People have always sought to conquer the sky, and it seemed that not a single person could fly like a bird - one has only to remember the myth of Icarus. Since the appearance of the first gliders of the Wright brothers in the early twentieth century, aircraft designers have repeatedly crossed technological limits and made revolutions. Today, we no longer consider the mass use of unmanned aircraft or aircraft powered by liquid hydrogen to be science fiction. But new technologies need to be backed by unconditional guarantees of safety and reliability, and companies around the world are working hard to enlist the support of their passengers.

Controls like in a video game

Technology for civil aircraft Active Stick, developed in 2018 by BAE Systems, is deployed on the Gulfstream G500 business jet, where it provides haptic feedback pilot with aircraft systems. The Active Stick gives him the ability to literally physically feel his car instead of relying only on gauge readings.

BAE Systems- British defense company. Included in the top 10 world arms manufacturing companies.

Gulfstream G550 is a twin-engine business class jet aircraft manufactured by Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation.

Image: Gulfstream

Fly-by-Wire (FBW)- a system that replaced the previous manual (mechanical) electronic aircraft control circuit - one of the wonders of modern aerospace technology. Aircraft of the previous generation were controlled by a huge amount of cables, cables, pulleys and hydraulics, which greatly increased the weight of the aircraft. However, according to experts, the use of a computer joystick reduces the real perception of flight to the level of a video game.

Electric remote control system (EDSU, Fly-by-Wire)- an aircraft control system that provides the transmission of control signals from the controls in the cockpit (for example, from the aircraft control stick, rudder pedals) to the actuators of the aerodynamic surfaces (rudders and wing take-off and landing mechanization) in the form of electrical signals. It was first used in the American Vigilante bombers in 1961.

Boeing, like BAE Systems, is experimenting with an automated control approach. The company introduced a new computer control function in models Boeing 737 MAX 8 and Max 9. It avoids the stall that can occur if the aircraft's nose is too high. However, experts warn that during emergency situations, this tool may not work correctly and simply send the plane into a dive, even with manual control. The manuals for the new aircraft did not mention that Boeing's management could change during an emergency, and airline representatives are somewhat confused due to the lack of comments from the company itself. Moreover, some experts fear that it was this new feature that led to the Java Sea disaster.

On October 29, 2018, a Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashed into the Java Sea 13 minutes after takeoff. The crash killed 189 people.

In connection with the emergence of a huge number of new technologies in the field of aircraft manufacturing, the question of the safety of using artificial intelligence and autonomous computer solutions inevitably arises. To ensure the safety of the SkyGrid airspace, a blockchain system that will store all data on the flights of unmanned aerial vehicles. Artificial intelligence will analyze large amounts of data. The neural network will also be able to transmit all information about flights to state aviation dispatch systems.

Ultra-fast and unmanned aircraft

In June this year, Boeing presented at a conference in Atlanta a project for a hypersonic aircraft that would fly from New York to London in two hours and from New York to Tokyo in three hours. Speed Boeing aircraft should be five times higher than the speed of sound: it will exceed 6 thousand km / h. For comparison, the maximum speed of the Concorde supersonic passenger aircraft exceeded the speed of sound twice. According to Boeing estimates, the creation of a hypersonic aircraft will take at least 20-30 years.

Image: Boeing

"Concord"- British-French supersonic passenger aircraft (SPS), one of two (together with the Tu-144) types of supersonic aircraft that were in commercial operation.

"Concord" was created as a result of a merger in 1962. A total of 20 aircraft were manufactured. The prototype first flew in 1969 and entered commercial service in 1976. Over 3 million passengers have been transported over 27 years of regular and charter flights.

On July 25, 2000, one plane crashed while taking off from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, killing 113 people. This disaster suspended the flights of the Concorde for a year and a half. In subsequent years, work was carried out to modify the aircraft fleet. But after the resumption of flights, a series of incidents followed, the most notable of which were the failure of one of the sections of the rudder and a fuel leak, resulting in an engine shutdown.

April 10, 2003 British Airways and Air France announced the decision to cease commercial operation of their Concorde fleet.

