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www.aerosociety.com ‘X’ MARKS THE SPOT ONBOARD THE A350 AS IT ENTERS FINAL TESTING August 2014 CIVIL UAVs AND THE LAW SYRIA’S AIR FORCE HONEYWELL AT 100 YEARS THE NATIONAL AEROSPACE LIBRARY FARNBOROUGH FULL LIBRARY CATALOGUE NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE. VISIT WWW.AEROSOCIETY.COM/NAL TO BROWSE THE COLLECTION The National Aerospace Library houses an extensive collection devoted to aeronautics, aviation and aerospace technology. This includes: › Over 20,000 aeronautical books › A vast collection of key aviation journals › Over 40,000 technical reports › Extensive holdings of Air Publications, ATA handling notes and air accident reports › Extensive current holdings of International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Documents / Annexes / Circulars › Notices to Airmen / The Air Pilot / UK Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP) › A complete set of Jane’s All The World’s Aircraft › Historically important past minutes of the Society of British Aircraft Constructors / Aerospace Companies (SBAC) Council and its various committees dating from 1916-2000 › Located at Farnborough Business Park, in the former Royal Aircraft Establishment Building now known as ‘The Hub’ www.aerosociety.com/nal The National Aerospace Library The Hub, Fowler Avenue, T +44 (0)1252 701038 Opening hours Farnborough Business Park, E [email protected] Tuesday - Friday 10:00 - 16:00 Farnborough, Hants GU14 7JP www.aerosociety.com/nal United Kingdom Volume 41 Number 8 August 2014 Boeing Green dreams Honeywell Honeywell at 100 Boeing tests of Future technology new environmental under development at performance technology 20 Honeywell. 28 on a series of different aircraft platforms. Contents Correspondence on all aerospace 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. 58 The Last Word 10 Antenna Keith Hayward on US- Strange bedfellows Howard Wheeldon looks at Russian space launcher potential threats to future dispute. Who would have guessed that Iraqi, Iranian and US pilots would ever all be airline profi tability. fl ying in the same airspace fi ghting against a common foe. The rapid gains of the Islamist ISIS movement in Iraq have seen Iraq’s fl edlging COIN air force Features of Mi-17s and Hellfi re-equipped Caravans, joined by US Apaches, fast jets and UAVs, as well as, most inexplicably Iranian Su-25 close air support aircraft 14 The A350 Xperience Tim Robinson fl ies on the from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (which came originally from the 1991 Iraqi Air new Airbus A350 XWB You Tube You Force). Additionally, such was the desperate need for attack aircraft to stem widebody airliner. the speed of ISIS’s southerly march on Baghdad, that the Iraqi Government fast-tracked a buy of fi ve second-hand Su-25s from either Belarus or Russia — 30 adding to the cosmopolitan (and extremely loose) unlikely air coalition. With the ongoing situation so fl uid, what does this say about air power? While the A-10 Uncertain future for has been fi ghting for its life in the US, it is just the kind of hard-hitting platform Syria’s air Force An assessment of the Syrian needed on this occasion by the Iraqi Government. Secondly, ‘Wars of choice’ are Parrott/AR Drone Air Force and its role in the often described as ‘come as you are’ — but this particular threat came out of 16 current civil war. nowhere — even to the extent that Iraq could not wait for its new F-16IQs it has 34 Time Lords on order to be delivered. Finally, the post-Afghanistan war-weariness of the US Plans for time-based and the West and the change in focus towards the Far East, perhaps seduced The legal status of ‘drones’ separation to reduce delays Legal issues posed by the at Heathrow Airport. decision-makers that the Middle East, though unstable, was capable of looking proliferation of unmanned after itself. This new development, which threatens to become a 21st century aircraft for civil applications. Middle East version of Europe’s 30-Years War, is a wake-up call to the dangers of a power vacuum. The improbable ‘coalition’ fi ghting a common cause also RAeS (NAL) RAeS raises an intriguing question. In the future, will air forces have to think about Marshall interoperability with not only their allies but also potentially their enemies? Tim Robinson 36 [email protected] August 1914 The role played by the Royal 24 Flying Corps in the fi rst days of WW1. Marshall plan Marshall Aerospace targets 40 IT FLIES USA NEWSEditor-in-Chief IN BRIEFAEROSPACE is published by the Royal AEROSPACE subscription rates: Tim Robinson Aeronautical Society (RAeS). Non-members, £150 business aviation at its new 2014 aircraft design and growth sector. handling competition. +44 (0)20 7670 4353 Chief Executive Please send your order to: [email protected] Simon C Luxmoore Dovetail Services Ltd, 800 Guillat Deputy Editor Advertising