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www.aerosociety.com May 2020

V olume 47 Number 5

May 2020

QANTAS PROJECT SUNRISE THE COST OF MODERN FIGHTERS UK AND EASA –

Royal A GOING SOLO? INTERNATIONAL RESCUE eronautical Society AVIATION MOBILISES TO FIGHT COVID-19 PANDEMIC NEW FOR MEMBERS IN 2020

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Volume 47 Number 5 May 2020

EDITORIAL Contents A V-shaped or U-shaped Regulars 4 Radome 12 Transmission recovery? The latest aviation and Your letters, emails, tweets aeronautical intelligence, and social media feedback. analysis and comment. As AEROSPACE goes to press – the global aviation industry, like much 58 The Last Word of the world’s population, is locked down due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 11 Pushing the Envelope Keith Hayward considers the Over half of all Boeing airliners are grounded and traffi c levels have fallen Rob Coppinger looks at the lessons learned regarding technical challenges involved export subsidies from ’ to 1990’s levels. Plying the empty skies now, passenger airliners have with designing high-altitude fi rst major aircraft order in been pressed into service as vital cargo aircraft, delivering much-needed platforms (HAPS). 1977. medical supplies around the world. One bright spot from this dark time for air transport is that, reaching rock bottom, the only way now is up. Domestic Features Leonardo air travel in China is slowly returning, while some European countries are LHT now taking steps to loosen their lockdowns. Though this is likely to be done 14 28 in a phased and measured way, it opens up a route in which life (including air travel) might return to some semblance of normality (albeit with some restrictions). So what might any recovery in passenger air traffi c look like? A V-shaped quick bounce-back seems highly optimistic. Yet a U-shaped crawl along the bottom for years also seems too pessimistic – given the pent-up Hope given wings Maintenance errors: are we demand for business travel and holidays. Yet a word of caution is required How airlines and the learning? here. Fewer passengers, along with cabin ‘social distancing’ measures aerospace industry are Investigating the human (blocked off middle seats), also means that ticket prices could rise steeply. helping to fi ght back against factors in aircraft the Coronavirus outbreak. Short-haul, regional aviation is thus likely to power any climb in growth. maintenance. Current low oil prices too, will aid airlines strong enough to ride this crisis out. 18 The price is fl ight 32 Navigating proof The recovery then, may be more like a Nike-swoosh or a tick-mark than a U- How much does a modern Who bears the cost of claims or V-shaped recovery – a constant gradient climb for an embattled aviation fi ghter actually cost? in the event of an aircraft crash?

industry. Qantas Airbus

Tim Robinson, Editor-in-Chief 22 [email protected] 34

Editor-in-Chief Editorial Offi ce 2020 AEROSPACE subscription The fi nal frontier for jet-lag? Tim Robinson Royal Aeronautical Society rates: Non-members, £180 The UK and EASA – +44 (0)20 7670 4353 No.4 Hamilton Place An analysis of the human Please send your order to: factors involved in Qantas’ breaking formation? [email protected] London W1J 7BQ, UK Wayne J Davis, RAeS, No.4 Hamilton +44 (0)20 7670 4300 Project Sunrise ultra long- What the UK’s approach Deputy Editor Place, London W1J 7BQ, UK. [email protected] distance fl ights. towards the end of the Brexit Bill Read +44 (0)20 7670 4354 www.aerosociety.com [email protected] transition period means for +44 (0)20 7670 4351 aviation and regulation. [email protected] AEROSPACE is published by the Royal Any member not requiring a print 26 Mitigating risk, Aeronautical Society (RAeS). version of this magazine should Production Manager prepping for recovery contact: [email protected] 36 Looking to a blended Wayne J Davis Chief Executive How aerospace supply chain future Sir Brian Burridge CBE FRAeS +44 (0)20 7670 4354 USA: Periodical postage paid at companies can cope with the [email protected] Advertising Champlain New York and additional An analysis of Airbus’ new offi ces. Covid-19 crisis and plan for MAVERIC blended wing Publications Executive +44 (0)20 7670 4346 [email protected] the future. design concept. Chris Male Postmaster: Send address changes to IMS of New York, PO Box 1518, +44 (0)20 7670 4352 Unless specifi cally attributed, no Champlain NY 12919-1518, USA. [email protected] material in AEROSPACE shall be taken Afterburner to represent the opinion of the RAeS. Publications Executive ISSN 2052-451X 42 Message from our President Annabel Hallam Reproduction of material used in this +44 (0)20 7670 4361 publication is not permitted without the 43 Message from our Chief Executive written consent of the Editor-in-Chief. [email protected] 44 Book Reviews Printed by Buxton Press Limited, Book Review Editor Library Additions Brian Riddle Palace Road, Buxton, Derbyshire 48 [email protected] SK17 6AE, UK 49 Trustee Talk Distributed by Royal Mail 50 NAL Platt-LePage and Piasecki Rotorcraft fi lms Additional content is available to view online at: www.aerosociety.com/aerospaceinsight 52 Cool Aeronautics Including: Stimulating the urban air mobility revolution, The UK and EASA – breaking formation?, 55 Corporate Partners A new British electric aircraft, In the April issue of AEROSPACE, New Member spotlight – Oliver 56 Elections Online Westcott, A bioshock to aviation – what next? 57 New Members Spotlight

@aerosociety i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com MAY 2020 13 Blueprint

INTELLIGENCE / ANALYSIS / COMMENT

X-57 specifi cations Critical take-off speed 67mph Max cruise speed 172mph MTOW 3,000lb Battery power Operational ceiling 14,000ft. The X-57 is powered by lithium-ion batteries weighing 680lb producing 69.1kW hours (with 47kW hours being usable). As part of the safety validation, NASA has also redesigned the batteries to prevent any 'thermal runaway' in all phases of flight.

W AEROSPACE X-57 gets smarter NASA has released new images of the fi nal Mod IV confi guration of its X-57 Maxwell all-electric-distributed propulsion test aircraft – the fi rst piloted NASA X-plane in 20 years. The X-57 uses an Italian Tecnam P2006T which is being heavily modifi ed in phases with the fi nal confi guration featuring an electric distributed propulsion system, with 14 electric motors and propellers (two cruise motors and 12 high-lift motors) and a new high-effi ciency wing. The goal is a 500% increase in cruise fl ight effi ciency, zero-carbon emissions and quieter operations. NASA estimates that the electric propulsion system could save $165 per hour compared to internal combustion engines and decrease hourly energy operating costs from 45% to 9%. Telemetry testing on the X-57 has now been completed at NASA Armstrong at Edwards AFB, ahead of a fi rst fl ight later this year. NASAr

4 AEROSPACE

MAY 2020 News.indd 2 21/04/2020 15:24:45 Props away In the final Mod IV configuration of the X-57, the X-plane will feature 14 electric motors, with two larger wingtip cruise motors and 12 high- lift motors. The Tecam's 100hp Rotax 912S engines, weighing 125lb are replaced by 60kW electric motors weighing 57lb, allowing them to be relocated to the wingtip to drive 5ft propellers. Meanwhile 12 10.5kW motors drive the 1.9ft high-lift propellers, which in cruise mode, will fold back into the nacelles, reducing drag.

Getting the data NASA has already flight-tested the baseline Tecam P2006T to provide data to New wing compare internal combustion engine with the all-electric X-57. During flight testing The ultimate test configuration will of the Maxwell, flight data telemetry will be also include a new high-efficiency, downlinked using two antennas. This data high-aspect ratio wing with the wing- will also include voltage, power tip cruise motors recovering energy consumption and structural integrity. usually lost in tip vortices. Wing load- ing has increased from 17lb per sq ft to 45lb per sq ft, with NASA also saying that the new wing will be more gust-resistent and provide a smoother ride. The distributed power configura- tion has already been tested on the ground using a truck with 18 motors which generated more than double the lift of an unblown wing.

MAY 2020 5

MAY 2020 News.indd 3 21/04/2020 15:24:51 Radome COVID-19 AEROSPACE AIR TRANSPORT Industry retools to fi ght Air traffi c falls to 1990’s levels global pandemic Aerospace, defence and clothing – with GE space companies around partnering with Ford the world are mobilising and 3M in the US to to assist in producing produce ventilators and vital medical and PPE. Both Airbus and protective equipment Boeing have utilised their Lufthhansa News needed in the battle 3D printing capabilities Passenger air traffi c has now fallen to 1990 levels as countries have closed borders against the COVID-19 to quickly manufacture and imposed lockdown restrictions due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. In the US pandemic. In the UK, much needed face visors. alone, passenger numbers have fallen to 1950s’ levels with the TSA reporting that only an industry consortium Both companies have 97,130 people passed through security checkpoints on 7 April – a fall of 95% since led by and also assigned company the previous year. Two-thirds of the world airliner fl eet or over 16,000 aircraft are now including GKN, Airbus, aircraft such as a A350- grounded, with airlines such as KLM and Qantas bringing forward the retirement of Thales and Renishaw 1000 prototype and the their 747s. Virgin Atlantic is retiring its -600s early due to the crisis. has been working as 747 Dreamlifter cargo part of the UK Ventilator aircraft to help deliver vital DEFENCE Challenge to scale up medical supplies. Space mass production of companies have also US Navy carrier captain dismissed much needed medical joined the fi ght, with the over Coronavirus warnings ventilators, with the UK’s fi rst model receiving 3D-printing face visors approval on 15 April. and Skyrora developing a Other fi rms to join fhe way of rapidly disinfecting UK ventilator effort protective equipment. In include and the US, Blue Origin and

Babcock. In parallel, ULA are now producing US Navy a global shortage of face visors, while SpaceX The US Acting Secretary of the Navy, Thomas Modly resigned on 8 April after calling personal protective is building face shields the Captain of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt ‘stupid’ for leaking news equipment (PPE) and donating hand about Coronavirus infections within the ship’s crew. Captain Brett Crozier was for front-line health sanitisers. Virgin Orbit is removed from his command of the carrier after sending an email to high command workers has also developing a prototype warning that the virus was spreading and that action needed to be taken. Taken off seen aerospace fi rms ventilator for hospitals with the ship in Guam, he was given a hero’s send-off by his crew, which subsequently divert resources into the aim of building 100 went viral. Modly then fl ew out to the carrier to address the crew and accuse Crozier producing protective a week. (see Hope gets of naivety – triggering a political and media storm. Some 660 of the ship’s 4,800 crew masks, visors and wings, p14) has since tested positive for the virus, with one sailor dying.

NEWS IN BRIEF

Australia entered voluntary from Kinloss, pending a the ISS, rendezvousing in São Paulo, Mexico Aerospace parts suppliers adminstration due to the move to RAF Lossiemouth with the Station six hours City and California’s San Hexcell and Woodward Coronavirus fl ight bans. later in the year which is later. As well as using Francisco Bay area during have axed plans for a The airline, which operated being upgraded. the newest launcher, the which it fl ew over 15,000 $6.4bn merger, in the 130 aircraft, had been mission was also unique in passengers. Airbus says wake of declining air grounded since March A fresh crew of a the quarantine procedures that it will continue to invest travel and concerns about NASA astronaut and reduced staffi ng in the urban mobility sector. reduced production The Royal Air Force and two Roscosmos implemented at mission rates due to the global has declared Initial cosmonauts launched to control and Baikonur, The US Federal Aviation Coronavirus pandemic. Operational Capability for the International Space due to the ongoing Administration (FAA) The all-stock deal was its Boeing P-8 Poseidon Station on 9 April from Coronavirus pandemic. has published a new originally announced on maritime patrol aircraft Baikonur Cosmodrome in rulemaking which could 12 January. (MPA). The RAF has now Kazakhstan. The mission, Airbus has shut down give the green light to received two P-8s out of which fl ew on 9 April, its Voom on-demand reintroducing supersonic On 21 April, Australia's an eventual nine aircraft used the latest Soyuz helicopter ‘air taxi’ booking commercial air travel second largest airline, to be delivered. They 2.1a rocket to launch platform. The platform was over land in the US. The cash-stricken Virgin currently are operating the MS-16 capsule to used on helicopter services new Notice of Proposed

6 AEROSPACE

MAY 2020 News.indd 4 21/04/2020 15:24:52 SPACEFLIGHT AEROSPACE NASA sets date for US Stratolaunch pivots to hypersonics return to crewed flight On 14 April, NASA Space Station. The DM-2 Administrator Jim crewed mission, set for Bridenstine announced the end of the month, will that 27 May will see see NASA astronauts the first launch of US Col Doug Hurely and astronauts, in a US Bob Behnken launched spacecraft, from US soil onboard a SpaceX Crew

to the ISS since the final Dragon using a Falcon Stratolaunch flight of the Space Shuttle 9 rocket from Kennedy Air launched space-access venture, Stratolaunch, has revealed details of a new Mach 6 Atlantis in 2011. The Space Center, Florida. hypersonic test vehicle that it is offering to launch from its giant six-engined carrier aircraft. retirement of the Shuttle It is the first human The Talon-A, says the company, is a Mach 6 class instrumented high-speed unpiloted air almost a decade ago saw flown mission in NASA’s vehicle – designed to explore hypersonic speeds for military and commercial applications. NASA depend on Russian Commercial Crew Uniquely, says Stratolaunch, the size of the ‘Roc’ carrier aircraft, means that three Talon-As Soyuz flights to visit the Programme. could be launched on a single flight.

AIR TRANSPORT DEFENCE New footage of Moscow Superjet Report into Rafale civilian crash emerges ejection published An accident report He was insufficiently by the French safety strapped in and helmet agency BEA-E has not fully fastened. His revealed a chain of errors request for no negative which resulted in the G manoeuvres was not inadvertent ejection of a passed on to the pilot, 64-year old civilian from causing the passenger

Investigative Committee a two-seat Rafale B at to panic and accidently The Russian Governement has released new video footage of the crash of an Aeroflot a military base in March pull the ejection handle. Sukhoi Superjet at Moscow Sheremetyevo airport on 5 May 2019 which killed 41 2019. The unnamed He landed safely people of the 78 onboard. The aircraft had taken off for Murmansk when it was hit by man, a defence industry without serious injuries. lightning and the flight control switched to direct mode. The crew then turned back, executive, had been Finally, a seat technical but the aircraft landed hard and bounced with fire breaking out. Russia’s Investigative offered the experience malfunction kept the pilot Committee now says it has collected enough evidence for a criminal case against the as a surprise but had in his seat, who landed captain which it has passed on to the country's Prosecutor General. no interest in a jet flight. the aircraft safely.

Rulemaking (NPRM) saying that it now expects Seville in Spain. The constellation will act as likely to be delayed until would add landing and passenger revenue aircraft, which will be a giant radio telescope production staff can safely take-off noise standards to plummet by 55% operated by the armed to detect low-frequency return to work. for certain classes of new compared to last year. forces of Belgium and emissions from solar supersonic aircraft. This Annual lost revenue, says Luxembourg, is due for activity. The merger of Raytheon NPRM comes after a IATA, is now expected to delivery in 2Q 2020. and United Technologies proposal from the FAA in reach $314bn, with traffic The European Aviation announced last 2019 to update the rules falling 48% compared NASA has given the Safety Authority (EASA) year has now been for Mach 1+ flight. The to 2019. The Director go-ahead for the Sun has granted CS-23 flight completed to create NPRM is open for public General and CEO of Radio Interferometer safety certification to Raytheon Technologies comment for 90 days from IATA, Alexandre de Juniac, Space Experiment Elixir Aircraft for its Elixir Corporation. The new the date of publication. described the situation as (SunRISE) mission to light aircraft. Work on united company is ‘catastrophic’. send six CubeSats, the future Elixir Aircraft divided into four divisions International airline trade 20,000 miles from Earth production plant at La covering military, space body IATA has revised its The 100th Airbus to study massive particle Rochelle airport was technologies, Collins projections of lost revenue A400M airlifter has made ejections from the initially scheduled for the Aerospace Systems and for air travel downwards, its maiden flight from Sun. The nanosatellite end of May 2020 but is Pratt & Whitney.

MAY 2020 7

MAY 2020 News.indd 5 21/04/2020 15:24:53 Radome

DEFENCE AIR TRANSPORT Look – no hands! Wuhan Airport reopens Airbus Defence has after lockdown announced it has successfully carried out The airport in Wuhan, week by 160 workers. the world's first automatic at the epicentre of the The first flight to arrive air-to-air refuelling (A3R) Coronavirus outbreak was a Xiamen Air flight with a boom system. The in China, has now re- which landed at 7.45am, trial, earlier this year over opened to passenger with the first departure the Atlantic, used an A310 flights. Wuhan Tianhe made by a China Eastern test aircraft and a F-16 International Airport, flight at 7.25am. Domestic from the Portuguese Air which serves the city of passenger flights in China Force. The trials, which Wuhan, reopened after are now starting to show

Airbus Defence saw 120 dry contacts months of lockdown on signs of slow recovery, logged over 45 flight 8 April after being shut with flights increasing to hours of testing, saw the A3R, once engaged by the operator, automatically 'fly' the from 23 January. Prior to 50% of pre-Covid 2019 boom to within centimetres of the receiver aircraft while keeping it stable. Certification of opening, the terminal was levels at the beginning of the A3R for the A330MRTT is expected to start in 2021. disinfected the previous March.

AEROSPACE SPACEFLIGHT Airbus and Boeing scale Catch a falling rocket Rocket Lab back production New Zealand-based space company Rocket Lab has Airbus has announced that airframer reports that it reported that it successfully it is to reduce production already has 60 undelivered completed a mid-air recovery rates on its civil airliners, as aircraft in the first quarter test which involved snagging the Coronavirus impacts due to the Coronavirus. an Electron rocket first stage demand and customers Meanwhile, on 6 April which was descending under defer deliveries. Single- Boeing announced it is a parachute with a helicopter aisle A320 rate will go to temporarily halt 787 after being dropped by from 60 to 40, while Dreamliner production at a second helicopter – a widebody production of its plant in Charleston, significant milestone in the A330 will fall from South Carolina. The halt reuseability for its Electron 3.20 a month to two. The in production activities, is launcher. The test took place A350 production rate will ‘until further notice’ says over the ocean near New be cut from 10 to six. The the company. Zealand in early March.

NEWS IN BRIEF

Brazil's ANAC, US FAA be fitted with specialised Qantas long-haul pilots On 30 March, General On 15 April the Russian and Europe's EASA. sensors and computer have voted to accept new Atomics conduced the military reportedly The Phenom 300E is vision system which can pay and conditions for first flight of a production- conducted a direct an enhanced version of monitor temperature, the airlines ultra-long haul representative MQ-9B ascent anti-satellite Embraer’s light jet – with a heart and respiratory Project Sunrise – which SkyGuardian UAV. The (DA-ASAT) test. The range of 2,010nm with five rates, as well as detecting aims to start non-stop flight saw SkyGuardian test, which involved the passengers. people sneezing and services from the east BC03 fly from the PL19/Nudol interceptor coughing in crowds, coast of Australia to company's facility at El launched from Plesetsk The University Of South offices, or other places London and New York. The Mirage, California. The Cosmodrome did Australia (UniSA) is where groups may work agreement now means SkyGuardian is set to not involve a live working with Canadian or congregate. that current Qantas pilots form the basis of the orbital target. The US company Dragonfly to will fly the A350-1000 Protector RG1 UAV for condemned the trial. develop a ‘pandemic The International Air on these routes when it the Royal Air Force, with drone’ which can Transport Association enters service, the type the next airframe BC04, to Embraer has announced remotely monitor and (IATA) has called upon having been selected by be the first UK Protector that its Phenom 300E detect people with the International Civil the airline. (See The final and entering service with bizjet has achieved infectious respiratory Aviation Organization frontier for jet-lag, p 22). the RAF in the mid-2020s. type certification from conditions. The drone will (ICAO) not to use the

8 AEROSPACE

MAY 2020 News.indd 6 21/04/2020 15:24:54 SPACEFLIGHT AEROSPACE Virgin Orbit gets set for launch EASA publishes ‘U-space’ proposals The European Aviation down a building block for Safety Agency (EASA) ‘U-space’ the management has published the first of UAV air traffic in urban global view on the use and areas. “The aim is to control of drones in cities. ensure safe operations, The proposals are aimed while also creating the

Virgin Orbit Virgin at balancing commercial basis for a competitive demand with safety and U-space services market, On 12 April Virgin Orbit completed its final captive carry test flight, ahead of an privacy concerns. The and establishing a of expected first orbital payload launch. The test, carried out from Mojave Air and Space EASA opinion is also environmental protection, Port, California, saw its Boeing 747 mothership ‘Cosmic Girl’ carry the Launcher One presented as a regulatory security and privacy that is rocket filled with liquid nitogen, to mimic the liquid oxygen of an actual launch, as well as framework to the European acceptable to the public,” practice the pull-up and launch profile over the ocean. The company has not yet revealed Commission for future says EASA Executive details of its first powered orbital mission. legalisation – laying Director Patrick Ky.

