“Freedom of the press is perhaps the freedom that has suffered the most from the gradual degradation of the idea of liberty.” Albert Camus
Martin P6M SeaMaster
Design and development: In the immediate post-war defence climate, the United States Air Force’s Strategic Air Command was the linchpin of the United States’ security as the sole means of delivery of the nation’s nuclear arsenal. The Navy saw its strategic role being eclipsed by the Air Force and knew both its prestige and budgets were at stake.
Its first attempt to address this came in the form of the USS United States, a large supercarrier intended to launch Navy strategic bombers. This was cancelled in 1950 shortly after her keel was laid down, a victim of budget cuts and US Air Force interference. In response, the Navy chose to create a ‘Seaplane Striking Force’, useful for both nuclear and conventional warfare, including reconnaissance and minelaying. Groups of these planes supported by seaplane tenders or special submarines could be located close to the enemy and being mobile, they would be hard to neutralise.
The requirement issued in April 1951 was for a seaplane able to carry a 30,000 lb (14,000 kg) war load over a range of 1,500 mi (1,300 nmi; 2,400 km) from its aquatic base. The aircraft was to be capable of a low altitude dash at Mach 0.9 (1,100 km/h). Both Convair and Martin submitted proposals and the Martin proposal was chosen as more promising. An order for two prototypes was issued which was projected to lead to six pre-production aircraft and a projected twenty-four production aircraft.
Originally the plane was to have a Curtiss-Wright turbo-ramjet engine, but this ran into problems and a more conventional Allison J71-A-4 turbojet was employed, fitted in pairs in over-wing pods to keep the spray out of the intakes. Wings swept at 40° were used; they displayed a notable anhedral and were designed with tip tanks that doubled as floats on the water. Many features of Martin’s XB-51 bomber prototype were used, including an all-flying ‘T’ tail and a rotating bomb bay, pneumatically sealed against seawater in the P6M.
The first flight of the XP6M-1 came on 14 July 1955, but early tests showed that the engines were mounted too close to the fuselage and scorched it when afterburners were used, leading to angling the engines slightly outward in subsequent aircraft. Flight testing was initially successful, but, on 7 December 1955, a control system fault destroyed the first prototype with the loss of all aboard. The first prototype, BuNo 138821, c/n XP-1, disintegrated in flight at 5,000 feet (1,500 m) due to the horizontal tail going to full up due to a control malfunction, subjecting the airframe to nine G stress as it began an outside loop, crashing into the Potomac River near the junction of St. Mary’s River, killing four crew members.
Eleven months later, on 9 November 1956, the second prototype, BuNo 138822, c/n XP-2, first flown on 18 May 1956, was also destroyed, due to a change made in the horizontal stabiliser control system without adequate evaluation before test flying the design. The crash occurred at 15h36 near Odessa, Delaware due to a faulty elevator jack. As the seaplane nosed up at ~21,000 feet (6,400 m) and failed to respond to control inputs, the crew of four ejected. The airframe broke up after falling to 6,000 feet (1,800 m) before impact. The first pre-production YP6M-1 was completed about a year later, with testing resuming in January 1958.
Five more were built in 1958 when the Navy announced that Harvey Point Defence Testing Activity in Hertford, North Carolina, would serve as the testing grounds for the fleet of Martin P6M SeaMasters. These aircraft were fitted with test versions of the full combat equipment suite and were used for bombing, mine laying and reconnaissance evaluations. The J71 engines were unreliable and the aircraft had spray ingestion problems at higher gross weights, which limited take-offs to ideal conditions. The P6M-1 also had a serious control deficiency due to proposing under some trim settings. These deficiencies resulted in the P6M-1 programme being cut as it was no longer considered possible for it to be successfully developed.
The Navy and Martin felt that a new version, the P6M-2, would provide a useful aircraft. The first was rolled out in early 1959. Changes included new, more powerful Pratt & Whitney J75 engines, an aerial refuelling probe, improved avionics and a canopy with better visibility. A buddy refuelling drogue kit had also been developed to fit in the bomb bay. Three had been built by summer 1959 and Navy crews were moving them through operational conversion when the programme was abruptly cancelled in August of that year.
