concern for our society. Humanity’s from Eurofighter that the consortium had been aerial vehicle. The UAV impact on the climate requires action on many fronts. awarded €58m for a long-term capability evolution is one of Leonardo’s The aviation industry is already taking significant action plan which will upgrade the combat aircraft to face largest (18.5m to protect the planet and will continue to do so. the new military threats that it will face over the next wingspan and 9m in Aviation contributes to 2% of human-made carbon 20 years. These upgrades would be in addition to the length), is powered by dioxide emissions. The industry has challenged itself ongoing series of phased capability enhancements a single Rotax engine to reduce net CO2 emissions, even while demand for which are already being added to existing aircraft – and boasts a 30,000ft air travel and transport grows significantly. Through such as the recent Project Centurion upgrade to the altitude ceiling and the Air Transport Action Group (ATAG), the aviation RAF’s Typhoons. The plan has been agreed with the an endurance of over industry became the world’s first industrial sector to NATO Eurofighter & Tornado Management Agency 24hrs. The Falco set an ambitious target: reduce CO2 emissions to (NETMA) on behalf of the partner countries that Xplorer also features half of 2005 levels by 2050 and to limit the growth operate the fighter. The assessment will take 19 the Gabbiano T-80UL of net CO2 emissions by 2020. We are on track months to look at changes to the airframe and nine multimode synthetic to meet those near-term commitments, including months for its Eurojet EJ200 engine. aperture radar. the 2019 implementation of the Carbon Offsetting The upgrades could include a redesigned and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation cockpit with panoramic, human-machine interfaces, (CORSIA) programme as agreed upon by the nations high speed data networking, improved target data of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)." management systems, re-programmable and 'more agile' (EW) and mission systems, a Cebu Pacific to debut high-density ‘digital stealth’ capability with secure data links, passive A330neos sensors and a smart sensor manager capable of dealing with more contested environments. The engine Philippines low-cost carrier Cebu Pacific signed a enhancements would increase thrust, aircraft range, memorandum of understanding (MoU) for 16 Airbus persistence and longer component life cycles and A330-900neos, ten A321XLR and five A320neos. include cooling technology and ‘adaptive power’. The A330neos will be a higher capacity version These updates will bridge the gap between of the A330-900, with 460 seats in a single class Eurofighter and next-gen combat aircraft projects, configuration. such as Tempest and NGF.

@aerosociety i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com AUGUST 2019 31 SHOW REPORT Paris Air Show 2019

The Italian Space Agency (Agenzia Airbus launches A321XLR Spaziale Italiana) released the first images of Earth, taken by its PRISMA satellites hyperspectral sensor which, it says, confirms the ‘outstanding performance’ of both PRISMA and its sensor. The satellite was launched on Airbus 22 March 2019 and Airbus launched its new A321neo XLR on the first day of the show during an announcement which saw was developed by a lessor Air Lease Corp place a firm order for 27 aircraft, alongside an extra 23 A320neos and 50 A220- consortium including 300s, adding up to a total of 100 aircraft. These aircraft are set to replace the Air Leasing Corp fleet of OHB Italia and Airbus A319s and Boeing 737s, with deliveries due to take place between 2023 and 2026. Leonardo. During the launch, Airbus’ Christian Scherer explained that the A321XLR will have a range of 4,900nm (8,700km) and will have the ability to fly ‘from Beirut to Cape Town,’ boasting 15% more range than the A321LR. The aircraft also has a maximum take-off weight of 101tonnes and has a cabin design similar to that of current widebody airliners on the market. The aircraft has a rear centre fuel tank and the option for an additional centre tank. The airframer closed the show with “mild if not violent satisfaction”, according to Scherer, with 243 orders and commitments gained by the A321XLR during the week, which included new orders and swaps from IAG, Indigo Partners, American Airlines, Qantas and JetBlue.

GKN launches new additive At the Paris Air Show, Europe showed off its manufacturing projects answer, ‘Remote Carriers’, a similar concept of smart, H160M to get autonomous wingman able to support piloted fighters new Thales Meanwhile, GKN Aerospace announced two as part of a dynamic and networked ‘Combat Cloud’. flightdeck new £33m additive manufacturing (AM) research MBDA, for example, unveiled tactical missile- programmes (AIRLIFT and DAM) to be conducted sized Remote Carriers, alongside concepts for Thales announced that its FlytX rotorcraft avionics in partnership with the University of Sheffield, weapons to arm Europe’s NGF and the UK’s Tempest suite had been chosen by Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, Autodesk − including a long-range supersonic strike and and and Siemens Digital Industries Software. AIRLIFT anti-AWACS missile, an ultra-low observable cruise the French procurement (Additive Industrialisation for Future Technology) is a missile and internally-carried mini-missiles as last- agency to equip the new £19m technology industrialisation programme that ditch hard-kill missile defences. H160M multirole light uses Industry 4.0 and simulation to enhance Airbus, meanwhile, revealed a larger ‘Remote helicopter − set to replace metal deposition with wire (LMD-w) and powder Carrier’ as a potential force multiplier for the NGF/ multiple platforms across the French armed services. bed AM technologies. DAM (Developing Design Tempest. In a presentation inside Airbus FCAS’ Based on the Avionics for Additive Manufacturing) is a £14m programme pavilion, ‘Remote Carriers’ would be launched from 2020 concept unveiled at to develop the next generation of design tools and the back of A400Ms to roam ahead of piloted the 2013 Paris Air Show, methods for additive manufacturing using a data- assets − presenting an ‘attritable’ and highly resilent Thales says it is also driven, material-centric approach. Both programmes network to future enemies. Airbus’ vision of FCAS, looking at integrating the will be based out of GKN Aerospace’s new Global presented at the show, also stresses that Combat touchscreen FlytX glass cockpit on the future Tiger Technology Centre in . Clouds would be fully ‘sovereign’ − so there would be Mk3 attack helicopter. French, German or even UK Combat Clouds. Making Remote Carriers these 'Clouds within Clouds' integrate with each other will be a key objective. A growing trend in future air combat scenarios is the If this seems too futuristic − Airbus is aiming idea of AI-powered drones to accompany piloted to bring some elements of FCAS and the Combat fighters into battle – adding extra sensors or as Cloud into service earlier with ‘legacy’ platforms, ‘airborne reloads’. Called ‘Loyal Wingmen’ by the such as Eurofighter, from the mid-2020s. For USAF, the concept sees UCAVs cheap enough to example, in 2018, the company conducted an be expendable but still sophisticated enough to be ‘unprecedented’ European manned-unmanned able to survive in a high-threat contested battlespace. teaming demonstration over the Baltic coast with a Examples include the Boeing Airpower Teaming formation of five Do Dt25 target drones controlled System (ATS), UK LANCA project and Kratos XQ- by a mission controller in a Learjet. FCAS is coming

Thales 58A Valkyrie UCAV. perhaps quicker than some realise.

32 AEROSPACE / AUGUST 2019 SIAE/Paris Air Show Airbus launches A321XLR MRO News are being produced at the moment, Lot 14 has seen a

15% decrease. Daher has finalised a three-year long-term agreement Ulmer also spoke about reductions in the cost- with Pratt & Whitney for the supply of engine per-flight-hour across the F-35 family, stating that, by component repair and overhaul services in Asia-Pacific. 2025, the average flight hour would cost $25,000, a ST Engineering announced that its aerospace drop from $35,000. He explained that Lockheed has arm has entered into a long-term collaboration with “seen in the past three years, a reduction of about 15% Honeywell in which ST Engineering will become a cost per flying hour… and the fleet will grow and we’re licenced repair centre for Honeywell components. going to see that continue to decline as we go forward.” StandardAero signed a three-year maintenance In terms of future modernisation upgrades, the services agreement with GKN Fokker Services press were introduced to Tech Refresh 3 (TR3), which Top of the covering the provision of MRO support for turboprop will see new capabilities and technology integrated into engines. the F-35 at “cost-neutral or less-cost to the platform props as technology matures.” TR3 is set to include a new Another green propulsion F-35 – ‘fifth-gen at fourth-gen’ cost? integrated core processor, a new panoramic cockpit partnership announced display and updates to the aircraft memory unit using at the show was between Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II programme has an open systems architecture. Daher, Airbus and Safran, passed some major milestones in recent months, with TR3 will also ‘take advantage’ of multi-domain which are to convert a Daher TBM into the the delivery of its 400th production aircraft and the operations, collecting sensor data along with data EcoPulse distributed hybrid type as a whole surpassing 200,000 flight hours in fusion before transmitting it across the battlespace. propulsion demonstrator. total. LM’s F-35 Executive Vice-President and General TR3 will be a customer choice, available to all variants Safran is set to provide the Manager, Greg Ulmer, updated the press on the and will be an upgrade which can be conducted by hybrid propulsion system direction the programme is going over the next few squadrons, taking roughly two-three weeks to complete (excluding batteries), years. The phrase most uttered at the briefing was the transition from TR2 to TR3. Ulmer revealed that LM Airbus, the aerodynamics and batteries, and Daher, “5th-gen performance at 4th-gen cost,” with the F-35A is looking into adding external conformal fuel tanks to the overall integration, Production Lot 12, 13 and 14 targeted to reach a cost increase the F-35’s overall range by up to 40%. The flight testing and analysis. of $80m by 2020, a target which has been achieved a hardware implementation for TR3 is scheduled for The first flight is planned year early in Lot 13. Compared to Lot 11 F-35s, which 2023, coinciding with the start of Production Lot 15. for 2022.

With NASA now tasked with landing humans on the Moon by 2024 and a sustained presence by 2028, its Administrator, Jim Bridenstine, outlined the ways in which this ambitious goal can succeed at a media briefing in the US pavilion. Today NASA has a far smaller budget to get to the Moon, a more compressed timeline (five years compared to JFK's decade) and a more complex outcome – a sustained and permanently occupied outpost on another body in the Solar System. Asked by AEROSPACE on the viability of this goal, Bridenstine explained that there were two main risks – technical ones which NASA could control and political which were out of its control. He noted that previous US initiatives to re-start human exploration of the Moon (or Mars) had always come unstuck by political risk, in which fickle US domestic politics shape the space agenda, shifting goalposts from different Administrations or Congress losing interest. He argued therefore that, counter-intuitively, the answer to ‘retire this political risk’ was to actually go faster and get there – before politicians change their minds again. To reduce risks to Moonshot, go faster argues NASA Administrator Appearing for the first time at an international air show was Boeing's new KC-46 Pegasus tanker for the US Air Force. Though the type has suffered negative headlines over quality control and boom vision systems, it may be on the verge of getting a boost with rumoured sales to two nations in the Gulf region.

@aerosociety i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com AUGUST 2019 33 SHOW REPORT Paris Air Show 2019 SIAE/Paris Air Show Final airliner sales totals Embraer AIRBUS BOEING Accipiter Holdings – 20 x A320neos (confirmed pur- Air Lease – 5 x 787-9s chase agreement from order completed in March) ASL – 20 x 737-800 Boeing Converted Freighters AirAsia – 253 x A321neos (converted options from (MoU) A320neos) China Airlines – 6 x 777Fs Air Lease Corporation – 50 x A220-300s, 27 A321X- IAG – 200 x 737 MAXs (LoI) Embraer, Elta LRs and 23 A321neos (LoI) Korean Air – 30 x 787s (10 x 787-9s, 10 x 787-10s + American Airlines – 50 x A321XLRs (including conver- 10 x 787-10s leased from Air Lease) mini-AWACS sion of 30 existing A321neo orders) Qatar Airways – 5 x 777Fs Atlantic Airways – 2 x A320neos Airlines – 1 x 777-200LR Embraer Defense and Cebu Pacific – 16 x A330-900neos, 10 x A321XLRs, Security and ELTA 5 x A320neos (MoU) ATR Systems signed a strategic China Airlines – 11 x Airbus A321neos (MOA) co-operation agreement at Air Tahiti – 2 x ATR 42-600 (STOL)s GECAS – 10 x 737-800 BCFs (converted purchase the Paris Air Show as they Elix Aviation – 10 x ATR 42-600 (STOL)s rights) + 15 purchase rights NAC – 35 x ATR 72-600s + 35 options + 35 purchase look to introduce the newly Delta – 5 x A220-100s announced P600 AEW rights (LoI) IAG – 14 x A321XLRs Undisclosed customer – 5 x ATR 42-600 (STOL)s into the defence aviation MEA – 4 x A321XLRs. market. Qantas – 36 x A321XLRs (including conversion of 26 EMBRAER The design is based existing A320neo Family orders) on the airframe of an Saudia – 30 x A320neo Family + 35 options Binter – 2 x E195-E2s (confirming purchase rights from Embraer Praetor 600 United Airlines – 20 x E175s + 19 options an order made in 2018) business jet and will Virgin Atlantic – 14 x A330 neos + 6 options Fuji Dream Airlines – 2 x E175s (order made in Q1 incorporate IAI/ELTA’s 4th- Wizz Air – 20 x A321XLRs (MoU for exercising options) 2019) generation digital active KLM Cityhopper – 35 E195-E2s (expression of interest electronically-scanned MITSUBISHI for 15 firm orders + 20 purchase rights) United Airlines – 20 x E175s + 19 options array (AESA) radar which Undisclosed North American customer – 15 x SpaceJet will come complete with M100s (MoU) IFF capabilities.