DEFENCE GENERAL AVIATION Japan to go its own way First flight for reborn Seastar with ‘sixth-gen’ fighter According to reports Tokyo's needs. However, from Reuters, Japan is Japan could still tap into set to reject US and UK foreign suppliers for key offers to jointly develop a systems for the aircraft, next generation fighter to with the MoD telling replace its Mitsubishi F-2s. trade publication Jane's Instead, it is aiming to lead Defence Industry that it is the development of the set to launch a “Japan-

F-X domestically produced led development project Dornier SeaStar fighter, as proposals from possibility of international The prototype Dornier Seastar amphibious aircraft has made its first flight on 28 March Lockheed Martin, Boeing collaboration”. A final at Oberpfaffenhofen airport in Germany. Based on the original Seastar designed in the and BAE Systems were decision is expected at the 1980s, the New Generation composite version is equipped with a Honeywell Primus not judged to have met end of the year. Epic 2.0 g digital , more efficient propellers and a stern thruster.

year 2020 as the baseline model AH-64E Apache period for its CORSIA gunship. The ‘Echo’, in Textron Aviation has ON THE MOVE global carbon offsetting service with the US Army announced it has scheme for commercial has also won orders from successfully completed aviation, because of the a further 12 customers the first engine ground Customer Services at current low traffic figures around the world, runs of its new Cessna Continental Aerospace GlobalParts.aero. caused by the coronavirus including India, Morocco 408 SkyCourier utility Technologies has named outbreak. The plan had and the UK. aircraft. Tests of the Robert Stoppek as its new Isreali sensor company been to use an average P&WC PT6A-65SC- CEO and President. CONTROP has appointed of emissions levels in Inflatable space habitat powered 19-seat Guy Oren as its new VP 2019 and 2020 data for specialists Bigelow passenger/cargo Airport infrastructure for International Marketing the CORSIA baseline but Aerospace has laid off all prototype were carried out specialists ADB & Sales. IATA suggests that only its workforce. The Nevada- in Wichita, Kansas with a SAFEGATE has appointed 2019 figures should now based space company fired first flight scheduled for Laurent Dubois as its new Jim McMahon MP has be considered. 88 of its workers, blaming later this year. FedEx is set CEO. been appointed the new the cuts on a ‘perfect storm’ to be the launch customer, Shadow Transport Minister Boeing has delivered the of events, including the with firm orders for 50 and Steve Farber is the new by new UK Labour leader 500th example of its latest Coronavirus. a further 50 options. Director of Sales and Sir Keir Starmer. 9

MAY 2020 News.indd 7 21/04/2020 15:24:56 By the Numbers Understanding the world of Aerospace through data

Going the distance – the world’s longest passenger flights Statista

10 AEROSPACE

May By The Numbers FINAL.indd 2 21/04/2020 18:50 Pushing the Envelope Exploring advances on the leading edge of aerospace Robert Coppinger Towards perpetual flight

he history of flight could be summed power supply suffers, varying through the course of up as flying ever faster and higher than the day. The best photovoltaic efficiencies of 25- anyone before but, with a high-altitude 30% do not help either. platform, or pseudo satellite, (HAPS), the aeronautical goals are being turned on Framework for extended flight Ttheir heads. With velocities more likely to result in a stall warning and control surfaces that would not The structure of these flying wings is crucial to work on a conventional aircraft, nothing is typical achieving the low mass needed. The BAE Systems about HAPS, not even the materials they are built Prismatic PHASA-35 has the wingspan of a Boeing from. 737 but a mass of only 80kg. Owned by BAE, Traditional aerospace materials are too heavy Prismatic is an unmanned air vehicle systems and and not flexible enough for coping with the HAPS’ services company. More than half of that 80kg is environment, 60,000ft to 75,000ft; also known as going to be the dense, heavy batteries. Stringing the stratosphere. While temperatures of –90ºC, them across the wing’s length might seem like a harsh thermal cycling, exposure to ozone, cosmic defence against turbulence induced wing loading radiation and the ultraviolet are not unknown to high but placing the motors and batteries together in altitude aircraft, being powered by sunlight and only specific places on the wing is better for bending having a fraction of the available energy an aircraft moments and the centre-of-gravity. normally has, is unfamiliar, to say the least. To give the wing the stiffness and flexibility it needs along its length, carbon fibre is the material Sourcing energy of choice and the structure’s abilities are enhanced by clever design. To avoid harmful drag the clever Extreme endurance means that energy must be design jettisons traditional control surfaces, such harvested from the environment as refuelling is as ailerons and flaps. Instead, entire surfaces, such impractical. For HAPS, this means solar power and as vertical or horizontal stabilisers can be used to batteries. Batteries only have one fiftieth the energy control lift across the wing’s span by effecting local density of kerosene and the solar powered batteries can be more than half the mass of a HAPS vehicle. incidence – the angle, or twisting, of part of a wing WITH VELOCITIES Their lithium-ion chemistry does not like to work in relative to a reference axis. MORE LIKELY Arctic temperatures either. The goal of extreme endurance in the TO RESULT IN A Keeping warm is not usually a problem for stratosphere has been chased for almost 30 years, STALL WARNING aircraft flying at 60,000ft and above but for HAPS since NASA’s Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) programme which AND CONTROL the batteries must be maintained at a temperature SURFACES THAT because the cold will rob them of their power; and started in 1993. AeroVironment was involved in the aircraft already has a fraction of the energy ERAST and it has since built a solar-powered 79m WOULD NOT normally available. It is not only the stratosphere’s wingspan HAPS called HAWK30 which flew on 11 WORK ON A cold that diverts power away from the mission September last year. Thirteen months before, on 8 CONVENTIONAL payload, its low air density means more speed, and August 2018, Airbus’ 25m wingspan Zephyr S High AIRCRAFT, therefore power, is needed to maintain lift. Altitude Pseudo-Satellite landed after a 25 day, NOTHING IS 23hr and 57min flight. This year, in February, BAE It is this overall lack of energy that leads to the TYPICAL ABOUT very low cruise speed, perhaps only 59kt, and the announced that PHASA-35 had made its maiden flying wing design. Low speed also means a need flight with future flight trials planned, coronavirus HAPS, NOT EVEN for low drag and this again points to the high aspect willing. After 30 years of transatlantic efforts, THE MATERIALS ratio wing as the solution. That wing will also be the Prismatic Managing Director, Paul Brooks, says of THEY ARE BUILT solar array but one that cannot track the Sun, so its the HAPS challenge: everything is against you. FROM.

MAY 2020 11 Transmission

LETTERS AND ONLINE @aerosociety i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com

Aircraft cabin air con and Flybe collapse Covid-19 I don’t want to be pedantic (long-term) aircraft leases, an in these dreadful times for abortive attempt by Virgin/ As a retired aerospace but worse from smokers’ our industry but I do feel Stobart to save the enterprise engineer who once had to pollution, then allowed. Of that we shouldn’t allow fake and, to cap it all, a few £m travel all over the world by course particulate fi ltering news to infi ltrate the chaos spent on repainting the air, it is clear to me that the to better than the size of the we are all suffering. I refer fl eet purple – why? – and Coronavirus has highlighted viruses would be a must and, specifi cally to your news item then a decision with further the inadequacies of the of course, heating. I am not in AEROSPACE magazine expenditure in the dying days current 50% recirculating an aircon expert but is seems under Air Transport on page to repaint them all back to RAeS sound archives and 50% external air supply to me the industry must put 7 of the April edition headed white! All this happened a basis of modern aircraft its house in order after this ‘Regional Airlines go under’. long time before anyone had @KenZeroHarm [On the cabin air systems. The less international calamity largely (4) The article infers that Flybe ever heard of Coronavirus. RAeS podcast archive ] economic older 100% exacerbated by existing collapsed solely because of We should get the facts Must listen to Hugh Dibley! external air systems was aircraft cabin air systems. the Coronavirus outbreak. straight; Flybe failed because @atrainability clearly safer from the infection For years Flybe was beset of commercial reasons, not a transmission standpoint Bill Andrews with poor management global pandemic that no one decisions over a period of saw coming. @someoneorother The time, loss making routes Joe Kittinger one. Standing that perpetuated, expensive Tim Proctor FRAeS on the edge not knowing if you’re gonna go up or down when you step off.

UK to leave EASA RAeS NHS appeal @hlockett6 Amazing 1920’s Clayton P Henderson Naveed Kapadia [On recording that takes you on a f i (2) [On Breaking formation ] RAeS appeal for volunteers fl ying lesson in a Very informative. However to provide technical expertise Moth. A beautiful listen. Puzzling balloons HMS Prince of Wales (to clarify), an ICAO Annex 1 to the NHS] Tried registering #avgeek How to fl y an

RAeS/NAL compliant National Aircraft but seems there is an over aircraft by Sir Alan Cobham maintenance license issued subscription, so will wait until Hon FRAeS. by the UK CAA (irrespective it reopens. British altruism at of any form of BASA), must its fi nest. be used in conjunction with an organisational certifi cation From the RAeS photo archives authorisation – with respect RAeS/NAL to both UK and non-UK The Royal Navy’s newest registered aircraft. aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales visited Liverpool at the Challenge yourself! Order end of February. Paul Cotton No doubt a jigsaw from our National recent events will bring some Aerospace Library such as Captain Ameen Budagher priorities to focus on and this this 400-piece jigsaw of fi rst [On board Britain’s new will not be one. aerial voyage in a hydrogen supercarrier(1)] An amazing balloon on 1 December 1783 world-class technology and RAeS Briefi ng Note made by Jacques Alexander fi re power, ruling the blue César Charles and Monsieur waters. Jordan Penning [On RAeS Ainé Robert. Our library has briefi ng note of UK decision one of the most extensive Geoffrey Wardle Good to leave EASA(3] A fantastic early ballooning collections article, well illustrated brought document, such a good in the world, reproductions of to mind an excellent RAeS amount of detail. Lt-Col Charles E Yeager (centre), the fi rst pilot to exceed which are available. lecture presentation at the the speed of sound in level fl ight; with (right) Sqn Ldr Neville Preston Branch in December Duke, at that time Chief Test Pilot, , who, in on the F-35B trials on HMS Yves Morier Thank you 1953, became holder of the world air speed record when he Dave Dunphy maybe we Queen Elizabeth. for sharing. Very thorough fl ew a Hawker Hunter at 727.63mph; and (left) Peter Twiss, could get Somme Sadler document. Fairey Aviation, who, on 10 March 1956, broke the world air jigsaws made? speed record, raising it to 1,132mph. They are at the Royal Deepak Chandra Aeronautical Society’s HQ at No.4 Hamilton Place, prior to Dave Davies Good idea ! Chandola Interesting article Yeager’s RAeS lecture, High speed test fl ying, delivered on We have some great images! to read. 19 April 1956.

12 AEROSPACE easyJet to cancel UK to leave EASA Red Arrow makes quarantine cleaning fi nd Airbus orders @AviationLed [On the UK @RAFRed1 During (2) @Coxy847 [On Stelios goes leaving EASA ] In a post quaracleaning, found this to war with easyJet to cancel Covid-19 crisis universe, all @AeroSociety centenary outstanding Airbus orders] bets are off and the UK could journal from 1966. Insightful Why can’t the new order once again become a beacon articles but the MOST stark be deferred until such time for leadership, as it was six indication of change? The that capacity in the sector decades ago. Who dares adverts Included increases raising the need wins? @British_Airways for additional aircraft? They predecessors (and BEA don’t have to shell out billions. paint) and lots of VC10s/ Airbus doesn’t have cancelled @AS332L Given some of BAC 1-11s. Heyday of orders. From an outsider the c*** that has come out of aircraft production? looking in this would seem EASA over the years – not entirely logical to me. sure I am too worried! @Patrici63579136 What @DavidFischak Call me a @66fi ggy66 First time I fl ew a marvellous fi nd Martin. I weirdo, but I honestly envy was in a BAC 1-11. @AviationVincent The @jay27sx Because it’s love the old write ups and the Brits for their history in decision adds pain to pain. It not going to go back to the styles etc, I just love aerospace. pre-Coronavirus level for was taken before the basic discovery of any kind. Have @iain_cardwell I like how quite some time. No point impact of the pandemic was a wonderful Easter, and they use the word silent to understood. A wise politician in deferring the order for a please, Stay Safe. @TheLadyFicton I describe a VC10! My fi rst would reverse it or at least year if they’re not going to be managed to procure an posting was defer it. The world is going to needed for fi ve. Airlines have original of the Queen’s visit to @RAFBrizeNorton as a look so different in 2021. instead started to speed up @RAF_Odiham a while back sootie... those engines were aircraft disposal timelines, @ionasurveyor A mention for the inspection of the air defi nitely the opposite of such as the 747. of the Comet! My Grandfather force, and in the programme silent. British-made aircraft used to say it was his there were adverts for the though... they were the Photo challenge favourite passenger plane. dehavilland vampire and days. RAeS webinair topics venom! Amazing stuff. @AviationVincent [On Online RAeS webinars –

what topics would YOU like Clyde Space @philip_e_davies to see covered?] When you New RAeS Fellow have a safe system how do Awesome – welcome to the Society, the Space Group is you make it safer? Is SMS @AACClydeSpace We’d very active and our Group working or not? What’s next? like to congratulate chairman, Howard Nye @craig_s_clark, Founder & (retired from ESA), is the next CSO of @AACClydeSpace, Society President. @Nickel23Matt Electric on becoming a Fellow of the Aircraft developments – fi rst Royal Aeronautical Society GA electric aircraft gained @AeroSociety, the world’s @Craig_S_Clark I’m so EASA certifi cation this week. only professional membership happy and honoured to association dedicated to the Join the challenge of posting New RAeS Fellow – Craig become a Fellow of #aerospace and #aviation an aviation photo. Just a Clark, founder and CSO of @AeroSociety. I have seen @Sivrup1980 Aerospace industry. #FRAeS bit. photo, no description. The Clyde Space. medicine! fi rst hand the support they goal is to post positives give their members, promote instead of spreading negativity. STEM with young people @SouthernFairy16 Air @SpaceCraigUK Wicked. Just copy the text and post it @kcourtneybis and help the aerospace accident investigation. Congratulations. with a nice picture.’ Congratulations Craig! sector evolve in changing/ https://twitter.com/RAeS_ @APrelicz Air and space law. challenging times. Thank you Dawn/ Royal Aeronautical Society. @MattCosby Well done @dokataria Congratulations Craig! Craig.

1. https://www.aerosociety.com/news/on-board-britain-s-new-supercarrier/ 2. https://www.aerosociety.com/news/the-uk-and-easa-breaking-formation/ 3. https://www.aerosociety.com/media/13609/raes_brexit_briefi ng_civil_aerospace_aviation_and_space_post_transition_period_april_2020_fi nal.pdf 4. https://www.aerosociety.com/events/catch-up-on-events/video-audio-archive/

@aerosociety i linkedin.com/raes f facebook.com/raes www.aerosociety.com MAY 2020 13 AEROSPACE Mobilising against the pandemic San Francisco International Airport San Francisco International Airport

Hope given wings

BILL READ FRAeS provides a snapshot of how all sections of the global aerospace community are helping to keep the world’s aerial lifelines open for the transport of people, cargo and medical supplies, to produce vital medical equipment and to assist frontline medical staff in the battle against the Coronavirus pandemic.

he spread of the Coronavius pandemic , Virgin Atlantic, Easyjet, Jet2 and around the world has resulted in Titan Airways to provide flights to repatriate British unprecedented changes to the global nationals from Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, airline and aerospace industry as aircraft Peru, China, Japan, Africa and India. are grounded, airports closed and Other countries around the world have also Tmanufacturing output halted. However, the aerospace been organising special evacuation flights to return industry around the world has responded to the their citizens home, including Germany, Austria, crisis in a remarka q qble outpouring of talents, Switzerland, France, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, skills and dedication, to providing vital medical and Turkey, Singapore, India, Australia and the USA. cargo transport, refocusing production to produce Because of the current international air space vital medical equipment and providing much-needed restrictions, many of the flights were operated

volunteers to assist frontline medical staff. over very long distances. El Air flew a 787-9 from Airport Christchurch Melbourne to Tel Aviv while Austrian Airlines flew a Above: Austrian Airlines Getting back home 777-200 16,000km from Vienna to Sydney. repatriation flight. Top: ‘Heart and Hope’ window One of the many problems resulting from the Medical evacation lighting at San Francisco grounding of most of the world’s airlines has been International Airport. that many tourists and overseas workers who Other aviation companies have also been involved Below: Leonardo helicopters, are aboard have been unable to get back home with medical evacuation (medivac) flights transporting such as the AW139, have been equipped with biocontaiment to their own countries. As a result, many national infected patients to hospitals. In Germany, ADAC stretchers. governments have been organising repatriation flights Luftrettung, the air rescue division of Germany’s to bring their citizens home. largest automobile association, is using its fleet of over 50 H135 and H145 air ambulances to International rescue flights support the country’s emergency services. German air ambulance specialists FAI rent-a-jet AG has In the UK, a statement from the Foreign & been busy evacuating both infected patients and Commonwealth Office on 30 March said that it repatriation flights for healthy individuals in different had signed a memorandum of understanding with locations around the world.

14 AEROSPACE 15 Virgin Atlantic MAY 2020 MAY The past month has seen a resurgence in air past month The operated its first ever Atlantic Virgin On 22 March Other specialised aircraft operators are alsoOther specialised aircraft are also involved. PilotsGeneral aviation pilots While the need to transport medical equipment and While supplies is currently a major factor driving demand for airfreight, there is also a demand for conventional trade flowing. air cargo shipments to keep the world’s Association (IATA) International Air Transport The issued a statement saying that: ‘Since the crisis deliveringbegan, air cargo has been a vital partner in medicines, medical equipment much-needed (including spare parts/repair components), and in functioning for the most keeping global supply chains time-sensitive materials. Air cargo is also instrumental in transporting food and other products purchased online in support of quarantine and social distancing policies implanted by states.’ cargo movements. In the UK, has reported a 53% rise in cargo movements, as more airlines and cargo operators start to transport medical Airport has supplies. Meanwhile. Amsterdam Schiphol reported an increase in cargo flights from an average of 35 per day to 70. transporting 12,490kg of medical cargo-only charter, and pharmaceutical goods from Heathrow to JFK Air India is operating cargo flights Airport in New York. from Shanghai to Delhi to bring in critical medical company Move One reported equipment. Logistics flightthat it recently arranged a 737F cargo charter to carrying urgently required foodstuffs from France Benghazi in Libya. Airfreight resurgence Airfreight Slovakia and the Czech Republic. On 14 April UK- Republic. On 14 April the Czech Slovakia and Chapman Freeborn company arranged based charter carry nearlyan Antonov An-225 to a flight on in Poland. China to Warsaw 1,000m³ of supplies from company their services. US aerial firefighting offered fleet of Daher its offered Bridger Aerospace has Commanders not required 100s and Twin Kodiak to support local health andfor firefighting missions efforts.regional blood-donation working for the UK (UKCAP) are Civil Air Patrol spare parts for medicaldelivering supplies and the NHS.equipment on behalf of One recent flight Paul Stone by RV-7 flown pilot UKCAP saw a Van deliver an electrical circuit board for a medical ventilator from Oxford to Kingston upon Hull. Boeing has donated masks, gloves and other National military forces are also helping with forces are also National military Bristow Helicopters isOffshore aviation company equipment to hospitals, as well as offering its equipment to hospitals, as well as offering Dreamlifter cargo carrier to help transport healthcare Martin donated the use supplies. Meanwhile, Lockheed of its corporate aircraft and vehicle fleet for Covid-19 relief logistical support and medical supply delivery. forwarders and firefighters Freight Support is also coming from a wide variety of other aviation businesses. German ground handling Cargo Services (FCS) reports that company Frankfurt it has provided handling services for flights carrying medical supplies from the US, China and Mexico. GEFCO freight forwarders French On 31 March also arranged a shipment of medical supplies from Covid-19 in Shanghai to Bratislava to help tackle Medical supply flights Many airlines are using aircraft to carry medical Atlantic, Cargo, Virgin supplies, including , IAG US Government has set up Air and Air India. The Wizz private carriers to transport Airbridge to charter Project vital medical supplies needed by US hospitals. Boeing Martin Airbus, and Lockheed and supplying millions of Airbus has been purchasing face masks from China to Europe using an A330-800, (MRTT) and its Transport an A330 Multi-Role Tanker A350-1000 test aircraft. Regional ambulance has converted one Scottish regional airline Otter aircraft into an air ambulance. The of its Twin isolationaircraft has been adapted to carry epishuttle carriage of Covid-19 patients by pods for the safe is also converting a larger Saab 340 Loganair air. regional turboprop into an air ambulance to carry two teams. epishuttle pods and accompanying medical medivac operations. The Italian Air Force has made has Italian Air Force The medivac operations. HH-101Aits Leonardo Caesar helicopter available for biocontainment to the Italian civil authorities deployed an Spanish air force has transport. The materiel from China to A400M to deliver medical two C295 transport aircraft Spain, as well as using to the Canary Islands. to deliver medical supplies are also keeping Super Puma Spanish armed forces German The patients. transfer helicopters on alert to a number of medivac flights air force has operated A400M while the RAFusing an A310 and an flew a ill patient from the Shetlands A400M with a critically in Aberdeen. Islands to intensive care S92 search using three specially-configured Sikorsky and rescue (SAR) helicopters to transport Covid-19 patients from North Sea oil platforms.