In Russia, the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute named after Professor N. E. Zhukovsky (TsAGI) is developing a project for a hypersonic passenger aircraft with liquid hydrogen engines. CEO TsAGI Kirill Sypalo said that the appearance of domestic hydrogen aircraft is scheduled for 2030-2031. It is planned that hypersonic aircraft will carry out passenger transportation in Russia.

Image: TsAGI

In three years Airbus, Rolls Royce and Siemens will conduct the first flight tests of the E-Fan X hybrid aircraft. The design will be based on the BAE 146 passenger aircraft. Engineers will replace one of the four BAE 146 turbofan gas engines with a hybrid engine. Its work will be provided by batteries and an on-board generator using aviation fuel.

Aurora Flight Sciences, a subsidiary of aircraft developer Boeing, already in 2019 the first solar-powered unmanned aircraft. The unmanned scientific aircraft Odysseus is designed for continuous flight and climate and atmospheric research. The creators claim that Odysseus will be able to fly for several months in a row and produce zero carbon emissions. Boeing will mainly use the drone to monitor the weather, but the range of possible applications is much wider - communications, intelligence, science. Boeing experts note that they can reprogram Odysseus depending on the tasks.

Norway is moving in the same direction - the organization of environmentally friendly flights. Falk-Petersen, head of a state-owned Norwegian company Avinor, said that to begin with, airlines will test "transitional technologies" - biofuels and hybrid engines. Avinor also plans to organize a tender to launch a commercial flight using a small, 19-passenger flight. The first flights of the aircraft should take place as early as 2025. From 2040, all short haul aircraft in Norway will switch to electric traction.

Avinor AS is a public limited company that operates most of the civil airports in Norway. The Norwegian state, through the Ministry of Transport and Communications, controls 100% of the share capital.

The first mass-produced electric aircraft to go on sale was the Alisport Silent Club single-seat glider in 1997. It was driven by a 13 kW engine.

Since May 2015 Slovenian manufacturer Pipistrel the Alpha Electro model is a two-seat all-electric aircraft designed for training.

lockheed martin has already announced the completion of the "drawing" phase of aircraft development X-59 Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST) and the beginning of its direct production. The first test flight is scheduled for 2021.

Long-term cooperation between Lockheed Martin and NASA prompted the goal of creating the X-plane QueSST - testing technologies that will later make it possible to obtain a low-noise commercial supersonic aircraft that does not create problems for city dwellers.

The X-59 QueSST will fly at an altitude of 17,000 meters at a speed of 1,512 km/h, while the noise at the moment of breaking the sound barrier will not exceed 75 dB, which corresponds to the volume of a pop when a car door is closed.

In Russia, already flight certification tests of two new passenger aircraft MS-21-300. During the tests, they will be subjected to repeated loads, simulating at least 180,000 flights. The uniqueness of this airliner lies in the wing made of polymer composites, the first in the world created for aircraft with a capacity of over 130 passengers. Thanks to this design, operating costs for the operation of MS-21 will be 12–15% less than those of analogues. The share of composites in the structure of the MS-21 is over 30% and is unique for this class of aircraft.

In 2018, Russian developers introduced a new TV7-117ST-01 turbine engine. Its characteristics as a whole increase the efficiency of the entire almost fully automated system. It has already been installed on the Il-114-300 passenger aircraft, which will be designed for operation on local airlines. The engine will increase, in comparison with the Il-114, the flight range with a full allowable load to 1,900 km.

Flying cars and a backpack

technical director Rolls Royce Paul Stein named three categories of aircraft that will be the first to switch to electric propulsion. The first category includes air taxis - small aircraft designed for one to four passengers, with a cruising range of no more than 120 km. “Batteries are almost ready for such vessels,” Stein said. This probably explains the increased popularity of the idea of ​​​​creating and putting into operation flying cars, and this is how small air taxis are now commonly called. The Guardian cites Terrafugia, a Chinese startup owned by Geely, and Pipistrel, a Slovenian company, as examples. Airbus is also developing its own version of the air taxi together with Audi and subsidiary italdesign.

November 27 this year, the concept of an air taxi Pop Up Next was presented in Amsterdam at the annual drone week, where it successfully demonstrated all the functions incorporated into it.