Over at the Rolls-Royce chalet, there was a joint press conference from Airbus Chief Technical Officer, Grazia Vittadini and her CTO counterpart at Rolls, Paul Stein, on the progress towards first flight of their E-FanX hybrid-electric demonstrator – which will see a heavily modified BAe146 fitted with a megawatt class generator, batteries and one of its four jet engines replaced with an electric fan. Vittadini revealed that the design concept for the E-Fan X was now frozen and that ground testing prior to modifying a full-size aircraft is now underway. Wind-tunnel testing is in progress in the UK in Filton, while a high-power battery test lab had been opened and the 3,000volt distribution networked tested in Prague. More ground testing of subsystems is taking place in Derby, the US and Trondheim, Norway where R-R will test the 2.5megawatt turbogenerator. Seen on display on E-Fan X thus is set to provide a wealth of knowledge about hybrid-electric technology when it takes to the static line was the skies in 2021. a mock-up of the VoltAero Cassio hybrid- electric propulsion E-Fan X design frozen aircraft, which is fitted with multiple electric motors and a fossil-fuel engine in a ‘push- pull’ configuration. Generating 600kW of power, the Cassio would be able to fly at speeds of up to 200km/h for up to 3.5hrs. Designed to be fitted with between four and nine seats, the aircraft is being aimed at private owner, air taxi and regional service operators. Airbus

34 AEROSPACE / AUGUST 2019 Meetings & Events in the heart of London

Home to the Royal Aeronautical Society, No. 4 Hamilton Place is a stunning venue, centrally located in Mayfair, with a choice of event spaces. The venue offers:

• Room hire discounts – 10% for members and 20% for Corporate Partners • State of the art conference facilities for up to 250 guests • Versatile meeting rooms • A beautiful west facing terrace • Catering by Blue Strawberry, where innovative food and creative design become an exceptional experience

Let our dedicated team take care of your event requirements.

For more information visit www.4hp.org.uk or contact the Venue Team on 020 7670 4314 or [email protected] | No. 4 Hamilton Place, London W1J 7BQ

210x280_4hp_aerospace_nov2018_ad.indd 1 16/01/2019 19:38 PLANE SPEAKING Baroness Vere of Norbiton Plane Speaking with: Baroness Vere of Norbiton BALPA/Twitter UK Govt Speaking at the Royal Aeronautical Society ‘The Future Aerospace Engineer’ conference earlier this year, AEROSPACE catches up with the UK’s Minister for Aviation, BARONESS VERE OF NORBITON, to ask her about drone regulations, the decline of general aviation airfields and getting more women into the UK aerospace industry.

AEROSPACE: You took over as Aviation Minister in AEROSPACE: How important is it to encourage April. What are your priorities as Minister? women and more diversity into aerospace and Baroness Vere of Norbiton: My biggest priority in aviation? the medium term is to carry on the excellent work BVN: It’s very important. I was an engineer at that’s already started on the Aviation Strategy. It is university. I have to say, as a woman, it was a lonely really important that we take a long-term view of old place to be. There weren’t many of us. I think where the industry is going to be because they’re the point is that if we don’t get more women into going to be some quite significant changes and some the sector, we’re only really fishing from half the quite interesting decisions that need to be made now pond. We are leaving a lot of people who are hugely that will impact the industry going forward. Of course, talented and could be huge assets to the industry to within the Aviation 2050 consultation we had, all of one side. There are lots of things that can be done. I the major issues were covered. Obviously, there were think that it’s absolutely key to get in early. By early, issues around airspace and modernisation, issues I mean proper early, primary school early. Once you Above: Campaigning for around airport capacity, issues around climate change get in there, you’ve got to keep going, you’ve got to fairer maternity pay for and how we deal with other environmental elements. go back to them again and again and talk to them in pilots with BALPA. That is the overarching priority. slightly different language as they get older.

36 AEROSPACE / AUGUST 2019 I think the other key thing now is what AEROSPACE: How concerned should the UK engineering has tended to have done in the past be about the future engineering ‘skills gap’ in this is, ‘well, this is what we do’ and ‘isn’t it cool?’ It is country? cool but the next question is – why do you do it? BVN: We should be very concerned. I think the good The products that you make, the things that you thing is, we’ve been concerned for a while. Certainly manufacture, the things that you design and build, the methods that have been put in place by industry what are they then used for? Is that a good thing? recognises this. The Government has been working I think children and youngsters in the future are very, very hard, committing hundreds of millions of going to be asking themselves, ‘okay, I’m going pounds of additional funding to encourage people to to be building this drone. It’s really cool because take STEM subjects. Lots of things have happened it’s going to deliver food and medicine in an area already. I don’t think that this concern has gone where there’s been a natural disaster’. I think away and I think it’s something that can be fixed with youngsters will want to see that their impact on collaboration and sort of a medium-term outlook. It is society is a positive one. not something that can be done at once. Around the issue of climate change, It may For example, the Year of Engineering in 2018 be that you might have people who want to get was great but it’s about building on that legacy now. into airframe design. Why? Because they want to It can’t just be, ‘oh, well, that happened, that was improve the efficiency of airframes in the future great’. Now we have to look at, how do we take that to improve fuel burn. As you go through talking to and what did we learn from it? Now we’re going youngsters as they get older, it’s not just the what. to do it every single way, in whatever way that that It’s also the why you will enjoy this career. I have takes. two teenagers and that’s the way they tend to think AEROSPACE: now. Certainly that’s how other competitor careers Post-referendum, the UK is still on course for Brexit of one sort or the other, how do will be promoted, telling them that they can make you see the aviation landscape in the UK? Should a difference because that’s what youngsters are WHAT YOU’VE we still be planning for a no-deal exit and getting all being taught nowadays. GOT TO DO IS MAKE SURE THAT the agreements in place? AEROSPACE: Playing devil’s advocate, is the EVERYBODY BVN: My Brexit crystal ball is probably about as goal for 50/50 equality, women pilots, women good as yours. At this moment in time, it’s very WHO IS difficult to know exactly what the outcome will aerospace engineers, is that achievable? Or is it QUALIFIED a case of diminishing returns in that you’re never be. I believe that an orderly exit with a deal is still completely possible. I also believe that, given that going to get full equality? AND HAS THE AMBITION TO no deal is the legal default, that it may be that it is BVN: I don’t think there should be a goal, ever. DO SOMETHING, the outcome. Now, the positive thing for the aviation What you do need to do is make sure that there industry in particular is that much of the work around are no barriers. If there are no barriers, then an DOESN’T no deal has already been done. I’m very confident appropriate point will be reached. If it gets to EXPERIENCE of the work that’s been done and we will obviously 50/50, that’s great. Who’s to say, it might be THE BARRIERS work together with our partners in Europe to make 60-70% female pilots. Why would you put a goal TO ENTRY THAT sure that where there’s time limitations on any of on it either way? What you’ve got to do is make WOULD STOP the agreements that we’ve reached, that they are sure that everybody who is qualified and has the extended. ambition to do something, doesn’t experience the THEM FROM Aviation has the advantage in that it is barriers to entry that would stop them from doing it. DOING IT necessarily a global industry. Therefore, it suits

@aerosociety i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com AUGUST 2019 37 PLANE SPEAKING Baroness Vere of Norbiton

nobody for there not to be the continued movement got airfields being closed or sold off for housing. of aircraft between our countries and the continued Is enough being done to support that particular movement of goods and freight. I don’t see that part of aviation, Especially given this is the sector this will be a particular concern. It’ll just mean that where many people start off their careers in we have to move the agreements that have already aviation or get inspired about flight. been made, just make sure that the extensions are THIS BVN: As the Aviation Minister, I hear a lot from achieved. REGISTRATION the GA sector and its input is always very, very SYSTEM welcome to understand exactly the challenges AEROSPACE: Outside the EU – what opportunities COVERS ALL that they face. There is a section in the Aviation do you see for UK aviation? Is there, for example, 2050 document which speaks specifically about an opportunity to revoke EU 261 passenger UNMANNED GA and what we can do. What I’m hoping is that, compensation, which some airlines would argue AIRCRAFT. IT’S and I’m fairly sure they will have done, is they will imposes unfair costs for delays out of their control? VERY CLEAR have responded to that consultation. We will look BVN: We have absolutely no plans at all to roll back TO ME THAT at their responses and take those forward where on any of our consumer protections as a result of they’re appropriate. leaving the European Union. What is the case – is WE CANNOT that we all know that the EU body of law has been HIGHLIGHT AEROSPACE: The world is facing a massive transferred to the UK, to the UK statute book, and ONE TYPE OF pilot shortage – can more be done by the UK it only has been amended to the extent to make it AIRCRAFT OVER Government to encourage pilots into the industry? operable. That is the situation. That is our starting For example, so that self-funded trainee pilots can point. ANOTHER. IT claim tax relief or scrapping VAT on flight training? To the extent that any changes will be made IS ESSENTIAL BVN: It’s certainly an idea that I have heard in the future will be exactly the same as any other THAT PEOPLE before. I think in general the aviation sector is a changes to legislation. It will require the normal REGISTER THEIR privately funded sector and has been for a very political processes. This Government is committed long time. We would look to industry but also that we will not roll back consumer protections. DRONES OR individuals to look at how they can work together REGISTER THEIR to fund that training. AEROSPACE: We have seen the collapse of AIRCRAFT Monarch, FlyBMI and the sale of Flybe. Are you AEROSPACE: Another hot topic is the growth concerned about the state of the British airline in UAVs. Can drones and piloted aircraft co-exist sector? safely? Could the Government be doing more BVN: I’m not concerned about the state of the on this and taking the initiative – for example, British airlines industry. I am aware that it is a very funding drone engine ingestion tests? competitive sector and that has huge benefits for BVN: The issue of drones is a huge concern to the consumer and also for choice. It is because we me. We have already introduced the registration have such a competitive sector that we actually system which is being put in place at the moment. have the third biggest network in the world. It is to It will become mandatory from November. This the benefit of the consumer. registration system covers all unmanned aircraft. It’s very clear to me that we cannot highlight AEROSPACE: What about the UK’s struggling GA one type of aircraft over another. It is essential sector, especially at the grassroots level? We’ve that people register their drones or register their aircraft. For those who do decide, with malicious intent, to do things that they shouldn’t, it is one level of protection that we have against them doing that. The second thing that we need to do is to tighten up police powers. That is absolutely critical. There is an unmanned aircraft bill which we’ll be putting in front of Parliament when parliamentary time allows. That will make sure that the police, if they suspect that somebody has done something malicious with their UAV, can actually stop and search them, search their car or, in certain circumstances, go into their home to look for a specific registered drone that they know is around.

AEROSPACE: The UK has ambitious plans for drones, urban air mobility and spaceports – yet

UK Govt it still hasn’t been able to build a third runway at

38 AEROSPACE / AUGUST 2019 Heathrow. What would you say to someone who argued that planning and infrastructure are the UK’s weak points in aviation? BVN: No, I don’t think that’s fair at all. I think we can make progress on all different elements of this. This is potentially why the work around unmanned aircraft is so important, that our low airspace has the potential to become a lot more congested. We’ve got to make sure that work on UAVs is good. We need to look at airspace modernisation. Again, that’s a big project that hasn’t been done for 50 years. We’ve got to make sure that that’s done. We need to look at Heathrow and, indeed, issues around many, many airports around this country. It has got to be a fair balance between the needs of the airport and the needs of the local community. There are huge benefits and some challenges to airports changing their runways or increasing their capacity. It is important that it’s done in a very considered way. While you may say ‘they’ve managed to build 20 airports in UK Govt China in the past however many years’, yes, they did that, but at what cost and what cost to our communities? We live in a quite crowded island. Baroness Vere of Norbiton AEROSPACE: Potentially the next British Prime is shown aviation security Minister has said in the past he would lay down Our communities are often very close to airports at Heathrow Airport. because they have expanded over time already. in front of bulldozers to prevent expansion at It is making sure that you bring communities with Heathrow. Does that mean that Boris Island could you rather than just riding roughshod over their be back in the running again? views. BVN: I haven’t heard that Boris Island is back in the running again. Obviously, you will know AEROSPACE: Do you think that more needs that there was a very long and very detailed and to be done in boosting the appeal and value of very carefully considered parliamentary process regional airports? I’m thinking here of things like around the passing of the Airports National hybrid-electric aviation offering point-to-point Policy Statement. That has been passed with a travel? substantial majority. That process now continues. BVN: I think there’s huge potential for regional However, I believe that Boris’s views may have airports. Indeed, I recently attended a board tempered a little but I’m certainly not going to meeting of the AOA (Airports Operator’s speak for him because I think that the point is that Association). Just hearing the views from Parliament has already done that. Parliament has people around the table, they do see that the said, ‘We have the Airports Commission, we have Government’s policy of making better use of the ANPS. This is what we want to happen for our additional runway capacity and of supporting local country.’ To overturn that would mean overturning infrastructure through, for example, the logistics an ANPS, which would require some interesting hubs for the building of Heathrow, making sure voting. that there are Heathrow slots available for regional airports. AEROSPACE: Post 737 MAX – will the UK CAA What I’m seeing from regional airports when be happy to accept any FAA rulings that return I go and visit them is they are picking up the the aircraft to flight? Or will the CAA be seeking challenge and getting point-to-point from all extra assurances along with EASA? sorts of carriers, particularly from China and BVN: I can’t second guess what the CAA will . It is great to see. They’re serving their local do or indeed what the FAA or EASA will do but I communities with the sorts of routes that those certainly do know that CAA, as an independent local communities want and can be sustainable regulator, will make sure, will look at any in the longer term. I have lots of respect for our decisions, maybe any other regulators, but will regional airports and I always enjoy going to see make their own decision in terms of returning it them because they’re all so different. to flight.