British Airways Leonado Right: Virgin aircraft Right: Virgin transporting essential freight. Below: BA aircraft loading medical supplies at Shanghai. AEROSPACE Mobilising against the pandemic

Many airlines have begun redeploying passenger Disinfectant, car keys and coughs aircraft for freight haulage. At the end of March, around 40 airlines were operating an estimated 130 In addition to monitor people, modified agricultural passenger aircraft as freighters, including American drones are being used to spray disinfectant over Airlines, Delta, United Airlines, Southwest, Etihad, Qatar potentially contaminated areas. Drones are being Airways, Jin Air, Korean Air and Air New Zealand. used to disinfect urban areas in China while, in South Korea, DJI agricultural drones are being used to spray Do Don’t put luggage on the seats disinfectant on city streets. UAVs from Japanese manufacturer Terra Drone Passenger aircraft are not ideally adapted for carrying have been used in China to transport medical cargo, as they lack the large doors in the size of the samples and quarantine supplies between a hospital fitted to cargo-only aircraft which enable in Xinchang county to the disease control centre large pallets to be loaded on and off. However, this of Xinchang . Chinese carmaker Geely has also does not preclude their use for carrying smaller items introduced a service for customers to buy a car online of freight. While some airlines have removed the seats and have the car keys delivered by drone. from passenger cabins to convert them into cargo The University Of South Australia (UniSA) is holds, other carriers are carrying cargo stored on developing a ‘pandemic drone’ which can remotely passenger seats. While small boxes (such as those monitor and detect people with infectious respiratory containing medical or pharmaceutical supplies) can conditions. UniSA has fitted drones manufactured be carried on passenger seats, there is a safety issue, by Canadian company Dragonfly with a specialised as the boxes need to be secured to the seats with sensor and computer vision system which it claims straps or restraints to avoid them shifting in flight. can remotely monitor temperature, heart and In response to the increased demand for respiratory rates, as well as detecting people sneezing freighters, the European Union Aviation Safety or coughing in places where groups of people may Agency (EASA), issued updated guidance for work or congregate. passenger-as-freighter aircraft operations. EASA has Spain and Italy are also reported to be using given supplementary type certification approval for an drones fitted with thermal cameras to take people’s interior modification for aircraft temperatures, as well as for medical deliveries. which enables seats to be used to carry cargo using Leonardo a cargo seat-bag configuration. Cargo seat bags Left: Leonardo is producing 3D printed have been developed by several companies, including plastic valves for Colibri Aero and Trip & Co. respirators at its aerostructures plants in Send in the drones Italy. Below: Reaction Engines Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have also been is 3D printing visors for put to use to assist with combating the Covid-19 key workers. outbreak. A number of national governments and Below left: Terra Drone enforcement agencies are using UAVs to monitor transporting medical the movement of people in restricted areas to help samples in China. enforce lockdown and social distancing, including the UK, The Netherlands, Spain, Malaysia, China and

India. Leonardo Terra Drone PPE production

Meanwhile, aerospace manufacturers are using their resources to help manufacture much needed personal protective equipment (PPE). Many

manufacturers are equipped with 3D printing Reaction Engines machines which can be configured to producing PPE components. In the UK, a consortium of aerospace, automotive and medical companies have come together to produce 10,000 medical ventilators. Named the VentilatorChallengeUK consortium, participating companies include Airbus, BAE Systems, GKN Aerospace, Meggitt, Rolls-Royce, Smiths and Thales. Airbus is using over 20 3D printers at its Spanish

16 AEROSPACE production facilities to manufacture polylactic acid new St John Ambulance Covid-19 volunteering plastic visor frames which will be distributed to local programme which places trained volunteers into hospitals and medical centres. Boeing has begun essential NHS wards and departments around the using its additive manufacturing machines at its UK to free up professional health staff. facilities in St Louis, El Segundo, Mesa, Huntsville and Philadelphia to manufacture face shields. Lockheed Project Wingman Martin is to donate $2m for personal protective equipment items, as well as starting limited production Pilots and other airline crew from British Airways, of PPE and medical face shields. BA CityFlyer, easyJet and Norwegian are also helping with Project Wingman in which part of the Engineers, GA and firefighters staff canteen at the Archway hospital run by The Whittington NHS Trust is turned into a ‘first class Switzerland-based IMI Precision Engineering has lounge’ to provide off-duty health staff with ‘tea and adapted its manufacturing capability to produce the sympathy’.

IMI FAS FLATPROP valve, an essential component in Profect wingman healthcare ventilator units. Above: Participants of Engineers working for US GA manufacturer Piper ‘Project Wingman’. Aircraft have designed and produced a prototype Left: SAS Cabin Crew face shield with off-the shelf material. US aerial healthcare training in firefighting company Bridger Aerospace is using a Sweden. newly constructed hangar to assemble plastic medical face shields for local medical providers while heavy lift helicopter operator, Billings Flying Service, has reprogrammed its 3D printer to produce protective face masks for local medical personnel. SAS Rocketeers, UAM and MRO Sweden and Singapore Scottish rocket launch company Skyrora has restructured its manufacturing division to produce In Sweden, furloughed cabin crew from Scandanavian face visors using their 3D-printing facilities. The airline SAS are being offered a three-day fast track company has also begun making hand sanitiser, with healthcare training course at Sophia Hemmet the target of over 10,000, 250ml bottles per week. university to build upon their basic First Aid US urban air mobility company Beta Technologies knowledge so that they can assist the Swedish is working with the University of Vermont Medical healthcare system battle the Covid-19 pandemic. Center and other state businesses and institutions to In Singapore, over 300 cabin crew from Singapore create a reusable N95 personal protective equipment Airlines (SAI) have volunteered to be 300 ‘care mask. The company is also developing ‘an automated ambassadors’ at local hospitals. emergency-use smart ventilator’ to assist critical-care patients. Nebraskan maintenance, repair and overhaul Project Caircraft (MRO) facility Duncan Aviation is using its aircraft interior refurbishment skills and contacts to design There have also been calls to use grounded aircraft and manufacture protective face masks for local as temporary hospitals. A group known as Project hospitals. Caircraft spearheaded by aviation expert Chris Tarry is calling upon airlines to convert their larger widebodied Volunteer army aircraft into care wards to treat Covid-19 patients. The group explains that aircraft have the advantage that Meanwhile, airline air crews are redeploying their they already are hermetically sealed and fitted with skills to work on the ground. Cabin crew from British one-way laminar airflow systems crucial to controlling Airways, Virgin Atlantic, easyJet and have airborne contamination. Aircraft fitted out as intensive volunteered to assist with the new NHS Nightingale care units (ICU) could also be flown to other countries Hospital and other hospitals, the London Ambulance which might need them. Using aircraft also has the Service and for the NHS Volunteer Responders. advantage that the adjacent airports already offer Eleswhere, TUI Airways cabin crew have joined the transport links, parking and hotels for medical staff.

RAeS Appeal: In March the RAeS was asked by the Royal Academy of Engineering on behalf of NHS England, to ask how the Society, as a Professional Engineering Institution, could support the NHS in providing technical expertise. The RAeS is currently asking members to volunteer to provide Auxiliary Engineering Support to hospitals. An extended version of this article can be found in Aerospace Insight on www.aerosociety.com

MAY 2020 17 DEFENCE Combat aircraft cost comparisons

The price is flight How much does a modern jet fighter actually cost? Development costs, flyaway costs, support and training costs all can confuse the unwary. EDWARD HUNT cuts through the marketing blurb to assess how you separate the brochure price from what governments actually end up paying. It is a truth universally acknowledged that Price tag combat aircraft are expensive. Both official programme assessments and newspaper In terms of nations that design and develop fighter headlines tend to report cost overruns and aircraft, the total programme sums are tricky. Taking delays, both of which add to the image of quoted numbers for the evolution of the finished Ia purchase and or development approach that is product and dividing that by the number of platforms short on oversight and deep on pockets (ultimately, produced for the original customer is a vague way taxpayers’ pockets). However, a nominal price is only to proceed and would lead to some wild figures, part of the story: whether you are a develop or a such as Eurofighter supposedly absorbing £37bn buyer, how much do these things actually cost? for the UK alone spread across (at present) around This examination will focus on fighter aircraft, as 160 aircraft. The same could be said of Uncle Sam’s these are not only of general interest but also offer a investment in the F-35 to the tune (as reported wealth of data that can be examined. The purpose is by POGO and in all likelihood something of a to examine what ‘cost’ actually means but also how guess) of $1.5trillion with a final estimated output this might be reconciled with ‘value’ from a monetary of some 3,000 aircraft (or more) globally. Was as well as utility perspective. As with many goods or all of that funding directed at the aircraft? At the services you get what you pay for, but in what manner systems? Budgeted for support and sustainment? are you ‘paying’ and what do you really ‘get’? For future development? What about the partner The thoughts below will be undertaken not in the nations’ contributions, both direct and indirect? form of a budget analysis but more to emphasise The complexities of such endeavours mean that that ‘cost’ is a very flexible term and is used both to we – and the parties involved – have genuinely no pigeon-hole and to obfuscate, especially when set idea how much each aircraft costs vs the cheque against the actual capability or ‘worth’. This, of course that was and continues to be written. We receive is subjective and would require thousands of pages little information concerning Russian or Chinese to explore in depth but there are some key points that programmes but these issues are likely to be are ripe for examination. universal.

18 AEROSPACE US budget documents are a fantastic resource both the aircraft and the support systems, including for gauging the cost of equipment, as they identify the ALIS fiasco (to be replaced by ODIN, possibly money paid to companies for specific contracts. starring Sir Anthony Hopkins). Not for nothing did However, they also require a sense of perspective in Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson wryly order to understand what these figures actually mean. declare that: “I can guarantee that no Air Force For the purposes of this brief examination, it is worth maintainer will ever name their daughter Alice”. There MANY DEFENCE considering the disparity between stated contract is clearly a lot of costly work to be done, but ‘less than PURCHASES ARE values for the US military, the money paid to specific $80m’ is a snappier headline. ULTIMATELY companies and the price paid by their overseas A similar glance down the Boeing costs for the customers. ‘Rhino’ has us at roughly $40m for the airframe, A POLITICAL $13m for additional systems and $4.6m for two DECISION, A Recent figures tell us… GE 414 engines, summing to a total basic cost of PROPAGANDA around $65m. Adding the non-recurring auxiliary FIGURE CAN The US recently published its FY2021 budget data, items and spares bring us to roughly $70m, while which is enormously helpful in any assessment of the support costs take us to a fairly modest $76m INFLUENCE cost. Examination of the F-35A and F/A-18 Super for a 2021 example. However, it should be pointed PERCEPTION Hornet figures suggests that manufacturers’ claims out that these figures for both company’s aircraft AMONGST about cost are not entirely wrong but also not entirely accept that the US has already footed the cost and transparent. For the Lightning II – in FY2021 – LM risk of the R&D phase and enjoys the existence of DECISION- received an average of around $52m per airframe an extensive, extant support infrastructure. These MAKERS WHO and Customer Funded Elements (CFE), these being aspects are understandably not counted per-aircraft ARE UNAWARE the core avionics and similar for the aircraft. The in the FY2021 documents, but they do impact export OF WIDER various additional mission systems added a further customers. $12m while P&Ws take for the engine was roughly ISSUES THAT $12m. Addition items in this column – termed Buying into the dream WILL BE A ‘Recurring Costs’ – amounted to $1.5m, for a grand SUBSEQUENT total of $78m for a completed product. So LM is Taking the above fighters as examples, let us compare PLAGUE UPON correct to say that ‘an F-35’ is theoretically below those from the US budget and reported figure from £80m, from a certain point of view. Or is it? We Poland’s recent decision to purchase the F-35 fighter. BOTH THEIR have then to add ‘Non-Recurring Costs’ (spares and The Polish Air Force was quoted 32 examples for a HANGARS. ancillary equipment) to the tune of around $8m and cost of $6.5bn ($203m per aircraft) with share of then ‘Support Costs’ (including the infamous ALIS production work, or $143m with simple purchase off logistics system), which amount to roughly $23m. the US shelf. Belgium paid $4.6bn for 34 (so far), The grand total cost per unit is thus – give or take – or $135m per aircraft. The RoK paid $6.27bn for c.$110m. Not a bad figure, by its competitors, though 40 ($157m each) while Israel hit a rough average also a little more than the headline number. at $5.79bn for their current fleet or an averaged But an aircraft being the sum of its parts, this $176m per copy (this is complicated by the varying does not necessarily encompass all of the major or figures for differing batches or ‘Lots’). Clearly, ‘cost’ minor additions. It does not cover all support and and ‘what you pay’ are far from consistent. None of certainly does not cover the cost of future upgrades these buyers are of the original ‘partner nations’ and which by any measure will certainly be needed for so these costs reflect their lack of skin in the game. Eurofighter

Eurofighter Typhoon is one of the entrants in Finland’s H-X fighter contest, competing against the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, Dassault Rafale, Lockheed Martin F-35 and Saab Gripen.

MAY 2020 19 DEFENCE Combat aircraft cost comparisons

However the figures are illuminating: $80m is nothing Sitting on the dock all day near the price for an overseas buyer of the F-35, even for those late to the party, such as Belgium, where Military aircraft spend most of their time on the Lockheed has successfully reduced unit costs. ground. For every hour in the air, the ground crews Lest this be seen as especially Lockheed-phobic, commit multiple hours sustaining their delicate we can easily switch our fire to others. As mentioned THE BEF FLEW charges. This is expensive, not least of all in bar-bills above, the F/A-18 Super Hornet saw a US 2020 MORE AIRCRAFT for tired personnel. This, then, adds another layer payment to Boeing of around $60m per copy (the to the ‘how much does it cost’ question: what value marginal cost of a new airframe) but total cost in TO MONS IN are you deriving from the millions paid? There is no the mid-$70m range. Going back a few years, you 1914 THAN THE easy answer to this, but there are several ways in have the RAAF paying around $180m per copy with BELGIANS WILL which it might be examined. The most obvious – but bells and whistles (the contracts were extended and LIKELY FIELD tricksy – is the fabled Cost Per Flight Hour (CPFH). complicated) and Canada quoted a whopping $280m This has been used for good and ill but can be each, according to US Defense Security Cooperation F-35S IN 2024 characterised in two main ways: the literal cost of Agency figures. Meanwhile Kuwait, likely benefitting flying an aircraft for an hour (the ‘Uber’ or taxi cost from a sequential contract structure (pay now for of a given journey), or the operational cost of the the aircraft, rest of the bill to follow), shelled-out a entire fleet divided by the number of hours flown decent $50-ish million per copy. Across the Atlantic, (perhaps best seen as the ‘mortgage’ price). In short, Dassault’s much maligned 36 unit Rafale deal for once they have been purchased, these aircraft are India came out at roughly $240m per aircraft plus going to cost between $10,000 to $50,000 per kit, which was better than Egypt ($260m-ish each) hour of airborne time depending on the type and or Qatar (at closer to $300m per example of Gallic calculation used. This is no small value, especially aestheticism). We could also examine Typhoon (which for limited air forces. Indeed, the 2018 USAF GAO in Austria’s case is border-line scandalous) but it report concluded grimly that – in essence – unless would be a dull repetition of the same facts: reported the F-35 CPFH (currently $30-44,000 depending costs and actual contracts are chalk and cheese. The on your source) were reduced, the planned fleet takeaway is that the ‘aircraft’ and ‘what you will pay could seriously harm the service’s budget planning. to get the aircraft’ are vastly different concepts. This There is an effort to reduce this flying cost to is not cruel sleight of hand and ‘beggar thy customer’, $25,000 per hour by 2025 but even the USAF has this is simply how the contracts works. BOEING IS cast a sceptical eye on that: there are plans, new The conclusion, therefore, is that the claimed price NOW TIPPED plans and – uncomfortably – actual statistics. Lest from the manufacturer is only at best around 40-60% TO SUPPLY A any European feel too smug about this, the flying of the total cost for an export buyer. While there are costs for Rafale, Typhoon and others are also very good reasons for this (a new customer needs the MIX OF F/A- high (and disputed). Perhaps the only saintly figure support and equipment, spares and weapons plus 18E SUPER in all of this is Saab’s Gripen, which is generally probably a little hand holding), the company cost HORNETS agreed to have the lowest operating costs – and ‘claims’ are rather disingenuous. Given that many AND EA-18G ease of maintenance – among the major players. defence purchases are ultimately a political decision, This raises another interesting question: if your a propaganda cost figure can influence perception GROWLERS TO chosen fighter is expensive to buy and operate, amongst decision-makers who are unaware of wider GERMANY. will it be of any use? A pilot needs 100-200 hours issues. This may become a subsequent plague upon flying time per year. If this cannot be achieved, then both their hangars. the fighter itself will be fairly pointless. Should your requirements be somewhat limited (mostly COIN and QRA), do you really need a fifth generation fighter? Boeing These are complicated beats, what happens if they are all out of service on a given day?

Open the pod bay doors, HAL

As if life had not become sufficiently difficult for the fighter operator, another cost-contemplation issue will also raise its head: availability. Though this is another figure frequently massaged in media releases, the truth is that most fighter fleets struggle to exceed 60% of front-line aircraft available on a given day (not counting training airframes, long-term maintenance, T&E usage etc). This is not a new phenomenon but it is arguably getting worse. To pick on the F-35 again, availability reached a nadir of less than 50% of force, with the distinction between Mission Capable (can

20 AEROSPACE Saab aircraft but also some of the secrets of its design. In Finland, Boeing, Lockheed and Saab are all touting their extant links with local industry (of which Patria is the most important) but would this lower or raise the price? Finland’s security situation means that they are concerned that long supply lines means that their ability to field ready aircraft might be compromised. How will this impact costs? These have become cut-throat days for the aircraft salesperson in a very competitive market. For Finland, companies are looking at a maximum programme budget of $11.1bn (around $180m each for the 60-odd aircraft required), including accessories, support and local involvement. This is technically possible for all the competitors but once all contract elements are added (training, weapons, spares, fluffy dice) it is a tough target to hit while maintaining profit. The German interest in F/A-18 Super Hornets and Growlers will likely prove less complicated but it will be interesting to see the contract value, given how detailed a figure we have undertake some roles) and Full Mission Capable The first production from the USN’s own documents. (can undertake all of the roles for which you paid) example of the Saab making for even grimmer reading. Worrying as that is Gripen E for the Swedish Air Force flew in 2019. Much fighting in the war-room for the mighty USAF, what does this mean for plucky Belgium? In essence it suggests that – in simple The conclusion to all of this – and one that politicians terms – they have paid $4.6bn not for 34 aircraft would do well to comprehend – is that publicised ready to roll but for at best 20-ish. Knock out a few numbers and actual costs are very different things. of those and you are left with a squadron and a half The sticker on the airframe bears no resemblance of fighters. Even if we are generous and suggest that to the price of a flyable model, which is miles from 24 aircraft are good to go, that translates to $4.6bn the denarii for a useable aircraft and a distant cousin divided by 24 useful airframes on a given day, or of the cheque for a proper fighter fleet. All modern $192m each. One is reminded of the Norm Augustine aircraft programmes have seen ridiculous cost joke about the USAF and USN sharing their single escalation, as procured numbers dwindle, capability aircraft, with the USMC being allowed a ride on the expectations creep and the inevitable pork-barrel extra day of Leap Years. As a humorous comparison, of political influence rolls across the landscape. The the BEF flew more aircraft to Mons in 1914 than base reported cost of a fighter is one number but the Belgians will likely field F-35s in 2024, though the actual price to procure for the original operator it should be admitted that the RFC’s Be2s have is likely 1.3 times that figure. The cost for an export questionable data-fusion and BVR capability. customer is 1.5 to 3 times that original number. We then get bogged down in flying costs, availability, Through a glass darkly through-life expenses and the muddy waters of local participation. Looking ahead, what can we say about the top-table The standout statement for this author is the programmes in which these aircraft are participating? surprising and stark warning from the US GAO: The biggest fish is undoubtedly India, followed by If the F-35 programme cost is not brought under Canada, Finland and Germany. As mentioned above, control (flying costs, new support system and other the somewhat-controversial Indian Rafale contract elements), the aircraft risks becoming unsustainable of 2018 amounted to roughly $240m for each of as the corner-stone of the US combat fleet. This is the 36 aircraft (less than those for Egypt and Qatar). not a criticism of the F-35 alone, as it is equally true India is now seeking around another 110 fighters but of many modern fighters. Given the F-35’s key role expects a far higher degree of technology transfer across much of the US-allied world, the progress (ToT) and local workshare/offset. The 36 Rafales – or lack of – in America has grave consequences from the previous order were assembled in France for the aircraft’s overseas customers. Globally, the and deliveries began at the end of 2019. By contrast, trend towards eye-watering price, small fleets, only 18 of the future 110 aircraft will be assembled questionable availability – with knock-on for pilot by their host nation, with the remainder all sourced hours – and slow development suggests that, from a putative Indian line. This, and associated whatever the next generation of combat aircraft may ToT, will likely add to the cost per unit, as such an be, the procurement and sustainment models need arrangement is essentially the reverse of the R&D to change. Good luck, FCAS and Tempest, you have risk assumed by the original user: not just selling an quite the hill to climb.

MAY 2020 21 AIR TRANSPORT Project Sunrise The final frontier for jet-lag?

How will aircrew and passengers cope with the physical effects of being in a pressurised tube for up to 19 hours at a stretch? ALAN DRON investigates Qantas’ ‘Project Sunrise’ ambition of non-stop Sydney-London flights – the ‘final frontier’ for long-haul flights? ver since its inception, the air transp`ort seat can bring on venous thromboembolism (VTE), industry has been driven by the need to a clinical spectrum of potentially fatal ailments that get passengers to their destinations ever can include the better-known deep vein thrombosis more quickly. (DVT) and pulmonary embolisms. These potentially That imperative suffered a setback fatal blood clots tend to occur after flights of more Ewith the demise of Concorde, when journey times than eight to 10hr. across the Atlantic suddenly doubled again but, The risk of VTE varies with individual overall, the ability for human beings to get from one passengers’ pre-existing risk factors. Over and side of the planet to the other has steadily shrunk. above those however, the biggest additional risk for VTE is long periods of immobility; the longer the Qantas longing for ultra long-haul period of sitting still, the greater the risk. For fit and healthy individuals, the more Qantas has for some years been keen to undertake minor ill-effects “are reasonably well-tolerated ultra long-haul services from Sydney to London and and the general advice currently provided by New York. CEO Alan Joyce has reported that the airlines addresses these elements”, noted Dr

interim step of non-stop flights from Perth, Western Peter Hodkinson, Head of Aerospace Medicine Australia, to London has proved highly popular and (Clinical and Education), Centre for Human and the even longer services from Sydney appear to be Applied Physiological Sciences, King’s College only a matter of time. London. Hodkinson is also a member of the Royal Assuming these services eventually go ahead, Aeronautical Society Aerospace Medicine group. pilots, cabin crew and passengers all face the Hodkinson noted that Qantas’s proposed use somewhat daunting prospect of unprecedentedly of the -1000 would see an aircraft long periods in a pressurised atmosphere, with being used whose pressurisation limits the cabin’s limited space in which to move around. How might altitude to a maximum of 6,000ft (as opposed to the these conditions affect their health and what can more normal 8,000ft) and would “help to reduce the the Australian airline – and those that follow in its physiological challenges of ultra long-haul flights footsteps, as others undoubtedly will – ensure the but has also been shown to improve the subjective health and safety of passengers travelling to the experience and reduce fatigue. other side of the planet in a single bound? “For those with pre-existing medical conditions there are additional considerations. For example, Passengers in for the longest haul the journey through the airport can be mentally and physiologically demanding and stressful for some The discomforts and risks of long-haul flights are so thought should be given to whether additional well-understood: at the lower end of the spectrum, assistance or mobility help is required at this stage these include dehydration and jet-lag. More of the journey to ensure the individual arrives at the

Airbus seriously, long periods of immobility in an airline aircraft in the best pre-flight state they can.