The concept has an important feature - it is modular, thanks to which it can carry passengers both on land and in the air. Pop.Up Next consists of three separate modules. A 60kW (80hp) electric chassis is attached to the passenger pod to form an electric vehicle. At the same time, passengers using a special application will be able at any time (for example, if they are hopelessly stuck in a traffic jam) to call the flying module and, having connected with it, arrive at their destination by air.

Separate direction of development civil aviation- this is JetMan - jet backpacks that will allow a person to fly in the future. The aircraft is controlled only by shifting the center of gravity. The backpack can reach speeds of up to 300 km / h, the maximum flight range is ten minutes.

The trend towards the mobility of aircraft capable of moving even within a metropolis, unmanned technologies and hypersonic speeds already today reflects tomorrow's position of civil aviation. Traveling in three dimensions is the future of transportation, which, according to Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, is already within 20-30 years. But, perhaps, all these inventions are superfluous, if soon we will need only a satchel on our backs to cover a distance of a thousand kilometers.

For more than a year (he flew out on March 9, 2015) "completes" trip around the world, you might think that the development of passenger aviation has stopped or is even going to reverse side. Of course, Solar Impulse 2 is not the future of aviation, but modern aircraft are slower than supersonic ones. conchords flying 30 years ago. New aircraft models basically differ from the old ones only in greater fuel efficiency. Airbus is not even going to develop a new aircraft for the 2020s. However, everything is not so hopeless. The most promising projects in aeronautics are described below, demonstrating that the development of aviation still continues.

electric planes

Airbus-E-Fan

Airbus is testing a small but all-electric Airbus-E-Fan aircraft. The latest achievement of the aircraft is the flight across the English Channel. So far, this model cannot be used for any long flights, even by one person.

But many aircraft manufacturers have no doubt that electric aviation is the future. To begin with, it is planned, as in cars, to make a hybrid engine. Airbus intends to test a "more electric aircraft" as part of the DISPURSAL project in 2022. The contribution of the electric fan motor to the total thrust should be 23%.

NASA in 2016 announced the start of development of the X-57 Maxwell aircraft equipped with 14 electric motors. It will be a small four-seat aircraft. According to engineers, the introduction of electric motors will significantly reduce operating costs. The agency does not say when the aircraft will be created.

German startup Lilium Aviation has received funding to build an electric private jet that can take off and land without an airport. For takeoff and landing, the aircraft will need only 225 meters. The company has already created a prototype and plans to introduce a full-size version at the end of 2018.

supersonic aircraft

Aerion AS2

The Aerion AS2 is the first supersonic aircraft in a very long time from Airbus. This is a private jet designed for 12 passengers. $4 billion will be invested in its development, and the release is planned for 2023.

In early March, NASA announced the development of the QueSST, a near-silent supersonic aircraft. The main reason for the prohibition of supersonic passenger aircraft (besides fuel economy) was too much noise during the transition to supersonic speed. NASA has developed methods to get rid of the noise and plans to build a prototype around 2020.

Aviation startup Boom backed by Virgin Galactic is working on supersonic aircraft. The startup is going to use the new aircraft to fly over the Atlantic 2.5 times faster than conventional aircraft. The $2 billion investment should allow the company to build a prototype by the end of 2017.

According to its creators, the Skylon aircraft will be able to get to any point in 4 hours at a speed 5 times faster than the speed of sound. To create it, British engineers are testing a new type of engine. They announced the first tests for 2019. However, this project, despite an investment of 60 million euros from the British government, is the longest and most difficult to implement of all

New passenger aircraft

The largest aircraft manufacturers believe that aeronautics is already a miracle and, although a new aircraft appears every 5-10 years, there is no need for any breakthrough improvements. More details in the table.