A Submission of Written Evidence from the Royal Aeronautical Society in response to the Department for Transport’s consultation document Aviation 2050 is available to view on the RAeS website

@aerosociety i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com AUGUST 2019 39 AIR TRANSPORT Centenary of first international passenger flights NAL/RAeS

The birth of air travel A hundred years of international passenger flights BILL READ FRAeS looks at how the aviation press of 100 years ago reported on the birth of international air travel and how they thought it would develop in the future.

40 AEROSPACE / AUGUST 2019 his year British Airways (BA) is celebrating NAL/RAeS However, these pioneering and somewhat risky, its centenary. The centenary is not of in terms of safety, long-distance flights were not the the British Airways’ name, which dates only aviation developments. Aircraft manufacturers back to 1974 with the merger of British and private operators were also eyeing the European Airways (BEA) and British commercial possibilities of using proven aircraft TOverseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) but to a small designs to carry passengers and cargo safely over company called Air Transport & Travel (AT&T) which, shorter distances. on 25 August 1919, launched the world’s first daily international passenger air service from London to The long-distance Paris. The links between AT&T and BA are somewhat However, while heavier-than-air aircraft were starting complicated and a little confusing. First formed in to be considered safe enough to use for short- 1916 as part of the Aircraft Manufacturing Company distance commercial flights, it was widely assumed Limited (), AT&T became part of the BSA Group A 1919 proposal for an that long-distance flights would be conducted by in 1920 but went bankrupt at the end of the year. air traffic control system the safest and most reliable form of aerial transport The assets of AT&T were acquired by Daimler and using a tethered ‘blimp as currently known − the airship. Following the success combined with Daimler Air Hire to form Daimler a ‘Cloudland’ aerial signal of the R34’s two transatlantic flights in July 1919, Airways Ltd. This company lasted until 1924 when box to direct aircraft. contemporary commentators were all convinced that Imperial Airways was formed with the incorporation the future of long-distance passenger air transport of Daimler Airways, Instone Air Line Company, British lay with lighter-than-air vessels. In a lecture on Marine Air Navigation and Transport. commercial aviation given shortly before the flight of With the outbreak of WW2 in 1939, Imperial Airways the R34, Captain Illingworth from the RAF said that and another airline, British Airways Ltd, were the immediate future of Atlantic flying lay with airships taken over first by the Air Ministry-run National Air while aeroplanes would remain the instrument for Communication (NAC) and then, in 1940, combined short or rapid trips between 800 to 1,000 miles. “For into a new company called British Overseas Airways commercial purposes, the airship is a very serious Corporation. BOAC was later merged in 1974 with contender to the aeroplane in long distance flights,” BEA to create British Airways. wrote Aircraft on 4 June 1919. Returning to where it all began in 1919, this article Facing page: A de delves into the historical archives of the RAeS National Havilland DH4A, G-EAJC, It’s safer by airship Aerospace Library to look at the background of the of Aircraft Transport and Travel Ltd flew the first first international passenger flights and how the commercial passenger The reason why airships were perceived as the aviation press thought that air transport would develop service on 25 August transport of the future was because they were in the future. 1919, piloted by Lt E H considered safe. Unlike an aircraft, an airship which The year 1919 was an exciting one in the history (Bill) Lawford. experienced engine trouble could still remain in the of aviation. With the Great War now over, the aviation This aircraft flew from air. Airships also had the advantages of long range industry was now looking to the future and how new Hounslow to Le Bourget (when unladen, the R34 was said to have sufficient technology and aircraft designs developed in wartime in 2 hours and 30 minutes fuel for non-stop flights of up to 8,000miles), weight could be used for peacetime operations. As already with a passenger, G M carrying and flight durability. Airships could also fly in Stevenson-Reece, from described in a previous article, 1919 saw the first the Evening Standard and conditions of poor visibility. flights across the Atlantic between America and a consignment of grouse, One aspect of airship design that was hardly Europe, as well as from Britain to Australia. newspapers, leather and mentioned was that of the risk of fire from the Devonshire cream. hydrogen gas bags – a surprising omission given NAL/RAeS Left: Newspaper cutting their subsequent safety record in the years to come. reporting on a proposed “The fact that the envelope is filled with inflammable London to New York gas need not cause any misgivings as to safety,” Airship service of the time. remarked a report by the Air Ministry in early 1919 on the commercial applications of airships vs aeroplanes. “Official statistics show that only one airship has been lost in this country due to catching fire in the air, although 83,360hr have been flown and over 2.5m miles covered during the war.

Hub and spoke

Predictions on the future use of airships for long- distance travel were surprisingly prophetic in certain aspects. Following the success of the R34, Brig-Gen E M Maitland was quoted as saying: “Undoubtedly airships will be used commercially in the future

@aerosociety i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com AUGUST 2019 41 AIR TRANSPORT Centenary of first international passenger flights

NAL/RAeS The Government’s response to this was to offer some of its surplus airships to private enterprise to create international routes for passengers and post, claiming that their disposal would ‘assist the lighter-then-air industry’. The R80 was to be sold to its manufacturers, Vickers. The R38 was built and IN A NEAR AND sold to the US but later broke up during flight trials GLORIOUS in 1921. FUTURE AN AFTERNOON SPIN for very long journeys over sea and land. They will No-fly regulations FROM LONDON not conflict in any way either with seaplanes or TO CORNWALL aeroplanes … the airship will do the long distances Returning to the background to the commencement WILL BE A and the others will radiate out from the airship of commercial flights, aircraft manufacturers terminus for shorter distances. previously specialising in military machines were COMMONPLACE busy adapting designs for the new boom in civil EVENT; CAIRO Giant liners of the air aviation. The Grahame-White company was reported OR FEZ OR to be converting a bomber into a ‘limousine’ capable CONSTANTINOPLE Anything seemed possible. The Times reported on of accommodating 20 passengers. The British AN EVERY WEEK- 11 July that the Air Department would soon send out Aerial Transport Company was going one better and END FLIGHT a giant airship, four times the size of the R34, to go designed the first aeroplane solely for commercial through Egypt to the Cape and back. “Developments operations. An article in Modern Transport described Flying, 1919 of a high order are promised,” commented a report in the BATC machine as having a windowed cabin Aircraft. “Airships of 1,100ft in length could with ease lofty enough for a passenger was to stand up in take a commercial load of something like 150 tons and fitted with easy chairs. There were even to be from England to America in less than half the time an indicator to show passengers which towns they taken for the faster passenger steamer.” were passing over – a precursor perhaps of the Future airships would be much larger and very moving maps available on modern IFEs? luxurious. In a report to the Civil Aerial Transport However, while there were plenty of companies Committee, Brig-Gen Maitland described the facilities eager to begin flying passengers, they were not a future passenger airship might offer: “It will have a allowed to as, in the early months after the Great speed of 90 to 100mph with ample accommodation War, the British Government forbade any civilian for passengers in the shape of a saloon, drawing flying (an interesting parallel to those companies room, smoking room and state rooms with a lift giving developing air taxis today awaiting the air traffic access to a roof garden on the top.” regulations to actually fly them). The 29 January 1919 edition of Aircraft carried a report on the Government cutbacks flight of a -Farman ‘Aerobus’ from Paris to London which was only permitted to make the Unfortunately, all this optimism on the future of journey if it carried just military personnel. Inter city lighter-than-air travel had reckoned without one flying had also already commenced but mainly for Above left: The new R80 factor – the British Government. Rather than the purposes of carrying mail and newspapers. airship was sold off to investing in the development of airships, as was However, the rules were changed when the the private sector as the hoped, it was announced in the 10 September issue British Government passed a bill lifting the ban. On British Government ceased work on future airship of Aircraft that: ‘The airship is apparently to receive 14 April, the Air Ministry announced that civil flying development. the full brunt of the Government economy panic. On would be permitted to commence from 1 May 1919. Below: Pictures from The the Clyde work on the half-finished R36 has been However, all types of machine were to be built to Daily Mail showing the first stopped and about 500 workers are stated to be out Air Ministry specifications and flown by qualified international air passengers of work’. Work on the R37 at Bedford and the R39 at and approved pilots. “It is hoped that the passing enjoying the joys of Barlow also ceased. of the bill will not be followed by a large crop of customs and passport H H Golightly from Armstrong Whitworth had company floatations with exaggerated promises checks. strong words familiar to any project which has been as to immediate performances,” cautioned an subject to government cutbacks. “The Government (unattributed) newspaper clipping. will not save a penny by closing down the works. To provide the public with a taster for civil flights, The cost of R39 will be over a quarter of a million the Government permitted aircraft to be flown and about a third of the work is already done. The with passengers over the Easter weekend (17-22 airship as it stands is worth about £100,000 and it April 1919) but only within a three-mile radius of will cost the Government as much money to close the an aerodrome. The announcement caught some works as it will to complete it. This means that we in aircraft companies on the hop, as they had either this country waste the experience we have in airship no aircraft or pilots to spare to offer for public rides. building and throw to the winds the supremacy in the However, the Sopwith Company issued a somewhat

air.” alarming statement saying: “We are quite prepared Daily Mail/NAL

42 AEROSPACE / AUGUST 2019 to take on anything of this sort. We have got the machines for it, including a two-seater for people who like being stunted.”

First commercial flights

On 1 May the first commercial flight in England was made between Cricklewood Aerodrome and Manchester aboard a twin-engine Handley Page carrying ten passengers. Due to bad weather and headwinds, the flight took four hours which, as the Daily Mail remarked, was the same length of time that it took to do the journey by train. The first international air services were soon to follow. BA’s precursor, Airco-owned Air Transport & Hounslow Aerodrome NAL/RAeS Travel, announced that it was to begin a Hounslow- c.1919. Paris daily service on 25 August, offering four for them to operate their own aircraft on the same places per flight. The airline had been ready route. for some time to begin operations, as advance Handley Page also began its own London-Paris details of the Airco service were published on 15 service, followed in September by an additional November 1918 – almost immediately after the London-Brussels service operated by a machine Armistice. Tickets would be available from the Ritz capable of carrying up to ten passengers, each with Hotel for 15 guineas, passengers being carried in 30lb of luggage plus 500lb of freight. rotation according to the number of the ticket. At 10:00am each day, passengers would be taken by The future of commercial air car from the Ritz to the Aerodrome for a 10:30am transport flight departure, subject to weather conditions. At 1:00pm, the aircraft would land in Paris, where So, what would be the future passenger experience passengers would arrive at the Ritz, Paris by in the years to come? In an article on 4 June, Flying 1.30pm. looked forward six years to 1925, when it predicted On 25 August 1919, AT&T began the world’s that air passengers would be able to travel from first daily international passenger air service Hounslow to all over the world. With international from London to Paris. The aircraft took off from flights being announced by an ex-Clapham Junction Hounslow Heath not far from what is now London’s railway porter, travellers of the future would catch Heathrow Airport and landed at Le Bourget. The the electrically-heated and luxuriously furnished New service was operated using a two-seater Airco York aerobus while others would go for holidays or 4a and a four-seater Airco 16. “These are both business trips to Egypt, India, South Africa or the comfortable and reliable machines with cabins Pacific Islands. “In a near and glorious future an through the side of which passengers can see afternoon spin from London to Cornwall will be a easily,” wrote the Evening Standard. “The old war commonplace event; Cairo or Fez or Constantinople cockpit has been superseded in favour of an an every weekend flight.” enclosed transparent area. The machine will have Some commentators were remarkably a cruising speed of about 100mph, so that winds accurate in their predictions. F Handley Page of 30-40mph will not delay us to any appreciable predicted that there would come a time when travel extent. The journey to Le Bourget should take by air would start to compete with sea travel – a about two hours and a quarter.” prediction that would eventually come true, although In September, Airco announced that it had not until the arrival of the jet age in the 1950s. After made 54 flights in its first month of operation (one flying from London to Paris on a DH4 in April 1919, was cancelled due to bad weather and a second Gen Seely from the Imperial Air Commission said because of a mechanical defect). Depending on that: “he had been assured by air experts that there the weather, flights took 2hr 30min on a good day was no reason why aeroplanes should not travel at to 2hr 45min, if the winds were against them. In 800 miles an hour before long which would enable addition to carrying passengers, Airco reported one to breakfast in London and lunch in New York”. that there was an increasing demand for air cargo. The final word comes from an article from Banks had begun to send ‘scrip’ by air and a 25lb Aircraft which predicted that, in 100 years’ time in parcel of furs was dispatched by air at the premium 2019, ‘a city man with a weekend villa in Buenos price of £9 7s 6d. The airline also announced that Aires may bring his family to South Kensington (to it would be operating four aircraft on the route see Alcock and Brown’s Vickers Vimy in the Science instead of two and that it was in negotiations with Museum) and say: “By Jove! How did they ever get La Compagnie General Transaerienne in France about in a thing like that?”’

