Royal Aeronautical Society Podcast

The RAF is busier than ever on operations around the world. At the same time, the RAF is planned to increase significantly its front-line capability, as a result of the SDSR in 2015.
Against this backdrop, in his first lecture at the Royal Aeronautical Society since taking command, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Hillier, Chief of the Air Staff, discussed the challenges, risks and opportunities which he faces in growing the future RAF.

The lecture was held in 2006 and includes John Fairey of Fairey Aviation, Harold Colliver, Fairey’s project designer, Norman Parker, Fairey Ground Crew and Peter Twiss, Fairey’s Test Pilot and the man who broke the record. This lecture was digitised by Mike Stanberry MRAeS.

On November 8th, 2015 Donatella Ricci achieved the new world
gyroplane altitude record reaching 27,556 feet with a Magni
Gyro M16. This lecture brings together all the lessons Donatella
learned along the nine month journey to achieve such a
record.

We are facing the most significant change in how we travel since the introduction of low-cost carriers in the market.
Traditionally passengers struggle to the airport with their luggage which they only get to off-load it at check-in.
Low-cost carriers brought in the model of ‘pay extra’ for most things including luggage that is be checked-in. In response, we have seen many Airlines starting to sell cabin bags only tickets. This is driving passengers to carry as much cabin baggage as the size /weight limits allow.
Airports are experiencing boarding and ultimately departure delays due to passengers being unable to fit all their cabin baggage in the cabin. For the passenger, it’s a fight! Get to the front of the boarding queue to make sure you keep your bags with you or pay extra to check your bags in and run the risk of having to wait to collect it at your destination.
In response to these challenges, some companies are developing services that collect your bags before you get to the terminal relieving the passenger of the stress involved with travelling with bags.
The aim of this debate is to explore some of the emerging options around passenger baggage issues i.e does the passenger carry the bag or someone else?

AM Julian Young FRAeS, Air Member for Materiel and Chief of Material, DE&S, delivers the Society's 2016 Sopwith Named Lecture.

In this lecture Stephen will broach the very sensitive topic of pilot suicide by looking at historical evidence and whether “pilot suicide” is distinct from “suicide” within the general population. He will give consideration to the potential causes of pilot suicide and further consider some of the reasons underlying it. He will also consider what can be done to improve current support systems, how to identify pilots at risk and other ways of preventing another serious incident. Finally, Steve will consider airline “pilot suicide” statistics and will put the actual incidences into perspective.

This lecture honours the passing of Harold Caplan, the founder member of the Royal Aeronautical Society's Air Law Group.

Much has been written and said over the past 12 months about open skies, state ownership of airlines, subsidies and support, and the impact of Gulf carrier competition on the US and European aviation markets. The discussion kicked-off in the US in January 2015 with the US legacy carrier white paper accusing the three Gulf carriers of unfair state subsidies, and then has expanded into subway billboards, celebrity advertisements and a multi-department public consultation process and is now colouring some of the discussion on a new international aviation strategy for the EU. Rick will provide an Emirates perspective on open skies and competition and look at some of the factual and legal arguments underpinning the ongoing debate.

C. H. Gibbs-Smith gives a Royal Aeronautical Society Historical Group lecture on 9 October 1973 on Sir George Cayley.

LISAPathfinder: Motivation, Instrumentation and Current Status
Timothy will begin with the scientific motivation for LISAPathfinder (LPF) which rests firmly with the case for putting a gravitational wave observatory in space. LISA was proposed to the European Space Agency (ESA) as such an observatory in the mid-1990s and Timothy will describe the scientific potential of this type of payload as a candidate for the ESA L3 mission. From there he will outline the technology challenges and show how the critical elements of these are addressed by LPF. LPF was launched on 3rd December 2015 from Kourou and has now made its way the first Lagrange point. The scientific payload is being commissioned and by mid-April, it will be well into its scientific measurement campaign. Timothy will review preliminary performance data from the instrument and the space environment it finds itself in, and give a forward look on the remaining mission profile. He will also discuss additional scientific measurements which might be carried out pending feasibility studies.
LISA Pathfinder: The Engineering Challenges 2002-2016
From the industrial engineering perspective LISA Pathfinder began life in 2001 with a proposal team in Stevenage given the task of shoe-horning an embryonic and complex instrument into a robust system design that could be built within specified costs and schedule. Good working relationships, essential for a project of this complexity, were established with the instrument team from Airbus Germany and more than thirty subcontractors from around Europe and the USA. His talk will span the life cycle of the project starting with the myriad of engineering challenges that faced this early team and how these were solved in order to allow the project to enter the detailed design phase and subsequent production. Ian will deal with both the accommodation of the very special needs of the instrument and also the external constraints and environments such as the launch vehicle and space itself. It will then progress through the implementation phase and highlight the several changes of direction and their resolutions that created many new challenges for the project team. He will conclude with the launch campaign and the in-orbit commissioning.