The P6M-2 was an impressive aircraft; its Mach 0.9 (1,100 km/h) performance ‘on the deck’ could be equalled by few aircraft of the time. The aircraft were heavily built, with the skin at the wing roots over one inch (25 mm) thick. The normally docile and pleasant handling characteristics of the P6M-1 were replaced by some severe compressibility effects above Mach 0.8. These included rapid changes in directional trim, severe buffeting and wing drop requiring high control inputs to counter. Until those problems were fixed, the P6M-2 could not be considered for use by the fleet. The problems were identified as being caused by the larger engine nacelles required for the J75s. There were also problems on the water, including a tendency for the tip floats to dig in under certain situations and engine surges. These problems were eventually solved, but time had run out just as the first crews were training for its operational debut. Eisenhower’s administration was making major defence budget cuts that forced the Navy to make choices. In August 1959 Martin was told to halt operations and the program was about to be cancelled. Seaplane operations were a small component of US naval aviation, and the P6M was significantly over budget and behind schedule and competing with aircraft carriers for funding. The Navy had also developed a potentially superior system for the nuclear strike role, the ballistic missile submarine.
In the age of the ICBM and SLBM, the manned bomber had become an expensive and unreliable nuclear weapon delivery system. The P6M programme had already cost $400 million (about $2.5 billion in 2004 dollars) and could not be justified without the strategic mission. All examples were scrapped although some tail sections were retained for testing and one of these is now in the Glenn L. Martin Maryland Aviation Museum. Martin tried unsuccessfully to market the technology in the civilian market, with a version called the SeaMistress but there were no takers and the company soon abandoned the aircraft business entirely to focus on missiles and electronics. The P6M was the final aircraft constructed by the Glenn L. Martin Company.
Those persons that correctly identified this week’s mystery aircraft: Rennie van Zyl, Colin Austen, Jan Sime, Marcel Nijdam, Rudi Esterhuizen, Bob Gurr, P. Rossouw, Selwyn Kimber, Wouter van der Waal, Ahmed Bassa, Lyle Grace, Michael Schoeman, Mark Cope, Jaco van Jaarsveld, Alf Ljungqvist, Greg Pullin, Johan Prinsloo, Righardt du Plessis, Barney Fourie, Charlie Hugo, Danie Viljoen, Kevin Farr, Rixmo Lamel, Clint Futter, Wouter de Graaf, Rex Tweedie, Carl von Ludwig, Ari Levien, Peter Hallmanns, Cecil Thompson, Lance Williams, Jeff Knickelbein, Steve Dewsbery, Johan Venter, David Plew-Chisholm, John Moen, Markus Ritz, Pierre Brittz, Peter Gilbert, Gregory Yatt, Hilton Carroll, Frank Hofmann, Erwin J. W. Stam (43)
The July 326-page edition of African Pilot featuring our popular Light Sport Aircraft, Amateur Built Aircraft and South African built aircraft was released to the global audience at the end of last month. The July edition features 22 videos and 10 picture galleries. This edition also features the annual EBACE exhibition, Newcastle and Parys airshow reports and the Sports Aerobatics Nationals staged at Wings Park in East London all with videos.
African Pilot will be publishing its annual Avionics and Instrumentation and will include our annual headset review within the August 2022 magazine.
The feature to be contained within the digital interactive magazine is an opportunity for all avionics, instrumentation, headset re-sellers, installers and panel upgrade companies to showcase their work.
The feature provides an important shop window for advertisers to display products and their abilities in a focused manner which includes editorial content to cover the features of their business.
The material deadline for the August 2022 edition is Monday 25 July 2022.
All editorial content should be sent to me Athol Franz
E-mail: editor@africanpilot.co.za
For advertising opportunities please contact Adrian Munro at
Cell: 079 880 4359
or E-mail: marketing@africanpilot.co.za
Wallpaper calendar for the month of July. Go to our wallpaper page to download the calendars in three different resolutions.