@aerosociety i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook.com www.aerosociety.com AUGUST 2019 43 NOW BOARDING The Autumn UK recruitment fair dedicated to aerospace and aviation

LIVE l 2019

RAeS, No4 Hamilton Place, London W1J 7BQ Friday 8 November 2019

EXHIBITORS: REGISTRATION NOW OPEN

FREE ENTRY TO ASPIRING AEROSPACE AND AVIATION PROFESSIONALS!

Business Class exhibitors include:

Premium Economy exhibitors include:

More in the pipeline...

www.aerosociety.com/ciaalive2019 #CIAALIVE19 [email protected]

Careers in Aerospace 2019 FP 280x210 Adv.indd 1 19/07/2019 13:47 Afterburner www.aerosociety.com

Airbus’ Project Vahana at the Paris Air Show 2019. Vahana is an all-electric, self-piloted, VTOL aircraft from A³ by Airbus. Airbus.

Diary 13 September Journeys through Aerospace and Aviation Young Professionals Conference

46 Message from RAeS 48 Book Reviews 56 Diary – President Air Power in the Maritime Environment, Find out when and where around the world the Balloonomania Belles and Handbook of Human latest Society aeronautical and aerospace lectures “Another highlight of the show for me was to meet Factors in Air Transportation Systems. and events are happening. some of the participants in ‘Elles Bougent’ (Girls on the Move), an association seeking to attract young women in the aerospace, transport, maritime and 51 Library Additions 57 Cambridge Branch energy industries.” Books submitted to the National Aerospace Library. A report on this year’s Sir Michael Marshall Lecture Competition. – Chief Executive 52 Obituaries 58 Blue Streak “In late June we ran a conference in support of the Roger Béteille and Peter Brammer. Brunel Challenge. This addressed the way in which The National Aerospce Library has been presented engineering will need to be transformed as we 54 Airliner Project Study with an extensive collection of materials regarding embrace the new technologies associated with the Blue Streak and other space programmes by the Fourth Industrial Revolution.” The National Aerospace Library has been presented family of Ronald Staines. with a model of the HSA1011, a supersonic airliner study.

Find us on Twitter i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com AUGUST 2019 45 Afterburner Message from RAeS OUR PRESIDENT

Prof Jonathan Cooper This month has been very busy with my main Society activities involving some of our overseas Branches, experiencing some of the international reach of the RAeS. I spent a very enjoyable two days in Germany at the invitation of the Society’s Hamburg Branch. Following an informative tour of the Airbus site, including a look at the single- aisle production line, I then visited ZAL which is an incubation centre including office space and laboratories for applied aerospace research focusing on the integration and industrialisation of aerospace technologies with an emphasis on aircraft cabin design and layout. It was interesting to see how small companies were able to develop new technologies in a networking environment based close to the large aviation cluster. Other fascinating Winner of the Paris Branch Young Persons Lecture Competition, technical visits were made to Aeroflug and also Bastien Longeon, ESTACA, receives a cheque for his talk on the aircraft engine overhaul facility at Lufthansa reusable rockets and low-cost access to space from RAeS Technik. Many thanks to Richard Sanderson of the President Prof Jonathan Cooper at the traditional Royal Aeronautical Society breakfast reception during the Paris Air Hamburg Branch and everyone else concerned for Show. the excellent organisation of the entire trip. The main purpose of my journey was to attend the local Branch’s annual Gerhard Sedlmayr Lecture on ‘Safety in the Cabin’, based upon several RAeS Specialist Papers, expertly delivered by two members of the Society’s Flight Operations Group, Capt Pete Terry and Air Cdre Dai Whittingham. The talk considered how the safety of the passenger environment could be enhanced from a design perspective and contemplated the relationship between the airworthiness requirements, crew training, design of the passenger cabin and the influence that commercial pressures might have on matters of flight safety. This lecture was an excellent example of how the Society’s Specialist Groups about the relationship between the RAeS and the can provide expert comment, opinion and advice on CEAS. important matters relating to aviation. It was also Another highlight of the show for me was to pleasing to see that the large audience was swelled meet some of the participants in ‘Elles Bougent’ by a sizeable number of students from one of the (Girls on the Move), an association seeking to local universities who enthusiastically asked the attract young women in the aerospace, transport, speakers many probing questions. maritime and energy industries. They had a large I also attended the Paris Air Show where the presence and the youngsters that I met were very Society hosted a Breakfast Reception organised enthusiastic about attending and also their future THE TALK by the RAeS Paris Branch. It was a pleasure to be prospects in the aerospace industry. It is great to able to talk with many guests from a wide range see that such important initiatives on diversity in CONSIDERED of roles across the aviation industry and to present engineering being highlighted at such a major event. HOW THE the prizes to the winners of the young lecture From an innovation viewpoint it was interesting SAFETY OF THE competition organised by the Paris Branch. Bastien to see a number of all-electric aircraft concepts Longeon won first prize with his talk on reusable at the show, particularly those relating to urban air PASSENGER rockets and low-cost access to space. mobility. Many thanks to Katherine Bennett FRAeS ENVIRONMENT Both the CEO and I met with representatives who organised a visit for me to see the Vahana, COULD BE from CEAS (Confederation of European Aerospace Airbus’ Urban Mobility eVTOL demonstrator vehicle. ENHANCED Societies) to discuss arrangements for the Finally, I hope that you are all able to take some forthcoming Aerospace Europe Conference 2020 time off work for holidays this summer, to spend FROM A DESIGN to be held in in February next year. Other time with family and friends, and to recharge the PERSPECTIVE conversations involved the ongoing discussion batteries.

46 AEROSPACE / AUGUST 2019 OUR CHIEF EXECUTIVE

Sir Brian Burridge

● It would be wrong to assume that the political swirl around Brexit has diminished the UK’s stature as a premier-league nation in air power. Testament to this was the attendance of 46 international air chiefs at the late-July RAF Air and Space Power Conference. In her keynote address, the Secretary of State for Defence announced that the UK would be providing an RAF test pilot for the Virgin Orbit small satellite launch programme. Doubtless we shall learn more on 3 December when Dave McKay, the chief test pilot at Virgin Galactic and a former RAF Harrier pilot, delivers the Wilbur and Orville Wright Lecture. An earlier announcement also 56 students from Campshill Primary School in confirmed the RAF’s close interest in hypersonics enjoyed the first Cool Aeronautics event held at the Shuttleworth Collection hosted by RAeS Careers. using UK technology. ● In late June we ran a conference in support of and flight control achieved via individually actuated the Brunel Challenge. This addressed the way in feathers. The aircraft is intended to carry up to 80 which engineering will need to be transformed passengers at distances of up to 1,500km. It is set as we embrace the new technologies associated to be unveiled at the Royal International Air Tattoo with the Fourth Industrial Revolution. To give one where, I predict, many of the expected 160,000 example, having recognised that future product visitors will be fascinated by an example of the UK’s complexity means that we can no longer expect global leadership in innovation and engineering. to build physical protoypes for testing, it begs the ● There was good news for the AEROSPACE question as to what engineers will have to be able to publications team ahead of the first day of the do to ensure that a design is optimised and that the Paris Air Show, with Editor-in-Chief Tim Robinson resulting system is safe. The event thus attempted winning Best Military Aviation Submission at the to define what tomorrow’s aeronautical engineer will 2019 Aerospace Media Awards for his piece on do, how they will be trained and the degree to which ‘UK Mulls Sixth Generation Fighter’ from the July this shift will make careers in engineering more 2018 issue. Deputy Editor, Bill Read, added a attractive. Inevitably, there were more questions second trophy to the pot, winning the Bill Gunston than answers but at least we have taken the first Technology Writer Award. Warmest congratulations step here at the Society on what will be a very long to them both. Meanwhile, our other print magazine, journey. The Aeronautical Journal, continues to demonstrate ● RAeS Careers held its first Cool Aeronautics event its importance as part of our Learned Society output at the Shuttleworth Collection. We welcomed 56 with its impact factor (a measure based on citation students from a primary school in Stevenage for rates) increasing from 0.696 (2017) to 0.976 an educational day of everything aerospace. The (2018). The Aeronautical Journal is now ahead of children got a guided tour of the various exhibits the AIAA Journal of Aircraft. This position recognises at the collection. They were also treated to a the sterling work of the Editorial Board and their THE SECRETARY presentation by Corporate Partners, Lockheed vast array of peer reviewers. OF STATE FOR Martin who explained the projects underway at ● Finally, a few reminders: work continues on our DEFENCE its Ampthill base. In the afternoon, the children Megatrends research in preparation for the forum built Aerojet models under the supervision of ANNOUNCED on 14/15 November. If you have received a survey Shuttleworth staff. Lockheed Martin ran the and have not returned it, please do so now to add THAT THE UK infamous ‘egg lander challenge’ where the children to our research base. We also flew the Pride flag WOULD BE had to design parachutes that could hold an egg outside Hamilton Place during Pride week at the PROVIDING AN and then drop it from height. It was interesting to beginning of July: our updated website explains see some of the concepts that were created! If only the three main strands of our Diversity Strategy. In RAF TEST PILOT more than 7,000 girls a year took physics at A-level. addition, look out for the International Flight Crew FOR THE VIRGIN ● However, there is no lack of effort in all areas of Training Conference on 18/19 September with a ORBIT SMALL our sector to enthuse young people about the thrill new symposium the day before. Lastly, if you are SATELLITE and glamour of aviation and aerospace. Elsewhere planning events later in the year, bear in mind that in this issue is an article about the ‘Bird of Prey’, a we will have the fully-heated marquee on the roof LAUNCH conceptual airliner of tomorrow with wing and tail terrace for winter months, so that guests can still PROGRAMME structures which emulate those of an eagle or falcon enjoy the views of Hyde Park in comfort.

Find us on Twitter i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com AUGUST 2019 47 Afterburner Book Reviews AIR POWER IN THE MARITIME ENVIRONMENT The World Wars By D Gates and B Jones

Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon OX14 4RN, UK [20% discount available to RAeS members via www. crcpress.com using AKQ07 promotion code]. 2017. vii, 250pp. £34.95. ISBN 978-0-8153-6676-8.

This book considers the interplay between naval and air power, from the inception of the latter at the beginning at of the 20th century up until the end of WW2. This is not merely a theoretical work, as it places heavy emphasis on the practical implementation and realties, doing so by considering the background geostrategic context and the actions of the main players, notably Britain, the US, Japan The battleship USS Arizona so crucial to the defence of mainland Britain in 1940 and Italy, as well as, to a lesser extent, Austria- (BB-39) burning after the is crucial. The relative importance of battleships Japanese attack on Pearl Hungary, Turkey and Russia. Harbor on 7 December 1941. and aircraft carriers is also considered and both the The first chapter of the book considers the period US National Archives and Records sinking of Bismarck and Yamato are considered, up to the end of WW1. This was a time when the Administration. among other case studies. Recognising the critical realities between the envisaged use of air power in dependence navies have on shore facilities and the maritime sphere and its technological limitations the vulnerabilities of ships at such bases, maritime were perhaps most starkly in contrast. Even that air power’s role at Taranto and Pearl Harbor is also envisaged use was a matter of debate, as the place covered. of aviation, alongside the similar recent advent of The final chapter considers the contribution , began to challenge traditional notions of maritime air power to maintaining sea lines of of naval power, in particular, that of a decisive communication. The bulk of this focuses on the battle involving fleets of battleships. The chapter Battle of the Atlantic, where continuing improvements also considers the impact on guerre de course and in tactics, technology and successes in code- highlights the early developments in aircraft carriers, breaking on both sides were most evident. However, as the realities of providing air power over the wide consideration is also given to air power’s role to the expanses of the globe became clear. situation in the Caribbean, the convoys to Russia The second chapter develops these lines of and the strategic failure of Imperial Japan to suitably thought into the interwar years and considers their prioritise the protection of its merchant shipping later legacy. Despite the lack of the impetus of a which was so critical to maintaining its war effort. major global conflict in the early years, aviation While this book draws heavily on secondary technology advanced and air power proponents, such sources, many of which are themselves required as Billy Mitchell in the US and Giulio Douhet in Italy, reading for anyone with a serious interest in maritime continued to press its case. Conversely, navies were air power, I cannot readily think of a volume that considering what this meant for their battleships, covers this important period for this subject in a against a background of naval arms limitation such a manageable way, given the large changes treaties, both in terms of perceived improvements in technology, military thinking and the geostrategic in shipborne air defence systems and how carrier situation that occurred. The way it contrasts the borne air power could function in both defensive and different approaches the main powers took when offensive roles. These issues all came into sharper considering maritime air power is a particular strength focus as the threat of war became more apparent and likely to be the main appeal of this book to those during the 1930s and some consideration is also more familiar with the subject matter. given to command and control of maritime air power, Ultimately, a very readable and thought-provoking principally in a UK context. Ultimately, a volume that I can easily recommend, not only to The next chapter, the largest in the book, those with an interest in maritime air power, but also examines how all these issues ultimately played very readable to those who want to understand how aviation has out during key moments of WW2. The ultimate test and thought- shaped naval power more widely, setting in train of combat quickly highlighted those tactics and provoking much of the basis of the approach that has remained technologies that were successful, while equally volume that since. flushing out those that were not, often with disastrous consequences. The challenges of replicating at sea I can easily Lt Cdr Richard Gearing the kind of integrated air defence system that was recommend CEng FRAeS RN

48 AEROSPACE / AUGUST 2019 BALLOONOMANIA BELLES

Daredevil Divas Who First Took to the Sky By S Wright

Pen & Sword History, Pen & Sword Books, 47 Church Street, Barnsley, S Yorkshire S70 2AS, UK. 2018. vii; 191pp. Illustrated. £19.99. ISBN 978-1- 52670-834-2.

