Published 7/21/2022

2022 Farnborough International Air Show highlights

Farnborough, as usual, provided a platform for a variety of announcements in the aerospace, defense and advanced air mobility spaces from companies like GKN Aerospace, Joby, Airbus, Rolls-Royce, Boom Supersonic and others.

Edited by: Grace Nehls

Senior Managing Editor, CompositesWorld

Bringing electric propulsion, hydrogen to AAM

Rolls-Royce (London, U.K.) and Hyundai Motor Group (Seoul, South Korea) announced plans at the 2022 Farnborough International Airshow to collaborate to bring all-electric propulsion and hydrogen fuel cell technology to the advanced air mobility (AAM) market. The partnership will leverage Rolls-Royce’s aviation and certification capabilities and Hyundai Motor Group’s hydrogen fuel cell technologies and industrialization capability.

The companies say the benefits of using a hydrogen fuel cell system in an all-electric aircraft propulsion system is that it is a zero-emission, silent and reliable on-board power source that enables scalability in power offerings as well as long distance flight range. Hyundai will work with Rolls-Royce to bring hydrogen fuel cells, storage systems and infrastructure to the aerospace markets, and advance this technology into Hyundai’s RAM Vehicles and Rolls-Royce’s all-electric and hybrid-electric propulsion system offerings.

Urban air mobility U.K. certification

Joby Aviation (Santa Cruz, Calif., U.S.), announced that it has formally applied for its electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft design to be certified for use in the U.K. While Joby is currently pursuing type certification (TC) for its aircraft with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and expects the U.S. to be its first operating market, this application will enable Joby’s U.S.-based certification to be concurrently validated by the U.K.’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), accelerating the company’s path to market in the U.K. Joby is believed to be the first eVTOL company to apply for foreign validation of its FAA TC.

Photo Credit: Joby Aviation

U.K. Advanced Mobility Ecosystem Consortium

U.K.-based Vertical Aerospace (Bristol), Virgin Atlantic (Crawley), Atkins (Epsom), Skyports (London) and air traffic control service provider NATS, along with Connected Places Catapult and leading academic institutions, Cranfield University and WMG, University of Warwick, have announced the creation of the Advanced Mobility Ecosystem Consortium. Together, over two years, the organizations will develop key technology and infrastructure in a project that will significantly accelerate the introduction of AAM in the U.K. This will include creating and testing technological developments in aircraft electrification, airspace management, ground infrastructure, operating procedures, and the systems and supporting business cases required to implement a new model of aerial passenger transport in the region.

“The project will demonstrate the feasibility of a U.K. AAM ecosystem using Vertical Aerospace’s emission-free VX4 eVTOL aircraft, operated by Virgin Atlantic. Two physical flights will take place between Bristol Airport to an airfield in South West England, and between London Heathrow Airport and the Living Lab vertiport. A third simulation flight will demonstrate urban connectivity between London City and Bristol airports,” according to the original press release.

Read the full report here.

New variants for VX4 aircraft

Vertical Aerospace (Bristol, U.K.), is partnering with Babcock International (London, U.K.), an aerospace, defense and security company, to explore new applications for its VX4 eVTOL aircraft. Capable of traveling distances of more than 100 miles, achieving top of speeds of 200+ miles per hour with low noise, the aircraft has reportedly proven demand in the passenger transportation markets from established airline customers including Virgin Atlantic, aircraft lessors such as Avolon (Dublin, Ireland), and helicopter and tourism operators such as Bristow (Dyce, U.K.) and Iberojet (Palma, Spain).

Additional applications to be explored by Vertical Aerospace and Babcock International include aerial EMS and cargo transportation. Both companies will also work to develop modular maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) capabilities to enable cost-effective maintenance of the aircraft in remote and challenging environments and maximize availability.

Strategic partnership between Lilium and Bristow

Bristow Group Inc. (Houston, Texas, U.K.), a provider of sustainable vertical flight solutions, and Lilium N.V. (Munich, Germany), a developer of eVTOL aircraft, announced at the 2022 Farnborough International Airshow a strategic partnership where Bristow will have the option to purchase 50 Lilium Jets in addition to providing maintenance services for the Lilium Jet’s launch network in Florida, and other future U.S and European markets.