Plane-table

Boeing 737 MAX	The Boeing 737 MAX has already received 2,500 orders and can become the market leader. Its claimed superiority over the existing leader Airbus A320neo is that it consumes 4% less fuel. The first deliveries to customers will begin in 2017.
MS-21	The new Russian aircraft MS-21 will have a completely Russian engine. Putin stated that he would be in no way inferior to foreign counterparts. Rogozin told reporters that mass production will begin in 2020.
Mitsubishi Regional Jet	Japan will build the first modern passenger jet in its history. It is small and does not pretend to anything. Planned start of operation in 2018.
Comac C919	But the first Chinese in a long time passenger liner The Comac C919 is about to break the Boeing/Airbus duopoly in the market. True, so far 500 orders for it are mainly from Chinese carriers. Release date - 2018.
E2	The Brazilian company Embraer is not even going to create a new liner, but simply modernizes the current model and calls it the second generation. New engines and better fuel economy are expected. Nevertheless, contracts have already been signed for more than 300 deliveries of these aircraft. Deliveries to customers - since 2018.
SSJ 100SV (Stretched Version)	The elongated Sukhoi Superjet will have up to 120 seats and will be released in 2019. In terms of other characteristics, it will be almost like the current superjet and will probably be inferior to the Boing 737 MAX, and in 2020 the Boing 777X will be released ... in general, the main thing is that it will fly and will be elongated, Aeroflot will have them will buy.
Bombardier Series	The planes of the Canadian company Bombardier exceeded expectations. The manufacturer promises that the aircraft will use 10% less fuel than the Boeing 737 MAX and MS-21. Commissioning is expected in 2016. The champion in the number of minor improvements will be the new Boeing 777X, scheduled for release in 2020. It will have a 5% stronger engine, 12% lower fuel costs and CO2 emissions, 17 tons more payload and 18% more seats. The business jet Bombardier Global 8000 for 8 passengers will be able to fly without refueling a record 14,600 kilometers at an average speed of 956 km/h. The company plans to start sales in 2019 at a price of about $65 million. The aircraft will also compete with the Gulfstream G600 - new business jets also going on sale in 2018-2020. The planes will cost from $35 million to $55 million. The new Cobalt Co50 Valkyrie private jet is cheaper than the competition ($600,000) and the fastest in its class, but its main design innovation is that it looks exactly like Bruce Wayne's jet. It can carry up to 5 passengers at a time Release date - mid 2017. A private amphibious aircraft SkiGull will be able to land not only on water, but in general on any surface (grass, snow, ice). It made its first flight in November 2015 and will start selling soon. Another seaplane, the two-seat Icon A5, is capable of taking off and landing in the water, and can recover from a spin and is equipped with a parachute for the entire aircraft. It's considered so safe that you don't even need a pilot's license to fly, just 20 hours of practice. It costs $250,000 and is already in production. In 2016, the first 7 aircraft were assembled, but 1850 orders have already been made for the aircraft The Cirrus Vision SF50 business jet may be the first mass-produced personal jet. It will be capable of carrying up to 7 passengers and should be significantly easier to fly than a conventional private jet. It will also have a parachute for the entire aircraft. 4 prototypes were built and the first aircraft was delivered to the customer in June 2016. In total, more than 600 such machines have already been ordered at a price of $ 2 million. The British single-seat e-Go aircraft is unique for its low price of just $70,000. Cheaper than many cars. The first buyer received the aircraft in June 2016. At the other end of the price spectrum, the $3 million Epic E1000, a six-seat private jet, will be capable of flying at class-leading speeds of up to 600 km/h over 3,000 kilometers while climbing up to 10 km. So far, the prototype aircraft is being tested, but more than 60 orders have already been issued for it. VTOL Ever since the advent of the helicopter, people have wanted to create vehicle, which will be as fast as an airplane, but will be able to fly and land anywhere like a helicopter. This vehicle even received the working name VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) or simply a vertical takeoff aircraft. Persistent, but unsuccessful attempts to create this device are captured in the wheel of misfortune infographic (wheel of misfortune). VTOL must be "capable of anything a bird can do in the air" and fly at least 3 times faster than a conventional helicopter Formally, the Italian company AgustaWestland came closest to the creation of VTOL transport with the tiltrotor AW609. It is indeed capable of landing vertically and flying further than ordinary helicopters, but in terms of speed (509 km / h) it is still significantly inferior to aircraft. So far, convertiplanes have been produced only for the needs of the US military. But the AW609 will be a civilian vehicle for businessmen and the oil industry. Certification is expected in 2017 and 70 orders have already been received. DARPA has announced a competition to finally create a vertical takeoff aircraft () and 4 large corporations (Boeing, Aurora Flight Sciences Corp, Sikorsky Aircraft Co and Karem Aircraft) will present their full-size prototypes for testing in February 2017. Another attempt is an electric VTOL from startup Joby Aviation. The company says it will cost $200,000 a piece, but does not name a release date. An alternative to creating a VTOL is to simply increase the speed of the helicopter. This is achieved by Sikorsky aircraft. Their new S-97 Raider helicopter is capable of flying at speeds up to 450 km/h. The first test flight was made in May 2015. Initially, only the military will be able to use this model. Helicopters also did not stop in development (especially military ones, but we are not talking about them here). Promising models in development are described in the table below: Helicopter table X6 Mi-38 Russia is developing a new helicopter in the middle class - Mi-38. By 2017, its passenger version must be certified. One of the achievements of the helicopter is the ascent to a height of 8600 meters, which was previously impossible for a helicopter. bluecopter In accordance with the general trend to save the planet, it could not do without an environmentally friendly helicopter. European light helicopter - Bluecopter will consume 40% less fuel and reduce carbon emissions gas. Noise will also be reduced by 10 decibels. So far, its prototype is being tested. The American Bell 525 relentless helicopter will be the first helicopter with a fly-by-wire control system that reduces crew workload. There are already 60 pre-orders, and the certification of the helicopter will take place in the 1st quarter of 2017. H160 The parade of the newest helicopters is completed by another helicopter from Airbus, this time in the middle class - H160. He was supposed to revolutionize the helicopter industry, but as a result it only turned out to be quieter, with lower fuel consumption, new avionics and an electric landing gear. Market launch is expected in 2018. Outcome Summing up, we can note at least 3 trends in the development of aviation. Development of electric aircraft, the return of supersonic aircraft and the creation of a hybrid aircraft and helicopter (VTOL). The implementation of at least one of these developments will be a big breakthrough for the industry. In addition to these revolutionary changes, aircraft and helicopters are gradually improving with the release of new models (greater fuel efficiency, more composite materials, cheaper operation, more automation, etc.), Tags: Add tags