Airlink prepares to increase service to St Helena Island
Airlink operates a modern 98-seat Embraer E-190 jetliner on the Johannesburg-St Helena route, with flights refuelling en route at Walvis Bay on the Namibian coast. The total journey time is approximately six hours. In addition, Airlink provides a monthly charter air service between St Helena and Ascension Island, which are almost 1,300kms apart. Airlink began flying the Johannesburg-Jamestown route in November 2017 under contract to the St Helena Government and it is the island’s only scheduled airline service. After the COVID pandemic caused an almost two-year hiatus to the service, Airlink resumed flights with a fortnightly service in March this year. Although 98 percent of St Helena residents are vaccinated, most have not been exposed to COVID-19 or any of its variants and until the bio-security restrictions are lifted on 08 August, visitors to the island are still required to quarantine and are also subject to testing and vaccination requirements.
Arrival in Oshkosh
The South African campsite starts taking shape as the tents are set up and the entertainment areas are completed. Sadly, the very large mulberry tree under which African Pilot was founded 22 years ago has been removed, but this is probably a good move, because the hard to remove mulberry stains it created over the years left many embarrassing spots on clothing.
No events happening this weekend.
AMPS solution for UN helicopters operating in Africa
Bird Aerosystems specialises in airborne missile protection systems and airborne surveillance, information and observation (ASIO) solutions. Its solutions are in use with commercial and military organisations, including NATO forces, the US government, Airbus and other major aircraft manufacturers. It says its AMPS is combat proven and has been operational in Afghanistan and Iraq with over 400 installations on platforms such as the EC155, BK117, EC145, EC635, EC135, Cougar, EC225, C-130, P-3C, B350ER, B200, Bell 407, CH-53, S92, UH-60, Mi-17 and Mi-8.
Russian SU-34 downed in Ukraine
Videos and images shared by the Strategic Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the Telegram messaging app appear to show the charred remains of a Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber. In the video, the cameraman alleges that a Ukrainian plane was shot down, but an inscription on the badly damaged aircraft states that it is a jet belonging to Russia’s Air Force. That the aircraft had been brought down by Russian friendly fire was implied by Ukrainian media outlets, including TSN, which reported that a message had circulated on Telegram that the Su-34 jet had been accidentally shot down by Russia’s own air defences.
ICAO report condemns Belarus for faking Ryanair FR4978 bomb threat
According to the report, the bomb threat, which was used as a justification to divert the flight to Minsk and subsequently detain several of its passengers, was communicated upon the instructions of Belarusian government officials and was deliberately false. Opponents to the regime of Alexander Lukashenko said a flight from Athens to Vilnius was diverted in order to arrest the journalist Roman Protasevich.
Diverging versions
The full report, which was published in six languages on ICAO’s website on 19 July 2022 contains a detailed timeline of the events, adding numerous previously-undisclosed facts about the incident. It underlines the discrepancies between the version of events presented by Belarusian officials and the factual evidence, for example pointing out that the e-mail with the bomb threat was sent to Minsk Airport after the flight had already been diverted. The report also states that before FR4978 took off from Athens, a Belarusian area surveillance controller (ACC) was approached by the Director General of Belaeronavigatsia, the Belarusian air navigation services provider, as well as an unidentified man presumed to be a KGB officer.
The men informed ACC Duty Supervisor that there was a bomb onboard FR4978, instructed him that the information was not to be shared with anyone and that the recording of the air traffic control communications with the aircraft would be destroyed. Despite the orders, the controller recorded the communications on his smartphone, producing a record that would subsequently be used by the investigators.
ACC whistle-blower
According to the report, Belarusian authorities did not share some critical data with the investigators, such as email logs or telephone call recordings. The authorities also did not provide sufficient information to the flight crew of FR4978, choosing to deliberately obscure the circumstances of the bomb threat and communicated the risk assessment code that would permit the diversion to Minsk, even though the correct procedure would have not resulted in diversion.
