DLR President Outlines Future Of Aviation
On 23 April German Aerospace Center president Joachim Szodruch outlined possible directions for aviation in a speech given at the UK Royal Aeronautical Society's The way forward - aerospace 2008 conference. Szodruch set out a growth scenario for the industry of 5% a year that was described as "moderate" but would still see large-scale increases in carbon dioxide emissions by aircraft without significant technology improvements. Identified improvements included laminar flow wings, air-to-air refuelling, blended wing body configurations and in the distant future, liquid hydrogen-fuelled aircraft.
EU's Seventh Framework ProgrammeTo Select Second Call Projects In Q3
European Commission officials expect to start selecting the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme's (FP7) second call proposals in August following the 7 May closing date. With a budget of euro 217 million ($341 million), the areas of research are health management systems, full virtuality in design, network-centric communications for air traffic management, onboard security and new cockpit architectures. Over the FP7's seven years, from 2007 to 2013, the annual call budget will be around $300 million but will tail off toward the end. A future call topic will be linking high-speed trains with airports.
Satellite, UAV Teaming to be Investigated
The European Space Agency's telecommunications and navigation directorate's strategy and future programmes department is to fund a euro 200,000 ($311,000) study surveying the existing and planned UAV programmes and missions in Europe and Canada that will require or could benefit from satellite support. The work will examine possible future satellite, UAV co-operative missions and produce a joint systems requirement document and evolutionary satellite system architectures for the combined operations expected in the 2020 timeframe. Closing date for industry proposals is 28 May.
Ben-Gurion To Adopt Unmanned Ground Vehicle Perimeter Security
Officials at Ben-Gurion international airport, near Tel Aviv, are confident that many perimeter security tasks will be performed by autonomous unmanned ground vehicles soon (UGV). Operational testing with the UGV model, called the Guardian and developed by Israel Aerospace Industries and Elbit Systems, has begun after the vehicle passed safety trials. Ben-Gurion airport is already protected by a multi-sensor perimeter fence and patrols. The UGV will allow greater coverage by the patrolling security teams.
Source: Flight International
