As NASA’s Space Shuttle winds down towards its final flight — PAT NORRIS reports from Kennedy Space Centre, Florida, on the countdown to its retirement and successor space access systems.

This is a full article published in Aerospace International: October 2010. As a member, you recieve two new Royal Aeronautical Society publications each month - find out more about membership.

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Vital research and testing blended-wing bodies. Bill Read concludes his report on last week’s ICAS conference in Nice.

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On 16 September Dr David Williams, acting Chief Executive, UK Space Agency & Chairman of the ESA Council gave the Space Group Evening Lecture at the Royal Aeronautical Society.

We caught up with Dr Williams to ask him about progress with the UK Space Agency, co-operation with Europe and the US, human spaceflight, and inspiring the next generation of British engineers, scientists and astronauts.

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Flying damaged aircraft safely, remote control of hijacked aircraft and explosion-proof luggage containers. Bill Read reports on some of the safety and security topics covered on the fourth day of the ICAS conference in Nice

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Rerouting aircraft to avoid creating contrails, taxiing aircraft using hydrogen from waste products and a personal aircraft that anyone can fly - it could all happen in the future. Bill Read reports from the third day of the ICAS conference in Nice on the latest research into ways to reduce the effect of aircraft on the environment

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One of the current challenges in the development of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has been how to fly small UAVs at low altitudes without collisions. Bill Read reports from the second day of the International Council of Aeronautical Sciences ICAS conference in Nice on some of the latest research into UAV control systems, including a remarkable research experience conducted using robotic sharks.

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Aircraft of the future may look very different from the conventional designs of today. Bill Read reports from Day 1 of the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences (ICAS) conference in Nice which included research on some concepts as electrically-powered passenger aircraft, flying cars, hydrogen-powered cargo aircraft and an airship shaped like a doughnut.

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Bill Read reports from the 27th Congress of the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences (ICAS) in Nice, France

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Looking like a cross between a flying lawnmower and something out of a scifi film like Dune, the revolutionary FanWing rotary aircraft concept may be about to enter a new phase if wind-tunnel testing proves a modified design gives increased speed.
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Can aviation safety be enhanced by always-on flight data telemetry being transmitted back to base? With growing connectivity in the air – some argue that it is time that the traditional airliner ‘black box’ gets connected.

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Aerospace International talks to the Rt Hon Gerald Howarth, MP for Aldershot, Minister for International Security Strategy at the Ministry of Defence and a private pilot, about this year’s Farnborough Airshow, encouraging young people into the industry and why UK aerospace and defence exports will lead the way out of the deficit.

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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.

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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’.

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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.

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. Go To Item

The UK is leading the world in a game-changing new manufacturing technique that has the potential to usher in a new industrial revolution, with aerospace and other hi-tech sectors blazing the way. TIM ROBINSON reports from EADS Innovation Works in Filton, Bristol. Go To Item

(first published in UAV special edition of Aerospace International, September 2009 - one of two nominations for Aerospace Journalist of the year awards 2010)

Now that portable and hand-launched UAVs have become established as valuable military assets, work is underway to develop smaller and smaller designs. BILL READ reports on the technological challenges faced in the incredible  shrinking world of MAVs and NAVs. Go To Item

Aerospace International talks to the chief executive of Virgin Atlantic Airways, STEVE RIDGWAY, CBE, about volcanic ash, the rise of airline alliances and his carrier’s green mission.

AI: How has the volcanic ash affected your business? How much do you expect you might have lost? Go To Item

The UK Government has announced a series of defence cuts in advance of a wider Strategic Defence Review. MIKE BRATBY from the RAeS Air Power Group asks if this combination of cost-cutting before planning for the future is reshaping Britain’s defence in an uneasy mix that does not add up to a strategy.
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The Editor, Richard Gardner, interviews Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton, KCB, ADC, BSc, FRAeS, CCMI, RAF, Chief of the Air Staff.

As the Royal Air Force enters its 92nd year as one of the best equipped and most operationally active air arms in the world, it is facing a future that is far from clear. By the end of the year it is expected that a new, and long overdue, Strategic Defence Review should provide a re-adjustment in policy to reflect changing circumstances but nobody is expecting defence funding, as a proportion of GDP, to be restored to the higher level that was in place when the last SDR set out its priorities. Go To Item