Front Cover: Airbus 2050 Future Concept Aircraft
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AEROSPACE 2017 February 44 Number 2 Volume Society Royal Aeronautical www.aerosociety.com ACCELERATING INNOVATION WHY TODAY IS THE BEST TIME EVER TO BE AN AEROSPACE ENGINEER February 2017 PROPELLANTLESS SPACE DRIVES – FLIGHTS OF FANCY? BOOM PLOTS RETURN TO SUPERSONIC FLIGHT INDIA’S NAVAL AIR POWER Have you renewed your Membership Subscription for 2017? Your membership subscription was due on 1 January 2017. As per the Society’s Regulations all How to renew: membership benefits will be suspended where Online: a payment for an individual subscription has Log in to your account on the Society’s www.aerosociety.com not been received after three months of the due website to pay at . If you date. However, this excludes members paying do not have an account, you can register online their annual subscriptions by Direct Debits in and pay your subscription straight away. monthly installments. 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Contents Correspondence on all aerospace matters is welcome at: The Editor, AEROSPACE, No.4 Hamilton Place, London W1J 7BQ, UK [email protected] Comment Regulars 4 Radome 12 Transmission The latest aviation and Your letters, emails, tweets aeronautical intelligence, and feedback. analysis and comment. 58 The Last Word Coming back to Earth with a thump 10 Antenna Keith Hayward on the future Howard Wheeldon looks at propects for the US and air traffi c management in international defence and While many are aware of the slowing of airliner orders from the giant deals the UK. aerospace industry under of a few years ago, there are now signs that the civil UAV sector is hitting President Trump. the buffers. Internet giant Google has scrapped its parent group Alphabet’s ‘Internet from the sky’ plan which would have used solar-powered UAVs from Titan Aerospace to provide low-cost broadband. It is not just ambitious, Features high-risk projects either. After massive growth, the consumer and civil drone USAF sector is now under pressure. France’s Parrot, for example, reported a 15% drop in revenue and is to lay off 35% of its staff. 3D Robotics also laid off staff and closed a US factory last year. Start-up Lily Robotics, which launched an autonomous self-following quadcopter drone, has gone under. Even action camera specialists GoPro has had to recall its Karma drone due to battery 32 issues. Why is this happening? One reason might be intensifi ed competition, 19 A longer wait to leave? particularly from massive drone manufacturer DJI with two-thirds of the Going nuclear What impact might Brexit market, whose huge volumes mean it can cut prices to put pressure on new The US considers the have on passenger transit entrants. Secondly, there is a realisation that, despite moves by regulators to options to modernise its times at UK airports? nuclear arsenal. open up airspace for civil UAS, viable business models remain a niche. While some commercial operators are quietly making progress, the hype is beginning to wear off claims of ‘urban delivery’ services just around the corner. Finally, it may be that the consumer UAV market has reached saturation point. Unlike perhaps a smartphone, not everyone wants (or needs) their personal drone. Cannae Reduced discretionary spending for consumers too, may mean that the novelty is beginning to wear off. This is not to say that UAVs will stop being arguably Boom Technology the most dynamic and innovative sector in aviation – but it does mean that there will be fewer gimmicky identikit quadcopters being launched. That really 22 34 can be no bad thing and is a sign of this sector evolving and maturing. Flights of fancy? Baby boomers Tim Robinson Are recent claims to have Is Boom Technology’s discovered propellantless 45-seat ‘Son of Concorde’ [email protected] propulsion for spacefl ight supersonic jet design fact or fi ction? NEWS IN BRIEF commercially viable? Editor-in-Chief AEROSPACE is published by the Royal AEROSPACE subscription rates: Tim Robinson Aeronautical Society (RAeS). 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Champlain New York and additional 46 Go for Gold! Additional features and content +44 (0)20 7670 4354 offi ces. [email protected] Printed by Buxton Press Limited, 48 The RAF Harrier in the are available to view online on Palace Road, Buxton, Derbyshire Postmaster: Send address changes www.media.aerosociety.com/ Book Review Editor SK17 6AE, UK to IMS of New York, PO Box 1518, Cold War Champlain NY 12919-1518, USA. aerospace-insight Brian Riddle 50 Corporate Partners Including: Leonardo MW looks to digital, rotary Editorial Offi ce Distributed by Royal Mail 52 Diary future in UK, Baby boomers, Innovation and the Royal Aeronautical Society ISSN 2052-451X airliners of tomorrow, Perils of protectionism, No.4 Hamilton Place 55 Prestwick Branch STEM In the January issue of AEROSPACE, London W1J 7BQ, UK +44 (0)20 7670 4300 project Aviation book choices for Christmas 2016, Propulsion in the [email protected] Airbus www.aerosociety.com Front cover: Airbus 2050 future concept aircraft. 56 RAeS Elections new century. 57 Young Persons Forum @aerosociety i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com FEBRUARY 2017 13 Radome INTELLIGENCE / ANALYSIS / COMMENT Space invader In business jet confi guration the Ascent would offer three-times more cabin space than comparable large-cabin bizjets yet would still be able to access smaller airports. DZYNE Technologies Scaling down the BWB To scale down a blended wing airliner, DZYNE has moved the cargo areas and landing gear from underneath to alongside the central passenger cabin in the wings. By keeping passengers close to the centre, it should also mean that any vertical movement during turns for those on the outside is kept to an absolute minimum. GENERAL AVIATION Bizjet blended-wing From US-based DZYNE Technologies comes this concept for a Blended Wing Body (BWB) aircraft – the Ascent 1000. Described as a ‘super regional jet’ for the 2025s, the 112-seat Ascent would burn 20% less fuel than today's airliners, thanks to its BWB effi ciencies. Interestingly, the company also forsees the Ascent also being turned into an ultra-spacious bizjet, with three times the fl oor space of comparable large business jets. DZYNE Technologies was awarded a NASA contract in 2016 to develop and defi ne the regional airliner BWB concept, as part of the Agency's fi rst batch of fi ve new X-Plane designs within its ten-year New Aviation Horizons programme. 4 AEROSPACE / FEBRUARY 2017 A room with a view The Ascent 1000 would use composite construction, incorporating ceiling skylights to add natural light into the passenger cabin. Cabin options In 'super regional' layout the Ascent 1000 would feature between 112-130 seats with a twin-aisle cabin that is wider than an A380. Meanwhile, a spacious business jet confi guration could include a lounge, meeting room and even a bedroom. DZYNE Technologies @aerosociety i Find us on LinkedIn f Find us on Facebook www.aerosociety.com FEBRUARY 2017 5 Radome DEFENCE GENERAL AVIATION Wildcat’s First Chinese aircraft claws to lands in Antarctica be kept China’s fi rst fi xed-wing altitude Kunlun Station polar aircraft, ‘Snow Eagle some 4,000m above sea sharp 601’ has landed at the level. The ‘Snow Eagle 601’ Chine The UK MoD has awarded country’s Zhongshan se is a Basler BT-67, sta te m Leonardo a £271m fi ve-year science research e a turboprop d i contract to provide support and training services station in a conversion of for the British Army and Royal Navy’s 62 AW159 Antarctica.