John Farley has been using flight simulators of one sort or another since 1958 to the present. The lecture will cover some of the remarkable changes in the nature and capabilities of simulators from his perspective as a user. He will discuss lessons that he has learned about simulation and offer some personal views concerning the way simulators are used in respect of both research and pilot training applications. In the context of research he suggests there are parallels in respect of the raw data produced from simulation and the raw data measured in wind tunnels. He will explain why in his view there are two types of simulator pilots which researchers need to bear in mind when considering the data they obtain from piloted experiments.

The Edwin A Link Lecture was established in 2007 to honour Edwin A Link, the distinguished pioneer of synthetic training. His remarkable foresight led to the creation of the Link Trainer, or ‘Blue Box’ as it came to be known, the precursor of today’s powerful synthetic training devices, most notably full flight simulators.

The Sir Sydney Camm Lecture was established in 1971, following Sir Sydney Camm’s death in 1966, to commemorate his significant achievements in the field of aeronautical engineering.

This event is organised by the IMechE and supported by the Aerospace Partnership.

We need to address the trend of achieving high performance goals (such as range, speed, manoeuvrability or low observability) at the expense of life-cycle cost economy. For more information, visit the website

This event is organised by the IMechE and supported by the Aerospace Partnership.

This one-day seminar will examine the latest developments in the military aircraft technology industry, and will feature both the MoD and the manufacturers of military aircrafts, in order to examine how manufacturers and subcontractors can continue to meet procurer’s needs. For more information, visit the website

Targeting & Delivering Effect for Future Force 2020

The Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), Securing Britain in an Age of Uncertainty, outlines the needs of the UK’s future force structure. This structure, Future Force 2020, will be a highly capable force ready to react, at various levels of intensity, to the complex threat scenarios that may develop in future.  It will be a flexible and expeditionary force based on fewer platforms that must be able to deliver effectors with a high degree of accuracy and in a timely manner by air, land or sea.

The threats Future Force 2020 is likely to meet will be challenging. For instance, the threat can use camouflage, concealment and deception measures, presenting targets that could be fleeting in nature. In addition, those threats may evolve more rapidly than our existing development cycles.  Moreover, it is anticipated that allied operations will be constrained by rules of engagement where collateral damage is unacceptable politically or legally.

For this transition to become a reality, the challenges of affordability must be met to provide these capability needs. Can we develop or adapt systems, technologies and operations to achieve this?

In order to address these issues, a classified conference is being organised by the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Weapon Systems and Technology Specialist Group.  This conference will focus on future operational needs, force structure or system concepts, targeting and weapon effects aligned to Future Force 2020.

The Future Rotorcraft: Enabling capability through the application of technology

The performance and utility of the ubiquitous edge wise rotary wing configured aircraft has reached a natural limit. The enormous strides taken by the fixed wing community in the development of increasingly efficient, mission focussed, cost effective, green and quick to market solutions have not been matched by the rotary wing community.  The barrier to matching the fixed wing community is not concepts or vision: it is the infrastructure of technology and manufacturing techniques that have contrived to hold our community back.  Learning lessons from the fixed wing community and adapting them to suit the needs of the rotary wing vehicle is our challenge and the time is now right to take on this challenge and succeed.

The rotary wing vehicle has always provided a niche capability, serving its operators well in situations where no other vehicle could achieve the desired result.  It has provided  search and rescue as well as emergency medical services that have saved countless lives, it has delivered military effect with great impact, it has supported the development and realisation of off shore energy delivery and it has connected city centres for convenient transportation.

Yet, despite these achievements the effectiveness of the rotary wing configuration has stagnated as one or two tried and tested configurations using the edge-wise rotor have dominated this mode of transport.
The V22 Osprey and BA609 have shown that other configurations are viable and offer significant performance benefits, but so far the tilt rotor has not shown that it can achieve a paradigm shift in respect of time to market and cost of ownership.  Recently, others have returned to concepts that may have been tried before but until now were only viable as one off prototypes or design studies that never left the drawing boards.

Enabling technologies related to materials, construction and design tools have matured in the fixed wing community and are beginning to find application to rotary wing solutions.  The inevitable and appropriate pressures of environment safety must also be recognised, accepted and converted from complex problem to cost effective solution.

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From Pioneers to Presidents: Celebrating a Century of Women in Flight

Following the success of last year’s RAeS Women in Aerospace & Aviation Conference, the 2011 Networking Event will celebrate a century of women’s acheivements in flight.

The Wonderful Women Ferry Pilots of the Air Transport Auxiliary

The Royal Aeronautical Society is offering a unique opportunity to meet the few surviving women pilots who ferried every type of military aircraft during World War II, including fighters, huge four-engine bombers as the sole pilot and even the first British jet-engine aeroplane. By the end of the war, ATA pilots had each flown dozens of different aircraft, sometimes several in one day, often never having seen the aeroplane before, far less flown it.

During the seminar, you will hear why the ATA was such a unique organisation, how the women ferry pilots were trained and what they achieved, what an RAF bomber pilot thought of the young women who delivered aircraft to his base, and finally hear from the so-called ‘Spitfire Women’ themselves about their memories of these extraordinary times and their experiences.

At the end of this special seminar, the Royal Aeronautical Society will be making a presentation to the ATA women pilots present to honour their extraordinary achievements.

For more than half a century now, the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences (ICAS) has provided for the world’s aerospace engineers, scientists, technologists and managers, the preeminent forum to present and discuss the latest developments in aeronautics. This remarkable apolitical organization founded by Theodore von Karman and his international colleagues, continues to build on its impressive heritage, to be even more relevant to the global aerospace and aviation industries. This world congress staged biennially by ICAS is the key opportunity for those committed to serving those industries to meet, present, discuss and create opportunities that can only be done in such an international environment.

The Sopwith lecture was established in 1990 to honour Sir Thomas Sopwith CBE, Hon FRAeS. In the years prior to World War I, Sopwith became England’s premier aviator and established the first authoritative test pilot school in the world, he also founded England’s first major flight school. Between 1912 and 1920 Sopwith’s Company produced over 16,000 aircraft of 60 types.

An International Approach to Flight Crew Training Standards

The Annual RAeS International Flight Crew Training Conference is well established and highly successful.  The 2011 Conference aims to seek solutions on how best to consider flight crew training standards from an international perspective.

The French Air & Space Academy will be visiting the UK and will host an informative evening of aerospace lectures. The evening will commence with a presentation of the Air & Space Academy hosted by Gerard Brachet and will be followed by three short presentations by aerospace experts.

Taking place on the 13th & 14th April 2011 at the Society’s Headquarters, Aerospace 2011: Funding the Future will focus on Aerospace & Aviation in an Age of Austerity and address how both the civil and defence communities can look to overcome economic uncertainties and grow business in the coming years.

In the first major defence review for many years it is clear that difficult choices must be made about how the UK defends itself against a wide spectrum of potential threats, many of which have a global dimension. Cost could well drive military doctrine in that economic pressures are expected to determine which, if any, potential threats can be countered by unilateral action and which will need combined operations. Strong alliances are necessary to achieve operational sovereignty. Hybrid threats will require agile and adaptive system response.

AEROSPACE FOR EUROPE – MORE THAN JUST FLYING

High Value, Low Carbon, Europes Future

The most important multistakeholder high level roundtable congress in Brussels in December 2010.
This is the aerospace event of the year where decision maker of the most leading European industry, politics and research meet.

Change!  Innovation!  Vision 2050!