The report also details how Belarusian authorities instructed the ACC Duty Supervisor to adjust the details in an incident report and an official statement, which reflected the government’s version of events, but was later retracted by the ACC Duty Supervisor.
The ICAO team attempted to interview the ACC controller prior to the issuance of its initial report, published in January 2022, but was unable to do so, because Belarusian authorities said that his whereabouts were unknown. However, with the help of the US government the team was able to locate and interview the controller, who provided a testimony and retracted his earlier statements. The information gathered led the ICAO Council to the conclusion that the bomb threat was deliberately false, and that by communicating it, the Belarusian government endangered the safety of the aircraft.
Met with fury
Not everyone agreed with the report’s findings. “The Council Representative for the Russian Federation meanwhile expressed his State’s strong objection to identifying Belarus as the source of the unlawful interference which took place,” an ICAO press release states. On 20 July 2022, numerous Belarusian authority figures came forward criticising ICAO and calling the report ‘a fabrication’. “This report does not stand up to scrutiny. It is categorically unacceptable and discredits ICAO as an international technical body that caters to civil aviation. We strongly disagree with the report,” Artyom Sikorsky, Director of the Aviation Department of the Belarusian Transport and Communications Ministry, is quoted as saying by Belarusian state news agency BelTA. According to the official, ICAO was pressured by ‘Western countries’ to condemn Belarus, while some of its contents, such as the records provided by the ACC controller were fabricated. “It is far from the truth, from aviation technology and looks like a fabrication designed to somehow place the blame on Belarus,” BelTA quotes Sikorsky.
A new supersonic airliner?
Dubbed Overture, the aircraft is designed to operate at more than twice the speed of today’s airliners and sets out to greatly increase the appeal of airline travel by dramatically reducing its duration. What is more, Overture intends to accomplish its feats of speed and endurance cleanly, as the aircraft’s four engines operate on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
Overture’s design derives of 26-million core-hours of simulated software models, five wind-tunnel tests, and the careful evaluation of 51 full design iterations. In its current, near-final incarnation, the aircraft sports bleeding-edge innovations in aerodynamics, noise reduction and overall performance. Each of Overture’s four engines is fed by a highly-efficient, streamline-traced, axi-symmetric inlet. Subject inlets, by providing a high-degree of intake pressure consistency, allows the engines to operate on subsonic airflow at supersonic speeds. The inlet design is predicated upon proven supersonic technology that affords easy maintenance and precludes new, costly, small-scale manufacturing processes. The use of four engines keeps the aircraft’s weight and skin-temperature balanced. Furthermore, utilising four engines, rather than two or three reduces the per-engine thrust requirement, thereby keeping the airplane sufficiently quiet to meet or exceed extant noise abatement criteria for subsonic aircraft operating over land and at or near airports. Overture is slated to go into production in 2024.
IR warfare, Pentagon
While the F-35 programme office and Lockheed are currently ‘actively pursuing’ the finalisation of the Lot 15 and 16 contract award, a contract option for Lot 17 will occur later, after the fiscal 2023 budget is passed, the JPO stated. The drawn-out nature of contract negotiations appears to have had a negative impact on Lockheed’s bottom line. Work on Lots 15-17 began in December 2019 under an initial contract, but since then Lockheed’s production costs have begun to exceed the value of that agreement, Lockheed said in a statement in 2022 second quarter earnings. Once a production contract is definitised and funded, Lockheed expects to recover those sales and begin invoicing costs, it said.
Aerospace presses the industry reset button at Farnborough
Rewind in your mind to what it would have been like on the final day of the 2018 Farnborough show to hear an industry soothsayer telling you that the world would face an unprecedented global pandemic killing more than six million people, with existential collateral damage to the travel business, followed by Russia invading its neighbour Ukraine in a direct threat to world peace. Then imagine slipping into a four-year coma and waking up on 18 July 2022, to discover that every word that avgeek Nostradamus told you that day was true and that the industry now deals with the shockwaves of severe inflation, supply chain disruption, skills shortages and market uncertainty.