Avenue, Kent Science Park, Bill Read Emma Bossom Sittingbourne, Kent ME9 8GU, UK. +44 (0)20 7670 4351 +44 (0)20 7670 4342 +44 (0)1795 592939 41 Afterburner [email protected] [email protected] +44 (0)844 856 0650 (fax) [email protected] Publications Manager Unless specifi cally attributed, no 42 Message from our President Chris Male material in AEROSPACE shall be taken Any member not requiring a print +44 (0)20 7670 4352 to represent the opinion of the RAeS. version of this magazine, please 43 Message from our Chief Executive [email protected] contact: [email protected] Reproduction of material used in this 44 Book Reviews Production Editor publication is not permitted without the USA: Periodical postage paid at Wayne J Davis written consent of the Editor-in-Chief. Champlain New York and additional 47 Library Additions +44 (0)20 7670 4354 offi ces. [email protected] Printed by Buxton Press Limited, 48 NAL preserves Bristol drawings Palace Road, Buxton, Derbyshire Postmaster: Send address changes Editorial Assistant SK17 6AE, UK to IMS of New York, PO Box 1518, 49 NAL Gliding Collection Online Alfonso Serrano Alcala Champlain NY 12919-1518, USA. 50 Branch prizewinners Additional features and content Book Review Editor Distributed by Royal Mail Brian Riddle ISSN 2052-451X 52 Diary are available to view online on Editorial Offi ce www.media.aerosociety.com/ 53 RAeS Annual Banquet aerospace-insight Royal Aeronautical Society and Golf Day No.4 Hamilton Place Including: Honeywell at 100, London W1J 7BQ, UK 54 Corporate Partners The A350 ‘Xperience — fl ying on the +44 (0)20 7670 4300 55 2013 Written Paper Prizes fi rst public demo fl ight, [email protected] Carrier Countdown. www.aerosociety.com Front cover: Engine and winglet of the Airbus A350. Tim Robinson 56 RAeS Elections @aerosociety i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com AUGUST 2014 13 Radome INTELLIGENCE / ANALYSIS / COMMENT Engines For a stealth design, inlets would need to be S-shaped to prevent radar returns. Notably the two inlets here suggest perhaps any future fi ghter would be a twin-engined design. Stealth The ‘extended diamond with wings’ low-observable planform echoes the Anglo-French FCAS UCAV concept as well as the as earlier Boeing X-45 demonstrator. Self-healing BAE Systems evisages that by 2040 it may be feasible to incorporate ‘self-healing’ materials into combat aircraft to nullify battle damage in-fl ight. Carbon nanotubes would contain an adhesive fl uid which would then ‘clot' to mend damage. Says BAE Systems Futurist and Engineering Manager Nick BAE Systems Colosimo: “There is signifi cant global research intoNEWS hollow-fi breIN compositeBRIEF materials to enable The Survivor.” ?????? ???? ???? ??? ??? ????? ????? ?????? W ?????? ???? ???? ??? ??? ????? ????? ?????? DEFENCE ?????? ???? ???? ??? ??? Futuretech????? ????? ?????? in 2040 ?????? ???? ???? ??? ??? BAE????? Systems????? ?????? has released a number of future concepts for aerospace in the year 2040. Among them are the in- fl ight 3D printing of UAVs along with sub-aircaft that combine and join together to make one larger aircraft to save fuel?????? and ???? extend ???? ??? range. ??? Two of the concepts, directed energy weapons and self-healing materials feature in this notional????? ????? low-observable combat aircraft (dubbed The Survivor in self-healing example), which, although fi ctional, incorporates these advanced technologies that may be in service by the year 2040. 4 AEROSPACE / AUGUST 2014 3-in-one Another BAE Systems’ concept for 2040, dubbed ‘Transformer’, would see single air vehicles combine to become a larger aircraft. This would save fuel, extend range and allow individual aircraft to split off to conduct their own tasks at the target. Says BAE Systems Futurist and Engineering Manager Nick Colosimo: “If the airframe confi guration of these aircraft is deliberately designed so that they can be optimally conjoined then we BAE Systems could assume that the resultant drag ‘approaches’ that of a single larger aircraft.” In-fl ight 3D printing In another prediction for 2040, additive layer manufacturing (or 3D printing) could be done in-fl ight, according to BAE. A larger aircraft could ‘print’ customised mini-UAVs in-fl ight before deploying them — creating the ultimate in an ‘adaptable taskforce’. Notes Nick Colosimo: “It may not be the most revolutionary per se but the ability to BAE Systems create tools on demand at the time and place of need from the air feels like it could be a useful capability for addressing future operational uncertainties.” Cockpit Though this is only a notional concept — it is interesting that there appears to be a cockpit on this design— suggesting that BAE foresees a manned opyion for a 2040 fi ghter. Energy weapon By 2040, BAE predicts that it will be possible to pack a directed-energy weapon into a fi ghter-sized combat aircraft to engage targets at the speed of light.