22 AEROSPACE “For all groups the extended journey and passengers in the cabin – mainly Qantas employees interaction with reduced pressure during flight… – were fitted with wearable technology devices to may cause additional challenge for anyone with monitor aspects of their physiology during the 19hr pre-existing medical conditions. This could be an flights. exacerbation of the underlying condition, which may Scientists and medical experts from the Charles occur during any flight. Perkins Centre monitored sleep patterns, food and “Also, with such long flights there will be drink consumption, cabin lighting, physical movement increased thought around the carriage of their and inflight entertainment to assess the impact on regular medication so they can take it as required health, wellbeing and individuals’ body clocks. during the flight. These are aspects that the airline Researchers from Monash University’s Turner medical department will be there to support the Institute for Brain and Mental Health meanwhile, crew and passengers with.” worked with pilots to record crew melatonin levels To minimise the risk of VTE, passengers will before, during and after the flights. The pilots wore have to be advised about the need to move around an electroencephalogram (EEG) that tracked and take exercise. Many airlines already stress the brainwave patterns and monitored their alertness. importance of moving around during long flights, but The aim was to establish data to assist in building it will be important that airlines review this, to ensure the optimum work and rest patterns operating these that they are adequately addressing these elements, services. said Hodkinson. The Project Sunrise team appears to have been addressing this point already. “A potential caveat for exercise on board aircraft is

“No airline has done this kind of dedicated research before and we’ll be using the results to the shape the cabin design, inflight the potential for it to exaggerate the mild degree service and crew roster patterns for Project of hypoxia that crew and passengers are already Sunrise,” said Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce. experiencing.” Again, this will not be a problem for Following the flights, the airline said that: fit and healthy individuals but airlines may have to “Design of the customer experience for flights consider tailored advice for travellers with pre- NO AIRLINE HAS up to 21 hours continues, including new cabins existing conditions on ultra-long sectors. DONE THIS KIND across first class, business, premium economy and Qantas has already undertaken considerable OF DEDICATED economy. Research flights have underscored the research on the issues facing both flightcrews importance of dedicated space for stretching and and passengers on such long services, working RESEARCH movement for economy passengers in particular, with several Australian research bodies, including BEFORE AND as well as the potential benefits from re-designing Sydney University’s Charles Perkins Centre WE’LL BE USING the service on board to actively shift people to and Monash University in conjunction with the THE RESULTS TO their destination timezone.” Cooperative Research Centres for Alertness, Safety “We know that ultra long-haul flights pose and Productivity. THE SHAPE THE some extra challenges but that’s been true every CABIN DESIGN, time technology has allowed us to fly further,” said Cabin lab INFLIGHT Joyce. “What’s already clear is how much time you can save. Our regular, one-stop New York to Three delivery flights of Boeing 787-9s in the last SERVICE AND Sydney service took off three hours before our quarter of 2019 from New York and London to CREW ROSTER direct flight but we arrived a few minutes ahead Sydney doubled up as flying laboratories. Around 40 PATTERNS of it.”

MAY 2020 23 AIR TRANSPORT Project Sunrise

Joyce noted that innovation was essential for Flying to Australia: 1935 vs 2019 such flights, with options to redesign the cabins to Journey time: 1935 – 12 days include ‘move and stretch’ zones and other social spaces. “We know that travellers want room to The first Qantas service from move on these direct services and the exercises Brisbane to London took off from the we encouraged on the first flight seemed to work Queensland capital on 13 April 1935. really well. So, we’re definitely looking to incorporate It would require 12 days to make its on-board stretching zones and even some simple journey of 12,753 miles and had to modifications like overhead handles to encourage touch wheels on four continents. A wholly long-winded way to travel, low-impact exercises.” The De Havilland 86, which could certainly – but also a far swifter The good news is that passengers will not accommodate just 10 passengers, proposition that the six-week voyage be expected to take vigorous calisthenics. The made the first flight between Australia passengers were used to. important factor is simply breaking up long periods and Britain. of immobility. “Even a few steps are beneficial,” said Corinne Caillaud, Associate Professor in Exercise Science at the Charles Perkins Centre. said Caillaud. The flights typically took off early in Her team is looking at two strategies. One will the morning. However, rather than serving a typical already be familiar to long-haul passengers, namely breakfast, the first meal was more akin to a light simple leg, arm and neck exercises they can do while evening meal, with items such as a steak sandwich seated. The second is simply going walking in the and a milk-based pudding. aisles and perhaps doing some stretching. Squatting, “These are foods that, when processed, would for example, “is quite effective in terms of increasing signal to the brain to get a bit sleepy. They also heart rate and circulation”. avoided tea and coffee.” At the other end of the “Movement can be done in the seat and aisle flight, ‘breakfast’ was a meal designed to wake up but I think it would be good if there’s a bit of space not only the tastebuds but the passenger, with a where passengers can spend just a few minutes, main spicy course followed by coffee. several times during the flight, particularly for (those Cabin lighting played a complementary role in passengers in) the economy-class seats.” the effort to keep people drowsy in the early part of Food and lighting are other major factors in the flight, she said. “We all have a body clock and making the journey tolerable and trials of these individual organs aligned to the timezone. What we aspects were also carried out on the delivery flights, tried to do as soon as possible during the London- Qantas

Qantas group CEO Alan Joyce joins Fleet Manager B787-9, Capt Lisa Norman at the launch of the Project Sunrise research flights.

24 AEROSPACE Qantas Passengers were encouraged to move round and exercise during the 19hr Project Sunrise research flights.

Sydney flight has been to prompt the body so its crews having two rest sessions during the cruise Sunrise demo clock starts shifting. We were trying to delay the phase. The crews rostered to undertake the landing test flight stats body clock, so we took off at 6am when it was still should have a rest period close, but not too close, to dark and during the first few hours the lights were the top of the descent, she said.  19hr 19min total dimmed, telling the body ‘Hang on, don’t be fully “We have developed a biomathematical model flight time awake yet.’ that predicts levels of alertness in aircrew based on  17,750km flown “We were trying to keep the body in the rest/ work we’ve completed with the (UK) CAA.” Initial sleep condition. We did that because, for most computer modelling was then compared to data  11 countries people, it’s easier to delay rather than advance collated from actual flights, particularly existing long- flown over the body clock. For example, it’s much easier for haul flights.  2 sunrises seen people to stay awake at night than be awake in the The quality of onboard crew rest compartments on board morning.” on ultra long-haul aircraft “is generally very good”,  52 people on which aids sleep, but the ability to rest well does board depend significantly on the time of day. “The advice Sleep of the long distance flyer  you give to pilots could vary, depending on departure 6,300kg of fuel Sleep is of particular interest to Dr Karen Robertson, time and the length of the flight,” she said. upon landing principal scientist and team lead, applied physiology “We did look at the length of layovers and there (about 1hr 45min and her team at Qinetiq. Qinetiq has been was discussion over whether aircrew should only do of flight time) undertaking research on sleep among pilots for one leg and shouldn’t fly back but what we found some years, including some of the first ultra long- was that (Singapore Airlines) crews tended to split haul services operated by Singapore Airlines to New their sleep – particularly in New York. They would York and Los Angeles around 15 years ago. This take multiple sleeps, rather than one. They were work was undertaken in collaboration with other advised to take some sleep in the local night time in European researchers. New York and some in the local night time at home.” The biggest challenge is often how to plan pilots’ Regarding ultra long-haul flights: “There are sleep regimes pre-departure, as well as during the challenges, certainly. I think the whole process does flight itself, said Robertson. “How do you ensure the require some advice to pilots.” pilots doing the landing after such a long duty are More research is likely to be required to underpin safe and able to carry out procedures?” the theories of the effects of ultra long-haul flights. Long-haul and ultra long-haul flights normally Assuming Qantas can reach agreement with its have two flightdeck crews and the general advice pilots, however, that research is likely to find its way is that the flight is split into four periods, with both into practice fairly shortly.

MAY 2020 25 AEROSPACE Economic risks of Covid-19 Airbus

Mitigating risk, prepping for recovery

MATTHEW WARD, Partner and Aerospace Leader, Ernst & Young, offers insight on how businesses can ride out the biggest challenge that the aviation and aerospace sector has faced since WW2.

he past couple of months have seen Both groups have been impacted by the unprecedented and rapid changes at disruption, in the short term the aftermarket more a personal and business level driven significantly. With little demand for flights, and most by sweeping government responses to airline fleets grounded for the foreseeable future COVID-19 pandemic. Travel bans, mass with little sign of uptick, the effects on aftermarket Tflight cancellations, countries in lock down – the demand has been marked to say the least and are impact on the aviation and aerospace sectors have likely to will remain low. In some cases, new orders been more severe than for many and the length and have been stalled and airlines have requested depth of disruption as yet unclear. delivery delays, leading to an expectation of reduced OEM deliveries this year. OEMs and aftermarket impacted At this stage, it is hard to predict what will happen next or to clearly see the recovery timeline, Covid-19 has landed blows firmly both on original which inevitably makes forward planning hugely equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and their supply challenging. These challenges come on top of chain and the aftermarket – those providers of readiness for Brexit and some recent shocks to part maintenance and repair components and services to of the supply chain. the airlines and lessors. There are however four clear action areas that

26 AEROSPACE 27 Boeing MAY 2020 MAY Despite short term volatility, the longer-term Despite short term volatility, long-term order books for OEMs,With a heritage Some consider drawing upon companies may regulators and pensions trustees. The sector regulators and pensions trustees. The tradeshould also seek to engage with its strong sector inassociations, who can represent the whole seeking appropriate support from the Government. Covid world …in a Post in the short-term, OEMWhile production has taken a hit with some Airlines pressing the pause button on deliveries, what does the medium to long-term horizon look like? outlook for the aerospace sector remains positive. Sector growth estimates pre-epidemic were higher than global GDP growth rates with the emerging of this markets, particularly Asia, driving much while not immune, has survived sector, demand. The many recent crises e.g. financial crash and SARS that growth for the outbreak, and it is expected sector will continue on a similar upward trajectory post Covid-19 crisis, albeit the downturn may last longer. of resilience and innovation, the flight path towards and the future looks brighter than one might expect the sector has a history of rejuvenating itself in a post crisis world. Engage stakeholders need support from theirMany businesses will important to engage with and stakeholders. It’s –understand critical stakeholders and their priorities including commercial partners, financial stakeholders, shareholders, government and tax authorities, contingency funding and speak to lenders to funding and speak contingency facilities, in this credit existing extend increase or regard UK with government has responded rapidly also need to be prepared forsupport. Companies funding and for theirdelays in accessing additional to close. Assessing theusual avenues of capital implications of any newattractiveness and long-term of finance and bringing cashand alternative forms visibility of daily and short- management, including central control will be critical.term cash needs, under

KC-46 and P-8 products – military procurement being less than civil affected aviation demand. Boeing is to restart production on its Businesses should look beyond their existing Businesses should look beyond their existing As mentioned, we have seen some production is supplier vulnerability. other challenge The is taken, it is crucial approach Whatever Across Europe we have seen some temporary Across Europe we have stress testing, given that the range of current scenarios are likely to be well beyond anything they have considered before as we all sail in uncharted waters. Boards will need to take a view on short and long-term risks and increase discipline and monitoring around cash. Build and secure liquidity Airline customers are focused on cash conservation payment to requests for extended is leading which terms from suppliers including lessors’ payment is likely to ripple through the sector and holidays. This may have an impact on customer or supplier solvency needs to be monitored. risk, which facility closures in Europe. Manufacturers could to fulfil consider short-term production switch to optimise cash and alternative orders e.g. defence, thekeep production running. Many are supporting ventilator programme. UK Government’s disruption may accelerate Global supply chain production downtime with suppliers’ geographic location/ border controls/ availability of labour To and raw materials impacting delivery lead times. to near- counter this, dual sourcing or switching sourcing of components could be a solution. that OEMs needs There engage with suppliers. to be open dialogue that recognises mutual are met interdependencies so that any challenges should be done with This constructively together. a focus on dealing with the immediate crisis but also with an eye on a return to normality and the continuity of a long-term relationship. Protect business continuity Protect disruption to their All businesses will experience and shifts in demand, but it is how they supply chain inadapt that will separate the winners from those second place. plant closures and reduced civil production rates. plant closures and reduced to protect the workforce Action has been taken of split shifts and distancing with the introduction remain in the that workers measures to the extent should provide all on-site work place, companies and maintain protection workers with infection protocols. health and safety People first People of employees, and wellbeing Ensuring the safety is the number one contractors and customers priority for all businesses. aerospace businesses should address to mitigate businesses should address aerospace for recovery. risk and prepare AEROSPACE Maintenance human factors Maintenance errors: Are we learning?

Human factors are not just for the flightdeck. JOANNA WHITE (QinetiQ) and SARAH FLAHERTY (Lux Consulting) from the RAeS Human Factors Group outline the findings of a Society conference on maintenance error.

uman factors in aircraft maintenance is Are our solutions effective and sustainable? In short, not a new concept; indeed the industry are we learning? has been engaged in education, investigation and the management Maintaining an open mind to human of the impact of the maintenance factors questions Henvironment on human performance since the Aloha Airlines accident in 1988. Last year, the Human Hactors Group: Engineering Despite many years of regulation, focus and (HFG:E) decided to pose the question to industry effort, the maintenance industry still experiences through a conference, inviting academics, regulators incidents and accidents. Investigations have shown and practitioners in the maintenance sector to give common contributory factors; factors that should their opinions. The Group held this conference perhaps have been addressed by now. However, at Cranfield University, attracting delegates from incidents still recur. So, the question remains as to across and beyond the aviation industry, including Understanding human whether we have successfully identified and actually factors is not just a apprentices, graduates and CEOs. The HFG:E is an addressed those factors that influence performance. challenge for the flightdeck. active subgroup of the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Lufthnasa Technik

28 AEROSPACE Human Factors Specialist Group, with the purpose ‘reality’ and that will shape why behaving in a certain of promoting and influencing the reduction of risks way made sense at the time. Colin Russell, former to airworthiness resulting from human performance Group Safety Director at Thomas Cook emphasised in engineering. the need to understand the ‘why’, in other words, Whilst the number of fatal accidents attributable what led to individuals to behave in a particular way to maintenance has declined, a review of data shows WHILST THE within the maintenance environment. Assumptions that the industry still faces issues with people not NUMBER need to be challenged, especially after an incident. following procedures and incorrect component OF FATAL Human behaviour is shaped by the environment installation. Cengiz Turkoglu, Course Director, MSc in which people are working. Dr Anthony Lawrensen, Airworthiness Cranfield University and Jennifer ACCIDENTS Aviation Consultant, Salus Intelligence, explored how Insley, Graduate Safety Engineer Lockheed Martin, ATTRIBUTABLE our perception and awareness of our ‘situation’ (task, highlighted the fact that investigations were still TO environment, culture) can influence our performance. not capturing sufficient detailed human factors Understanding the impact of time and environment and Human Performance information. Commercial MAINTENANCE on decision-making is essential in building a more pressures were found to impact the depth of HAS DECLINED, A resilient workplace. The interrelationship between investigations as well as any subsequent investment REVIEW OF DATA how people think, feel and behave is not often well in corrective actions and interventions. SHOWS THAT understood by management and staff alike, leading to Dr Marie Langer, Airworthiness Surveyor, CAA, assumptions of how the world should work. described an analysis of Mandatory Occurrence THE INDUSTRY Reports and CAA Airworthiness findings over the STILL FACES Real life experiences past decade that suggested trends remain largely ISSUES WITH unchanged in terms of the number and types of PEOPLE NOT Real life examples are always powerful, allowing an findings and occurrences. The industry understanding audience to reflect on whether a similar incident of human performance, the quality of investigations FOLLOWING could take place in their own organisation. There and proposed corrective actions varies considerably, PROCEDURES was a candid discussion of a real life example particularly the ability to identify underlying issues. AND INCORRECT provided by Charlie Brown, Safety and Compliance Investigations often stop after the first visible Manager at Virgin Atlantic, related to an incident cause is identified, rather than seeking the root COMPONENT that proved a timely reminder to the organisation of cause. With 44% of all CAA findings raised in the INSTALLATION. the fallibilities of systems and people. last five years relating to repeat findings, the new The aircraft had departed from for CAA root cause analysis identification road map a scheduled flight to Las Vegas. Following retraction (CAP1760, Effective Problem Solving and Root of the after take-off, low quantity and Cause Identification, CAA, 4/2019) proposes to pressure warnings occurred on hydraulic system 4, assist organisations in establishing a root cause due to a hydraulic fluid leak. The required checklists analysis process. Investment in this tool should were completed and the aircraft returned to land at lead to operational efficiencies in the long term, Gatwick. As the landing gear extended during the as long as it is used effectively, reducing the approach, the right wing landing gear struck the gear recurrence of incidents. Fundamental to the CAA’s door, preventing the gear leg from fully deploying. The suggested process was monitoring the outcome SR Technics engine crew carried out a go-around and, following a period of any preventative actions to assess whether the inspection. of troubleshooting and associated preparation, a intervention has been effective. All too often this part of the scenario is not re-assessed. SR TechnicsSR Making investigations

An in depth investigation of any significant incident takes time and resource. Given that both are often limited, Christine Brown, Head of Operations Quality, Rolls-Royce, recommended prioritising investigations based on the volume of work involved. By combining investigations where similar themes or issues have been identified, the depth and level of investigations can depend on the complexity of the issues and a problem-solving root cause investigation be launched. Without a systematic investigation, organisations can often make assumptions about why people behaved in the way that they did during an event. Senior management, front line management and operations staff have a different perspective on

MAY 2020 29 AEROSPACE Maintenance human factors British Airways partial gear landing was successfully completed. It was subsequently determined that the hydraulic retract actuator on the right wing landing gear had been incorrectly installed but gone undetected, preventing the leg from fully deploying. An investigation identified a number of contributory factors relating to this incident, including that the procedure was not written in accordance with human factors best practice and the language used was confusing. Following the occurrence a number of recommendations were made including: that all future retract actuator replacements require the addition of a fluorescent tape strip affixed to the down facing side of the actuator, clearly annotated in black permanent marker with the words ‘THIS SIDE DOWN’ once the correct orientation of the actuator is established. This was to be carried out during the ‘bench’ preparation stage when all the hydraulic hardware is installed and checked, and is an ongoing requirement. In addition, there was an immediate but temporary requirement for full gear retraction functional tests (swings) to be carried out post hydraulic retract actuator replacement to prevent a further incident. In addition the delay gaining access to sub-assembly stores, a lack of information explaining how to best utilise manual handling aids, such as a sling and hoist, which resulted in aids not being considered, a lack of readily available correct tooling, the handover of the task to the night shift, manpower concerns, and the failure of the strike board to position correctly, all in turn lead to the partial gear landing. It was further concluded by the investigation that the task became so physically demanding that the maintenance team had become entirely focused on just attaching the actuator to the aircraft, in order to relieve themselves of the 85kg weight they had manually supported for over 30mins. As such, they had no remaining capacity to ensure they installed the actuator in the correct orientation. It was subsequently determined that they had rotated it 180° about its long axis during installation, effectively installing it upside down. A difficult lesson learnt which was recommended to be shared.

Safety vs profitability

Safety and profitability are often pitched as conflicting goals but, as Irene Ruiz-Gabernet, formerly Safety and Quality Manager at Flybe, highlighted, despite there being a complex and delicate balance between safety and production, safety and profitability are mutually inclusive. A cost-benefit analysis of human factors showed the importance of choosing appropriate methods and tools to create a compelling case to senior management for investment. Combining quantitative tools such as safety performance indicators, Pareto charts and return on investment (ROI) calculations would add weight to safety reports and

30 AEROSPACE Opposite page: Engineers Charlie Brown carry out a D-check at the BA maintenance base in Cardiff. Right: The conference saw a candid lesson from a human factors error caught during Virgin Atlantic maintenance – showing damage to incorrectly installed landing gear actuator.

data. Presenting ROI calculations would require compensate for will have an impact: reducing the collaboration with financial departments to deliver safety margin; increasing costs and commercial reliable figures. The importance of leadership pressures; inhibiting efficiency; constraining profit; development in relation to Human factors and safety impacting the performance and wellbeing of all staff. was highlighted, emphasising not only the moral and Maintenance error: are we learning? Yes – but we legal duty to safety, but also the competitive value of could do better. being distinguishably better than others. ● Repeat findings show that the industry has not yet At a previous RAeS HFG:E seminar, former successfully addressed many common issues Chief Inspector of Air Accidents, Dave King, advocated evolving our approach to maintenance ● We need to better understand why people behave Human factors, not simply applying more of the as they do in the workplace, why procedures existing intervention strategies. Andy Evans, Director are not being followed rather than making Aerossurance, reinforced the idea that just sending assumptions about ‘attitude’ people through yet more HF training is not always ● Investigations need to be comprehensive, in-depth the answer. Instead, he said, we have to share the and identify fundamental issues and not stop at knowledge currently locked away in safety reporting something convenient databases more widely and engage our workforce ● Recommended fixes/interventions need to more proactively to create improvement rather than actually address the underlying issues and not be just passively waiting for safety reports. More recent solely focused on the individuals involved or their MAA-regulated HF training courses now also provide effectiveness diluted due to cost a forum to share some of this valuable information. ● Monitoring and assurance of fixes are essential to The HeliOffshore human hazard analysis process, ensuring they are effective in the long-term that gets designers talking with maintenance ● Resources should be used wisely by prioritising personnel, and the Flight Safety Foundation what is investigated. Quality vs quantity. Maintenance Observation Programme, that looks for ● Education regarding human factors and human improvement opportunities with maintainers before performance should not simply be aimed at errors occur, are both examples of proactive safety front line staff. Senior management need to management. Evans advocated a more enlightened understanding the impact of financial and and holistic ‘psychological safety’ approach that operational decision-making on performance. encourages open discussion and confidence in the ● Safety and profitability do not have to be reporting system and management approach to conflicting goals. Getting it right is good for investigating and understanding events. Humans are people and good for business. normally not ‘hazards’ to be managed and disciplined ● Humans are heroes not hazards! Use their but are ‘heros’ who can help our organisations learn knowledge and capabilities to build resilience in and so we should treat them accordingly. your organisation. Accelerating learning The HFG:E will continue to promote an understanding of human factors in the engineering The conference speakers highlighted that as an and maintenance environment, encouraging industry, we are learning but perhaps not at a organisations to learn from the experiences of others; speed nor to a depth and consistency that has not only from incidents and accidents but more created a step change in the safety performance importantly, what is working well and how proactive of maintenance organisations. While the accident initiatives are helping the industry to listen and learn. rate is currently in decline, the day-to-day system Please contact us if you would like to learn more inefficiencies that maintenance engineers have to about our work.

