Royal Aeronautical Society Podcast

Modern Airline Fleet Planning – Art or Science?

Choosing the right aircraft is just about the most important decision an airline can ever take, and it’s far from easy. Fleet planners need to consider not just the technical and operational characteristics of a bewildering array of aircraft types on offer, but they must also decide which aircraft is the best fit for the network, both today and a long time into the future.
It’s not an easy task to analyse everything and make a recommendation. A wrong decision can prove disastrous, both for decision makers and the airline, so life as a fleet planner is not for the faint-hearted. Paul Clark has (so far) survived a lifetime of analysing fleets and making recommendations, but is still struggling to resolve a dilemma: Is fleet planning an art or a science? Come along to Paul's lecture on 20 November and help him find an answer!

Sopwith Lecture 2019

Sopwith Named Lecture was established in 1990 to honour Sir Thomas Sopwith CBE, Hon FRAeS.
This year it was presented by Billie Flynn, F-35 Lightning II Test Pilot at Lockheed Martin who will talk about the transformational capabilities of the F-35 Lightning II, and his experiences of putting the aircraft through rigorous testing.
The presentation covered areas such as advanced technologies, stealth, sensor fusion, air-to-air and air-to-ground capabilities, electronic warfare, ISR, and interoperability.

Classic Lecture Series: Observations on the First Fifty Years of the R.A.F. by AM Sir Victor Goddard

In his insider’s history of the first fifty years of the R.A.F., Sir Victor Goddard gives insights into the forces and personalities that formed and developed the RAF and made it into an equal partner with the other two armed services.
Sir Victor’s career covered the pioneering years of service aviation; from a cadet in 1912 who co-presented to the Admiralty a scheme for an aircraft bombsight to a seat on the Air Council and a role contributing to the Berlin Airlift. From this insider’s view he gave his audience picture of the forces and personalities that formed and developed the RAF. He considers the founding belief that the RAF needed to be formed in order for air warfare to escape the prejudices of sea and land, how Trenchard moulded the embryo service over a five year period, the decline of airships and how the service came of age during the campaigns against Mesopotamia, Iraq, Aden and against the “Mad Mullah” in Somaliland, where the RAF was able to frustrate the resources of adversaries. Sir Victor also discusses the RAF’s sometime slow harnessing of technology, including the adoption of monoplanes and radar, and tells stories of how he helped to frustrate the development of the German bomber force, his part in helping the RAF to adopt and then use Barnes Wallis’s bombs during the World War II and how he just managed to avoid a court martial after allowing the first use of a parachute to escape an aircraft.
The lecture was delivered to the Royal Aeronautical Society's Historical Group on 19 April 1964. The podcast was edited by Mike Stanberry FRAeS and it was digitised thanks to a grant from the Royal Aeronautical Society Foundation.

Classic Lecture Series: The R.N.A.S. & R.F.C. by ACM Sir Philip Joubert de la Ferte

Packed with stories of the great men he knew and served under, the former R.F.C and R.A.F. flying officer gives us insights into the army’s and navy’s flying services and the wider aeronautical community before and during the First World War. Sir Philip then turns to how these men considered the arguments of forming a joint service and how they went onto create the Royal Air Force in 1918.
The lecture was delivered to the Royal Aeronautical Society's Historical Group on 25 February 1963. The podcast was edited by Mike Stanberry FRAeS and it was digitised thanks to a grant from the Royal Aeronautical Society Foundation.

From the archive: Sir Geoffrey de Havilland on his early days in aeronautics

Sir Geoffrey tells the stories of his first aeroplanes, the de Havilland Biplane No. 1 and how he improved it to become the de Havilland Biplane No. 2, before turning the story of how he created the Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.1 and the work of Edward T. Busk to improve the aircraft’s stability.
The podcast was edited by Mike Stanberry FRAeS and it was digitised thanks to a grant from the Royal Aeronautical Society Foundation.

Forward to the Moon: NASA’s Strategic Plan for Lunar Exploration

NASA has led the charge in space exploration for the last 60 years, and through the Artemis program, NASA will once again set the tone and pave the way beyond low-Earth orbit to the Moon.
By 2024, NASA will land the first American woman and the next American man on the South Pole of the moon, establishing a sustained presence on the moon by 2028, preparing us for human exploration missions to Mars.
Dr. Jim Green, Chief Scientist at NASA will delve deeper into these future plans, demonstrating the new technologies and capabilities that will enable new exploration in the 21st century, so that NASA continues to lead in fostering the growth of the private space industry.

From the Archive: How to fly an aircraft by Sir Alan Cobham Hon. FRAeS

Join Sir Alan Cobham in the front seat of his de Havilland Moth for our first flying lesson. After starting the engine and taking off, the man whose panache and vision brought aviation to the people between in the 1920s and 1930s, stylishly talks us through the controls and explains how they affect flight, before taking us back down safely back to earth.
The recording was edited by Mike Stanberry FRAeS and it was digitised thanks to a grant from the Royal Aeronautical Society Foundation.

The men who gave us wings : Britain and the aeroplane 1796-1914 by Peter Reese

The fascinating stories of the men who dreamed to conquer powered flight, those who harnessed the new technology and were tested by the early months of World War I are told by Peter Reese in this podcast.
The path towards manned flight was far from straightforward. Starting with the gifted inventor Sir George Cayley, the father of modern aerodynamics, Reese moves to those who made further steps towards flight, such as Henson, Stringfellow and Pilcher, before examining the work of the Wright Brothers.
Peter Reese then asks why Britain, the leading nation in science and technology during the nineteenth century, fell so far behind in the first years of the twentieth century and examines how Britons tried to catch-up with their foreign counterparts before World War I. Here he examines the work of pioneers such the early aircraft builders like Samuel Cody, Geoffrey de Havilland and “Tommy” Sopwith, test pilots Benny Hucks and Edward Busk and those who moved public opinion such as journalists Lord Northcliffe and C. G. Grey, before examining how Britain faced the test of aerial warfare.
The podcast was produced by Mike Stanberry FRAeS and recorded specially for the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Podcast series during 2019.

The rise, fall & rebirth of UK commercial aircraft development 1945-78 by Keith Hayward

Keith Hayward takes us along the corridors of Whitehall and into aero industry boardrooms to chronicle the false dawns and missed opportunities of the first thirty-three years after World War II. Starting with the Brabazon recommendations, he illustrates the competing interests of politicians, the aircraft industry and the airlines by examining project such as de Havilland’s Comet and Trident, the Vickers VC10 and the Airbus programme. The story ends when he reaches the “vale of tears in the early 1970s”, from which, in the end, the British aviation industry came up “reasonably happy”.
Prof Hayward told his “sad stories of the death of aeroplanes” to the Royal Aeronautical Society's Historical Group Lecture on 17th October 2002. The podcast was edited by Mike Stanberry FRAeS and it was digitised thanks to a grant from the Royal Aeronautical Society Foundation.

NASA Aeronautics and Strategy

Aviation is changing – from emerging UAS operations to Urban Air Mobility which is next on the horizon; to the re-emergence of supersonic transportation that will once again shrink our globe; to alternative fuels and electric propulsion for a greener future, aviation is on the move. Research, convergence, and entrepreneurialism is the driver for this exciting and impactful change.
The NASA Aeronautics portfolio is tuned to deliver key enablers for this change. But NASA Aeronautics must also evolve to be more flexible and agile as change inevitably brings issues and opportunities that cannot be fully anticipated.
Mr Pearce discusses the future of aviation, NASA’s research portfolio, and the challenges our research enterprises must face to remain relevant into the future.