Whether the industry has maintained a prolonged Covid-inflicted holding pattern before getting back to a comfortable cruise altitude or whether it has undergone a permanent change from the experience for good or ill remains a question. Many industry professionals will be arriving here in Farnborough looking for answers. For the most part, independent observers seem to be erring on the bullish side, while staying mindful of challenges that still lie ahead.
“I think we are looking at realizing some pent-up demand from a quieter year,” said Michael Richter, managing director and global head of aerospace and defence at investment bank Lazard. “We expect to see more consolidation with companies adding more value through acquisition to realize synergy deals.”
The mergers and acquisitions deal-maker is salivating over strong activity in defence electronics, space, and commercial aviation. In the latter sector, Richter sees engine machining and fabrication as growth areas, while aerostructures remain weaker. “Consolidation in the industry has always stimulated growth, and increased mergers and acquisitions will propel the growth,” he concluded.
Professional services firm EY is among those that see commercial aviation as entering a state of flux. The company addresses the challenges it faces in a paper published on Monday titled “How the future of commercial aviation will reshape value chains.”
“In mid-2022, the commercial air transport sector is buoyed by renewed hopes that the worst of the pandemic is behind,” said the report’s authors. “Yet amid this recovery, OEMs and aviation suppliers are grappling with increased volatility, supply chain ruptures and production constraints like never before, with challenges and opportunities, rippling across the entire aerospace and defence supply chain. Industry players find themselves in an uncertain ‘in-between’ state, in which pre-pandemic normal is fading from memory but the post-pandemic future remains cloudy.”
Farnborough International 2022 also marks a significant waypoint for the future of the UK’s aerospace and defence sector, as highlighted in recently released data from trade group ADS, parent company of the show organiser. British companies have shown an eagerness to position themselves as leaders in key future-facing fields like sustainable technology, even as they struggle with unwelcome trading complexities resulting from the country’s Brexit divorce from the European Union.
All this unfolds against a new backdrop of profound political uncertainty, with the ruling Conservative party having just deposed its own leader, Boris Johnson and in the throes of choosing a successor. It remains to be seen which government figure, if any, is available to open the Farnborough show on Monday morning and what change in direction the palace coup might bring.
Boeing forecasts a demand for more than 41,000 new airplanes by 2041
The CMO forecasts a market value of $7.2 trillion for new airplane deliveries, with the global fleet increasing by 80% through 2041 compared to 2019 pre-pandemic levels. Approximately half of passenger jet deliveries will replace today’s models, improving the global fleet’s fuel efficiency and sustainability. In addition, Boeing Global Services forecasts $3.6 trillion in demand in its market segments over the same time period, including strong demand for maintenance and modifications such as converted freighters; digital solutions that increase efficiency and reduce cost; and effective training to enable the supply of pilots and technicians.
The 2022 CMO includes these regional projections in the next 20 years:
- Continuing their strong growth story, Asian markets account for roughly 40% of long-term global demand for new airplanes. Europe and North America each account for just over 20% of demand, with 15% of deliveries going to other regions.
- South Asia’s fleet continues to lead global growth, at 6.2% annually. Led by India, the region’s fleet will nearly quadruple from 700 airplanes in 2019 to more than 2,600 airplanes through 2041. Southeast Asia is projected to see the second-fastest growth with a near-tripling of its commercial fleet to 4,500 airplanes.
- This year’s CMO does not include a forecast for airplane deliveries to Russia due to sanctions against aircraft exports. This change reduces global 20-year demand by about 1,500 airplanes compared to last year’s CMO.
Single-aisle airplanes will account for 75% of all new deliveries, unchanged from last year’s CMO and totalling nearly 31,000 airplanes. Through 2041, new widebody airplanes will account for about 18% of deliveries with more than 7,200 airplanes, enabling airlines to serve new and existing markets, passenger and cargo, more efficiently than in the past. The CMO also predicts continued robust demand for dedicated freighters to support global supply chains and growing express networks. Carriers will need 2,800 additional freighters overall, including 940 new widebody models in addition to converted narrow-body and widebody freighters over the forecast period.