MAY 2020 31 AIR TRANSPORT Aviation law

Navigating proof

PETER COLES, MELISSA TANG and MANISHA BAINS from the Hong Kong and Singapore offices of international law firm Clyde & Co look at navigating the civil standard of legal proof in the context of the AVS 103 clause.

n the age of unprecedented losses in the MH370 on 8 March 2014, illustrate the potential aviation industry, the question of who bears interplay between all-risks insurance (which the costs of claims is a highly significant excludes war risks) and war risk insurance. issue for both airlines and its insurers. The As in these examples, if an aircraft crash Wreckage of the Ukrainian tragic number of recent losses including, occurs and the cause is uncertain it would be International Airlines flight IUkrainian International Airlines flight PS752 on difficult to determine which insurer bears the 752. 8 January 2020 and Malaysian Airlines flight hull loss. Fortunately for an insured airline, the application of the standard AVS 103 (‘50/50’) clause ensures that an airline is not

Ukrainian Presidential Office inconvenienced pending a final determination on the issue of causation.

What does the civil standard of proof mean?

A claimant (on whom the legal burden of proof rests) must meet the civil standard of proof ‘on the balance of probabilities’ in order to succeed. A court or tribunal can only find in favour of the claimant if it is satisfied that an occurrence (an act or a failure to act) more probably happened than not. Where there are multiple competing causes or unsatisfactory evidence to assist, proving a case on causation to the balance of probabilities standard of proof can be problematic. It is important to avoid a process of fact-finding which eliminates the impossible and deciding that the remaining explanation, however improbable,

32 AEROSPACE Andrew Heneen all-risks insurers (who bear the burden of proof of establishing that the exclusion will apply) can establish that the cause of loss was due to an excluded peril, ‘on the balance of probabilities’. To avoid initial uncertainty and inconvenience to the insured airline, typically polices include a standard clause, the AVS 103 wording, otherwise known as the ‘50/50 Provisional Claims Settlement Clause’. Under AVS 103, both sets of insurers agree to equally split aircraft hull costs for any claim where the cause of the loss is unclear. Absent subsequent agreement, the apportionment of liability is then referred to arbitration for a final determination as to which market (all-risks or war risks) is ultimately liable for the hull claim. It is critical that the claimant (all-risks) insurers understand the standard of proof that must be met. When the cause of loss is open to dispute, all-risks insurers must provide cogent evidence to prove that the cause of the aircraft crash is the probable cause and avoid adopting the process of reasoning disapproved of by the House of Lords in The Popi M (1985). In essence, all-risks insurers cannot simply prove their case on causation by showing that any alternative theories that the war risk insurers might advance Flight path of Malaysia must be the cause of loss. The legal test of are less probable than their own, or even Airlines flight MH370. whether the remaining possible explanation or impossible. Further, the more unlikely the cause of cause was likely ‘on the balance of probabilities’ loss advanced by the all-risks insurers, the more equates to ‘more probable than the suggested compelling the evidence presented in support of alternatives’ keeping in mind that the evidence that theory must be. There is also a lesson in this available may be incomplete, and every possible for war risk insurers. While there is no obligation explanation may not be known (Rhesa Shipping to advance any competing theories on causation Co v Edmunds (The Popi M) [195] 2 All ER 712). on the civil standard of balance of probabilities, if If, on the evidence, a court or tribunal considers their experts can provide evidence in support of that it cannot make a finding on causation, the competing causes of loss/damage to an aircraft, claim fails as the claimant has failed to discharge this may challenge or disprove all-risks insurers’ the legal burden of proof. The more serious the case on causation. allegation or the more unlikely something is, the Where a lack of evidence means the cause stronger the evidence required to satisfy the of a disaster may never be known for certain, balance of probabilities. taking the dispute to arbitration under AVS 103 is ultimately a costly exercise. The mysterious loss Why is understanding the relevant of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 on 8 March civil standard of proof important in 2014, with the loss of all 239 on board, is the the aviation context? most prominent example in recent times. Even today, the main body of the aircraft and those The question of who bears the costs of hull who perished on-board have not been located claims is a highly relevant issue for both airlines notwithstanding an unprecedented multinational and their insurers. Aviation hull all-risks policies search. In the case of the loss of Ukrainian generally exclude so-called war risks under International Airlines flight PS752 on 8 January the common Lloyd’s policy exclusion form war, 2020, the need to determine which insurance hijacking and other perils exclusion clause market was responsible for paying the hull loss (AVN48B). Airlines requiring cover for hostile acts was unnecessary once Iran admitted responsibility of violence, including hijacking and terrorist risks for the shoot down. In the case of MH370, the as excluded by AVN48B, commonly purchase process of resolving causation did not conclude separate hull war risk insurance. In the event of until after a hearing in London culminating in loss of an aircraft, whether hull costs fall on the an arbitral award in June 2019 resulting in the airline’s aviation all-risks or war risks insurance aviation war insurance market absorbing the full will depend on whether the airline’s aviation $110m loss.

MAY 2020 33 AEROSPACE Aviation regulations post-Brexit Airbus

The UK and EASA – breaking formation? RAeS Head of External Affairs, DAWN NIGLI MRAeS, analyses the UK’s approach towards the end of the Brexit Transition Period and what this means for aviation and aerospace regulation.

hile the world is battling to from EASA. As a result, in December 2020, (or overcome the COVID-19 whenever the Transition Period does end) the pandemic, the topic that has UK will leave EASA and take back responsibility consumed much of the UK’s for areas of regulation, previously devolved to focus over the past five years Cologne. hasW dropped down the priority list. Brexit. During the Transition Period, the UK has been Covid-19 looks set to rightly dominate much of treated as an EU member state but no longer the Government’s time but, at the same time, the takes part in any decision-making or decision UK Government has indicated that there will be shaping activities at EASA. no discussion of an extension beyond the current The decision to break away from EASA was 31 December 2020 deadline. On the other side met with disappointment from UK trade bodies, of the table, there have been calls from some such as ADS Group, which stated: “We have been of the EU 27 to delay the end of the Transition clear that continued participation in EASA is the Period, although Downing Street continues to best option to maintain the competitiveness of our maintain that it will veto an extension. £36bn aerospace industry and our access to global export markets.” EASA announcement A Royal Aeronautical Society report published in September 2017 – ‘Civil Aviation Regulation: In March 2018, the then Prime Minister, Theresa What Future After Brexit?’ – concluded that May proposed that the UK should pursue some associate membership of EASA would allow the kind of associate membership of the European UK to retain the majority of benefits provided by Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). However, with full membership, despite the loss of some influence Boris Johnson’s Government taking a view that provided by voting rights. UK law should not be subject to the supremacy However, with membership out of sight and of the European Courts of Justice, it didn’t come out of mind, the Royal Aeronautical Society has as a huge surprise that, in March 2020, Grant re-analysed what the alternative could look like in Shapps confirmed that the UK is to withdraw its latest Brexit Briefing Note.

34 AEROSPACE Potential ‘No-deal’ European aerospace industry and its supply chains stretch across countries and companies, large and The legal position is in one sense straightforward, small, spread across the entire continent. the moment the UK leaves, all EASA regulation is The UK is aiming to secure a CATA which would transposed into UK law. allow UK and EU airlines to continue to have access Many UK-based aerospace and aviation firms to each other’s markets up to at least fifth freedom previously prepared for ‘no-deal’ Brexit scenarios, level (which is the bedrock of European airline which might still be useful. However, regulatory network operations) for commercial, while permitting ambiguity and unforeseen barriers are difficult practices such as wet leasing which are vital in to make plans for, particularly with the additional providing flexibility in modern operations. disruption caused by COVID-19. In the absence of an agreement, pilots and Limitations of a BASA and CATA engineers only holding UK-issued licences would no longer be able to fly or maintain EU-registered Even the BASA of UK negotiators’ dreams will aircraft, while UK-made wings, wheels and widgets not preserve the level of global influence over would need to satisfy two sets of rules. After that, rulemaking, common standards, automatic those two sets of rules are free to diverge. recognition and access to data that is afforded The further apart that regulations move, the with membership, or even associated membership more costs will increase for aerospace supply of EASA. While there have been examples where chains and the industry could be proportionate regulatory divergence has enriched perceived as less competitive compared to its EU the general aviation sector, the potential benefits of counterparts. a BASA and CATA over current arrangements are unclear and shrouded in uncertainty.

EASA The Civil Aviation Authority has a significant task on its hands to suitably staff its organisation over a short timeframe, such that it can command the confidence of EASA to enable the mutual recognition of certificates that a BASA facilitates. The sector will be seeking reassurance from the regulator that it has the skills and knowledge to take on a new larger role and, that it has the resources, by the deadline of December 2020.

Implementing the vision

While there is a path for charting the UK’s course out of EASA, it is still largely dependent on the overarching political narrative. At a time when the UK Government is being EASA Headquarters in A new relationship – BASA & CATA refocused and restructured internally around the Cologne, Germany. COVID-19 response, it will become increasingly Some reassurance is provided in that the UK important that resources are also being retained and the EU have both included comprehensive for Brexit-related activity if the Transition Period aviation safety and air services agreements in their enddate occurs in December. The same goes for the negotiating aims. However, the EU has previously regulators, businesses and trade bodies, all of which taken the approach that ‘nothing is agreed until are currently focused on protecting their workforce, everything is agreed. securing their business operations and maintaining It is vital that prior to leaving EASA – that means the safety of their customers. within the next eight months – the UK and the It is no secret that the fallout from the Covid-19 EU agree both a comprehensive Bilateral Aviation global pandemic has hit the aviation and aerospace Safety Agreement (BASA) and a Comprehensive Air market particularly hard. However the clock is still Transport Agreement (CATA). ticking towards a crisis at the end of the year that A BASA would ensure close bilateral co- could be well be avoidable with the right forward operation and has a precedent in the EU’s planning. It would be irony indeed if the disruption relationships with the US and Canada. It would allow from Brexit would undo any small recovery in traffic the mutual recognition of certificates – of personnel, at the end of the year. designers, manufacturers, and MROs – and provide You can read the Royal Aeronautical Society’s a proper framework for the continued sharing of new briefing note on the impact of Brexit on the crucial safety data. It would be in the transparent UK’s aerospace, aviation and space industries under interest of both parties, because of the way that the the Briefing Papers section of the Society’s website

MAY 2020 35 AEROSPACE airliners Looking to a blended future At the Singapore Air Show in February 2020, Airbus revealed MAVERIC (Model Aircraft for Validation and Experimentation of Robust Innovative Controls), its ‘blended wing body scale model technological demonstrator. JOHN WALTON takes a closer look at this game changer.

f Top Gun’s Maverick felt the need for speed, designs,” Bour-Schaeffer explains, referring to Airbus’ MAVERIC feels the need for fuel the UpNext technology group. “It’s important to efficiency. No, it’s not quite as catchy but it is understand that it is really a demonstrator. It is a just as important, if not more so. If aviation is to platform to learn for us.” emerge from the coronavirus crisis with success, The newest model is half again as long as it Iit needs to ensure that it tempers its ambition with is wide: three metres in wingspan and two metres environmental responsibility in the next generation of in length, big enough to validate those ‘robust aircraft. innovative controls’ that make up the last three If fundamental efficiency gains are to be made, letters of its moniker. Fundamentally, says Bour- the shape of aircraft will have to change. One Schaeffer, “it’s important to understand that it is promising avenue is to change the shape of future really a demonstrator. It is a platform to learn for us. aircraft from the present tube-with-wings format It is important because we think it has the potential to one that is more optimised towards lift, with the to reduce fuel consumption by 20% but it’s one blended wing body aircraft. platform amongst others. We are investigating one route into reducing our carbon footprint, A blend of past and future our emissions and we do not want to close any avenues, and this is a promising one we would like Blended wing body aircraft are by no means new to invest in.” from a physics theory perspective, dating from It’s taken two years to get there: the MAVERIC the Westland Dreadnought of the 1920s, to the project kicked off in 2017 with the aim of creating an Lockheed A-12 (and later SR-71) of the 1960s, initial scaled model to start the process of learning Rockwell B-1 of the 1970s, Tupolev Tu-160 of the about the challenges posed by industrialising the 1980s and Boeing’s X-45 and X-48 of the 2000s as blended wing body process, swiftly identifying well the Northrop Grumman B-2. However, control of that understanding more about the controls for an these aircraft, especially in the kind of flight envelopes efficient commercial blended wide body aircraft appropriate for commercial aviation, has always been would be crucial. a complex demand. Enter MAVERIC, Airbus’ Model Aircraft for Validation and Experimentation of Robust Lifting profits Innovative Controls. “At scale, it could be the Sand ra Bo next generation aircraft for the single-aisle ur The idea of a blended wing body is not -S c h market, Sandra Bour-Schaeffer, Head of a new but commercialising it is. “With e f f e r Airbus Group Demonstrators, and the , a blended wing body”, says Bour-

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t s r r a o a substantial ambition. So how will the t allows us to hope to gain 20% of fuel project get there? saving.” Beyond the BWB proof-of-concept, Blended wing bodies are theoretically more MAVERIC aims to validate flight control reality, efficient, simply because more of the aircraft is “MAVERIC is a blended wing body technology providing lift: the body where passengers, cargo or demonstrator and it is one part of our intent to have both are carried isn’t essentially a dead weight that a wider innovation initiative to leverage disruptive the highly optimised wings are having to carry.

36 AEROSPACE 37 Airbus MAY 2020 MAY model. This should prove especially useful, model. This Indeed, this question of centre of gravity — the future, multi-objective control into Further Another question is around the centre of gravity MAVERIC considering that the airframer is experiencing some considering that the airframer is experiencing issues with its current A320neo aircraft and the ways heavier CFM the & Whitney in which and Pratt LEAP the centre of gravity of the PW1000G engines affect current twinjet. aircraft, given an issue already a focus on existing densified cabins and with the Airbus A320neo’s heavier engines — will become even more important when aviation moves beyond traditional (or biofuel) is used bothkerosene, which to power the aircraft and to trim its centre of gravity. surfaces are also under consideration, given the aeroelastic deflections that come with more flexible wings, particularly those made of carbon fibre essentially look to replicate These reinforced polymer. envelope that blended wing body aircraft can tolerate. Airbus is investigating this with a dynamic centre of gravity adjustment system within the model today, model today, MAVERIC is a catalyst for our physical MAVERIC “We would like to see how we can optimise “We If you look closely at the “ this as best to use the surfaces to do the control and to optimise the aerodynamics,” Bour-Schaeffer off the current questions for the counting explains, team: “How many surfaces do we need to keep for handling? How will the flight controls react? How do we optimise the overall concept?” you’ll see what look like relatively traditional flaps and out from the slats: the sections of wing that extend most airliners are cruising configuration, for which optimised, to add lift during the slower flight phases of take-off and landing. understanding and for the modelling of a blended wing configuration. So what we would like to on understand and gain in-depth experience is related to low-speed is on everything which aerodynamics, to handling qualities, to flight control laws. It is really a platform to learn in those areas, ones that can leverage those 20% of are the which says. fuel savings, Bour-Schaeffer AEROSPACE Blended wing body airliners

and improve stability, reduce drag and aeroelasticity and alleviate the load during gusts and manoeuvring. Inside Airbus’ new Airbus is already considering what this kind of multi-objective control surface could look like via two UpNext future engineering projects: the Bird of Prey concept and AlbatrossOne technology demonstrator. UNLIKE MANY technology hub Propulsion, fuel and materials could all add to the BLEEDING- efficiency gains. At its core, MAVERIC isn’t about EDGE Airbus, like most aviation industry looking at new engine and propulsion technologies. CONCEPTS manufacturers, has been working on advanced Indeed, early concept illustrations essentially had concepts for some time. In late 2019, it two big holes that might as well have been marked IN AVIATION, regrouped and renamed this work as Airbus INSERT ENGINE HERE, arranged in a sort of MAVERIC UpNext, a Toulouse-based innovation group double of Douglas DC-10esque banjo-style fashion, DOESN’T that aims to help the multinational airframer mounted in the twin vertical stabilisers. develop new technology and turn it into If the vertical stabilisers are rather reminiscent AN HAVE real-world demonstrators to figure out whether of the DC-10, of course, it’s just as well that control EXTENSIVE it’s a runner or a rider for the future. of the aircraft is one of the focuses of the Maveric SET OF MAVERIC is just one of those technologies: project. The McDonnell Douglas MD-11, derived from TECHNOLOGY the others include 2MW hybrid-electric the DC-10, infamously suffers from instability and flight demonstrator E-Fan X, wake-energy control problems during landing, particularly but not DEPENDENCIES, demonstrator fello’fly, augmented vision exclusively in windy conditions. BEYOND THE take-off-and-landing safety initiative ATTOL, GENERAL satellite smart routing project TELEO, and the Sourcing power STRUCTURE OF connectivity architecture project called Reliable Connected Fleet. While Bour-Schaeffer and Airbus remain officially THE AIRCRAFT. “Heading Airbus Group Demonstrators and agnostic on propulsion type, she says, “I’m not Airbus UpNext, what I’m really excited about sure I would associate MAVERIC with distributed is to see all this energy of our people coming up propulsion immediately. We are looking into with totally new concepts,” Bour-Schaeffer says, distributed propulsion concepts — today we have “but it’s about more than just new concepts: it’s built no bridge between MAVERIC and those about applying what may be older concepts to distributed propulsion concepts. It’s really something new technologies and seeing how that changes which is open and to investigate and, again, not a their applicability.” focus on this specific demonstrator. We are learning As for the blended wing body MAVERIC, with lots of other platforms about electrification, “this concept, you could argue, is not new, but about different fuelling possibilities.” using the latest technology and flight controls to Airbus, of course, is working on the BAe actually optimise that concept” is, she notes. 146-based E-Fan X in partnership with Rolls-Royce, where one engine of the four-engine high-winged Regarding hybrid electrification and operational regional jet that Swiss called the ‘Jumbolino’ is replaced concepts such as fello’fly, Bour-Schaeffer says: by a hybrid-electric motor. “We are looking into different “I am absolutely excited about the variety of the possibilities to actually decarbonise the industry, going ideas that come up and we try to accelerate, to more and more electric and looking into different understand how much would they actually be power sources,” Bour-Schaeffer notes. “We are looking meaningful as a final product. To see all these into hydrogen avenues: is there something we could ideas emerging, how they will finally shape into a new product and seeing all these processes get out of this? All this parallel investigation is going happening is absolutely fabulous and really on. Obviously a shape like MAVERIC can bring lots of fascinating for me.” potential because you can have a fully new design of where you put the (fuel tanks) or whatever the fuelling will be. So we can see that there is potential in it, but it Airbus is not tackled in the frame of this platform.” That’s not to say, of course, that those other questions aren’t being worked on elsewhere. “Whatever fuels those engines, we’re looking into it on different platforms,” says Bour-Schaeffer. “But today there is no link between MAVERIC and these other platforms we are looking at. Because, again, really, I think the important thing is they are all platforms to learn. We are not at a product now and we know that the final product will be a combination of many things we have learned on the demonstrator

38 AEROSPACE side but also on our classical key research side — Cabin and sizing this is what will make our final product.” Unlike many bleeding-edge concepts in Any commercial passenger aircraft will, of course, aviation, MAVERIC does not have an extensive set require a passenger cabin and, likely, the ability to of technology dependencies, beyond the general carry containerised cargo as well. Cabin geometry in structure of the aircraft, that is; “This demonstrator a blended wing body is markedly different from that is not about leveraging any new material of a traditional winged tube and figuring out how to technologies.” Bour-Schaeffer emphasises. “We are arrange the people inside an eventual A320-sized working in Airbus, on different material concepts but daughter-of-MAVERIC aircraft will be crucial. this is part of other demonstration activities and not Looking at theoretical densities, the sweetest a focus today, as it stands, on this model.” spot for any aircraft is in blocks of 3-3: safety The blended wing body “will open possibilities regulators require that no passenger be more than but it is not the primary focus we have on this three seats away from the nearest aisle. A single- demonstrator. In general, we at Airbus believe aisle aircraft would thus be 3-3 in its most efficient that new material technologies will play a role in form, while the most efficient widebody would be optimising environmental footprint, from waste 3-6-3 — an ovoid form of which has been beyond the management to recycling, and bio-sourcing new technical abilities of winged tube designers but which materials can open a wide array of possibilities. in a blended wing body becomes potentially more We can look at different things, like lightweight practical. or conductive composites, spider silk, ultra high More practical from a construction design, anyway, temperature ceramics — there are lots of things though it will likely mean a substantial change in a we do look into but not specifically related to this variety of operational and regulatory ways: where will MAVERIC demonstrator.” boarding doors go? How will emergency evacuation We can relatively safely assume that Airbus work? Will runways and taxiways need to be will be looking to push beyond the 70% advanced dramatically altered in size? Is 3-6-3 the maximum materials that make up its most recent airliner, the in width, given that; as aircraft get wider, any roll Airbus A350. That total is made up of approximately becomes more pronounced in effect? 14% titanium and 53% composite (primarily carbon- The size question is crucial, given that blended fibre reinforced polymers), with the remaining 3% wing body aircraft are generally half again as wide in Below: Airbus rendering of modern aluminium alloys the airframer said in a wingspan as they are long. a MAVERIC-derived BWB recent technical briefing. The remainder of the The A320 family in current production ranges airliner cabin showing the open plan space avialable. aircraft is made up of aluminium, aluminium-lithium, from a maximum 156 seats on the A319 to 236 Note the ‘virtual windows’ steel and a ‘miscellaneous’ category, which is less on the A321. While Airbus took pains to emphasise on the right-hand wall. than 8% of other materials. that it has not really developed its thinking around Airbus

