The Quarterly Bulletin of the COUNCIL OF EUROPEAN AEROSPACE SOCIETIES 3AF– AIAE– AIDAA– DGLR– FSAE– FTF– HAES– NVvL– RAeS– SVFW • GENERAL • AERONAUTICS • SPACE • Issue 1 – 2009 • March • Editorial CEAS IS COURAGEOUSLY CONTINUING ITS CLIMB In my observer’s position, I bear witness to the continuous and significant pro- gress accomplished within the space of two years only by the CEAS since the conversion of its statutes from Confederation into Council on 1st January 2007. As a matter of fact, it is more broadly known within Europe , it is admit- ted now by the main European institutions - EC, EASA, ASD, EDA, ESA - as an Association with which it is important to keep up close co-operation links, and it has clearly defined its objectives in the form of a “Deliverables’ List” which constitutes a sort of Charter. This is the result of the continuous work Jean-Pierre Sanfourche of its Management Board, firmly led successively by Sir Colin Terry, President Editor-in-Chief, 2007 then Georges Bridel, President 2008. These two Past-Presidents deserve CEAS Quarterly Bulletin our warmest appreciation. However, the CEAS is still far from having reached its cruise altitude! Will we be able to continue, or even accelerate, our climb? I believe the answer is "YES". CONTENTS Much remains to be done but the CEAS disposes of abundant talent in its GENERAL Pages diverse membership. As reported later, our President 2009, Prof. Dr Joachim • The life of the CEAS 2-3 Szodruch, being determined to maintain and accelerate the advance of CEAS, • Interview with J. Szodruch 4-5 has set us challenging objectives for the coming months. We must meet the • Interview with J.-P. Béchat 6-8 challenge! • Career: Scientific Value 8-10 Looking at the immediate future, we have to insist again on the absolute neces- AERONAUTICS sity to make of the Manchester Conference, 26 – 29 October 2009, an unques- • Unwrapping the Defence 9-10 tionable success. I take advantage of this editorial to tell our readers that Package although the deadline for abstracts has now passed, the Organising • A350 XWB final 13 Committee is still continuing to accept abstracts submitted on line Assembly Line www.ceas2009.org in the coming days. • EADS fully Committed 13 to Succeed in A400M Giving effect to a suggestion from Mr Jean-Paul Béchat whom I interviewed a • GKN Facing up to Aerospace 14-15 few days after he received the CEAS Award (see pp. 6-8), I allow myself to challenges encourage the Chairpersons of the Member Societies to express in the next Quarterly Bulletins their own wishes and views regarding the development of SPACE our Council. The time has come to start a real participative and interactive • About the Space Propulsion communication process. Conference 2008 17 • The successful ESA Council at Ministerial level 18-19 • Goce and Herschel – Planck 20-22 CEAS MEMBER SOCIETIES 23 CEAS MAIN COMING EVENTS 24 Jean-Pierre Sanfourche The Quarterly Bulletin of the COUNCIL OF EUROPEAN AEROSPACE SOCIETIES Jean-Marc Garot. THE LIFE OF THE CEAS • Concerning the Space Branch, Dr Wilhelm Kordulla announced the imminent starting of the CEAS Space Journal creation process. General Assembly Meeting Aéro-Club de France, Paris, 5 December 2008. ELECTION OF THE OFFICERS: At 8 :30, the CEAS President, Dr Georges Bridel, opened • President: Georges Bridel stepped down as President. He the meeting and welcomed all participants. He presented the has been replaced by Prof. Dr Joachim Szodruch whose CEAS Annual Report 2008: see here below. appointment was approved unanimously by the Board. • Vice-Presidents: Dr Ulf Olsson has left as trustee for FTF. The 8th Meeting of the Board Nominated for this Society are: Mr Kaj Lundahl and Mr of Trustees Petter Krus. At 10:30, Georges Bridel welcomed all representatives. Then All VPs will be nominated on the occasion of the next Board the different items of the agenda were reviewed in detail: Meeting, Madrid, 24 April. • The CEAS Account 2008 and Budget 2009, presented by • Director General: Prof. Dr Leandro B. Fernández Sáinz Dr Antonio Martin-Carrillo, VP Finance. After having will continue. taken into consideration some small additional requests, • Branch Chairmen: Alain Garcia stepped down from the budget 2009 was approved. Branch Chief Aeronautics on his own wish; the Board than- • The New CEAS Member Societies recruitment process: ked him very much for his very engaged work in the Branch Dr Ulf Olsson, VP Awards and Membership, reported on supporting CEAS goals. his action: no new Member for the time being, but hopes Constantinos Stavrinidis remains as Chairman of the Space concerning Poland; besides, contacts with Russia are being Branch. taken, as well as with the Czech Republic. François Gayet, Secretary General of the ASD, will henceforth • The preparation of the CEAS Air & Space Conference participate in the Board Meetings as 3AF Representative. 