Balloonomania Belles documents the lives and ascents of some 25 airwomen with greater attention to their collective achievements than any other recent history. Sharon Wright portrays these women with tact and sympathy without losing sight of the comedy and hubris often accompanying their endeavours. As with many areas of life, women had to do the same job twice as well as men in order to escape opprobrium and be taken seriously. When they ascended with men to whom they were not married, innuendo prevailed in the reporting. Wright’s ‘belles’ understood both the odds against them and the quirks in their favour when planning their flights. Letitia Sage dressed carefully and timed her appearance to maximum effect when she became the first British woman to ascend in a hot air balloon in 1784. Gradually, from being trophies for the first generation of male aeronauts (Lunardi and Zambeccari competed to carry the first female into the air), some women began to make a living from flying. Margaret Graham, who married a professional balloonist but ended up more famous than him, supported nine children with her ascents, often flying while pregnant. Wright’s account is very readable and, though not in a scholarly format, is convincingly based on archival sources. The enterprising women whose names are merely grazed upon in more general histories of flight – Sophie Blanchard, Margaret Graham, Gertrude Bacon – here receive their due, with an evaluation that stretches to their subsequent careers. Wright also includes many far She has cast lesser known women who flew, or attempted to fly, in the long 19th century. This allows for a greater her net wide, understanding of the possibilities that ballooning to produce and parachuting represented: liberation, financial an admirable independence or a rare chance for a public profile. chronicle Often it is the failures or disasters that do of female Top: Watercolour by Georgiana Keate of ‘Mr Biggin and Mrs most to reveal contemporary attitudes, and Wright Sage ascending from St Georges Fields in Lunardis Balloon 29 draws extensively on press accounts and letters to engagement June 1785’ that is a more historically accurate representation of this end. She has cast her net wide, to produce an with the the first flight of a British woman to ascend into the air than the admirable chronicle of female engagement with the lithograph, above, of which the NAL holds the rare colour version, technology and as Lunardi had to withdraw from the balloon flight due to weight technology and culture of early flight. culture of early concerns. RAeS (NAL). Above left: Poster print of Sophie Blanchard in balloon ascent, Lily Ford flight Milan. RAeS (NAL).

Find us on Twitter i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com AUGUST 2019 49 Afterburner Book Reviews HANDBOOK OF HUMAN FACTORS IN AIR TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS

Edited by S J Landry Above: The cockpit “The [ATS] must manage national boundaries, configuration for Airbus’ A220 language and cultural differences, operate in all enables pilots to fly its two CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, 6000 Broken versions – the A220-100 and weather conditions and climates, and provide Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300, Boca Raton, FL, its longer-fuselage A220-300 unprecedented levels of safety for fatalities, 33487-2742, USA. 2018. Distributed by Taylor variant – with the same type injuries and property damage in a complex and rating, facilitating the family’s ever-changing economic, social, political and & Francis Group, 2 Park Square, Milton Park, addition to an airline’s fleet. technological environment” (p 341). Abingdon OX14 4RN, UK. xvi; 412pp. Illustrated. Airbus. £155. [20% discount available to RAeS members If one factors in other threats – human error, via www.crcpress.com using AKQ07 promotion mechanical faults, software bugs, infrastructure code]. ISBN 978-1-4665-7264-5. limitations, fatiguing and stressful rosters and natural hazards such as bird strikes, the scale of Handbook of Human Factors in Air Transportation the achievement becomes apparent. Handbook Systems edited by Associate Professor Dr Steven of Human Factors in Air Transportation Systems Landry is an ambitious book. It has two aims. painstaking consideration of aviation’s myriad First, to provide an engaging guide to the air systemic challenges is, in this reviewer’s opinion, the transportation system (ATS). Secondly, to explore book’s most notable achievement. Other highlights the systems and human factors aspects of the ATS. include William Rankin and Bill Johnson’s insightful To these ends the book consists of no fewer than chapter on maintenance standards – according to 17 chapters plus a Preface. Topics covered range the European Aviation Safety Agency, incorrectly from the systems and human factors aspects of performed maintenance was the primary cause of flight-deck design to the nature and operation of 8% of aircraft accidents occurring between 1990 airline safety management systems (SMSs). and 2006. Rankin and Johnson’s review of the Contributing authors include such luminaries history and praxis of aviation human factors is a as the Federal Aviation Administration’s Dr Kathy I learned must-read. Abbott and Griffith University’s Professor Sidney something I learned something from each of the book’s Dekker. The contributors create a detailed from each of 395 pages. I recommend it. description of one of the world’s most complex, the book’s impactful and successful socio-technical Dr Simon Bennett systems. Lance Sherry’s description of the nature 395 pages. I Director, Civil Safety and Security Unit (CSSU) and operation of the ATS merits reproduction: recommend it University of Leicester

50 AEROSPACE / AUGUST 2019 Library Additions BOOKS

GENERAL and transition calculations, recording the development of relation to Frank Whittle, boundary-layer flows, air speed, altitude and flight and a comparative Civil Aircraft Markings incompressible viscous/ distance records 1905-1980. summary of early activity 2019 – 70th edition. compressible viscous flow in other countries that A S Wright. Crécy Publishing, and Navier-Stokes equations Take Off: All About Radio pioneered jet engines. A 1a Ringway Trading Estate, for inviscid incompressible/ Controlled Model Aircraft. library and research resource. Shawdowmoss Road, compressible flows. A Weiss. Special Interest FAST Monograph 004. B Manchester M22 5LH, UK. Model Books Ltd, Poole. 2004. Howard. Farnborough Air 2018. xvi; 464pp. Illustrated. Analysis of Low-Speed viii; 247pp. Illustrated. ISBN Sciences Trust, Trenchard £11.95. ISBN 978-1-91080- Unsteady Airfoil Flows. 1-85486-166-2. House, 85 Farnborough Road, 924-2. T Cebeci et al. Horizons Farnborough, Hampshire Updated through to March Publishing Inc and Springer. Model Aircraft GU14 6TF, UK (E manager@ 2019, the latest edition of this 2005. xiv; 226pp + CD-ROM. Aerodynamics – Fourth airsciences.org.uk). 2019 handbook recording all current Illustrated. ISBN 3-540- edition. M Simons. Special (Revised edition). 197pp. civil aircraft registrations in 22932-9. Interest Model Books Ltd, Illustrated. £15. the UK (including the Isle of An introduction to Poole. 2002. viii; 344pp. Man, Jersey and the Channel unsteady aerodynamics with Illustrated. ISBN 1-85486- Wings Above the Planet: SPACE Islands) and the Republic of emphasis on the analysis 190-5. the History of Antonov NASA Moon Missions - Ireland, the British Aircraft and computation of inviscid Airlines. A Sovenko. 1969-1972 (Apollo 12, 14, Preservation Council (BAPC) and viscous two-dimensional Introducing Radio Control Christopher Foyle Publishing, 15, 16 and 17): an insight register of historic aircraft and flows over aerofoils at low Model Aircraft – Revised 113-119 Charing Cross Road, into the engineering, the registrations of 100s of speeds focusing on an edition. B Burkinshaw. Special London WC2H 0EB, UK. technology and operation airliners likely to be seen in exposition of four major Interest Model Books Ltd, 2019. Distributed by Crécy of NASA’s lunar advanced the UK. calculation methods in current Poole. 2002. 108pp. Illustrated. Publishing, 1a Ringway Trading lunar flights. D Baker. use, namely inviscid-panel, ISBN 1-85486-116-6. Estate, Shawdowmoss Road, Haynes Publishing, Sparkford, Military Aircraft Markings boundary layer, viscous- Manchester M225LH, UK. Yeovil, Somerset BA22 7JJ, 2019 – 40th edition. inviscid interaction and Fly Electric. D Chinnery. 304pp. Illustrated. £34.99. UK. 2019. 220pp. Illustrated. H J Curtis. Crécy Publishing, Navier-Stokes methods. Nexus Special Interests ISBN 978-0-9548896-3-0. £22.99. ISBN 978-1-78521- 1a Ringway Trading Estate, Ltd, Swanley. 1999. 158pp. Illustrated throughout with 210-9. Shawdowmoss Road, Turbulence Models and Illustrated. ISBN 1-85486- numerous colour photographs, Following a concise Manchester M22 5LH, UK. their Application: Efficient 198-0. a detailed history of the overview of the early Apollo 2018. xxiv; 304pp. Illustrated. Numerical Methods with The design, construction and evolution of the airline which missions culminating in the £11.95. ISBN 978-1-91080- Computer Programs. flying of electric powered following the success of Air historic Moon landing of Apollo 925-9. T Cebeci. Horizons Publishing radio-controlled model aircraft, Foyle Ltd in operating Antonov 11 in July 1969, the main The latest edition of Inc and Springer. 2004. ix; including electric ducted fan freighters in Western Europe, focus of this well-illustrated this handbook recording the 118pp + CD-ROM. Illustrated. models, is discussed. began its own commercial book is a detailed history of registrations of all military ISBN 3-540-40288-8. cargo flights in 1993 with a the subsequent five American aircraft that are based or Accurate and efficient Radio Control Foam mixed fleet of Antonov An-12, Moon landings including the operate from the UK and numerical methods for solving Modelling – Revised edition. An-22 Antaeus, An-124 selection of their various Ireland (including those of the boundary-layer equations D Thomas and S King. Nexus Ruslan and An-225 Mriya landing sites, the experiments the USAF, US Navy and US with turbulence models based Special Interests Books, aircraft, the book concluding the conducted and Army) or are likely to be seen on algebraic formulas (mixing Swanley. 1999. 190pp. with a history of each aircraft the equipment – including the in the UK. length, eddy viscosity) or Illustrated. ISBN 1-85486- type operated and of the Kyiv- Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) partial-differential transport 179-4. Antonov airport at Gostomel in – used. AERODYNAMICS equations are presented. the Ukraine. Includes Foreword Model Aeroplane Building: by Christopher Foyle. Understanding Flight – Aircraft Flight: a Sketch by Sketch – Second Moon Shot: the Inside Story of America’s Race to Second edition. D F Anderson Description of the Physical edition. P Holland. Nexus GUIDED FLIGHT and S Eberhardt. McGraw-Hill, Principles of Aircraft Flight Special Interests Ltd, Hemel the Moon. A Shepard et al. New York. 2010. xviii; 293pp. – Third edition. R H Barnard Hempstead. 1997. 217pp. Turner Publishing, Inc, Atlanta, Illustrated. ISBN 978-0-07- and D R Philpott. Pearson Illustrated. ISBN 1-85486- GA. 1994. 415pp. Illustrated. 162696-5. Education Limited, Harlow. 148-4. ISBN 2004. ix; 470pp.Illustrated. A revealing perspective Essential Computational ISBN 978-0-13-120043-2. R/C Model Airplane of the history of the evolution Fluid Dynamics. O Zikanov. Design: How to Design of the American space John Wiley & Sons, Inc, AEROMODELLING R/C Model Aircraft, programme from the Huntsville Hoboken, NJ. 2010. xvi; including Airfoils, rocket team of Wernher von 302pp. Illustrated. ISBN 978- Radio Controlled Aerodynamics, Structures, Braun and the creation of 0-470-42329-5. Helicopters: the Guide to Control Systems, Various NASA (in response to the Building and Flying R/C Configurations and 1957 Sputnik crisis) and Computational Fluid Helicopters. N Papillon. More. A G Lennon. Chart the early astronaut selection Dynamics: a Practical Special Interest Model Books Hobby Distributors Limited, programme through to the Approach. J Tu. Elsevier Ltd, Poole. 2006. 174pp. Littlehampton. 1986. ISBN July 1975 link-up rendezvous Butterworth-Heinemann, Illustrated. ISBN 1-85486- 0-903676-14-1. in space between the Apollo Oxford. 2008. xv; 459pp. 226-X. CSM-111 and Soyuz 19 spacecraft is recounted Illustrated. ISBN 978-0-7506- AIR TRANSPORT Blue Streak: Britain’s through this dual-biography 8563-4. Aircraft Workshop: Learn Medium Range Ballistic of two of the original ‘Mercury to Make Models that Fly. Dancing the Skies and Missile. J Boyes. Fonthill Seven’ astronauts Alan Computational Fluid K Shacklock. Special Interest Falling with Style. C Shields Media Limited, Millview House, Shepard and . Dynamics for Engineers: Model Books Ltd, Poole. (https://calvinshields.com/ Toadsmoor Road, Stroud Includes Foreword by Neil from Panel to Navier- 2004. 264pp. Illustrated. ISBN book/). Published by the GL5 2TB, UK. 2019. 240pp. Armstrong. Stokes Methods with 1-85486-216-2. author. 2018. 381pp. £9.99. Illustrated. £25. ISBN 978-1- Computer Programs. Includes scale plans for ISBN 978-1-79133220-4. 78155-700-6. T Cebeci et al. Horizons making models of Charles Based on the author’s For further information Publishing Inc and Springer. Lindbergh’s Ryan NYP [New personal experiences, an PROPULSION contact the National 2005. xiv; 396pp + CD-ROM. York-Paris] ‘Spirit of St Louis’, informal account of life as a Aerospace Library. Illustrated. ISBN3-540- Piper J-3 Cub, de Havilland commercial pilot for BOAC The Story – a T +44 (0)1252 701038 24451-4. DH71 Tiger Moth, Hawker Sea and British Airways (BA) from Review: a review of the Methods are applied Fury and S5/ the 1960s onwards written in early British jet engine or 701060 in detail to solve stability Spitfire FXIVe and timelines fictional form. story, particularly in E [email protected]