MAY 2020 39 AEROSPACE Future technology

the cabin of a future BWB yet, imagine that the basically infinitely but it was just one example of future A320-segment aircraft in this sort of market something it could look like,” Bour-Schaeffer says. segment wants to seat 200 or 250 passengers. “It’s really about (finding out) what is the actual In a 3-6-3 layout, with a seat pitch of 30 or shape we would like to give to the aircraft and cabin: 76cm, you’d need about 16 rows to reach 200 we see there are lots of possibilities but the cabin passengers, and 21 rows to carry 250 people. In layout will be one element out of many, many others pure seating space length, that would work out at to consider before we launch a product,” she notes, some 12m for 200 passengers and 16m for 250. highlighting that the mockup “was really more to Looking at the pictures of the MAVERIC model, give an idea of what you could actually do with this it feels like about half the blended wing body could volume, rather than saying this a layout we would like be dedicated to the passenger cabin. That would to market and to sell.” make a 200-seater BWB around 24m long, and There are further fundamental questions a 250-seater about 32m long. These are all early about the extent to which the aviation industry’s estimations but in length terms, that seems fine, generational family approach — where aircraft are, given the A320 is just shy of 38m and the A321 as a rule, stretched from their original length as more nearly 45m in length. powerful engines become available over the years But the question comes in terms — is possible with a blended wing body of the wingspan. The A320 and A321 aircraft. (and A319, though not the A318) While, at an extreme, the 28m-long share a 36m wingspan. If MAVERIC’s Boeing 737-100 can be stretched 1:1.5m length : wingspan proportions over fifty years to the 44m-long 737 hold for the larger aircraft, a 24m-long MAX 10, most stretches are smaller 200-seater would need roughly a 36m A DIFFERENT in extent. Yet much of the rest of the wingspan, while a 32m-long 250-seater CONFIGURATION. industry has relied on parts, crewing and would be some 48m in wingspan. That OF COURSE, operational commonality from A319 to latter figure would be, in essence, THERE WILL BE the A321, for example. It seems clear the wingspan of a Boeing 767 for an FEWER WINDOWS that stretching a BWB would not be aircraft a bit larger in capacity than an as simple as making a a tube longer: A321. THAN WHAT does the entire aircraft have to size up? Airbus is stressing that it envisages YOU KNOW What does that do to the economics of any future aircraft to have the CURRENTLY ON commonality? same ground footprint and ground OUR AIRCRAFT, Realistically, a successful completion requirements — in airports, gates, BUT YOU COULD of the MAVERIC project’s flight control taxiways, runways, maintenance spaces COMPENSATE mission is not going to result in a go or and so on — as the A320 family today. no-go for a BWB single-aisle aircraft. One could imagine a possible use of FOR THIS WITH There are a myriad other questions folding winglets on larger aircraft, for AUGMENTED that need to be answered before such example, as just a start. OR ARTIFICIAL a revolutionary change to what aircraft “In terms of the interiors,” says REALITY. look like and how they work. Sandra Bour-Schaeffer, “Airbus has “Again,” Bour-Schaeffer emphasises, only started thinking about a different Sandra Bour- “we are not at a product here but clearly configuration. Of course, there will Schaeffer it is something we are investigating be fewer windows than what you Head of Airbus seriously for the replacement of our know currently on our aircraft, but Group next generation of single-aisles. This you could compensate for this with Demonstrators is one example amongst many others.” augmented or artificial reality. You could But Airbus is clearly taking aim at its have increased connectivity.” Indeed, next-generation single-aisle, even as its she notes; “it opens up a whole range of cabin A320neo family enjoys continued success. configurations: more aisles, more possibilities to “Our target is really the single-aisle market optimise — to gain in turnaround time, for example, today but it’s too early to say it will be something as better ground operation inside the cabin.” “There disruptive as the blended wing, or it will be more a are,” she says, “lots of things you could leverage in traditional-shaped aircraft with hybrid electrification,” this aspect as well.” Bour-Schaeffer says. “There are lots of options we could choose. We know that our target is to Open plan for the future decarbonise the industry and we do not want to close down any avenues. I think rather than looking Fundamentally, though, “the focus on the at this from a product perspective, we are today demonstrator is not the cabin layout. What we have looking at how can we be bold? How can we actually shown in the press release is that it is an extra-wide leverage all possibilities and come up with the best unique cabin volume — with which you could play possible solution?”

40 AEROSPACE Afterburner www.aerosociety.com

Cool Aeronautics pp 52-53

Children getting to explore different components of an aircraft jet engine including small blades and motors during the Cool Aeronautics at the British Airways HQ, . The children were very enthusiastic with their questions around the jet engine!

42 Message from RAeS 44 Book Reviews 50 NAL Film Archive – President The F-35 Lightning II, Skybolt, The Complete History The National Aerospace Library is in the process of of US Cruise Missiles and Air Crashes and Miracle digitising its archive of historic aviation films, many “Regular readers of this column will appreciate Landings. of which have literally sat at No.4 for decades and some of the difficulties I have had in trying to be have not been viewed for 50-60 years or more. timely while having a submission date for my inputs 48 Library Additions some three weeks before publication.” 52 Cool Aeronautics Books submitted to the National Aerospace Library. – Chief Executive After several months in the making, the Society 49 Trustee Talk was delighted to bring our flagship primary school “The impact of Covid-19 continues to impact on our outreach programme ‘Cool Aeronautics’ to the heart daily lives both personally and professionally. Much Against the background of Covid-19, the Society’s of British aviation. of Europe’s population has been in ‘lockdown’ for Trustees have had to make key decisions an extended period but there are now signs of an concerning the 2020 AGM/SGM and the 55 New Corporate Partners easing of restrictions.” Presidential handover. Two new Corporate Partners have recently joined the Society.

MAY 2020 41

Afterburner_May2020.indd 3 21/04/2020 16:38:32 Message from RAeS OUR PRESIDENT

Prof Jonathan Cooper Regular readers of this column will appreciate including: Membership, Registration, Careers, some of the difficulties I have had in trying to be End Point Assessments, Corporate Partners, timely while having a submission date for my inputs Accreditation, National Aerospace Library and some three weeks before publication. However, Publications, etc. They have responded to the many the current Covid-19 situation has put normal life challenges that the current situation has thrown at on hold and things are changing on an almost daily them and I would like to send out a big thank you basis, so I have no hope of being up to date with to all of them for helping a large number of our this edition. Whereas, in April’s column, I was looking members and also enabling the Society to continue forward to visiting a number of local branches and functioning as normally as is currently possible. holding the President’s conference at the end of As almost all the usual activities across our local March, I now find myself writing this article some Branches, Specialist Groups and Corporate Partner two and a half weeks into the ‘lock-down’ that we briefings have had to be put on hold, I would urge are all having to endure. All RAeS events for the all of those involved to find ways of proactively summer and up to early autumn have been either remaining in contact with our membership and postponed or cancelled. staying relevant. We should share videos of previous I am very lucky in that I can work from home presentations at conferences and local Branches without too much difficulty but for many others and, if any member would like to put together a across our aerospace and aviation communities ‘TED’ style talk about an aerospace-related topic these have been particularly difficult times, with of interest, please can they share it with me at jobs being lost or furloughed, companies facing [email protected] and I will get it put bankruptcy, apprenticeships being lost and the rest onto the Society’s website. We should all also plan of the academic year being curtailed in universities for the time when we start to approach normality and colleges. The long-term impact on the economy so that we get a running start to re-booting the once we have got through the current crisis is also Society’s interests. Many of our local Branch rather bleak. members will have been self-isolating for a long Despite all of these problems, it has been time; in troubled times like these, keeping up such fantastic to hear many instances of how Society contacts (via email, FaceTime, phone etc) becomes members and Corporate Partners (large and small) ever more important. have responded to the pandemic. Examples include Finally, for those of you looking for something DESPITE ALL Airbus aircraft being used to fly shipments of face interesting from aeronautical history to explore, can I OF THESE masks across Europe, the easyJet-led ‘Project direct you to the National Aerospace Library where, Wingman’ which involves setting up a room in along with various digital collections (including PROBLEMS, hospitals as a mini airport lounge where volunteer among others the Library’s e-Book service IT HAS BEEN cabin crew help with the wellbeing of the inundated (www.aerosociety.com/ebooks), Heritage FANTASTIC TO hospital staff, and many companies, universities website (www.aerosociety.com/heritage) and HEAR MANY and individuals using their facilities and expertise the Mary Evans Picture Library website) which to design and manufacture ventilators and personal are readily available to access online, the Sound INSTANCES OF protective equipment. There are many more of these Archive has been made available. You can listen HOW SOCIETY heart-warming examples of people doing what to a real ‘Who’s Who’ of aviation personalities MEMBERS AND they can to help. I would encourage you all to find (pilots, engineers, scientists) and historical subjects ways of getting involved in some way to support based on original recordings held in the National CORPORATE such activities. For instance, the Royal Academy Aerospace Library’s archives. The archive is freely PARTNERS of Engineering is co-ordinating an engineering available to listen to via the Royal Aeronautical (LARGE AND response to Covid-19 https://www.raeng.org. Society’s YouTube Channel and SoundCloud SMALL) HAVE uk/policy/engineering-response-to-covid-19 alongside the Society’s podcasts of current lectures The Society’s full-time staff have also been at www.aerosociety.com/podcasts RESPONDED TO doing a fantastic job working remotely in these Wishing you and your loved ones all the very THE PANDEMIC challenging times across our remit of activities best in these difficult times. Keep safe.

42 AEROSPACE

Afterburner_May2020.indd 4 21/04/2020 16:38:33 OUR CHIEF EXECUTIVE

Sir Brian Burridge ● The impact of Covid-19 continues to impact on our the National Aerospace Library’s Classic Podcast daily lives both personally and professionally. Much series now includes the fascinating and entertaining of Europe’s population has been in ‘lockdown’ for history of aeronautics: ‘Recollections of a Pioneer’, an extended period but there are now signs of an Igor Sikorsky by Sergei Sikorsky and test pilot Clive easing of restrictions. Nevertheless, for the aviation Rustin, retelling stories about some of the 165 and aerospace sectors, the recovery will be a aircraft types he flew in ‘55 years of flying fun’. long-haul one and we have just reached the cross- ● Another priority has been to adjust the Society’s over point with the number of stored airliners now governance process within a very stringent set of exceeding the size of the active fleet which is back By-Laws to account for the Covid-19 restrictions. at the level of the mid-1990s. The manufacturers We are not alone in this as other charities and have reduced their production targets accordingly commercial firms have been faced with the same with significant impact on supply chains. However, challenges on running AGMs and filing accounts. domestic airlines in East Asia are beginning The Chair of Trustees has provided the detail of to recover, while international routes remain these temporary changes and the associated dormant as travel restrictions remain elsewhere. postponement of the AGM in his message (p Consequently, airports are struggling with economic 49) and the technical details also appear on the viability. Clearly, normality is some way off but website. However, this does not affect the conduct aerospace and aviation are both long-term games. of the current Council elections 2020. With just They might look different, but they will bounce back. a few weeks to go, I encourage those members ● Within that context, one of our immediate Society who have not voted to do so. The results will be priorities has been to produce a series of webinars. announced on the website and via social media There has been much to learn in meeting the platforms once the voting closes on 21 May 2020 professional standards we seek but we are making at 9:00 BST. If you have any queries or have not headway. Our first Corporate Partner Briefing is received the voting email, please call mi-voice on now available as a webcast featuring Chris Tarry +44 (0)23 8076 3987 or email: support@mi-voice. FRAeS speaking on the outlook and consequences com. Further candidate information is at: https:// of the Covid-19 pandemic on the aviation industry. www.aerosociety.com/council-elections This will soon be released to all members (https:// ● Maintaining our apprenticeship End Point www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq4PrV4ahv Assessment capability is also a high priority. To that s&feature=youtu.be) and we have a number end, our team is responding to individual queries of virtual events lined-up for the coming months but also working with employers, the DfE and its which are listed on the website. In the longer term, agencies to ensure apprentices are not unduly we have plans in place to capitalise on this new affected by the current crisis. It is, however, a sad knowledge to deliver a regular Society podcast and fact that some of our members have lost their jobs a programme of virtual events alongside our normal but our careers team is providing individual advice activity at Hamilton Place and across our global plus an extensive range of upgraded guidance network of RAeS Branches and Divisions. material at www.careersinaerospace.com on ● Meanwhile, our normal online output continues: aspects such as on making job applications and our Brexit Briefing is certainly worth a read. preparing for interviews. This is a free service open Covid-19 is rightly dominating business focus to both members and non-members as part of our but we wanted to ensure that our members and charitable activity. Corporate Partners were equipped with the latest ● Finally, before Covid-19 hit, I was in Pakistan to information on Brexit, particularly given the decision speak at an international security conference. to leave EASA. It has created a positive reaction I was fortunate to spend some time with the on social media. We have also responded to the vibrant Pakistan Division. In so doing, I presented Defence Committee’s consultation on the Integrated the President with the Society’s Distinguished MEANWHILE, Security, Defence and Foreign Policy Review. The Service award for onward transmission to Past response is on the website but the review itself has Vice President Hafeez ud-Deen CEng FRAeS who OUR NORMAL been postponed, alongside the Comprehensive joined as a Student Member in 1953 during his ONLINE OUTPUT Spending Review. As ever, our themes were: assess Aeronautical Engineering Diploma Course at the CONTINUES: OUR the threat assiduously; determine the appropriate RAF Technical College, Henlow. He subsequently BREXIT BRIEFING force structure in both breadth and depth; embed had a distinguished career in the Pakistan Air Force the capabilities of other Government departments; and Pakistan International Airlines as well as being IS CERTAINLY consult widely; and fund it properly. On a lighter instrumental in the creation of the Karachi Branch WORTH A READ note, and to expand on the President’s comments, and the Pakistan Division (see p 55).

MAY 2020 43

Afterburner_May2020.indd 5 21/04/2020 16:38:33 Book Reviews THE F-35 LIGHTNING II

From Concept to Cockpit. Aviation Boatswain’s Mate marginal, as the papers are very fact-based and (Handling) 2nd Class Sabrina offer objective narrative on what happened with Bales, assigned to the Progress in Aeronautics and amphibious assault ship USS little speculation on whether issues could have been Astronautics Series Vol 257 America (LHA 6), signals an avoided or addressed earlier. F-35B Lightning II assigned The sheer number of chapters indicate the Edited by J W Hamstra to the Flying Leathernecks breadth of the F-35 programme. Not only was this of Marine Fighter Squadron (VMFA) 122 to take-off from the first fifth generation aircraft made available for American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the ship’s flight deck. export sales but the core attributes of the programme Reston, VA. 2019. xviii; 741pp. Illustrated. US Navy. – lethality, affordability and supportability – plus the Distributed by Transatlantic Publishers Group, 97 co-development of three variants, with increasing Greenham Road, London N10 1LN, UK. £116 understanding of the need for separate development [20% discount available to RAeS members on and testing of the variant-specific aspects of the request; E [email protected]]. ISBN three aircraft versions made for a hugely complex 978-1-62410-566-1. programme. For those who are critical of the cost overruns in the development programme compared This book is a weighty tome whose title belies its with the initial estimates and budgets, this book will true format. This is not so much a single storyline give a true understanding of just how much work of the journey of the F-35 Lightning II from its is required to model, validate and then certify every early concept studies through to certification aspect of a programme of this magnitude. The and qualification for front line service but more a one chapter that is missing to my mind is on the collection of papers detailing how each individual topic of supportability and the autonomic logistics discipline within the overall Integrated Project Team information system. Reduced through-life cost was a conducted its part of the programme. As such, it key requirement of the programme and the omission is not a light read but is an absolute goldmine of of this topic from the book maybe reflects a team detailed information which makes it a lasting and This is a very focused on the air vehicle more than the air system. trusted source of information on the decisions and valuable None of the above detracts from a very detailed analysis which shaped the aircraft to what it is today. reference full goldmine of information on this most complex of The authors are almost all from the contractor programmes which underpins future Combat Air side of the Joint Project Teams, probably because of well written for many nations for the medium-term future. This the government team members would not have and factual is a very valuable reference full of well written been permitted to contribute. To my mind (as one accounts of the and factual accounts of the development of this who worked on the government side for part of development of remarkable aircraft. the contract), this alters the balance of the book slightly in terms of the perception of arisings which this remarkable Rear Adm Simon Henley may have been foreseeable but this is only very aircraft MBE CEng RPP FRAeS FAPM

44 AEROSPACE

Afterburner_May2020.indd 6 21/04/2020 16:38:34 SKYBOLT At Arm’s Length By N Hill

Fonthill Media Limited, Millview House, Toadsmoor Road, Stroud GL5 2TB, UK. 2019. 288pp. Illustrated. £25. ISBN978-1-78155-704-4.

When, in 1960, the USSR shot down Gary Powers in his Lockheed U-2, the US and the UK nuclear deterrents were shown to be unlikely to be effective. The reason was that aircraft would be unable to get near enough to drop their bombs on the critical targets. This meant that the UK V-bombers would not deter. Our Blue Streak, a ground-launched rocket, would need a silo to protect it against a first strike attack and these would be very expensive and difficult to position in our relatively small country, so politicians were unlikely to agree to them. A possible interim deterrent was Blue Steel, carried by a V-bomber and launched 150 miles away from the target and which could fly fast and high so being A model of the proposed concern’. When the Chiefs of Staff told the Prime more difficult to shoot down. It would be effective HP114 Victor Minister that Blue Streak was not believable, Harold only until the USSR had increased its ground-to-air Phase 6 missile ‘cruiser’ armed with four Douglas Macmillan agreed with President Kennedy that defences further from the targets. In fact, there was Skybolt missiles. RAeS (NAL). the UK should buy 100 Skybolts to which the UK a very short time that the V-Bombers were effective. would provide warheads and, as a quid pro quo, Skybolt was to be a ballistic missile with a range the US could use Holy Loch, near Glasgow for its of about 1,000 miles after launch from an aircraft. submarine base. It started under President Eisenhower and Douglas The Skybolt trials were having failures even Aircraft was chosen as prime contractor from about though much was successful on many points tested. two dozen starters. The RAF was interested and The costs were rising and the President and his had sat in with the USAF during the preliminaries. adviser changed. After five tests had ‘failed’, that It would keep the V-bombers in service. The Navy is to say some individual point had gone wrong, was keen on Polaris launched from submarines the sky was black and the adversaries of Skybolt which would make the Navy indispensable as the were in the ascendant. It became clear that it was providers of the UK nuclear deterrent. The UK had a going to be cancelled and Macmillan had a friendly bargaining chip in that the US wanted a submarine meeting arranged with Kennedy but it turned into base in the UK for their Polaris. one about the cancellation in which Macmillan There were complications from the principle of persuaded Kennedy to offer Polaris missiles without the US providing an ally with a nuclear deterrent warheads and with the knowhow on the launching and whether or not NATO should have a say. The submarines. There was mutual agreement that it author gives a good description of the politics and would be very difficult and expensive for the UK to of the Government’s use of the Treasury to control finish the development of Skybolt either in the US or expenditure – it hoped! – which is very helpful. in the UK. It so happened that the next trial launch However, the bulk of the book is a very clear was quite successful which was highly embarrassing description of the technical problems associated When, in 1960, for the US who had been mentioning launch with the various systems of deterrent, for example, problems as one of the reasons for cancellation. the vulnerability of ground-based ballistic missiles. the USSR shot All this is clearly covered in the book, as are the An air-launched one needed an accurate starting down Gary stopgaps and the tidying up. point after launch from its aircraft and one method Powers in his The contents list is good and the book is easy was by searching for stars and locking on to the Lockheed U-2, to read and well-illustrated. There is no index which ones chosen for positioning and guidance during disappoints me, as I invariably want to go back to the rocket firing. the US and the refresh or explore points that cross my mind after The various possible UK proposed competitors UK nuclear a first reading. I spotted very few typing errors and are well described. There was very considerable deterrents were one wrong date; Operation Buffalo was in 1956, not opposition in the UK to Skybolt rather than Polaris shown to be 1955. – Navy versus RAF again. It was always clear that Skybolt was in development and could be cancelled. unlikely to be Reg Milne The US had several deterrents. Polaris was ‘a going effective CEng MRAeS

MAY 2020 45

Afterburner_May2020.indd 7 21/04/2020 16:38:35 - Book Reviews THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF US CRUISE MISSILES

From Kettering’s 1920s’ ‘Bug’ & 1950’s Snark to Today’s Tomahawk By B Yenne

Speciality Press, Forest Lake, MN. 2018. Distributed by Crécy Publishing, 1a Ringway Trading Estate, Shawdowmoss Road, Manchester M22 5LH, UK. 204pp. Illustrated. £24.95. ISBN 978-1-58007- 256-4.

