Defying Gravity
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January 2021 ONLINE ONLINE COLLABORATION DEFENCE SPACE INDIA’S HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT DEFYING GRAVITY EVTOL SECTOR CONTINUES SECTOR EVTOL CHALLENGES ABOVE SOAR TO www.aerosociety.com AEROSPACE January 2021 Volume 48 Number 1 Royal Aeronautical Society THE AERONAUTICAL NOW FREE JOURNAL TO ALL RAeS Covering all aspects of aerospace MEMBERS! Editor-in-Chief: Professor Holger Babinsky FRAeS University of Cambridge, UK Chairman of the Editorial Board: Professor Mike Graham FREng FRAeS Imperial College London, UK Deputy Chairman of the Editorial Board: Professor Chris Atkin CEng FRAeS City, University of London, UK We have exciting news for readers of The Aeronautical Journal. The Royal Aeronautical Society, in partnership with its co-publishers, Cambridge University Press, has taken the decision to make The Aeronautical Journal available, free of charge, to all members of The RAeS from January 2021. As part of these changes, the RAeS will no longer offer the journal in printed form. If you currently subscribe to The Aeronautical Journal, you will not have your subscription renewed, instead you are invited to view the Journal and its 124 year old back catalogue for free with the rest of the membership. From 1 January 2021, members will have free access to the Journal’s dedicated website via a link at: aerosociety.com/aerojournal. If you have any questions, or require further support, contact: [email protected] Get FREE ACCESS to a sample collection at: cambridge.org/aer/sc WJD Aero Journal FP Advert 11_2020.indd 2 14/12/2020 14:49 Volume 48 Number 1 January 2021 EDITORIAL Contents The long haul to recovery? Regulars 4 Radome 12 Transmission Many people will be glad to have seen the back of 2020 and the worldwide The latest aviation and Your letters, emails, tweets aeronautical intelligence, and social media feedback. roll-out of vaccines for Covid-19 offers a glimpse of light at the end of analysis and comment. the tunnel for many. The road to recovery is likely to be a lengthy one. In 58 The Last Word December, the organisers of the Paris Air Show, set to be held in June, took 11 Pushing the Envelope Keith Hayward considers the the regrettable, but wise decision to cancel the 54th Le Bourget exhibition – Rob Coppinger analyses an technological benefits and Aeronautical Journal paper the potential value to the UK the first time it had been cancelled since WW2. The cancellation also raises on the fuel-saving potential economy of Project Tempest. questions for physical trade events that are scheduled to take place in the of morphing aerofoils. first half of 2021. However, the Covid crisis, as terrible as it seems now, may only temporarily pause the upward growth and expansion of civil air travel. Features Already airlines and travel agents are looking forward to pent-up demand A2CAL driving a surge in holiday bookings as the vaccine gradually rolls out and 31 countries come out of lockdown. Even then, companies may find that the new 14 FIA Connect digital way of working (see Virtual Collaboration p 31) reshapes their business models leading to more at home and blended working. What will that mean for airlines and their business travellers on whom they traditionally rely? Yet all Travelling light Virtual collaboration – the the above, at least for the UK, may pale in comparison to the effects of Brexit, good the bad and the ugly which will ripple down the decades, reshaping Britain’s international trade A report on the RAeS Light Aircraft Design conference. The advantages and and global standing. As this is written, the UK is hurtling towards what was disadvantages of the move to once thought by some to be a million-to-one freak result – a no-deal Brexit. online collaboration, learning 18 A tryst with destiny and training. Already the results of being caught between the trade behemoths of the EU D’Alonzo Vanda India prepares for human and the US are becoming visible – with the UK breaking ranks with Airbus spaceflight missions. partners and deciding to waive tariffs on US goods in the Airbus/Boeing WTO Reaction Engines subsidies spat. For its part, Airbus is reported to be ‘furious’ with the unilateral move and threatens future of its investment in civil aerospace in the UK. Will this be a foretaste of between a rock and a hard place decisions? 