L3Harris expands training capacity to solve pilot shortage
Prior to Covid, airlines already faced the prospect of a shrinking pilot workforce and the pandemic has worsened this situation, according to L3Harris sales and marketing vice president Robin Glover-Faure. “The industry has probably seen the retirement bubble accelerate by around three or four years and in the past two years there has been about a 50 percent reduction in pilot training, due in part to the stresses of the pandemic. These factors combined are causing an unwinding,” he said.
In the short term, airlines have attempted to spend their way out of the problem by paying large bonuses to attract flight crew. But Glover-Faure feels carriers would do better to invest in a longer-term strategic approach to restoring the pipeline of new pilots. In some cases, he said, the huge bonuses available actually have made the situation worse by luring instructors away from flight schools.
As much as airlines need more pilots, post-Covid business conditions continue to batter their balance sheets, making it hard to find the funds required to ease the worsening shortage. One option is to guarantee loans of the $100,000 or so that Glover-Faure estimates that getting a trainee into an airline right seat job requires. But while banks advance the funds, the amount goes on the carrier’s balance sheet as a liability. “But airlines are going to have to address the reality of this situation,” he said. “It is not an option to just keep paying $50,000 sign-on bonuses.”
Meanwhile, L3Harris is also investing in using data analytics to help pilots fly more safely and sustainably by burning less fuel and emitting less carbon. It has established a new division in its commercial aviation training business to concentrate on those improvements. “We are making much better use of data from both simulators and aircraft, turning this data into play-back insights during training session into how to achieve efficiencies in approaches to airports and energy management, and in managing situations like a single-engine failure after take-off,” said Glover-Faure. “Until recently, we’ve had a feast of data but a famine of insight.” With the air transport sector now committed to achieving net-zero carbon objectives, it is imperative for the flight crew to understand how they can contribute. In L3Harris’s view, building those considerations into the syllabus from the start of ab initio training will embed them in their mindset from the start.
Gulfstream G800 makes its first international flight
The G800 is Gulfstream’s newest ultra-long-range, large-cabin business jet. The aircraft ticks all the boxes for which the storied airframer is renown: power, speed, comfort, luxury, robustness, dispatch-reliability and range. The G650ER and G700 have endurance enough to make impressive, 7,500-nautical-mile leaps across the Earth’s continents and oceans. However, the G800 bests its siblings with a staggering NBAA IFR range of 8,000-nautical-miles. The five-hundred-nautical mile advantage permits G800 operators to fly nonstop from LAX to Adelaide while their G700-operating competitors stop in Brisbane for a tank of gas, a nip of Foster’s and a lengthy customs delay.
Notwithstanding the model’s emphasis on range, the G800 skimps on neither comfort nor luxury. Despite being ten-feet shorter than the G700, the new airplane offers passengers four living-spaces, each resplendent in natural light come streaming through Gulfstream’s signature 16 panoramic windows. G800 passengers will also enjoy ion-filtered, one-hundred-percent fresh air and an exceptionally low, three-thousand-foot cabin-altitude as aircraft scoots along at FL410 (41,000-feet).
The pair of Rolls Royce Pearl-700 engines by which the G800 is motivated to a maximum cruise-speed of 516 knots are impressive in their own right, each producing eight-percent more take-off thrust (18,250-pound/feet) than the BR725 engines powering Gulfstream’s G650 aircraft family. The new engines also realize a 12% better thrust to weight ratio than their BR725 predecessors.
Pilots lucky enough to get their hands on the G800 will appreciate Gulfstream’s Honeywell Epic-based Symmetry flight deck, active side-stick controls and heads-up-displays (HUDs) with synthetic vision. The cockpit features ten touch-screen displays, the most in business aviation which work in conjunction with Gulfstream’s proprietary Phase of Flight artificial intelligence and predictive landing performance systems to streamline flight operations and ease pilot workload. Today, more than three-thousand Gulfstream aircraft are in service around the world.