Find us on Twitter i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com AUGUST 2019 51 Obituaries ROGER HENRI BÉTEILLE

FEng HonFRAeS 1921-2019

Roger Béteille, often referred to as the ‘Father of Airbus’, died on 14 June only a few days before the opening of the Paris Air Show where Airbus celebrated the 50th anniversary of its founding in 1969. Béteille played a central role in the creation of Airbus and, in particular, its ultimate success in the civil aircraft market. However, this seminal achievement derived from an already significant career in the industry and the lessons he learned in his earlier years. After graduating from Supaero, the Grande Ecole in Toulouse for aerospace engineers, he joined SNCASE which later became . He obtained a pilot’s licence in 1945 and became a flight test engineer in 1952. In 1955 he was one of four crewmembers on the first flight of the Above: After the first flight Felix Kracht he invented a totally new production Caravelle. He later said it could have been more of the Airbus A300B on 28 system where each partner had total responsibility October 1972. From left: P successful if Sud had continued a planned tie up Canneil, R Zinzoni (in profile), for their component; wings, fuselage, cockpit etc, with Douglas. This foundered when Sud rejected Roger Béteille, Director of including supplying it to the final assembly with the Douglas advice to change the fuselage section the Airbus programme; Max systems already embedded. He also pushed for a for more cargo to satisfy the US market. He did Fischi (pilot and 1st pilot), single organisation to co-ordinate and manage the Henri Ziegler, President of not forget this lesson in the future design of Airbus the National and Industrial programme. This was to be Airbus Industrie, a GIE aircraft. Aerospace Company), G which would be based close to the final assembly He moved on to a post as Director of Missiles Scherer and Bernard Ziegler. line in Toulouse. and Satellites based at Cannes until 1967 when he Town Council of the City of Béteille knew that Airbus would have to break returned to Paris as Technical Director and Toulouse. into the US market to be a global player. He involved co-ordinator for the Airbus co-operation programme. himself and found the opportunity with Eastern The study phase of the A300 was underway Airlines then in the charge of Frank Borman, the between the three founding countries but for a 300- former commander of Apollo 8. A contract for 23 seat aircraft. However, Béteille realised that this aircraft was signed in 1977. Béteille had offered to did not match the market demand. So, with a small let Eastern pay for a 170-seat aircraft and pay the team of engineers, he took the initiative to start rest when the passenger loads justified it. A gamble secretly studying a smaller 250-seat aircraft that that gave Airbus the vital credibility they needed. could be powered by engines that were emerging He also realised Airbus would need a family of from the US widebody programmes. However, he aircraft to successfully compete as a business. The made sure to choose a fuselage cross section that first was the A310, a 200-seat aircraft launched allowed two LD3 containers in the underfloor cargo in 1978. A much more radical step was a single- and a comfortable passenger experience. This is aisle aircraft in the 150 to 200-seat market sector, the project he then presented to Henri Ziegler when the biggest market by volume. As he also believed he was appointed head of SNIAS in the summer of that Airbus had to compete with innovation and 1968. advanced technology this aircraft, named the A320, At the same time the Concorde programme had among other features an advanced cockpit was fully underway and France was also looking using full fly-by-wire controlled with a sidestick. It at Dassault’s Mercure programme. For a time was launched in 1984, a year before he retired from both were given priority over the nascent Airbus. Airbus Industrie as company President. However, despite the loss of British support, a He had to cope with an on/off relationship with bilateral accord with Germany was signed at Le the UK which had formally rejoined the Grouping Bourget in 1969. in 1978 after the launch of the A310. By the time Béteille also wanted to avoid a Concorde the A320 was in prospect the British Government style of programme management with two were willing to back the programme with launch production centres and flight test sites and a lot investment for BAe and RR. This political decision of managerial duplications. He envisaged one had to be approved by the then Prime Minister centre and successfully argued for Toulouse. With Margaret Thatcher and her Secretary of State

52 AEROSPACE / AUGUST 2019 Norman Tebbitt. Mrs T wanted assurances it was not ‘another’ Concorde and the business case assumed 600 to 800 sales overall. Clearly one of the better decisions for Government investment in recent times. The final assembly line for the A350 XWB, the latest Airbus model, is named in his honour. However, it might be said that his memorial is in the sky everyday with over 15,000 of the A320 family delivered or on order. He received many honours. Commander of the Legion d’Honneur, Grande Officier of the Ordre National du Merite and he was a founding member of the Academie de l’Air et l’Espace. He became an Honorary Fellow of the Society in 1983.

David Marshall CBE CEng FRAeS Eastern Airlines, the first US Airbus customer, signs up for the A300 in 1977. From left: Roger RAeS President 2007-2008 Betéille; Frank Borman, CEO, Eastern Airlines and Bernard Lathière, MD, Airbus. Airbus.

PETER ARTHUR HENRY BRAMMER

CEng MRAeS 1921-2019

Peter Brammer trained as an apprentice with Fairey Aviation Company Hamble in 1937 and, upon completion was placed in the design office, working on damage repair and build of Sea Fox, Swordfish, Albacore and Firefly. Like many who take up aviation by choice, he would have liked to have been a professional pilot but he was also a very capable engineer. He left Fairey in 1945 to become a professional aviator as a Flight Engineer with the reformed British Overseas Airways Corporation at the beginning of the post war flying boom. Flight engineers were a key member of every crew, essential to the safe operation the early post war airliners which were based on wartime or transports. He flew on long-haul routes in Yorks, C4 Argonauts, Hermes and Constellations, at a time when air travel was a much higher risk affair. The BOAC flight deck was also a much more formal affair, captains expected to be called ‘Sir’, and even the passengers tended to dress formally to fly. He will be well remembered for his roguish The coupled Gnome gas He left BOAC in 1955, to join Napier Engines sense of humour. turbine engine installation on a Westland Wessex Ltd as a Development Engineer, working specifically Peter was an experienced ‘Hands on engineer’ helicopter. on helicopter engines. who held the confidence of both designers and test RAeS (NAL). Peter joined Westland in 1963 as a power aircrew. plant installation designer and was involved in the During his time with Westland, he learned to installation integration of the engines in the early fly as a glider pilot and, as a private pilot, flew light , became responsible for fixed-wing aircraft, including twin engines. His total overseeing free turbine engine installations in Scout, flying experience exceeded 3,000 hours. Wasp, Whirlwind, Wessex, Lynx and Sea King, until he retired in the early 1980s, by which time he was David Gibbings Chief Power Systems Engineer. MBE CEng FRAeS

Find us on Twitter i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com AUGUST 2019 53 Afterburner Society News NATIONAL AEROSPACE LIBRARY

Supersonic Airliner Project Study

On 27 June, the National Aerospace Library’s display of aircraft models was added to by a large striking model of the Hawker Siddeley Aviation Type 1011 Variable Geometry Transonic Transport, a medium-long range transonic airliner which was specifically designed c.1961 to fly as fast as Above: The model on display in the National Aerospace possible without producing a sonic boom. Library. Mike Stanberry FRAeS. Conceived by the company’s Advanced Projects Right: A three-view drawing Group which was led by Jim C Floyd, it was noted of the HSA1011. in the project study for the Type 1011 held in the library’s archives at Farnborough that: variable geometry into a highly efficient subsonic “It has been generally assumed that the next configuration having 31° sweep and an aspect ratio major advance in the long-range civil transport field of 7.5.” will be the introduction of the Powered by four Rolls-Royce RB178/1B cruising at two to three times the speed of sound. 25,000lb thrust high by-pass ratio turbofan However, recent work has suggested that such an engines with the two forward engines mounted aircraft may be limited to over-ocean routes due symmetrically at the fuselage with the intakes to sonic boom considerations which may limit its IT HAS BEEN extending forward and the remaining engines operation to a few of the world’s larger airlines. The mounted centrally on the fuselage below the fin, supersonic transport becomes very uneconomic, due GENERALLY with the low-wing mounted beneath the pressurised to increased time-dependent costs, if it is restricted ASSUMED THAT cabin and the fuselage narrowing at its centre to subsonic speeds overland.” THE NEXT MAJOR section, the wing span was designed to 97ft 3in in 2 To overcome these issues the Type 1011 ADVANCE IN its swept position (with a wing area of 2,700ft ) and was conceived as a 200ft long airliner capable 143ft in its unswept position. of carrying a payload of 160 economy class THE LONG- The model was presented to the National passengers plus freight over around 2,500nm, its RANGE CIVIL Aerospace Library following the expressed wish main design feature being the aircraft’s variable TRANSPORT of Christopher Bernard Wheble who worked in wing sweep which aimed to provide a very efficient the Advanced Projects Group at Hawker Siddeley, aerodynamic shape at subsonic speeds which would FIELD WILL Kingston. therefore have similar lifting capability and handling BE THE For any enquiries regarding this model which is characteristics as a subsonic aircraft: INTRODUCTION representative of the many advanced project design “Our studies have indicated that a wing and OF THE studies undertaken by British aircraft companies fuselage designed for optimum efficiency at M+1.15 during the 1950s and 1960s, please contact (660kt), with a wing leading edge of 58° and SUPERSONIC the librarians at Farnborough (T +44 (0)1252 an aspect ratio of 3.5, could be transformed by TRANSPORT 701038/701060; E [email protected])

54 AEROSPACE / AUGUST 2019 PAKISTAN DIVISION Women in Aviation – Pakistan

The Pakistan Division of the Royal Aeronautical Society arranges a monthly lecture, and periodically a seminar, on a variety of subjects relating to aerospace. The Division organised a seminar titled ‘Women in Aviation – Pakistan’ on 2 May 2019 in An all-female crew on a PIA flight from Islamabad to Gilgit. the auditorium of Pakistan International Airlines THE ONLY THING Training Center, Karachi. YOU NEED IS AN The idea behind the event was to afford an opportunity to young aviation professionals and UNSHAKEABLE The session concluded with a closing speech aspirants, particularly women, to interact with BELIEF IN by Air Marshal Salim Arshad FRAeS, PAF (Ret’d), successful women in the field of aerospace and to YOURSELF... President RAeS Pakistan Division. “This was a pioneering event in Pakistan’s aviation draw inspiration and encouragement from them. The WHAT APPEARS panel of successful women aerospace professionals history. in a society that is traditional in its views and included a traffic supervisor, a pilot, an aircraft SO DIFFICULT beliefs, allowing women the opportunity to select a maintenance engineer, an air traffic controller and RIGHT NOW WILL profession is, by itself, a great feat, let alone adopting a space scientist. Over 80 students, teachers and ONLY BE YOUR aviation and aerospace as a career. Congratulations to RAeS-PD who organised the event, and also to professionals from different fields such as space WARM UP ONE sciences, aircraft maintenance, flying, air traffic control those women who took the trouble of participating and airline management were present at the forum. DAY! and attending this milestone event. Great work!” Captain J S M Sadiq FRAeS, a distinguished ex-commercial pilot, an aviation historian, an author, an advanced open water SCUBA diver, and a helmsman opened the event with his very interesting speech on a ‘Short History of Women in Aviation’. Taking advantage of her brief presence in Join us as a Pakistan, Ms Robin Lamar, Founding President of the Association for Women in Aviation Maintenance Corporate Partner (AWAM) US, was invited to be the chief guest and RAeS Corporate Partners are organisations, both large and small, across civil main speaker at the forum. She spoke on ‘Women and defence, from the breadth of the aerospace, aviation and space sectors. in Aviation around the World’, which was both highly We provide a high-level commitment to professional recognition, continuous professional development, networking and knowledge sharing. inspirational and motivating. One of the highlights of her speech was the challenges women in aviation face. She said that FEAR was the greatest challenge. Elaborating, she said: “We are gonna be afraid of climbing the ladder, we are gonna be afraid of making our parents unhappy, we are gonna be afraid. so what do you do with that? Feel the fear and do it anyway! That’s what we are gonna do with that.” Also included at the forum was a short video message from Engr Hania Mohiuddin, a UK-based 4 Exclusive Corporate Partner briefings 4 Systems Engineer, from Pakistan. Lauding the Access to our global network of Branches 4 Free access to AEROSPACE and The Aeronautical increasing number of women from Pakistan who Journal were taking up careers in the more challenging 4 Discounted conference rates fields of aviation advised: “The only thing you need 4 Free accreditation costs is an unshakeable belief in yourself... what appears 4 Discounted individual member joining fees 4 Free meeting room and discounted room hire at RAeS HQ so difficult right now will only be your warm up one 4 Use of the RAeS Corporate Partner logo day!” The speeches were followed by very interesting questions from the audience, which were answered most ably by panelists. Find out more about corporate membership: [email protected] www.aerosociety.com/corporate +44 (0)20 7670 4300 @aerosociety Find us on Twitter i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com AUGUST 2019 55 Afterburner Diary

EVENTS www.aerosociety/events LECTURES www.aerosociety/events

12 September Performance-based Oversight (PBO) of Aircraft Maintenance Conference

12 September F-35B/HMS Queen Elizabeth Development Flight Trials John Slater MRAeS, Senior Flight Test Engineer, BAE Systems Lecture

13 September Journeys through Aerospace and Aviation Young Professionals Conference

17 September International Symposium of Approved Training Organisations Seminar

Boeing 747-400 G-BYGC repainted in the BOAC markings which were in use from 1964 to 1974

British Airways as part of the British Airways centenary celebrations. Jim Davies will celebrate the centenary at Toulouse on 17 September. British Airways/Stuart Bailey.