34 22 Call the air ambulance Tim Robinson FRAeS, Editor-in-Chief ICAO’s international project to create the Ambular eVTOL [email protected] flying ambulance. NASA Correspondence on all aerospace matters is welcome at: [email protected] Ad Astra Editor-in-Chief Editorial Office 2021 AEROSPACE subscription The UK’s ambition to become Tim Robinson, FRAeS Royal Aeronautical Society rates: Non-members, £190 38 a global space power. +44 (0)20 7670 4353 No.4 Hamilton Place Please send your order to: [email protected] London W1J 7BQ, UK Wayne J Davis, RAeS, No.4 Hamilton +44 (0)20 7670 4300 Deputy Editor Place, London W1J 7BQ, UK. [email protected] Bill Read, FRAeS +44 (0)20 7670 4354 26 Waiting for the eVTOL Simulating the urban air +44 (0)20 7670 4351 www.aerosociety.com [email protected] taxi rank mobility future [email protected] AEROSPACE is published by the Royal Any member not requiring a print David Learmount reports from There should be rich pickings Aeronautical Society (RAeS). version of this magazine should Production Manager the RAeS Urban Air Mobility for modelling and simulation contact: [email protected] Wayne J Davis Chief Executive Conference, held online in professionals in helping to +44 (0)20 7670 4354 Sir Brian Burridge CBE FRAeS USA: Periodical postage paid at November unlock urban air mobility. [email protected] Advertising Champlain New York and additional +44 (0)20 7670 4346 offices. Publications Executive [email protected] Chris Male, MRAeS Postmaster: Send address changes to IMS of New York, PO Box 1518, Afterburner +44 (0)20 7670 4352 Unless specifically attributed, no Champlain NY 12919-1518, USA. [email protected] material in AEROSPACE shall be taken 44 Message from our President Production Executive to represent the opinion of the RAeS. ISSN 2052-451X 45 Message from our Chief Executive Annabel Hallam Reproduction of material used in this 46 Book Reviews +44 (0)20 7670 4361 publication is not permitted without the [email protected] written consent of the Editor-in-Chief. 50 New Member Spotlight Book Review Editors Printed by Buxton Press Limited, 51 Obituary/Diary Tony Pilmer and Katrina Sudell Palace Road, Buxton, Derbyshire [email protected] SK17 6AE, UK 52 ISTAT Distributed by Royal Mail 56 RAeS Medals and Awards Front cover: The six-seater Y65 Plus eVTOL from Autonomous Flight (Autonomous Flight) 56 Elections Additional content is available to view online at: aerosociety.com/aerospaceinsight Read AEROSPACE magazine and the insight blog Including: Sustainable aviation fuel for the UK, In the December issue of AEROSPACE, UK sets on your smartphone, tablet or digital devices with the eyes on defending space, New Members Spotlight, Making the case for business aviation, AEROSPACE app Online Ground collision highlights evacuation safety, Future intelligent cabin systems. APP available on iTunes and Google Play @aerosociety i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com JANUARY 2021 13 Blueprint INTELLIGENCE / ANALYSIS / COMMENT Specifications Passengers 6 Safety first Range 80mn Top Speed 125mph The Y6S Plus is set to be equipped with ballistic recovery parachute(s). The composite fuselage will also be equipped with a crashworthy cell to protect passengers. Y-wing The Y configuration of six motors driving three pairs of rotors saves weight and reduces complexity, yet only has a miminal effect on redundancy. Autonomous Flight Autonomous 4 AEROSPACE GENERAL AVIATION EXCLUSIVE: Y6S Plus unveiled UK urban air mobility start-up Autonomous Flight has revealed a new, highly modified version of its Y6S eVTOL – the Y6S Plus. The Y6S Plus retains the Y-configuration of three pairs of rotors of the previous design but ditches the ducted fans of the forward pair. It is also larger and sized for six people, rather than two. The company is still in the investment phase and is tight-lipped about further details and project timescales, but has exclusively shared these renders (including the front cover) of the Y6S Plus with AEROSPACE. Single pilot The Y6SPlus willl be operated by a sin- gle pilot to begin with, before being de- veloped into a fully-autonomous version to allow six passengers to be carried. Multi-role eVTOL The Y6S Plus is being designed from the outset to be adaptable through its structure to other roles, apart from point-to-point air taxi services, such as a cargo drone and air ambulance. JANUARY 2021 5 Radome COVID-19 AEROSPACE AIR TRANSPORT 54th Paris Air Show cancelled UK relaxes passenger Paris Air Show quarantine rules UK Transport Minister Meanwhile, UK airports Grant Shapps MP has are set to receive a cash announced a relaxation boost of up to £8m in rules for international per airport from the passengers arriving in Government in order the UK, with the 14-day to protect jobs during quarantine time cut to the Covid-19 crisis. On five days. The shortened 5 December, the UK self-isolation time, which also lifted the 14-day The organisers of the 2021 Paris Air Show, SIAE (Salon International de came into effect on 15 quarantine time for ‘elite l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace), has announced that the 54th edition of the Paris Air December, is dependent business travellers’ – Show has been cancelled. In an announcement made on 7 December, SIAE said on passing a negative which includes top sports that, as a result of the uncertainty linked to the Covid-19 health crisis, the show, due Covid-19 test at the end people, performing artists to be held on 21-27 June 2021, would now return in June 2023.