The non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) outlines collaboration between Bristow and Lilium on the development of a maintenance program to support the operation of the Lilium Jet, including the ramp-up of maintenance in support of the Lilium Jet’s entry into service (EIS) and post-EIS services. The MOU also enables Bristow to become an authorized service provider for Lilium. The MOU further outlines how Lilium and Bristow may collaborate on the process to achieve the relevant regulatory approvals for operating the Lilium Jet in Florida, and plans for Bristow to purchase 50 Lilium Jets.

Air taxi regulations

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) announced publication of proposed rules for the operation of air taxis in cities, the first comprehensive proposal for such regulations to be issued worldwide. The agency notes that “the proposed new regulatory framework is open to public consultation until September 30, 2022, and cover the technical domains of airworthiness, air operations, flight crew licensing and rules of the air,” complementing existing EU regulatory material for operations of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), the unmanned traffic management system known in Europe as U-space and the certification of aircraft capable of VTOL, as well as EASA guidance on the design of vertiports. It also is said to address general societal concerns and the expectations of EU citizens with respect to safety, security, privacy, environment and noise. Certain future developments (e.g., VTOL-capable aircraft without a human pilot on board) are not yet covered in this proposal, but will be addressed by EASA with separate proposals when needed and in line with technological progress.

Read the full article here.

Open fan engine architecture

Airbus (Toulouse, France) and CFM International (Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.), a 50/50 joint company between GE Aviation (Cincinnati) and Safran Aircraft Engines (Courcouronnes, France), are collaborating to flight test CFM’s cutting-edge open fan engine architecture, with carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) blades as key part of design.

Airbus A380 demonstrator. Photo Credit: Airbus

The joint demonstration program will use shared flight test assets. The plan is for CFM to perform engine ground tests, along with flight test validation, at GE Aviation’s Flight Test Operations center in Victorville, Calif., U.S. A second phase of flight tests will be performed from the Airbus flight test facility in Toulouse, France, in the second half of the decade. For these tests, the open fan engine will be mounted under the wing of a specially configured and instrumented A380 testbed aircraft.

The joint Airbus and CFM objectives for the open fan joint demonstration on the A380 are extensive. Read the full article here.

Supersonic flight updates

Overture aircraft rendering. Photo Credit: Boom Supersonic

Boom Supersonic (Denver, Colo., U.S.) revealed at Farnborough the latest design iteration of the company’s Overture aircraft. Carrying 65-80 passengers at twice the speed of today’s airliners and running on 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), Overture will fly Mach 1.7 over water with a range of 4,250 nautical miles. Features of the modified design include four engines to reduce noise and operating costs, a fuselage that is larger in diameter at the front than the back to increase efficiency, gull wings to improve handling and carbon fiber construction to reduce weight and meet design contour requirements.

Additionally, Boom Supersonic announced that it will begin outfitting a new 70,000-square-foot hardware ground test facility in Centennial, Colo., to house its first full-scale Overture testing model and flight deck simulators. Earlier this year, Boom announced its selection of the Piedmont Triad area in North Carolina, U.S., for its first Overture Superfactory and remains on track to begin production in 2024. Finally, Boom reported a new partnering agreement with Northrop Grumman to develop special-mission variants of Overture.

Hydrogen-electric propulsion program milestones

GKN Aerospace (Bristol, U.K.) reported at Farnborough that its H2GEAR hydrogen-electric propulsion program has passed a major milestone by completing its first round of system-level trade studies. The studies focused on propulsion system architecture and subsystem technology selection for hypothetical 19, 48 and 96 PAX (passenger) concept aircraft. Work to date shows that GKN Aerospace’s developments in the fuel cell system integration, combined with hyperconducting power network and motor drive systems, will enable hydrogen electric propulsion to be scaled up more quickly than originally thought.

The hyperconducting systems proposed by GKN Aerospace use the onboard liquid hydrogen as a heat sink, cooling the electrical conductors to temperatures less than -200°C to dramatically reduce their electrical resistivity. This facilitates electrical power distribution at low voltage, lower-mass conducting cables and electric motors that are set to achieve over 99% efficiency. Unlike superconducting systems, which exhibit zero electrical resistance, a hyperconducting system would use more conventional conductor materials and is deliverable sooner, offering a greater overall impact on global emissions in the foreseeable future.

