Page 28 - Forum-2021-JanToMarch

NEWS ROUNDUP

Anthony Brickhouse Receives Prestigious Safety Award promised a staggering 10% improvement in aerodynamic
efficiency and a 2% reduction in takeoff weight compared with
Marcus Costa, chief of ICAO’s Accident Investigtion Division, a conventional aircraft. My immediate reaction was, as critical
recently noted that it is rather uncommon to come across researchers, we have to check these claims thoroughly.”
good news during this surreal pandemic. He wished to publicly Vos also thought that he could improve the draft design: “We
congratulate “our distinguished colleague Professor Anthony gave it an oval fuselage instead of a round pipe, and it became
Brickhouse for being awarded the 2020 Reese Dill Aviation Safety the Delft Flying-V.” The aerodynamics research based on this
Medal of Honor.” version improved the results even further than the original
Brickhouse, who serves as ISASI’s student chapter and mentor- promising 10%. The prognosis for a lower takeoff weight also
ing coordinator and is an Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University turned out to be correct, although this was difficult to calcu-
associate professor of aerospace and occupational safety and late for an aircraft that was still only a design on paper. The
director of the aerospace forensics lab, recently had the honor of lower weight is largely due to the unique shape of the aircraft.
delivering a guest lecture virtually for the Reese Dill Aviation Safe- “Passengers normally sit in the middle of the plane and the
ty Lectureship series of the Aero Club of New England (ACONE). wings generate the lift; this force must then be transferred to
Following the lecture and discussion, Brickhouse was awarded the the cabin. This requires extra construction weight, which is no
2020 Reese Dill Aviation Safety Medal of Honor. longer needed in our design.”
Since 2012, the Reese Dill Aviation Safety Lectureship Series, Work began in the Delft airplane hall of the Faculty of Aero-
which honors ACONE member Reese Dill’s lifelong commitment space Engineering to construct a scale model of the Flying-V
to aviation, has featured presentations from renowned profession- with a wingspan of 3 meters. Researcher Malcom Brown is
als in aviation. Other alumni and friends of Embry-Riddle who
have had the honor of speaking at the safety lectureship series heading the project. His students are actively involved, as they
include David L. McKay, president and chief executive officer of are with other parts of the project. “It’s great to see how much
United States Aircraft Insurance Group, and aerobatic pilot Patty students learn from doing something practical like building
Wagstaff. a model that actually works,” Brown said. The model will be
ACONE is the longest-established aeronautical club in the used for actual research flights, so we have to be as accurate as
Americas, founded in 1902, which predates the Wright Brothers’ possible.”
first successful powered flight. Its members include some of the The news media attention may have quieted, but work
true legends of aviation. behind the scenes is still in full swing. “This was an integrat-
ACONE is also renowned for its “crash course” safety seminars, ed project from the word go; all disciplines are involved. You
given in conjunction with the AOPA Air Safety Institute and the don’t want to complete a fantastic aerodynamic design only to
FAA. It also manages and awards more than a dozen educational discover that the finished product is far too heavy,” observed
scholarships for pilots and aviation technicians and advocates Vos. “We recently met with experts from across the sector to
with federal, state, and local regulators for the advancement of discuss the challenges they envisaged. We ended up with a list
flight. of almost 50 subjects that need further scrutiny.”
These varied from highly practical to totally theoretical.
ISASI Corporate Members Test Flying-V Airliner Design “This new aircraft,” Vos said, “must be capable of landing and
being serviced at existing airports. Imagine if you must change
In June 2019, ISASI corporate members TU Delft and KLM pre- an engine and they’re fitted on top of the wings. You can get to
sented to the public their plans for a Flying-V aircraft designed them using a crane at Schiphol, but what about at other air-
to save 20% on both fuel and emissions due to its unique ports in the world?” And there are more conceptual questions
shape. The scale model and the mock-up of the interior of the about the dynamic stability of the design. “You need to know
Flying-V attracted huge interest, and the story was covered by precisely how the mass is distributed and how the aerody-
numerous news media outlets. namics change at different speeds,” explained Vos. “We can
Roelof Vos, project leader of Flying-V and assistant professor measure some of this during the test flights, but a small test
of flight performance and propulsion, said, “Something we had model doesn’t fly fast enough to be able to draw any definite
been working on for years was suddenly in the spotlight.” He conclusions. We can try to estimate it using existing methods,
noted, “The aircraft design of the Flying-V is potentially much but these were designed for the existing models. In order to do
more efficient than the traditional ‘pipe with wings’ design. The this, we need to come up with a clever way of combining the
concept was received with great enthusiasm, but a lot of hard results of various tests and analyses.”
work will need to be done if the sustainable flying wing is to be Will a Flying-V become a reality in 2040? “Airbus, Schiphol,
ready by 2040.” KLM, and other parties are already very enthusiastic. A consor-
A patent that appeared in the news media first drew Vos’s tium will be formed so that we can work more intensively on
attention in 2014. Justus Benad, a graduate from TU Berlin, developing the design with all of these parties,” Vos said. But
produced a draft design for Airbus—another ISASI corporate he is still erring on the side of caution. “There’s still so much
member—for a flying wing with seating for 300 passengers. that we don’t know about this aircraft; in another five years, we
“Most new aircraft concepts aren’t radically different from might even come to the conclusion that it’s not feasible after
current designs. This one intrigued me,” remarked Vos. “It all.”
28 • January-March 2021 ISASI Forum