There are many books that cover cruise missiles; this one concentrates on US missiles over the past 100 years, marking the technology’s centennial. This soft-backed book runs to 200 pages of high-quality paper, print, photographs, artwork and drawings, all Syria. Fascinating as the Tomahawk is, the author’s Top: The AGM-129 ACM supporting the author’s commentary of the birth of the account of its predecessors provides an intriguing (Advanced Cruise Missile) US cruise missile through to the latest projects for interlude, as does his coverage of the deployment saw service with the USAF from 1990 to 2012. JSM and hypersonic missiles. The early development of cruise missile launch sites throughout Europe Above: The Northrop SM-62 of the cruise missile is covered with the challenges during the Cold War. I also found his coverage of Snark was an early-model presented to control, guidance and homing. As the the Regulus and Regulus II programmes full of intercontinental range ground- book progresses, the achievements in technologies, interesting detail. Who would have thought in 1959 launched cruise missile that could carry a W39 such as navigation, are explained and this book that a Post Office onboard the USS Barbero would thermonuclear warhead. becomes an introduction to the fundamentals of use a submarine-launched cruise missile (a Regulus USAF. putting a cruise missile capability into service. inert training round) to deliver letters from the crew The rivalry between the branches of the US back to the US mainland. It helped that the missile armed forces, principally the US Navy and USAF, had undercarriage which was used to save money led to many cancellations of similar projects by on missile development programmes. As we know government. The author gives many examples now, ‘Missile Mail’ did not catch on. of this, which seem to have occurred between The author covers over 25 missile programmes, the 1940s and 1970s. After that, the General in amazing detail. This book is a must for a This book is Dynamics/Convair BGM109, surviving a fly-off researcher who would like an appreciation of US a must for a in 1976 with the Ling-Temco-Vought BGM110, cruise missiles over the past 100 years. If there was researcher who became a mainstay as a ship-, submarine- and one thing I found confusing it was the chronology air-launched cruise missile. of the text, often leaping backward and forward would like an Over a third of the book is dedicated to the during a passage. An overview diagram of the appreciation Tomahawk, as the BGM109 became known as. I chronology would be my suggested improvement to of US cruise doubt if there is a more comprehensive coverage an otherwise excellent book. missiles over of the Tomahawk development and operational use available outside of classified sources; from its early Tim Marshall the past 100 use in Iraq to President Trump and operations in CEng FRAeS years

46 AEROSPACE

Afterburner_May2020.indd 8 21/04/2020 16:38:35 -

AIR CRASHES AND MIRACLE LANDINGS 85 Cases – How and Why – Second edition By C Bartlett

OpenHatch Books (https://chrisbart.com/). 2018. x; 414pp. £11.97. ISBN 978-0-9560723-6-8.

I had the opportunity to review the first edition of this book for the Society in The Aerospace Professional June 2011, so I was pleased to be able to review this second edition (also available in a large print edition over two – later to be three – volumes). The author’s intent to produce a comprehensive catalogue of the most important accidents is commendable, though such an effort is bound to US Airways Flight 1549 do not like flexing beyond a certain elastic limit’ – involve some omissions, as well as some surprising following its successful p 230) and stalling (various references, p 2, Staines inclusions. The Amelia Earhart mystery is included, ditching on the Hudson River, Trident, 1972) will raise eyebrows among the New York, on 15 January as is the shooting down of the Red Baron in 1918. 2009. Greg Lam Pak Ng. experts. However, this is not a technical treatise, it is Some other interesting inclusions are the Boeing an easily readable summary of hard-won experience 767 fuel exhaustion accident at Gimli in 1983 and and lessons to be learned. the Helios Boeing 737 (failure to pressurise with This book will appeal to those who enjoy the the loss of all on board) in 2005. popular ‘Air Crash’ TV programmes. Much of the The individual narratives in this second edition material it contains seems to come from the popular have been edited and, I think, often improved. Some media and, while criticism of the official reports is comments still seem to me to be unjustified – for made, the opinion of these popular sources is taken example some remarks concerning Captain Eric at face value and given undue weight. Even so, as Moody, who landed his Boeing 747 safely after an entry point into the more technical literature, encountering volcanic ash, and other comments it will be of interest to many. Since the book is about Captain ‘Sully’ Sullenberger’s successful helpfully divided into chapters of accidents of the landing on the Hudson River off Manhattan seem same type, it is convenient for further research. to me to unfairly devalue their achievements. On the technical side there are many anomalies, for Alan Simmons example, the explanations of metal fatigue (‘metals CEng FRAeS

NATIONAL AEROSPACE LIBRARY

Further to the UK Government’s guidance, the National Aerospace Library has been closed to external visitors as of Friday, 20 March, to ensure the health and wellbeing of our staff, members and volunteers.

Our online services remain available so you can continue to browse the catalogue and download e-books as well as contact our expert Librarians for advice and enquiries. E [email protected] NAL www.aerosociety.com/nal Catalogue www.aerosociety.com/catalogue e-books www.aerosociety.com/ebooks

MAY 2020 47

Afterburner_May2020.indd 9 21/04/2020 16:38:36 Library Additions BOOKS

AERODYNAMICS contemporary developments Astronautics, Reston, VA. £35. ISBN 978-8895011165. and mooring) and smooth and in aerodynamic research and xxxiv; 683pp. 2020. Illustrated. Illustrated throughout with rough water operations. the design and operation $119.95. ISBN 978-1-62410- Annual Review of Fluid numerous colour photographs, of gliders. ‘Die Bedeutung 535-7. Mechanics Vol 52, 2020. a history of the Italian military PRODUCTION AND des Segelfluges für die Edited by S H Davis and P aircraft trainer (which has MANAGEMENT Gesarritiuftrahrt’ (A Proll), Moin. Annual Reviews, 4139 Advanced Weaponeering been operated by the air ‘Recherches sur la turbulence forces of Singapore, Israel and El Camino Way, Palo Alto, CA – Third edition – Vol 2. M R Factories and Plant. 94306, USA. 2020. viii; 617pp. au Centre Atmospherique Driehls. American Institute of Poland), a concluding appendix National de Vol sans Moteur listing all the M-346 aircraft History of the Second Illustrated. $118. ISBN 978-0- Aeronautics and Astronautics, World War – United 8243-0752-3. de la Banne d’Orclanche’ Reston, VA. xxxvi; 696pp. produced. (Prof Kampe de Feriet), Kingdom Series: War ‘Nonlinear Wave and 2020. Illustrated. $119.95. ‘Aerologische Untersuchungen Production Series. Instability Processes in Fluid ISBN 978-1-62410-536-4. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: an osterreichischen W Hornby. Her Majesty’s Flows’, ‘Particles, Drops, and His Life and Times. C Cate. Segelfluggeländen’ (Dr Stationery Office and Bubbles Moving Across Sharp HISTORICAL William Heinemann Limited, Schwabl), ‘Le correnti aeree Longmans, Green and Co, Interfaces and Stratified London. 1970. xvi; 640pp. ai margini dei boschi’ (Prof London. 1958. xiii; 421pp. Layers’, ‘Shear Thickening of Illustrated. F Eredio), ‘DFS-Rauchkanal Boulton Paul Aircraft Reviews in detail the Concentrated Suspensions: A detailed biography of the – Windstromanlage since 1915. A Brew. Fonthill organisation of aircraft Recent Developments and famous French pilot and writer zur Sichtbarmachung Media Limited, Millview House, production (and also that of Relation to Other Phenomena’, – author of Night Flight, Wind, – zweidimensionaler Toadsmoor Road, Stroud aircraft engines, propellers, ‘Modeling Turbulent Flows in Sand and Stars, Flight to Arras Stromungsvorgange’ (A GL5 2TB, UK. 2020. 404pp. undercarriages, tunnels and Porous Media’, ‘Turbulence and The Little Prince – who, Lippisch), ‘Certains Problemes Illustrated. £45. ISBN 978-1- radio/radar equipment) during with Large Thermal and after flying with Latécoere and de l’Economie et de 78155-751-8. WW2. Compositional Density Aéropostale airlines, was during l’Utilisation des Motoplaneurs’ Variations’, ‘Patterns in WW2 to disappear on 31 July Wall-Bounded Shear Flows’, (W Stepniewski), ‘Die 1944 off the coast of Marseille SAFETY ‘Super-Resolution Imaging in Entwicklung der deutschen while flying a Lockheed P-38 Leistungssegelflugzeuge’ Fluid Mechanics Using New Lightning during an aerial Skyjack: the Story of Air (H Jacobs), ‘Der Anteil Illumination Approaches’, reconnaissance mission. Piracy. D Phillips. George Osterreichs an der Entwicklung ‘Aeroacoustics of Silent Owl G Harrap & Co Ltd, London. im Segelflugzeugbau’ (Ing Flight’, ‘Immersed Methods for 1973. 288pp. Illustrated. ISBN Bartsch), ‘Bruchversuche Report on the Progress Fluid-Structure Interaction’, of Far East Flight 0-245-52101-1. ‘Chemo-Hydrodynamic an Segelflugzeugen’ (Dip-Ing Schunemann), (Southampton Flying A compilation of selected Patterns and Instabilities’ and Boats) from Karachi to case studies of specific aircraft the contributions of Anatol ‘Die Uberprufung der Verkehrssicherheit von Singapore. H M Cave- hijacking events from over 400 Roshko (1923-2017) are Browne-Cave. Air Ministry. July incidents that had occurred among the subjects discussed Segelflugzeugen’ (M. Beyer- 1928. 117pp. Illustrated. since 1971. in the latest enlarged-format Desimon), ‘Regles pour la Includes detailed day- volume in this informative reception des planeurs’ (G series reviewing developments Simone), ‘ll volo senza motore by-day summary of the flight SERVICE AVIATION in fluid dynamics research and strumento per la preparazione from 14 December 1927 - 28 applications. spirituale e tecnica dei February 1928. futuri piloti d’aeroplano’ (U : the Nannini), ‘Erfahrungen in der Rochester Years. ENVIRONMENT Wings over the Solent. Schweiz im Umschulen von P MacDougall. Fonthill Media P Sedgley. c.1999. 16pp. Segelfliegern auf Motorflug’ Limited, Millview House, Illustrated. Sustainable Aviation: (H Schreiber), ‘Die Bedeutung Toadsmoor Road, Stroud A concise history of the Greening the Flight Path. der psychologischen GL5 2TB, UK. 2019.192pp. and flying boats Edited by T Walker et al. Eignungsprüfung für die Illustrated. £20. ISBN 978-1- flown and developed in the Palgrave Macmillan, Springer Schulung der Segelflieger’ (Dr 78155-730-3. Southampton area. Nature Switzerland AG, H Spreng) and ‘Segelflug als Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 olympischer Wettkampf’ (Sfl- : the Flying BAC Lightning. A Reed. Ian Cham, Switzerland. 2020. xvii; Kapitan Kunz) are among the Pencil in Luftwaffe Allan Ltd, Shepperton. 1980. 310pp. Euros 93.59. ISBN papers discussed. Service – a Combat and 112pp. Illustrated. ISBN 978-3-030-28660-6. Photographic Record 0-7110-0988-0. GROUND EFFECT 1936-1945. C Goss. Crécy GLIDING Publishing, 1a Ringway Trading A well-illustrated concise VEHICLES history of the / Estate, Shadowmoss Road, Legion Condor 1936-39: BAC swept-wing supersonic Manchester M22 5LH, UK. the Luftwaffe develops Vortrage uber motorlosen Soviet and Russian fighter the P1 prototype of 2020. viii; 336pp. Illustrated. Blitzkrieg in the Spanish Flug gehalten auf der Ekranoplans – Second which first flew on 4 August £50. ISBN 978-1-90653- Civil War. J S Corum. Osprey Istus-Tagung Mai 1937 edition. S Komissarov and 1954. 755-5. Publishing, Bloomsbury in Wien und Salzburg: Y Gordon. Crécy Publishing, Over 700 photographs Publishing, Kemp House, Herausgegeben 1a Ringway Trading and other colour markings PILOTING Chawley Park, Cumnor Hill, vorn Präsidium der Estate, Shadowmoss Road, diagrams illustrate this very Oxford OX2 9PH, UK. 2020. Internationalen Manchester M22 5LH, UK. detailed history of the evolution 96pp. Illustrated. £14.99. ISBN Studienkommission 2020. 392pp. Illustrated. Flying with Floats: a Guide of the air operations of the Do 978-14728-4007-3. für den motorlosen £39.95. ISBN 978-1-91080- to Operation and 17/Do 217 twin-engined light Flug, Darmstadt, 936-5. Techniques. A Hoffsommer. A history of the air Flughafen. Internationalen bomber aircraft during WW2. Pan American Navigation operations of the Luftwaffe Studienkommission für den Serivce, Inc, North Hollywood, during the Spanish Civil Motorlosen Flug (ISTUS). GUIDED FLIGHT Aermacchi/Leonardo CA. 1966. 149pp. Illustrated. War during which the newly R Oldenbourg, Munich and M-346. R Niccoli. RN Includes descriptions established German air force Berlin. June 1938. 79pp. Weaponeering: an Publishing Sas, Novarra. 2019. of techniques for landing developed air power tactics with Illustrated. Introduction - Third edition Distributed by Casemate, 106- and taking off from water an array of military aircraft types A compilation of – Vol 1. M R Driehls. American 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 (including porpoising, skipping, that were to play a key role in various technical papers on Institute of Aeronautics and 1JE, UK. 144pp. Illustrated. taxiing, step turns, docking the opening years of WW2.

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

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Afterburner_May2020.indd 10 21/04/2020 16:38:37 TRUSTEE TALK

I hope that each of you and your families are keeping safe and adjusting to these unprecedented times. Against the background of the immense challenge we all face, the Society is continuing to function in the virtual environment as best it can. Our management and staff team are doing a fantastic job reacting to the developing situation continue to promote our profession but inevitably, many of our activities conferences and events have had to be reprogrammed towards the end of the year or moved to 2021. A key aspect in the Society’s programme is the AGM which, given our By-Laws, has required special consideration by the Board of Trustees. It is clear that it will be neither safe, nor permissible under the UK Government’s current regulations, to hold a physical AGM in May as stipulated in our governance. Having taken legal advice the Trustees have determined that the AGM is ‘frustrated’ and given that the By-Laws that the next election for the President-Elect will do not allow for the holding of a virtual meeting, take place at the November 2021 Council meeting, the Trustees have resolved that the AGM will be which will enable the Presidential cycle to return to postponed until it becomes possible to conduct normal. It follows that the current incumbents of the business in the normal way. ex-officio posts on the Board of Trustees will remain In reaching this decision, the Trustees have in position until May 2021. also had to consider how, in these exceptional ● Receiving the minutes of the previous AGM and circumstances, we may address the formal business the Audited Annual Accounts and Report of the that would normally be covered at the AGM. Taking Board of Trustees will be conducted at the next the sustainability of the Society’s operations as the AGM whenever it proves possible to hold one. paramount objective, we have adopted a pragmatic AGM approval is not a prerequisite to allow the and balanced approach having regard for the By- Society to the file the annual report and accounts Laws where possible. Accordingly, the following which has now been completed. You can access decisions have been recorded in a Trustees’ resolution these documents on the Society’s website at: and greater detail has been placed on the website. aerosociety.com/AGM ● Council elections are currently underway. Rather ● In respect of the appointment of the auditors for than receiving details of those appointed to the the ensuing year, the Trustees have determined Board of Trustees and those newly elected to the that they need to act in the best interest of the Council at the AGM, the results will be promulgated Society to select and appoint an Auditor following via the Society’s communication channels of appropriate due diligence and to report their actions AEROSPACE, social media and the website. at the next AGM. ● The formal handover between Presidents is In reaching their decisions, the Trustees have normally conducted at the AGM. In the current focused on the need to act in the Society’s best circumstances, it is not possible for the current interest utilising care and skill and following the legal or incoming President to undertake most of their advice that they have received. duties. In seeking an elegant solution, the Trustees AGAINST THE Covid-19 has presented a complex and have determined that, exceptionally, the Society BACKGROUND exceptional challenge requiring adaptation of the should ‘stop the Presidential clock’ irrespective of OF THE Society’s governance but I believe that we have when the postponed 2020 AGM might occur. To managed to do so in a practical way mirroring the enact this, the Trustees have asked the Council IMMENSE resilience and agility being shown across many to re-elect the standing President until the 2021 CHALLENGE aspects of our organisation. AGM deeming this to be an extraordinary and WE ALL FACE, In closing, I wish all of you the very best and hope exceptional case. If agreed, this means that the that you and your communities are able to keep safe current President-Elect (Mr Howard Nye FRAeS) THE SOCIETY and well in these uncharted times so that we as a will take up the appointment of President at the IS CONTINUING Society can emerge from this period with resolve, 2021 AGM and that the election of his successor TO FUNCTION optimism and enthusiasm. as President-Elect, Air Cdre Peter Round FRAeS IN THE VIRTUAL (elected by the Council November 2019), stands. Martin Broadhurst All those affected by this arrangement have given ENVIRONMENT OBE FRAeS their agreement. The Trustees further determined AS BEST IT CAN Chair of Trustees

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Afterburner_May2020.indd 11 21/04/2020 16:38:39 NATIONAL AEROSPACE LIBRARY Platt-LePage and Piasecki Rotorcraft Films

The National Aerospace Library is in the process of digitising its archive of historic aviation films. Many of these films have literally sat at the Royal Aeronautical Society’s headquarters in London in old film canisters for decades and have not been viewed for 50-60 years or more. The running time of the films is variable from just a minute or two through to over an hour with formats varying from 8mm, 16mm and 35mm gauges, being a mixture of black-and-white/colour and silent/ Above: Platt-LePage XR-1A, sound, some of the films being completely unknown 42-6581. as their labels have come away from the canisters Right: A screen shot of the over the years. XR-1A from the film. Included in the collection are a number of RAeS (NAL). historic rotorcraft films which originated from the Helicopter Association of Great Britain (which amalgamated with the Royal Aeronautical Society in 1960) and from Captain R N Liptrot CBE. Liptrot who, during the 1940s, was the Deputy Director responsible for helicopter research and development in the Ministry of Supply and also held Helicopter Aviators Certificate No3, amassed a major collection of historic rotorcraft films which was presented to the Royal Aeronautical Society Available to view online are two different Platt- c.1968 after his death. LePage films. A 12-minute colour silent film about the The digitisation of these film recordings funded flying qualities of the XR-1 and XR-1A helicopters by the Royal Aeronautical Society Foundation is c.1943-1944 designed by Havilland H Platt and now complete and permissions have been sought W Laurence LePage, which includes footage of to enable the National Aerospace Library to digitally the XR-1A undertaking various manoeuvres at the release a large selection of the historic films it holds Platt-LePage site at Baldwin Locomotive Works at via a Royal Aeronautical Society website so they Eddystone, PA, on 31 October 1943 (Jim Ray and can be made available for people to view. Buck Miller piloting the XR-1A) and later footage Due to the age of the films and also the great which may have been at nearby Philadelphia Airport changes that occurred within the aerospace where the XR-1A was often kept, off and on, for industry since the films were originally made, once flight testing from early January 1944 on behalf of a potential copyright holder has been located, often the Pennsylvania National Guard 103rd Observation they have no knowledge of the films, so digital Squadron and also another separate film and a copies of the National Aerospace Library films have separate ten-minute colour silent film about the flying been shared with appropriate company archives qualities of the Platt-LePage XR-1. around the world to ensure that there is more than The two Piasecki films date from c.1950 – a one surviving digital copy of these unique films. 22 mins colour silent film showing flying qualities The National Aerospace Library films website Piasecki H-21 ‘Work Horse’ and a 22 mins grainy is currently under development but, as a ‘foretaste’ colour silent film of the Piasecki PV-2, PV-3, XHRP- of what is to come, Boeing has put online the 1, HRP-1, HRP-2, H-21, H-25A and model of XH-1. National Aerospace Library’s historic colour films of An American historian of the Platt-LePage the incredibly advanced looking Platt-LePage and company Jan Hendrickson believes that the National Piasecki rotorcraft designs (which come under the Aerospace Library’s Platt-LePage films may be the Boeing family of heritage companies) and can be only surviving copies, one of which could have been viewed via: https://secure.boeingimages.com included among a programme of films shown at by entering Piasecki in the Search box. the First Annual Dinner of the American Helicopter

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Afterburner_May2020.indd 12 21/04/2020 16:38:39 Society held in the Trianon Room of the Ambassador Hotel, New York, on 7 October 1944. The Platt-LePage company ceased trading in 1946; as a corporate entity Platt-LePage was liquidated and only a few patents went to McDonnell Aircraft for its investment in the Platt-LePage company. The McDonnell Aircraft Company was to merge with the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967 to form McDonnell Douglas which, in turn, was to merge with the Boeing company in August 1997. Similarly, the Piasecki Helicopter Corporation, then known as Vertol Aircraft Corporation, was acquired by Boeing in 1960, renamed Boeing Vertol and became the Boeing Helicopter Division in 1987. For any enquiries about the National Aerospace Library’s film archive please contact the Chief Librarian Brian Riddle (E brian.riddle@ aerosociety.com) who would like to acknowledge the assistance at Boeing of Heather Anderson, Above: Piasecki H-21C, Michael J Lombardi and Karen Robertson to enable 115881. these historic films to be shared with the world. Right: A screen shot of the The intention of the National Aerospace H-21 Work Horse from the Library film archive project is to create a historically film.RAeS (NAL). significant aviation visual archive to complement the National Aerospace Library Sound Archive (see AEROSPACE, April 2020, pp 50-51) www. aerosociety.com/podcast where we have made freely-available historic sound recordings (lectures, speeches, interviews) of major figures in the development of aviation (pilots, engineers, scientists) which are held in the Library’s archives.