Integrated ground-based demonstration of the H2GEAR technologies is scheduled for 2025; entry-into-service of the first hyperconducting hydrogen-powered aircraft could be as early as 2035.

Photo Credit: GKN Aerospace

Wing of Tomorrow prototype assembly completed

Airbus (Tolouse, France) announced at the 2022 Farnborough International Airshow that its transnational R&T program, Wing of Tomorrow (WOT), has successfully delivered a first full-size wing demonstrator that will help mature next-generation wing technologies. The completion of the first of three fully composite wing demonstrators marks the integration of more than 100 component and manufacturing technologies that include an all-new industrial assembly system, and which have helped validate key automation targets. The wing includes many applications of innovative composites M&P, including thermoplastic ribs, an OOA VBO rear spar, infused skins, newly designed leading edge spars and more. The new build philosophy on WOT also eradicates in-tank working and enables manual and automated assembly to be smoothly integrated into an optimized industrial system.

Full announcement can be found here.

Middle-mile cargo delivery drones

Dronamics (Sofia, Bulgaria), a middle-mile cargo drone developer and operator, and Quickstep Holdings Ltd. (New South Wales, Australia), a Tier One manufacturer and the largest independent aerospace composites business in Australia, are working together to accelerate the production of the European company’s Black Swan cargo drones. With the first units landing in 2023, Dronamics and Quickstep’s long-term plan targets the ramp-up of production of hundreds of Black Swan cargo drones annually in the next four years.

Read the full announcement here.

eVTOL cabin concept unveiled

Photo Credit: Supernal, Hyundai Motor Group

Supernal (Washington, D.C., U.S.) revealed its initial electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle cabin concept at Farnborough International Airshow, providing the first look at how Hyundai Motor Group (Seoul, South Korea) is integrating automotive capabilities to develop the advanced air mobility (AAM) market.

Supernal’s five-seat cabin concept design embodies biomimicry — a butterfly in this case — and the company’s pillars of safety, human-centered design and environmental responsibility. With sustainability as a priority, the cabin concept incorporates materials such as advanced recyclable carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastic (CFRTP), durable plant-based leather, recycled plastic fabric and responsibly sourced woods. Supernal hopes to certify its eVTOL vehicle for commercial use in the U.S. starting in 2028, with the E.U. and U.K. following soon after. Read the full announcement here.

U.K. lays out plans for next-generation combat aircraft

The U.K. Secretary of State for Defence, Ben Wallace MP, has confirmed plans for Britain to lead the development of a new flying combat air demonstrator — to fly within the next five years — which will play a critical role in the delivery of the region’s Future Combat Air System, Tempest.

Launched in 2018, the flagship project is part of a suite of novel technologies being developed by Team Tempest, involving a number of suppliers — led by BAE Systems (Farnborough) — and the Ministry of Defence. These concepts are designed to demonstrate and test the next generation combat air skills, tools, processes and techniques needed to ensure Tempest enters service in 2035. The project, for example, is developing composite materials and additive manufacturing (AM) to produce lightweight, power-dense configurations capable of operating at higher temperatures.

New iteration of FibreFORM technology unveiled

At the Farnborough Air Show, Loop Technology (Dorchester, U.K.) unveiled the new iteration of FibreFORM, the company’s composite ply pick-and-place tool used to automate the layup of large-scale preforms. The new design includes a significant reduction in energy consumption to improve its accessibility.

Photo Credit: Loop Technology

At the show, the arctic-camouflage-wrapped module of FibreFORM was mounted on a Fanuc R-2000iC/210F robot. The pair drew the attention of aerospace manufacturers and suppliers from across the world. Visitors learned how FibreFORM could pick up a large ply and place it into a 3D mold tool to build a preform stack. They also watched a demonstration of its dexterity as it transformed into concave and convex shapes, and its flexibility when coupled with six-axis motion. The previous iteration was installed at the National Composites Centre (Bristol, U.K.) as part of its Ultra High Rate Deposition Cell, according to the company.