The unveiling of a new Iranian armed ‘drone’ or UAV named the ‘Karrar’ last week produced predictable responses – scorn and laughter from some ‘experts’ and fear from tabloid headline writers about this ‘ambassador of death’ from Tehran.

After fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the latest frontier for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) is the consumer toy market – with the launch of the Parrot AR Drone, a remote-controlled quadricopter controlled over Wi-Fi by an iPhone ‘app’.

The wildfires that are now engulfing parts of Western Russia have led to massive devastation, with some 600 fires burning and the smoke and heat visible even from space. The human cost is immense too, with over 50 dead in the forest blazes and the daily death rate in Moscow doubled because of the choking smog. To deal with this, the authorities have resorted to aircrews with a unique mission – aerial fire-fighting and currently some 39 aircraft and helicopters are engaged in battling the fires. One of these types used is  a tough helicopter with an equally tough job.

Also high on the agenda at this year’s Farnborough airshow was ‘greener aviation’ and the efforts the aerospace industry is making in pushing forward exciting new developments in sustainable aviation. With aviation growth now set to resume, technologies such as newer ultra-efficient airliners, open-rotor engines and algae-based biofuels will be critical in balancing the worldwide demand for air travel with the need to reduce its carbon footprint. We interviewed two top-level executives - Dr Jean Botti, EADS and Charles Champion, Airbus about some of these ‘green’ developments in aerospace.

RICHARD GARDNER visits Rolls-Royce at Derby to see progress on the new Trent XWB powerplant for the Airbus A350.

With an intake diameter wider than the fuselage of Concorde, the new Rolls-Royce Trent XWB which has begun ground testing at the company’s main UK commercial engine facility, is a very impressive powerplant, from every angle, and looks set to become one of the biggest civil engine programmes over the next three to four decades. For Rolls-Royce, this is perhaps the single most significant member of the Trent family and is taking engine production technology to a new high within a truly global partnership.