RAeS Lecture in cooperation with HAW-Hamburg, DGLR-Hamburg, VDI & ZAL

Lecture in English

The Aeroshark riblet film imitates the shark skin effect and causes a noticeable drag reduction, which is equivalent to one percent of saved fuel based on a typical long-haul flight. This lecture gives insight into the development of Aeroshark for the Boeing 777 from an aerodynamic perspective.

Riblets reduce losses from interaction of microscopic vortices with the wall. This beneficial effect is integrated into the CFD model using extensions of the commercial solver Ansys CFX, which allows the investigation of large-scale models like an entire aircraft. The turbulence model modified for the riblet effect was verified by experimental results from DLR and DNW.

Many secondary effects became visible due to changes in the boundary layer thickness when the entire flight envelope was investigated. Hence, for certification, effects on flight characteristics, structural integrity and functionality of aircraft systems had to be considered.

Dedicated flight tests for aircraft stability and control were performed with special test programs, because here numerical tools usually show only low confidence. The enhanced fuel saving analysis is based on full flight data in contrast to single snap-shots as in standard aircraft performance monitoring. A problem is the uncertainty in total passenger mass due to the unknown mass of each individual passenger. However, an alternative approach for weight determination has been used, which is based on attitude sensors of the aircraft and reduces the uncertainty of the aircraft weight. This significantly improves the confidence of the drag analysis process.

 poster_2024_04_18_Aeroshark-3.pdf (373 KB)

RAeS Hamburg in cooperation with HSU/UniBw H, HAW Hamburg, DGLR, VDI & ZAL

Lecture in English

Systems Engineering is a diverse field both in terms of approaches but also in impact and exploitation. Working across 12 political systems, with over 700 aircraft operational worldwide, the F-35 is a 5th Generation military aircraft which delivers impact through data. Keeping all the software intensive systems flying, through obsolescence, repair, new technology and upgrade is a configuration and logistical challenge. In late 2019, the US F-35 Joint Project Office embraced agile software delivery to reduce software cycle times from 18 months to 6 weeks. This is the story of that time.

About Dr. Gill

Kate Gill has 20 years international experience of Systems and Software Engineering, Management and Consultancy in both the Defence and Civilian markets. From 2016 – 2022, she was seconded from the Ministry of Defence to be the US lead Air Systems Integrator, based in Washington DC, for all UK software engagement on the military aircraft F-35. She has led and championed digital transformation within the Department of Defense (DoD) F-35 Agile DevSecOps (DSOP) ecosystem. Kate has been the driving force for the stand-up of the US F35 Joint Project Office (JPO) Managed Cloud which enables software on the +625 F-35 aircraft worldwide. Kate was awarded the Royal Aeronautical Society Silver Medal in 2021 and was Women in Defence Most Collaborative Award Finalist in 2020 and 2022.

She has stayed in the Civil Service and has now moved out of Defence into a digital role supporting biodiversity research at Kew Gardens as Digital Revolution Lead.

Important

• Please register here
• Instructions on how to enter the HSU/UniBw H and find the lecture room   Directions-to-lecture.pdf (1,62 MB)
• You must have your IDcard/ passport available to enter the University
• Download   poster_2024_05_16_F-35_software-2.pdf 

RAeS lecture in cooperation with HAW-Hamburg, DGLR-Hamburg, VDI & ZAL

Lecture in English

With growing realisation of environmental issues and sustainability, we need to minimise reliance on fossil fuels. A “realistic” vision of aircraft development scenario for 2050 and beyond is imagined to be four-fold: Battery-Electric for very short ranges, Hybrid - Hydrogen Fuel cells for short ranges, Liquid Hydrogen (LH2) for the medium ranges, and Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) for the longer ranges with Air-to-Air Refueling and Formation Flying.

For improving flight efficiency of airliners, ideas are towards increasing the wing aspect ratio to 14 and beyond, overcoming the adverse structural effects. Strut or Truss braced wings are being considered as in the NASA X-66. Another unconventional idea is to use flared folding wingtips that cope with gusts. Such ideas will be discussed.

Using LH2 fuel requires a great deal of unconventional thinking. LH2 being (a) cryogenic with low energy density and (b) potentially explosive, presents a challenge for designing a safe, efficient, and certifiable aircraft. The over-arching constraint is that the LH2 fuel system must be segregated from the passengers - no obstruction of exits and compliant with emergency landing requirements. Additionally, the airframe has to reasonably survive engine disc burst. This leads us to a pragmatic design of an unconventional medium range airliner concept “Gondola”. This features twin fuselages: one with passengers (160-180 seats) and the other with fuel tanks. Both fuselages are mounted on a “dry” wing of high aspect ratio.

Dr Raj Nangia graduated from University of London with BSc and PhD in Aeronautical Engineering. 

He worked on several UK and International Aircraft Projects:

Hawker Siddeley Gnat Trainer, Hawk, Concorde, Harrier, & ASTOVL Developments, EAP, Typhoon, Advanced SST, Blended Wing bodies, Civil & Military Intake Developments, HALE & UCAV's and currently Tempest.

Published 150+ papers & Presentations, several with International authors at International Aerospace Conferences.

Recently known for: Greener aviation via aircraft operations in Civil aviation, incorporating Air to Air Refuelling & Formation Flying and Alternative fuel (Liquid Hydrogen) Configurations.

 poster_2024_05_23_Unconventional_Designs.pdf (312 KB)

HAW lecture in cooperation with RAeS Hamburg, DGLR, VDI & ZAL

Lecture in English

DGLR Lecture in Cooperation with RAeS-Hamburg, HAW Hamburg, VDI & ZAL