BAY OF PLENTY Hypersonics at Oxford Burridge, CEO, RAeS. MBDA Classic Flyers, 8 Jean Batten University. Mike Hersey, Senior SG1 2DA. Drive, Mount Maunganui, Systems Engineer, Lockheed Tauranga 3116. 6pm. Martin. SWINDON 6 September — Jean The Montgomery Theatre, The Batten Lecture. Sgt James PRESTON Defence Academy of the United 17 September Ward VC. Des Underwood. Personnel and Conference Kingdom, Faringdon Road, Capt Ray Jones Lecture: Taking Control of Loss of Control Centre, BAE Systems, Warton. Shrivenham, Swindon S. 7.30pm. – It takes a decade to change the world BIRMINGHAM, 6.30pm. Alan Matthews, 4 September — Modern Dr Sunjoo Advani FRAeS, President, IDT Engineering WOLVERHAMPTON AND T +44 (0)1995 61470. aircrew escape systems. Philip Flight Simulation Group Named Lecture COSFORD 18 September — Spears Rowles, VP Engineering, National Cold War Museum, to SPEAR and beyond Martin-Baker. 18-19 September RAF Museum Cosford, Shifnal. – air platform integration Modernising Flight Crew Training: Completing the 7pm. Chris Hughes, T +44 challenges. Keith Rigby, BAE SYDNEY Transformation (0)1902 844523. Systems: Global Engineering 8 October — 61st Sir Charles International Flight Crew Training Conference 19 September — The Fellow Weapons Integration. Kingsford Smith Lecture and story behind the 9 October — Airlander. Tom Annual Dinner. Matt Hall, pilot, 3 October Concorde crash. Grundy, Executive Director Red Bull Air Race. SETOPS 2019 17 October — Spitfire Girl. Strategic Customer Solutions Conference Candida Adkins. and Support, Airlander. TOULOUSE Symposium Room, Building 8 October FAA SEATTLE B01, Airbus Campus 1, The Real World’s Counterpart: Digital Twins – The present and FAA Museum Under the wing Museum of Flight, 9404 East Blagnac. 6pm. Contact: http:// the future of Concorde. 6.45pm. Marginal Way South, Seattle, goo.gl/WbiKtV to register. Conference 19 September — Eric Winkle Washington. 6.30pm. 17 September — Celebrating Brown Lecture. Reimagining 1 October — Insitu – British Airway’s 100th year 8 October human flight – pioneer of the Unmanned aircraft and their birthday. Jim Davies, British Cierva Lecture: Technology Development to Fielding: Concrete future following the pioneers impact on decision making. Airways Speedbird Centre. Steps Towards the Future of Vertical Lift of the past. Richard Browning, Jim Wood, Senior Manager 22 October — 12th ADS Rotorcraft Group Named Lecture Gravity Industries. of Product Development, Toulouse Branch Lecture. Autonomous Systems, Insitu Launching satellites from the UK 9-10 October LOUGHBOROUGH Inc, a Boeing Company. Space Centre in Scotland. Chris Airspace Access: Integrated or Segregated? Room U020, Brockington Lamour, CEO, Orbex Space. Conference Building, Loughborough SOUTHEND Building. 7.30pm. Colin Moss, The Holiday Inn, Southend WASHINGTON 10 October T +44 (0)1509 239962. Airport. 8pm. Sean Corr, T +44 3 October — Urban mobility. Tony Lucking Debate: Game of Drones – the Rise of eVTOL 15 October — Beluga XL (0)20 7929 3400. and Urban Aviation – oversize transport for the 10 September — Sir Freddie WELLINGTON Air Transport Group Debate 21st century. Veronique Roca, Laker Lecture. Sell ’em high, 22 August — Air Accident Airbus, BelugaXL Technical still sell ’em cheap? –The Investigations. Jim Burtenshaw. 14-15 October Director & Chief Engineer. future of low-cost airlines. Prof Aerodynamics Tools and Methods in Aircraft Design Keith Hayward. YEOVIL Aerodynamics Group Conference MANCHESTER 8 October — Flying the Dallas Conference Room Deanwater Hotel, Wilmslow Spitfire. Flt Lt Charlie Brown, 1A, Leonardo Helicopters, 14 October Road, Woodford. 7pm. RAF Cranwell. Yeovil. 6.30pm. David Lanchester Lecture 12 September — The McCallum, E david.mccallum@ Prof Rebecca J Lingwood, Professor of Fluid Dynamics, Brunel V-Bomber Force. Air Cdre STEVENAGE leonardocompany.com University London and KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Norman Bonnor. Airbus SG1 2AS. 6pm. 26 September — 24th Stockholm E [email protected] Penrose Lecture. Hybrid Air Aerodynamics Group Named Lecture OXFORD 17 September — Bomber Vehicles flight testing. David The Magdalen Centre, Oxford Command and German history. Burns and Andrew Barber, All lectures start at 18.00hrs unless otherwise stated. Science Park, Oxford. 7pm. George Capel. . Conference proceedings are available at Andrew Dann, 15 October — The future of 17 October — Battle of www.aerosociety.com/news/proceedings E [email protected] aerospace: known knowns and Britain – the making of the 17 September — known unknowns! Sir Brian movie. Phil Holt.

56 AEROSPACE / AUGUST 2019 CAMBRIDGE BRANCH Sir Michael Marshall Lecture Competition

The Awards Ceremony for the 2019 Sir Michael Marshall Lecture Competition was held on Thursday, 13 June at Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group’s HQ, Cambridge Airport. Sir Michael, President of Marshall of Cambridge (Holdings), Life Vice President of the Cambridge Branch of the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS) and after whom the Competition is named, conducted the ceremony. The overall winner of this Above: Sir Michael Marshall year’s competition, Michael Tennant (a pupil from with the lecture participants. Hills Road Sixth Form College) was presented with Right: Sir Michael Marshall the Winner’s Trophy. Sir Michael also presented and Michael Tennant who made the winning Certificates to the winner/s of each age category presentation. and to all other participants. The winners were Michael Tennant/Hari Prasad (joint winners of 18 years and under), Conor Walsh (19-25 years) and Henry Price (26-30 years). The winners also each received a cheque from Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group, supplemented by the Cambridge Branch RAeS. The competition offers the opportunity for young people to develop their presenting skills and grow in confidence while speaking for 20 minutes on an aeronautical engineering themed subject of their choosing. This year’s winning presentation by Michael Tennant titled: ‘Making Space a Safer Place’ reviewed the lessons that can be learned from the Challenger disaster in 1986. The competition organiser, Ben Hewlett, stated that: “This year saw a diverse range of exciting lecture topics including electro-aerodynamics, supersonic flight and artificial intelligence; I was very impressed with all those who entered and the engaging presentations they gave.” The judging panel, consisting of professionals from within the engineering community, were STEVENAGE BRANCH unanimous in their decision to vote Michael as the winner and all who attended the competition The RAeS Stevenage Branch hosted the Leslie agreed that it was a fantastic event to have been Bedford Lecture and Dinner by Dr Suzie Imber, left, part of. The competition saw entrants drawn from at Knebworth Country Park on 16 April. Then RAeS a range of areas including Cambridge University, President Rear Adm Simon Henley attended along Hills Road Sixth Form College, The Perse School, with the Site Director of Airbus Stevenage Aidan and Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group. This Joy and the Managing Director of MBDA UK Chris annual competition will next be held in March 2020 Allam. Suzie presented an awe-inspiring summary with entry open later this year. Further details will be of her career to date including winning the 2017 published locally nearer the time, including on the BBC2 TV programme Astronauts, Do You Have RAeS Cambridge Branch’s website: What It Takes?, the Stevenage Branch members https://cambridgeraes.info/competition/ thoroughly enjoyed the evening and the Society thanks Airbus for its generous sponsorship of the Ben Hewlett event.

Find us on Twitter i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com AUGUST 2019 57 Afterburner Society News NATIONAL AEROSPACE LIBRARY Blue Streak and other Launch Vehicles

In July 2019 the National Aerospace Library at Farnborough was presented by Anne, Sarah and Liz Staines with an extensive collection of material accumulated by their late father, Ronald Arthur Staines (1928-2017), during his long aviation career with Handley Page, de Havilland, Hawker Siddeley and . The collection contains a wealth of original material relating to his close involvement with the development of the British space industry and, in particular, the evolution of space launch vehicles over the decades. Beginning with the de Havilland Blue Streak An Introduction to Blue Streak. De Havilland Aircraft Company Above: Blue Streak launch. Limited – Weapon and Aircraft Equipment Division, Hatfield. Below: Diagram of a Blue ballistic missile and, following the cancellation of c.1961. 15pp. Illustrated. Streak satellite the programme by the British government on 13 A compilation of captioned photographs of the assembly of (F1 to F3 standard). the Blue Streak launch vehicle and its testing at the Spadeadam RAeS (NAL). April 1960, its contemporaneous adaption as the Rocket Establishment in Cumberland. first stage booster for ELDO (European Launcher Below right: Ronald Arthur Development Organisation), its testing at the Blue Streak Satellite Launcher: Progress Report for the Staines. Period 14th April 1960 - 31st March 1961. R A Staines. De Spadeadam Rocket Establishment constructed Havilland Aircraft Company Limited – Project Office, London. May by the Ministry of Works on the moorlands of 1961. 80pp. Illustrated. Cumberland and at the Woomera Rocket Range British Participation in Space Research: Excerpts from a lying 300 miles NNW of Adelaide in the Australian Lecture presented to the British Interplanetary Society on 19 desert, the collection records the close involvement November 1961. E G D Andrews. Bristol Siddeley Engines Ltd. of British aerospace companies in the 1961. programme and ESA’s orbiting laboratory Spacelab RZ.2 Mk II : First Flight Standard. Rolls- which was first launched on 28 November 1983 Royce Limited – Aero Engine School, Derby. 1962. Irregular pagination. Illustrated. assigned to STS-9 through A detailed well-illustrated technical description of the rocket to the proposed British Aerospace designs for a engine which powered the Blue Streak launch vehicle.

horizontal take-off and landing single-stage-to-orbit Blue Streak Flight One: 1st Stage of the ELDO Satellite spaceplane of the mid-1980s. Launching Vehicle. Hawker Siddeley Dynamics Limited – Space Cataloguing the collection is ongoing but some Projects Division. c.1964. 52pp. Illustrated. A well-illustrated technical summary of Blue Streak, its of the ‘highlights’ recorded so far are summarised manufacture and testing at Hatfield, Stevenage and at the below: Spadeadam Rocket Establishment, concluding with a description of the Woomera Rocket Range and its role in the ELDO programme British Ballistic Missile Programme (‘Secret’). G K C Pardoe. prior to the launch of the F1 Vehicle. Ltd. c.1957. 27pp. A detailed typescript technical summary of the Blue Streak Blue Streak data sheets. Hawker Siddeley Dynamics Limited – weapon system and its role in the evolution of the British ballistic Space Division. 1964. 4pp. Illustrated. missile programme, concluding with a summary of the Summarises the history of the programme through to March test vehicle. 1964 with technical data, F1 launch trajectory and first stage configuration general arrangement diagram. Background to the Britannic: Reprinted from The Aerospace and Astronautics 25 September 1959. H G Conway. A Space Programme for Europe?: 9th Chadwick Memorial & Harland Limited, Belfast. 1959. 5pp. Illustrated. Lecture presented to the Royal Aeronautical Society – Manchester Describes the projected turboprop transport design (including Branch 11 March 1964. A V Cleaver. Rolls-Royce Limited. 1964. performance graphs, passenger layouts and potential payloads, 29pp. including the Blue Streak LRBM, Thor IRBM, Jupiter IRBM, and ) which was to evolve into the SC5 ELDO Satellite Launching Vehicle 1st Stage Blue Streak: Belfast. Development Cost Plan. DCP/BSSL/3/65. Hawker Siddeley Dynamics Limited. August 1965. The Blue Streak Rocket Launcher: Extract from Welding Includes cost development plan and annual year-by-year cost and Metal Fabrication Vol 28 (3). C W J Vernon. Morfax Limited, estimates for the period November 1961 through to December Mitcham. March 1960. 16pp. Illustrated. 1969. A well-illustrated technical summary of the design, assembly and testing of the Blue Streak launching platform constructed by Protocol on the Privileges and Immunities of the Morfax Ltd. European Launcher Development Organisation: with

58 AEROSPACE / AUGUST 2019 Protocol of Signature, London, 29 June 1964 [This Protocol has not been ratified by the ]. Presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs by Command of Her Majesty February 1965. Cmnd. 2520. Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. 1965. 24pp. Reviews the legal framework of the establishment of ELDO.

