RAeS lecture in cooperation with DGLR, HAW-Hamburg, VDI & ZAL

The current narrative surrounding aviation and its impact upon the environment is wholly negative. This presents a clear threat to the air transport industry and it has the potential to limit the growth that aviation needs for commercial success and the world needs in order to maintain economic growth and improved social wellbeing. 

At present, the international climate target is to keep global mean temperature rise below +2.0° C, relative to pre-industrial levels and the principal, but not the only, way of achieving this is by drastically and rapidly reducing anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases, notably CO2. Unfortunately, aviation produces a lot of CO2.

Whilst, in principle at least, there are some technical solutions available for the removal of carbon from the aircraft, e.g. sustainable aviation fuels and electric aircraft, all are high risk, high cost and, above all, long term. Even in the most optimistic scenario, global aviation will not be totally decarbonised by 2050. As a result, aviation continues to be heavily criticised by environmental groups and the prospect of future government imposed “demand management” is a real possibility. This would be a disaster for the industry.

However, aviation’s impact on the environment is not limited to CO2, nor is CO2 even the largest contributor. In this lecture, the broader environmental impact of aviation will be considered. It will be shown that the aviation’s overall climate impact is currently estimated to be twice that of its CO2 effect. This may sound bad, but there is good news and this relates to the impact of contrails and contrail induced cirrus cloud. It will be argued that “contrail management” is a major weapon in the fight against climate change. If it can be supported by the right government policies, it has the potential to make a real positive contribution and, in doing so, could change aviation’s narrative from negative to strongly positive. 

Ian Poll is Emeritus Professor of Aerospace Engineering at Cranfield University and CEO of Poll AeroSciences Ltd.

He has worked in both in academia and industry and has over 50 years experience in aeronautics. In addition, he has served on a number of Government Advisory Committees. He was Chairman of the Defence Scientific Advisory Council to MoD (2011-14) and a member of the Home Office Scientific Advisory Committee and the Natural Environment Research Council (2014-18).

A Council Member of the Royal Academy of Engineering (2004-07) and a Council Member of the Royal Aeronautical Society (1996-2010), he was the RAeS’ 74th  President (2001) and President of the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences (2008-10).

An Honorary Fellow of the AIAA and ICAS, a Fellow of the City and Guilds Institute of London (2004), the Royal Academy of Engineering (1996) and the Royal Aeronautical Society (1987), he was awarded the OBE in 2002.

 poster_2023_03_23_DoingReallyEnough.pdf (328 KB)

 text_2023_03_23_DoingReallyEnough.pdf (1,16 MB)

Aiming Higher. 

RAeS Past President and Emeritus Professor of Aerospace Engineering at Cranfield University, Professor IAN POLL FRAeS gives a personal view on how aviation could halve its impact on the environment almost overnight if the right actions were taken.

DGLR lecture in cooperation with HAW Hamburg, RAeS, VDI & ZAL

Als 1990 das von der NASA und ESA gemeinsam betriebene Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in den Erdorbit gebracht wurde, begann eine völlig neue Ära der Weltraumforschung. Die jenseits der "störenden" Erdatmosphäre gewonnenen Bilder erweisen sich als außerordentlich scharf und detailliert, zumal das Teleskop durch Space-Shuttle-Missionen mehrfach modernisiert wurde. Die Astronomie erlangte zahlreiche neue Erkenntnisse über kosmische Objekte, Prozesse und Phänomene, die das Verständnis vom Weltall erheblich erweiterten. Ergänzend wird auf das Nachfolgeprojekt - das 2021 gestartete James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) - eingegangen, welches eine noch höhere Qualität der astronomischen Beobachtungen erzielt.

RAeS Lecture in cooperation with HAW Hamburg, DGLR, VDI & ZAL

This is a hybrid event!

Lecture in English

From his own unique perspective, as the leading founder and a director of the Lilium Company, Daniel Wiegand will review the case for eVTOL Regional Aircraft, and the journey Lilium has taken from initial student ideas, to today's substantial company. He will overview and update on some of the progress made in technology development and demonstration, agreement of certification requirements, evolution of the design, and planning for entry into service of the Lilium series production aircraft.

Daniel Wiegand is the co-founder and first CEO, serving from 2015-2022, of Lilium, developer of the world’s first electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) jet. He came up with the innovative idea while studying for his Master’s in Aerospace Engineering at the Technical University of Munich and set out on his vision to develop a more accessible and sustainable regional air travel solution. Daniel led the creation of the complex architecture for the high-speed, zero operating emissions, low noise electric aircraft, with Ducted Electric Vectored Thrust (DEVT) technology at its core.?? He continues Lilium’s vision as Chief Engineer for Innovation and Future Programs and as a member of Lilium’s Board of Directors, to take Lilium even closer to reaching the goal of making sustainable and accessible high-speed, low noise regional air mobility a reality

 poster_2023_04_20_Lilium.pdf (334 KB)

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HAW-Hamburg in cooperation with RAeS, DGLR, VDI and ZAL

Safe Landing (https://safe-landing.org) works internationally, but with a UK focus. It represents "climate concerned aviation professionals" including pilots, cabin crew, airport staff, engineers and factory operators and calls for early adoption of regulations to reduce emissions and a plan to support workers during any transition to secure their careers. Workers’ Assemblies follow the concept of deliberative democracy to advise on political and aviation company decisions. Most technical options (new aircraft and new fuels) for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from aviation have serious limitations. Hence, technology won't save us and cannot be an excuse to delay action. Nevertheless, some options are available now (!), but seem to be overlooked by industry, because they do not come handy: a) to fly lower (or higher) to reduce contrails, b) de-aromatization of fossil jet-fuel with hydrotreatment for both climate and health, c) to reduce air travel (with various measures). More information in poster.