NAL Merchandise Range

Do you fancy an aeronautical challenge? Reproductions of these images can be ordered A balloon lithograph in the as posters/prints and a wide range of giftware items form of a jigsaw. RAeS (NAL). Jigsaws (available from 400 or up to 1,000 including among others cushions, cards, coasters, pieces) are available print-on-demand from a vast mouse mats and jigsaws. selection of over 13,000 images from the National The Mary Evans Picture Library (https://www. Aerospace Library archives which can now be maryevans.com/) manage on behalf of the Royal viewed via the website: www.aerosociety.com/ Aeronautical Society (National Aerospace Library) printsandposters the www.aerosociety.com/printsandposters website, From one of world’s finest collections of 18th through whom these images can be licensed for century ballooning lithographs, posters of the ‘Golden reproduction in books, magazines, advertising and Age of Aviation’ in the interwar years, decorative other media (contact: [email protected]). book covers, air show programmes and early airline For any enquiries about the National Aerospace timetables through to many 1,000s of photographs, Library archives please contact the librarians (E the whole evolution of aviation is recorded. [email protected]).

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Afterburner_May2020.indd 13 21/04/2020 16:38:41 COOL AERONAUTICS All throttles go with Cool Aeronautics at British Airways!

After several months in the making, the Society was delighted to bring our flagship primary school outreach programme ‘Cool Aeronautics’ to the heart of British aviation. On Thursday, 27 February, the RAeS, in collaboration with British Airways, welcomed over 90 students from three local primary schools to the magnificent BA HQ, Waterside for an insightful and inspiring day into the world of aviation and aeronautics, delivered through the eyes of serving BA pilots and engineers. Supported by Above: The team for the Alan for a Q&A session was First Officer Claudine the BA Community Engagement & Inspire team, day, including RAeS Staff, Miles, a pilot on the Boeing 747. The pair were Heathrow Branch members, Student Ambassadors and the RAeS Heathrow bombarded with questions which shows the sheer Branch, this event was certainly one to remember by BA Inspire Team and Student Ambassadors. enthusiasm of young children who were eager all who took part including pupils, teachers and all Below: Children were treated to absorb all the information. Popular questions personnel involved in turning our vision to reality. as First Class passengers included ‘What is your favourite destination to fly to?’ with the opportunity to The Cool Aeronautics programme, kindly Another was ‘what is your favourite button on the sponsored by AAR Corp, aims to provide an pretend to enjoy champagne and caviar in a mock-up First- aircraft?’ to which Claudine appropriately responded, insightful experience into the world of aerospace Class seat at the BA Heritage ‘the autopilot disengage switch!’. A couple of cheeky and aviation to young children aged between 8-11 Centre. questions were asked about their salaries which and their teachers. The events form an integral part both neatly sidestepped. Several lucky children got of the Society’s mission to attract and inspire the the chance to come up on stage and pretend to be next generation into aerospace, STEM and aviation pilots and engineers while donning the appropriate related careers. uniforms! The day began with a brief introduction from Next, we heard from BA Engineering Melissa Kose, Community Engagement Manager Apprentices, Arron Lynch, Mitchell O’Shea and at BA, who spoke about the significance of the Jade Bodman, who highlighted the role of an airline and the impact it has on people’s daily lives. aircraft engineer, while mentioning their educational Attendees were also given a summary of the background and their inspiration in embarking on fantastic programme of talks and activities that an apprenticeship with BA. Using images, they also were in store for them. This was swiftly proceeded talked about the basic workings of a jet engine and by an ‘ice-breaker’ exercise with a competitive twist! how it contributes to the propulsion of an aircraft. Led by Mel, in groups the children were tasked with During their Q&A session, they distributed small identifying various worldwide destinations that are components of an aircraft around the groups to currently served by the BA network, through viewing provide a visual sense of their job and the types images of famous landmarks at these destinations of repair work that is undertaken. The apprentices and then determining the city/country. The team were asked to describe their job in five words, with the most correct answers would win the task. to which Jade responded: “exciting, challenging, Following this, it was time for our very own rewarding, ever-changing and inspiring.” RAeS Fellow, Capt Alan Bamford, to share his Moving into the afternoon segment of the experiences as an airline pilot with BA. Alan event, the BA team had prepared three fantastic highlighted his journey to becoming a pilot, while interactive STEM-based activities for the students. talking about the day-to-day role of a pilot and how The first of these activities was of course ‘paper safety plays a large factor in ensuring a positive aeroplanes’ which never fails in its ability to excite outcome for the airline’s customers. The children the next generation. Led by Claudine Miles and were also shown an image of an Airbus A320 flight RAeS Heathrow Branch volunteer who is also deck and Alan pointed out the key components or a First Officer with the airline, Eleanor McBrien, ‘buttons’ as the children would refer to it! Joining the children were tasked with designing an

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Afterburner_May2020.indd 14 21/04/2020 16:38:42 aerodynamic, airworthy aeroplane out of paper. Seeing the children getting competitive with the ‘fly the furthest challenge’ was indeed a joy to watch! The second activity saw the children transported back in time at the BA Heritage Centre, where they were tasked with undertaking a treasure hunt using clues from BA’s long and rich history to solve the questionnaire and win prizes. From old aircraft models by BOAC to the replica seats of BA’s first-class cabin, the children garnered a sense of the airline’s importance in British aviation history. They were greeted by BA’s inspiring Student Ambassadors, Caitlin, Umme and Max who addressed the students on the Inspire programme run by the airline in order to engage with young people interested in pursuing a career with the company. The ambassadors traced their journey from primary to secondary school, being selected for work experience at BA through to joining promote the wealth of opportunity in our beloved BA First Officer Claudine the recognised Inspire Student Ambassador industry. Miles giving a briefing to the programme. They gave important advice on children on how to win a On behalf of the Royal Aeronautical Society paper aeroplane contest! following their footsteps and also inspired the we would like to sincerely thank the Community children to pursue their ambitions! Engagement & Inspire team at British Airways for all The final activity was a ‘basic masterclass their enthusiasm and dedication in supporting us to in engineering. The students were tasked with host this event. In particular a special thanks goes to building a free-standing structure out of nothing Melissa Kose and Samantha McGrane who worked but marshmallows and considerable quantities of hard to ensure a robust programme that delivered spaghetti! Led by the engineering apprentices, along everything in our mission and beyond. Our thanks with Samantha McGrane and Hannah John from again to programme sponsors AAR. We very much the BA Inspire team, the children had to combine look forward to working with British Airways in the their knowledge of Lego and Jenga. In addition, they future to continue to inspire the next generation of had to recall information from their science classes the aviation workforce. around centre of gravity to produce either the tallest structure, or the most extravagant structure, to win. Rishi Radia It was an agonising wait as the children watched RAeS Careers & Outreach Officer each structure withstand a test by the BA team. It was ‘survival of the fittest’ while some structures stood tall and proud, others tumbled to zero! Upon conclusion of the activities it was almost time to say goodbye, however one final activity remained. ‘The ultimate paper plane showdown.’ RAeS Careers would like to give its sincere thanks to the following BA Claudine had selected three students from each Staff Members, Speakers, Student Ambassadors and RAeS Heathrow school with the best paper planes to compete with Branch members for their overwhelming support. each other for the final prize. With all 90 children Melissa Kose – Community Education Manager, British Airways and adults watching and cheering their respective Samantha McGrane – Inspire Executive, British Airways friends, the atmosphere was energising. Ultimately Hannah John – Work Experience Executive, British Airways the ‘winner took it all!’ Sam and Mel then proceeded Capt Alan Bamford FRAeS – Training Captain, British Airways to hand out prizes for other winners of the various Claudine Miles – First Officer, British Airways activities for the day, before the event concluded Arron Lynch – Engineering Apprentice, British Airways with a final goodbye from Samantha McGrane and Mitchell O’Shea – Engineering Apprentice, British Airways RAeS’ very own Nicholas Davis and distribution of Jade Bodman – Engineering Apprentice, British Airways the Cool Aeronautics goody bags, kindly supported Caitlin Carroll – Student Ambassador, British Airways by programme sponsor AAR. Umme Hane – Student Ambassador, British Airways This event was a fantastic display of how our Max Burrell – Student Ambassador, British Airways Cool Aeronautics programmes succeed in inspiring Eleanor McBrien MRAeS – RAeS Heathrow Branch the next generation into the world of aviation and William Li MRAeS – RAes Heathrow Branch aerospace and how by collaborating with industry, Md Touhidul Islam Jahin – RAeS Heathrow Branch we can create a memorable experience and

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Afterburner_May2020.indd 15 21/04/2020 16:38:44 2020 Honours, Medals & Awards

The most prestigious and long-standing awards in global aerospace honouring achievements, innovation and excellence.

The Society’s Honours, Medals and Awards are open to everyone in and supporting the global aerospace community – from senior professionals to students and graduates.

Do you know an individual or team that has made an outstanding contribution to aerospace and merit recognition? Nominate them today. The nomination form can be found on our website www.aerosociety.com/medalsandawards. The closing date for the 2020 round is 31 May 2020.

For further information call Neeral Patel on +44 (0)20 7670 4321 or [email protected]

Afterburner_May2020.indd 16 21/04/2020 16:38:44 Corporate Partners NEW CORPORATE PARTNERS

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Find out more about Royal Aeronautical Society Corporate membership, advertising and sponsorship: E [email protected] T +44 (0)20 7670 4346 www.aerosociety.com/corporate

PAKISTAN DIVISION

Hafeez ud-Deen CEng FRAeS joined the RAeS as a Student Member in 1953 during his Aeronautical Engineering Diploma Course at RAF Technical College, Henlow. After the formation of the Pakistan Division, he not only served on the Divisional Council but also held the positions of Honorary Secretary and Vice President (serving on Divisional Council continuously since 1992). He has contributed significantly to the formation of the first Branch of the Society in Pakistan (Karachi Branch in 1984) and later, the Pakistan Division (1992). He has worked hard to arrange lectures and seminars as well as to increase the membership of the Society in Pakistan. His efforts in the formation of the newest Branches in Pakistan (PAC Kamra and Islamabad) and attracting organisations to become Corporate FOR LONG AND Partners of the Society merit due recognition. It was Aeronautical Society, the Council of the Pakistan for his long and distinguished service in promoting Division recommended Mr Hafeez ud-Deen for the DISTINGUISHED the purpose, mission and objectives of the Royal Distinguished Service Award. SERVICE

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Afterburner_May2020.indd 17 21/04/2020 16:38:45 Elections

FELLOWS Sara Gaglione Claire West Scott Garner Declan Wilcock WITH REGRET Kevin Brown Nathan Gosney Marc Wylie Neil Chattle Peter Hahn Fangxin Zou The RAeS announces with regret the deaths of the David Chisholm Sam Hanna following members: Kelly Cole Essam Hassan ASSOCIATE Richard Allan Burberry AMRAeS 97 Malcolm Cumming Richard Haupt MEMBERS Jason Elgey Scott Hendry Arthur Eagle FRAeS 99 Gareth Evans Neil Hoare Matthew Cowley Thomas Nigel Hall CEng MRAeS 89 Ian Fyfe-Green Paul Horner Elliott Davies Michael David Parry FREng FRAeS 83 Lee Griffiths Joshua Hoskins Russel Dodds Charles Guerin Zamiruddin Kazi Dakshina Fernando Bertram Frederick Roberts IEng AMRAeS 98 Dennis Jenkins Mohamed Azam Khalfey Federico Giusto Andrew Douglas Watt CEng FRAeS 97 Michael Jennings Anish Kharkar Francesca Shaun Johnson Andrew King Guardavaccaro Nigel Jones Shabeer Koduvali Adam Hargreaves Nektarios Karanikas Paul Leonard Malcolm Harnden Christopher Kempis Annunziata Lorusso Gavin Harrison Waqar Qureshi Giovanni Micheloni Jussi Laaksonen Tom Lucas Adam Howell Anna Roach John Murray Gordon MacKenzie Thomas Mackman Michael Raymond Benito Sebastian Lambertus Neut Miguel Martin Esteve Mateu Guiu Gregory Stevenson Adam Taphouse Alessia Prato Ian Mollan Aaron Mathews David Thurlbeck William Thorne Ashwin Thomas Billy Nolen Vasana Heiko Vogt Oliver Williams David White John Osmond Maththumagodage Matthew Wilmot Demetris Yiannakides Stephen Page Don AFFILIATES Fabio Presicce Eleanor McBrien ASSOCIATES STUDENT AFFILIATES Quentin Smith Liam McManus Waqas Ahmad Kamesh Subbarao Jack Mellor Hannah Bishopp Frederick Amoateng Matthew Blom Pierre Truter Samiksha Mestry Charles Brown Sridhar Athreya Will Lambton Angelos Varelis Andrew Mitchell Christopher Bruce Luke Brady Ian Shaw Anthony Waas Sigismond Monnet Aidan Bungey Gemma Christie David Talbot Mark White John Morris Alessandro Cavalli Benjamin Danquah Joe Tatham Colin Wood Akhil Mulloth Julian Alexander Cole Priya Doobaree Dan Zhao Ramesh Singh Najar Alexander Court Dave Farrell Singh Dalitso Epulani Abdulrahman Hamad MEMBERS Christopher Natapu Jonathan Erskine Fadzai Mashungu Harry Ng TH Joshua Fossey Timothy Ainsworth Richard Pailing Rhys Francis Nick Alex Nicholas Peacock Chana Goldberg RAeS Final design layout.qxd 05/07/2012 09:19 Page 1 Darcy Belton Edward Piercy Ryan Heffernan Ramon Martin Steven Pook Andrew Hopkinson Berenguer Cruz Alessia Prato Alasdair Irwin Graham Burling Sarah-Jane Prew Samuel Livingstone Mark Byrom Christopher Ralph Corey Owen Michael Caffrey Morten Rames Lewis Parker Richard Calhaem Mustafa Rashad Sherina Patel Stuart Chell Tobias Riedl Thomas Pleece Colin Cheston Mariano Ripoll Samuel Pownall Andrew Chilton Peter Robinson Nathan Rhodes Anthony Clarke Sasha Robinson Benjamin Shepherd Simon Clarke Fraser Roe Samuel Shone John Connolly Abhishek Sadaphul Stanimir Stoev in partnership with James Conolly Christopher Savva Nicola Temple Raymond Daniels Ben Sharman Henry White Mike Dennison Chipo Simuusa Chester Williams Robert Denton Will Stamatopoulos Douglas Woodrow Kendall Dorsett Jr Jan Stankiewicz Fantastic images from the National Aerospace Florentina Englert Mark van den Hoven E-ASSOCIATES Library Collection of the Royal Aeronautical Andrew Farrington Panagiotis Vasilopoulos Society are now available to purchase as Peter Fish Andrea Wadsworth Duncan Hewitson reproduction prints and giftware items. Guillaume Francois Neil Wall Mohomed Nazim View the complete collection at: Cameron Fuge Jialin Wang Callum Parker www.prints-online.com

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Afterburner_May2020.indd 18 21/04/2020 16:38:45 Society News NEW MEMBER SPOTLIGHT Nigel Jones IEng FRAeS, 63 Can you describe some of the work you Location: Home (formally LHR) do with the Society? I chair the Accreditation Committee, we accredit Degrees and Corporate Job Title: Aircraft Maintenance Engineer Retired/ Development programmes, ensuring they meet Eng Self Employed Aerospace/Motorsport Consultant C standards for IEng and CEng registration; sit on What inspired you into aerospace? The the Registration Committee, Individual Assessment opportunity of a good apprenticeship with BEA. Panel, Professional Standards Board, End Point What is the best thing about your current role? Assessment Committee; and I am an End Point I get to meet interesting and clever people from, Assessor and PRI Assessor. I also sit on the EATQ academia to industry in aerospace and motorsport. Forum at Engineering Council. Every time I am on What made you upgrade your membership an accreditation panel I learn something new, either with the Royal Aeronautical Society? I decided from my panel colleagues or the institution we are to try and achieve two goals in 2019 and, albeit a visiting. Visits allow me to keep at the forefront of little late, achieved both. technology, be it methods and processes or state of the art equipment used to educate and enrich What do you hope to get out of your student experience. I am also able to keep my membership? The opportunity to give something CPD up to date using the visits and meetings that I back to the profession. My career in aircraft attend. I have found that in this fascinating industry maintenance allowed me to work with and that you start learning from the day you join it. meet truly dedicated people who worked in all What three items would you take with you weathers, any time day and night, keeping aircraft to the ISS? Ipod, fully loaded Kindle and family serviceable and ready to fly. My personal goal photograph. is keeping the profile of the Licenced Aircraft Engineer and their responsibilities recognised and What’s your favourite aircraft? TriStar and B757. worthy of IEng registration through the society, I Piece of advice for someone looking to enter have great respect for them. My membership of your field? Enjoy it, every day is different, always committees allows me to do this. endeavour to exceed expectation.

Professional

Have you been thinking about becoming Registration a Chartered Engineer, Incorporated Engineer or Engineering Technician? Webinars We’re running online webinars where you can learn about the Society’s membership and how to become a Professionally Registered engineer with the Engineering Council UK. Here’s what we’ll cover: » Society benefits and resources Register your interest here: » Continuing Professional Development www.aerosociety.com/regwebinars » Engineering Council Requirements » Application process and routes

+44(0)20 7670 4384 [email protected] www.aerosociety.com

Afterburner_May2020.indd 19 21/04/2020 16:38:46 The Last Word Commentary from Professor Keith Hayward FRAeS

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far far away

here will be time enough to evaluate WTO actions, the basis of the current US/EU claims the impact on Covid-19 on the aviation and counter-claims. and aerospace sectors. I will spend my lockdown period delving into the archive Economics is not a science to consider a couple or so of the historical Tissues. The first venture down memory lane is to The GATT and later the WTO subsidies code was, disinter the origins of the Airbus/Boeing subsidies to my mind, heavily influenced by Chicago School dispute. Recent commentators talk about 14 years economists and an approach to state involvement of WTO wrangles; my point of origin is 1977 and the in industry consistent with US government thinking, Eastern Airlines order for 23 Airbus A300Bs – 40 odd particularly during the Reagan years, 1981-9. This was years ago. in contradistinction to historical European practice (and Far Eastern state-industry relations). This has become White tails at Blagnac a clash of values and political power – economics is not a value-free, experimentally verifiable ‘science’. Your Between 1975 and 1977, Airbus registered not a economic outlook depends on your ideological position. single sale. Already declared a ‘weises elefant’ in The Airbus ‘subsidy’ debate – now as in 1977 Germany, Airbus looked like following Concorde – pitches direct (EU) versus indirect (US) tools into the European catalogue of commercial failures. designed to promote technological development. To American analysts were certainly crowing about cut a complicated story short, this was effectively how they had escaped subsidising a US SST. Along some form of launch aid directly invested in a civil comes Apollo 8 astronaut, Frank Borman, then CEO project as opposed to civil airliner development BETWEEN of Eastern. His initiative then led Pan Am to order supported indirectly through defence R&D and other 1975 AND the aircraft. Both airlines were very satisfied with the forms of state-sponsored research spending. 1977, AIRBUS fuel economy on offer just as the price of crude oil rocketted into the stratosphere, however, the Eastern So many times round the subsidy buoy REGISTERED deal had been sweetened by Franco-German export NOT A SINGLE subsidies. FOWL – ‘flag on the play’! I described all of this in my first outing as an SALE. ALREADY academic in the early 1980s; watched as American GATT steps in and European companies paid lawyers lots of DECLARED money to prove their respective cases; joined a US A ‘WEISES The GATT was the direct antecedent of the WTO Congressional research team analysing world-wide ELEFANT’ IN and quickly declared Airbus export subsidies to be practices; and reprised the whole story as part of the GERMANY, illegal under its rules. But with A300B sales now Aerospace Innovation and Growth Team in the ‘00s. picking up and soon to be joined by the path-breaking Not a jot had changed since 1980; there were a few AIRBUS A320, American industry had a real competitor. new wrinkles (especially at the state-level in the US) LOOKED LIKE Attention now shifted to the form of development and a few more actors had joined in to complicate the FOLLOWING support afford to European companies: variants of picture. CONCORDE the repayable launch aid system, which the UK had After 40 years of following this saga you may adopted in 1960. Under this process, a government realise why I refer this to the Schleswig-Holstein INTO THE provides a proportion (possibly 100%) of non- Question of mid-19th century European history. Like EUROPEAN recurable development costs, to be repaid from sales. Lord Palmerston, the British Foreign Secretary and CATALOGUE OF Negotiations at GATT produced the Agreement on Prime Minister at the time, I have tried to forget much Trade in Civil Aircraft of 1980, which effectively limited of the detail to save my sanity. COMMERCIAL launch aid to one third of estimated development Next time, appropriately perhaps, the origins of the FAILURES costs. This would be effectively outlawed by later UK launch aid system.

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Historical Subsidies B E.indd 1 21/04/2020 16:49 RAeS Careers Service The RAeS Careers Team – We are here for you!

Established in 1997, The Royal Aeronautical Society Careers Team are your one-stop-shop for FREE impartial and specialist advice. While the service has lived through many crises, Covid-19 sees the industry’s biggest challenge yet and we are here to provide specific support. We have a vast range of resources and materials on careers in aerospace and aviation – from civil, military, engineering and maintenance through to pilots, cabin crew, business and operations. We are here to support anyone, whether you are new to the sector or an experienced professional looking for further development. FREE 1-2-1 careers advice available online via webinar or by phone, with impartial advice on aerospace & aviation careers routes, CVs and job hunting advice. Our team are available Monday to Friday to provide specialist advice, prepare for the upturn in our sector by contacting us to arrange an appointment Annual recruitment fair dedicated to aerospace and aviation - Careers in AEROSPACE & AVIATION LIVE taking place on the 6th November 2020 (subject to the Covid-19 situation) Apply for financial support for tuition fees from Centennial Scholarship Fund

Join our first Careers Webinars The Careers Team, along with experts from the Society’s membership, are running a series of FREE online webinars this month. 6th May – How to best prepare for a career in aerospace & aviation following a crisis 13th May – Covid-19 and Career Reinvention. How to re-invent yourself, so you emerge strong and ready to make your next career move We will be joined by some expert panelists and there will be a Q&A opportunity at the end. Sign up by contacting [email protected]

Find out more: careersinaerospace.com Get in touch: [email protected] +44 (0)20 7670 4326 @RAeSCareers

Careers 5_2020 280x210 Adv FINAL.indd 1 21/04/2020 19:09 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