2009 to be held in Manchester on 26-29 October was dis- cussed for a long time and the need for a strong support Conclusion from the Member Societies was again pointed out. Georges Bridel again thanked the Board for its support over • The potential financial support from the European the year 2008 and wished every success to the new President, E-CAERO Frame Programme was reviewed. It was decided to Joachim Szodruch. In turn Joachim Szodruch thanked and enter again in contact with the European Commission in order congratulated Georges Bridel for his excellent work and assu- to improve if possible the proposal presented to the CEAS. red the Board that he would continue with determination • The Aeronautics Branch Status Report was presented by the progress of the CEAS. CEAS Annual Report 2008 ceable progress has been made. On 29 November 2007 in London, Dr Georges Bridel from the SVFW, the Swiss association, was elected to continue the programme established by the former Board under the lea- dership of Sir Colin Terry. A new management was elected from the Spanish association AIAE with Leandro Fernández-Sáinz as General Director and Antonio Martin- Carrillo for the finances. The former VP for external relations, Jean-Michel Contant resigned. From the RAeS Andrew Little has left for another employment. Both were warmly thanked for the tremendous effort they both delivered during so many years for CEAS Georges Bridel and gifts were handed over during the Council dinner offe- red by the RAeS at Hamilton place. «We had a good continuation of most of the CEAS projects within the new Council structures installed two years ago. Board meetings have taken place in London, Athens(18 Achieving the final result of several projects needs sometimes April), Cologne(5 September) and on 5 December in Paris. more time and effort than anticipated, but eventually noti- At all places the CEAS Board has been well received and 2 GENERAL greatly supported by the local hosts. Athens was the inaugu- tures such as a permanent secretariat. CEAS still must live on ral meeting for our Greek friends and we were hosted in an the Member Societies contributions and own income will exemplary way. In Cologne we were given the opportunity to only be generated through Congress benefits, for instance. visit at DLR the European Astronaut Centre of ESA and the Some hope is given to a future EU contribution (not E- cryogenic European Transonic Windtunnel (ETW). CAERO). During the Athens meeting the CEAS terms of reference The Branches have been reporting on their activities, in par- were developed and refined, then confirmed some weeks later. ticular the population of the Technical Committees and The pending MOU between DLR, ESA and ONERA for their respective organisation. This still requires particular scientific Space and Aeronautics Journals heading the logo of efforts by the Member Societies. CEAS has been finalised during the year and signed just prior The bid for EU financial support through FP7 E-CAERO to the Council Meeting in Paris. was brought forward, however not organised in a transparent In parallel, the Aeronautics Branch under the leadership of way by the organising committee in Barcelona. There is a Alain Garcia proposes a technical Aeronautical Journal natural competition CEAS is facing. But we have to go along where the RAeS gratefully offers its support for its edition. in a co-operative way bearing in mind that CEAS is the only representative pan-European aerospace association to sup- Dates and location of the next CEAS Conference 2009 to be port the goal of knowledge dissemination. held in Manchester were communicated by our colleagues International relations concentrated on the adherence of from the RAeS. The final decision is September and a prepa- other European countries and their respective associations ratory meeting between Michael Steeden, President Elect of and the contacts and discussions are continuing with Poland, the RAeS, and Leandro Fernández was held in Berlin at the Czech Republic, Russia and others. The President has met ILA exhibition. Some uncertainties concerning participation the director of TsAGI in August in Moscow and there is a and financing are appearing not, unexpected, with emer- discussion how to involve Russia both in Space and gence of the economic crisis. The congress has to be carefully Aeronautics. tailored in order to avoid major risks. The potential financial 2008 finally was an eventful year and continuous progress has support from the European E-CAERO Frame Programme been made.» will not decisively contribute to the congress due to the mag- Dr Georges Bridel nitude of its cost. President of CEAS in 2008 The finances at the end of 2008 present some reserves in the 5 December 2008 order of some 14,000 Euro but cannot cover major expendi- Personality Interview Joachim SZODRUCH CQB – Generally speaking, how do you appreciate the cur- rent trends of the CEAS since its conversion in January 2007 from a Confederation status into a Council status? It is now something like 10 years that I am working in the CEAS Board and it certainly is a great pleasure to see the rapid advancements we made recently.