Finlay Asher graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a Master in Mechanical Engineering (MEng). He spent seven years at Rolls-Royce working on aircraft engine design. Finlay runs now 'Safe Landing' which is a group of aviation workers campaigning for long-term employment. They do this by challenging industry leaders to conform with climate science and reject dangerous growth.

 poster_2023_05_04_SafeLanding.pdf (676 KB)

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Why Safe Landing?

Aviation is heading for a crash landing. The projected growth of aviation is incompatible with safe levels of global warming – this needs to change, which means we’ll need to change how we fly.

DGLR Lecture in cooperation with HAW Hamburg, RAeS, VDI, ZAL

Lecture in German

So alt wie die Raumfahrt ist die Idee von Raumfahrzeugen mit Flügeln für die Rückkehr nach ihrer Mission ins All. Vereinzelte Entwürfe benötigen Flügel auch für den Start. Insgesamt sollte damit eine Wiederverwendbarkeit von Raumflugkörpern etabliert werden. Allerdings erreichten zahlreiche Konzepte nie die Einsatzreife, obwohl z.B. das deutsche Transportsystem "Sänger" durchaus zukunftsträchtig erschien. Erfolgreich war hingegen der 30 Jahre lange Einsatz der Space Shuttles der NASA von 1981 bis 2011 als Multifunktions-Raumtransporter, welche u.a. zum Aufbau der Internationalen Raumstation ISS genutzt wurden. Für neue staatliche und private Raumfahrtprogramme kommt derzeit (z.B. für die X-37B) und künftig (z.B. für den "Dream Chaser" und die XS-1) auch wieder Shuttle-Technologie zur Anwendung. 

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Annual Gerhard Sedlmayr Lecture

Lecture in English. Please register here

For a long time, aviation did not give information security a high priority – until industry started to use commercial technology on board its aircraft. That was the turning point for starting the catch-up sprint. Ever since then a lot has been achieved, while cyber attacks are increasing in frequency and intensity. So far, safety has not yet been compromised, but a few “near misses” have already occurred. So we need to stay alert, agile and diligent to get in front of the power curve, so future attacks will face a resilient aviation, which can be attacked but not brought to its knees.

Biography

Jean-Paul has been involved in Cybersecurity since the mid 90s and joined EASA in November 2015, after more than 27 years – about 15 of which in a similar capacity – at Airbus. There he has been working on the ACMS and other avionic systems, helped develop and standardise Arinc communication protocols and the first information security-related concepts and principles. Later he joined Eurocae and RTCA, chairing WG-72, which is still developing standards for Aviation Cybersecurity, as the discipline is now mostly referred to. As early as 2011 he initiated one of the first requests to ICAO by Eurocae to address Cybersecurity. Today he is involved in related ICAO activities, chairing the Trust Framework Panel and participating in the Cybersecurity Panel. He has been instrumental in the development of the European regulations and associated AMC/GM regarding the “requirements for the management of information security risks with a potential impact on aviation safety”, nicknamed Part-IS, published in 2022 and 2023 respectively.

 Poster_2023_09_11_Sedlmayr-Lecture-2.pdf (401 KB)

 text_2023_09_11_cybersecurity-3.pdf (10,71 MB)

RAeS lecture in cooperation with the DGLR, HAW Hamburg, VDI

This lecture will describe the life of an  RAF Phantom pilot in the 1970’s and centres on the exciting job of chasing Russian Tu-95 Bear long range reconnaissance aircraft over the North Sea as they approached UK airspace.  It starts with Nick entering the RAF as a student pilot, to leave 19 years later as a Flight Commander on Tornados. 

He will also spend a little while describing his time as an Airbus A340 and A330 Captain.

 Poster_2023_10_26_Chasing_Bears.pdf (314 KB)

On Wednesday, 15 November the RAeS Hamburg Branch is planning a full-day visit to the DLR Braunschweig. 
The exact programme is still to be confirmed but the following is planned.

Start visit 10.00

• Welcome and Presentation

Visits depend on availability

• Research aircraft 
• AVES (Air Vehicle Simulator) Simulator
• Tower Simulator

End DLR visit 12.30
 

We are still finalising details but we have hired a bus which will leave Hamburg Altona ZOB at 07:00 with a pick-up stop south of the Elbe (possibly Marmstorf) and arriving in Bückeburg at 9.45. We plan to be back in Hamburg by 19:30 latest with an intermediate stop south of the Elbe.
Participation will be limited to 25 people.

Full details are given here and a booking form is included with the details. Deadline for booking is 14 October.

Full details to follow