Czechia chooses to replace Gripens with F-35s
“The F-35 Lightning II will represent a highly competitive aircraft even in 2040, whereas the so-called 4+ generation of fighters will have become obsolete by then,” Czech Chief of General Staff Major General Karel Řehka said. “In addition, the F-35 is not just a fighter, it provides an aerial capability combining a fighter, air defence element, as well as cutting-edge surveillance and command, control and communication centre while being part of a broad network of Internet of Things including unmanned aerial vehicles and is able to perform missions that are completely outside the capabilities of the current aircraft,” he added. Currently the Czech Air Force uses 14 Gripens. According to earlier reports, the country plans to replace them with at least 24 F-35s, doubling its number of squadrons.
easyJet shareholders approve order for 56 Airbus A320neos
New lessor Abelo to order 20 ATR turboprop aircraft
ATR predicts demand for at least 2,450 new turboprop aircraft over the next 20 years, the manufacturer outlined in its latest market forecast. Currently, turboprops make up around 40% of the regional passenger fleet. The report also indicated that Asia Pacific, China and Latin America will be the largest markets for turboprop aircraft by 2041.
UK prepares to launch first satellites from Cornwall
The UK’s latest iteration of its space launch plans started back in 2014. Since then, the spaceport has been busy getting political support, investment, preparing the launch site, dealing with space flight regulations and building a relationship with Virgin Orbit, Thorpe explained. “Now we are only a few months away from launch,” Thorpe said, adding that September was the target although there was no specific date yet. The launch will be Virgin Orbit’s maiden UK launch and also make the UK the first country in Europe to launch satellites into orbit from home soil. She highlighted the Black Arrow experience. “It has taken another 50 years to get us back to this point and we do not want to make those same mistakes. We want to ensure that this is a sustainable capability that we can carry on for 50 years so that we stay part of the launch game.”
Spaceport Cornwall utilises facilities at Cornwall Airport Newquay and Goonhilly Earth station. Thorpe said the combination of using an existing site, plus working with Virgin Orbit, which has already carried out launches from the air using its ‘Cosmic Girl’ Boeing 747 from the Mojave Desert, has helped to speed the process along and made it more cost effective. Thorpe said that one of the key issues for Spaceport Cornwall was how to launch more sustainably, to prevent debris from collecting in space or even falling back to Earth, such as fairings dropping into the sea.
“The irony of the space industry is that it does all this incredible stuff for our planet, with the technology we put up there. But the way those technologies get to space impacts our environment,” Thorpe said. Spaceport Cornwall is therefore keen to work with regulators on how to remove satellites from orbit safely, but also support new technologies to help clean up space.
European Space Agency Director Josef Aschbacher noted that the number of satellites being launched in the last two years alone is equivalent to the numbers launched since 1957. ESA wants to see debris neutrality by 2030. “One spacecraft in, one spacecraft out,” Aschbacher explained at a panel at Farnborough. As Pam Melroy, deputy administrator, NASA and retired astronaut, said at Farnborough: “The worst secret about orbital debris is, we cannot find it; we cannot keep custody of it.” It’s the pieces which are too small to track but big enough to wipe out satellites which are the most dangerous, she explained.
Embraer and BAE to continue work on defence eVTOL project
In a separate announcement, both companies signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) for the potential order of up to 150 electric flying taxis, bringing Eve’s current order book to 1,910 electric flying taxis. Andre Stein, Co-CEO of Eve, added: “This collaboration also indicates that the defence market can be more sustainable and at the same time allows Eve to remain focused on exploring the Urban Air Mobility market.”
Lebanese navy to operate drones to aid maritime border security
Illegal immigration and human smuggling, especially, has grown as a concern as the economic situation deteriorated in Lebanon. Recently, the cooperation between the Navy and Air Force in maritime domain activities has increased, including but not limited to search and rescue operations and exercises to raid ships. With limited resources and enormous number of tasks on its shoulders, the radar and the UAVs signify a major step forward, with hopes of increasing the drone numbers for better surveillance and border control in the future.
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