Aide Memoire ‘Europa One’ (F4, Standard): Flight Trials at 6a Launch Complex, Woomera, South Australia. Hawker Siddeley Dynamics Ltd, Stevenage. May 1966. 19pp.Illustrated. Technical description of the flight trials of Europa One (F4 std.) which was the validation of Blue Streak in its role of first stage booster for the ultimate configuration of a three-stage vehicle under the ELDO development programme for a multistage European satellite launch vehicle.

Summary description of the four-stage Scout rocket launcher. Hawker Siddeley Dynamics – Project Office. January 1967. 4pp. Used for launching UK2 and various Explorer, Secor and San Marco Earth satellites.

Brochure for Blue Streak as the first stage booster of the European satellite launch vehicle Europa. Hawker Siddeley Dynamics – Space Division, Stevenage. c.1969. 6pp. Illustrated. Includes diagrams of the flight plan of Europa I and II, location of tracking stations and potential payloads for Europa II and III variants. Above: Blue Streak Brochure for Europa I. Hawker Siddeley Dynamics – Space countdown, 6A Site, Division, Stevenage. c.1969. 6pp. Illustrated. Woomera, Australia. Includes cutaway diagrams of Blue Streak, Europa II, potential Right: Integration of the payloads and configurations of Europa II/III/IV and flight plan for Europa I/II. British Aerospace pallet for Spacelab in the Orbiter Bay : a Review of the UK Small Satellite Launcher of Columbia for the STS2 Project 1964 to 1972. Technical Memorandum TM2713. R J mission which was launched Jenkins. Hawker Siddeley. April 1972. 17pp. Illustrated. on 12 November 1981. Below right: The Miranda X4 Spacecraft. Hawker Siddeley Dynamics. c.1973. 4pp. or X4 satellite was an Illustrated. engineering test bed for Illustrated brochure for the British satellite which came to be known as ‘Miranda’, including technical data and summary of various technologies which experiments to be conducted. was built by Hawker Siddeley and launched by a Scout File of papers relating to the costs of the X4 satellite rocket on 9 March 1974. project. R G Staniforth. Hawker Siddeley Dynamics. 1973. All RAeS (NAL). Detailed cost analysis of the British satellite programme which came to be known as ‘Miranda’.

Swallow: Aerodynamics and Performance. British Aerospace – Aircraft Group. c.1983. 24pp. Illustrated. Technical overview of proposed single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) launch vehicle.

HOTOL: an aerospace plane concept for the 21st century which exploits advanced propulsion and aerodynamic techniques to create a low-cost spacecraft launcher. British Aerospace – Space & Communications Division, Stevenage. c.1984. 4pp. Illustrated.

‘Black Knight: the Rocket that Came and Stayed’ and ‘Prelude to ELDO: the Rise and Fall of Blue Streak’ with associated correspondence from the author. P Morton. June 1984. 24pp; 7pp. Advanced typescript chapters on the histories of the Black Knight and Blue Streak programmes that were to be published in the official history Fire Across the Desert: Woomera and the Anglo- Australian Joint Project 1946-1980 (AGPS Press. 1989).

Spacelab: an International Success Story. NASA SP-487. D R Lord. National Aeronautics and Space Adminstration, Washington DC. 1987. xv; 554pp. Illustrated.

For any enquiries about this material please contact the librarians at Farnborough: T +44 (0)1252 701 038/01252 701 060 E [email protected]

Find us on Twitter i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com AUGUST 2019 59 Afterburner Elections

FELLOWS Camille Bilger Lawrence Ben Tarif Connor McIntyre Sarinda De Alwis SOCIETY OFFICERS Christopher White- Peter Coughlin Steven Murphy Horne David Carroll Tyler Martin President: Prof Jonathan Cooper Colin Ashworth Dawn Nigli President-Elect: Howard Nye Cristiano Ceccato Enrique Gutierrez Llaser ASSOCIATES David Downie Gene Truan BOARD CHAIRMEN David Vowles Anthony Simpson Martin Yanev Dayyabu Danraka Ieuan Davies Samuel Lanham Learned Society Chairman: Jaime Beneyto Gomez Thomas Tyrell Air Cdre Peter Round Grant Williams de Barreda Membership Services Chairman: John Daniels James Kirkham-Wiley E-ASSOCIATES Philip Spiers Josep Dorca-Luque Jason Zilberbrand Professional Standards Chairman: Kenneth Byrnes Jennifer Allen Joseph Potter Hilary Barton Michael Bielby John Hewett Joshua Otter Michele Evans John Mitchell Miguel Peña Herrero DIVISION PRESIDENTS Nigel Sainsbury Jonathan Kenworthy Paul Thomson Matthew O’Sullivan AFFILIATES Australia: AVM Mark Skidmore Paul Vijgen Matthew Wills New Zealand: Des Ashton Richard Butler Michael Jones Anthony Buckley Pakistan: AM Salim Arshad Robert Bennie Mushfiqul Alam Hernani Neto South African: Marié Botha Shahida Barick Nicholas Jamieson John Hughes Simon Williams Paul Snook Laura Best Victoria Shirvill Pete Thomson Matthew Jones WITH REGRET Walter Dollman Peter Willetts Michael Sacher Raheem Ogunde Pascal Dunning The RAeS announces with regret the deaths of the MEMBERS Shezad Khan Robert Lane following members: Steven Worth Sian Haynes Alexander Dewar Tia Tang Nimali Amaratunga-Brearley CEng MRAeS 32 Andrew James Tony Widdowson STUDENT AFFILIATES John Stuart Burley OBE FRAeS 83 Angela Rojas Garcia William Bedder Angelo Grubisic Alistair Finn Basil Thomas Lewis CEng MRAeS 91 ASSOCIATE Ashwin Kumar MEMBERS Anup Thapa Clive Charles Rustin CEng FRAeS 87 Balazs Feher Gregory Fewkes Bob Johnson Dale Edwards Munera Alrubaiaan Ralph Williams CEng FRAeS 83

CORPORATE PARTNER EVENTS

Please note: Attendance at Corporate Partner events is Wednesday 6 November 2019 / London strictly exclusive to staff of RAeS Corporate Partners. Corporate Partner Briefing Hans Büthker, Chief Executive Officer, GKN Aerospace Monday 16 September 2019 / London Sponsor: Corporate Partner Briefing Richard Moriarty FRAeS, CEO, Civil Aviation Authority

Wednesday 9 October 2019 / London www.aerosociety.com/events Corporate Partner Briefing For further information, please contact Gail Ward AVM Rocky Rochelle, Chief of Staff Capability (Air), Royal Air E [email protected] or T +44 (0)1491 629912 Force Sponsor: Find out more about Royal Aeronautical Society Corporate membership, advertising and sponsorship: E [email protected] or T +44 (0)20 7670 4346 www.aerosociety.com/corporate

60 AEROSPACE / AUGUST 2019 Society News

FINISHEDHave you graduated YOUR STUDIES?or finished Upgrade to e-Associate. your apprenticeship?

Become an e-Associate and Claim your ARAeS post-nominals!

Benefits of upgrading include: Careers Advice - Make use of our dedicated careers team that offer events, 1-2-1 careers guidance & CV and interview advice Events - Attend professional development events including a careers fair, Young Professionals Conference and Specialist conferences and lectures catering to your interests Are you eligible for e-Associate? Young Persons Network - Become part of a community with networking and volunteering opportunities If you have an undergraduate degree, an integrated masters’ degree, a postgraduate Professional Registration - Support and guidance on your journey to degree or an appropriate Level 3 qualification, you are eligible to apply. becoming a Chartered Engineer, Incorporated Engineer or Engineering Technician You can also apply for Interim IEng or CEng registration if you have achieved an Resources - Access to a wide range of resources including accredited degree. AEROSPACE magazine via the AEROPORT app

Upgrade Today: Simply contact [email protected] or call +44 (0)207 670 4400

e-Associate membership costs just £24.00 for 2019 and Interim Registration is £10.60

National Aerospace Library e-book Service

Now Available to RAeS Members

View/Read/Download Books Online at www.aerosociety.com/ebooks

Click on the highlighted ‘Log in’ to ‘Create a User Account’

All enquiries to National Aerospace Library E [email protected]; T +44 (0)1252 701038/701060

Find us on Twitter i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com AUGUST 2019 61 The Last Word COMMENTARY FROM Professor Keith Hayward FRAeS

European guided weapons – the quiet success story

he global success of Airbus is, rightly, one of missile technology and construction. Differences of the triumphs of the European aerospace in national requirements, which on an airframe could collaborative movement that began in the pose insurmountable obstacles, could be overcome late 1950s but blossomed in the 1960s. through modularisation: individual specifications The struggle to build the Airbus coalition, merged with common elements, such as structures Tand to see it emerge as a fully-fledged transnational and motors. The development of a range of projects company was always a noisy and very public affair. also helped to diffuse the often bitter struggle for Assembling comparable military airframe partnerships ‘leadership’ amongst collaborative partners. This, has had an even more troubled history. However in turn, encouraged plant-based specialisation and sitting there, quietly building a European transnational an organic evolution of corporate structures across presence that has become a match for the Americans, several national locations. An overall reputation for the guided weapons sector must be viewed as a delivering products on time and to specification standout of sensible, rational and effective co-operation. also helped to build confidence with several sets of customers. Origins in the 1960s The result today is that MBDA is a genuine defence transnational company, with a logical There are many possible starting points for European corporate structure that has a high degree of missile co-operation – one of the earliest was the interference and limited redundancy across five formation of Euromissile in 1963, a Franco-German countries. In some respects, the company is the partnership which went on to develop the , model of what a European defence company should HOT and the Milan guided weapons. Perhaps even be – what a shame the BAES and Airbus Defence more significant for the future was the Anglo-French merger never came to pass. Even the potential snafu agreement of September 1964 that led to the of Brexit should not cause too much difficulty, at least air-to-ground missile. This was the heart of a long at a corporate level. Like Airbus, some degree of lasting linkage between the UK and France in military stockpiling is underway in anticipation of short-term aerospace, which has been renewed at regular problems. intervals with programmes such as the Apache/, the and, most recently, the Future Brexit be damned! Cruise/Anti-Ship Weapon. Most crucially, along the way, the missile interests Over the longer term, matters might get trickier. of, first, British Aerospace then Marconi-Alenia and R&D links with the EU could become harder, Finmeccanica and later the German LFK, were especially if the UK fails to negotiate a deal that merged into MBDA. The 2001 formal launch of allows access to EU-funded programmes. Bilaterals, MBDA created a 100,000 plus employee, €4bn such as the 2013 Defence Science and Technology THE GUIDED transnational which, by 2011, had a US subsidiary. Laboratory and the French DGA Materials and WEAPONS With 45 products covering a comprehensive series Components for Missiles technology partnership SECTOR MUST of tactical weapons across the range of operational could point to how things might be handled post- environments, it is second only to Raytheon as a Brexit. Otherwise, the baby really does get poured BE VIEWED AS missile specialist. away with the bath water and both the UK and the A STANDOUT EU could lose a major defence technological asset OF SENSIBLE, A rational and logical approach to and a valuable collective market for weapons. I RATIONAL AND co-operation suspect that the endgame will lead to something of a compromise, which, even if short of an optimum EFFECTIVE The successful evolution of European guided solution, will still allow the parts of MBDA to work CO-OPERATION weapons co-operation was helped by the very nature together efficiently and effectively – fingers crossed!

62 AEROSPACE / AUGUST 2019 SEE THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN THE AEROSPACE ZONE AT DSEI 2019

DSEI 2019 will feature its strongest aerospace offering to date, comprising fixed, rotary wing, and unmanned platforms. Supported by the RAF, the expanding Aerospace Zone encompasses an impressive array of static displays to compliment a number of aerospace supply chain exhibitors. The Zone also includes a newly formed Hub dedicated to Space, as well as the popular Air Seminar featuring high- level military and industry speakers, including Chief of the Air Staff.

Aerospace Space

REGISTER BEFORE 30 JUNE & SAVE UP TO £125 WWW.DSEI.CO.UK/REGISTER

Supported by Platinum Partner Follow us on Follow us on Organised by

DSEI @DSEI_event

J400127_DSEI03_Air Advert_210mm x 280mm_2019.indd 1 04/06/2019 15:54 Your parts have a destination We know the way

GLOBAL NETWORK OF SPECIALISTS IN AEROSPACE TRANSPORTATION

Do you have an urgent transportation challenge?

We’re here for you 24 hours a day 365 days a year

Contact us now on 24/7/365 AOG Hotline: www.aln.aero 00 8000 264 8326