Aviation equipment in the latest concepts regularly demonstrates advanced technological developments in various aspects of operation. This concerns not just the modernization of modern models, but also a broader view of the future of the segment. Designers are guided by the potential for development based on technologies that until recently were considered innovative. Of course, not all projects on which the aircraft of the future can be evaluated will actually be implemented, but for many developments it is quite possible to get an idea of ​​​​the trends in the development of aviation in general.

New ideas in passenger aircraft construction

Among the most real developments in the near future, the Boeing 777X can be noted. Fundamentally innovative and striking innovations are not expected, but the designers of this model promise a serious revision of the controls and the shape of the wings. For example, the 777X will combine ailerons and flaps to minimize the overall weight of the structure. As for the special design of the wings, it will be sectional - each will be 3.5 m long, and the developers will also provide for the possibility of their vertical lifting for parking during taxiing. Like many other passenger aircraft of the future, this airliner is planned to be converted to more efficient fuel sources. The power plant will be presented by a twin-engine complex capable of being controlled with a wingspan of about 72 m. Presumably, the aircraft will enter service in 2020.

The Japanese development of Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) is also interesting. This vessel is a jet passenger liner with 76 seats. In addition to the 20th year, the creators plan to release several modifications, one of which will be 90-seater. According to many experts, Mitsubishi will offer safer aircraft of the future than the Brazilian company Embraer and versions of the famous "Superjet". This will be achieved through an updated fuselage design and more functional on-board systems.

Trends in military aviation

Military equipment traditionally shows more technological and functionally developed samples. To some extent, this also applies to aviation. It is worth starting with communication support - massive antennas, sensors and radars may appear on the surfaces of combat aircraft of the future, which will make it possible to capture and transmit electromagnetic waves. In practice, this will provide the ability to accurately “scan” objects within a 360-degree radius, regardless of weather conditions. They will bring new opportunities and nanotechnologies. In particular, some developments will provide coatings with the function of a thermometer, which will notify of damage. Already in this decade, the military aircraft of the future are likely to receive lasers. Moreover, their use will be narrowly oriented. The first concepts are planned to be used as a means of destroying enemy missiles and air defense sensors. Microwave weapons will be used to destroy electronic devices. Both for equipping aircraft with lasers and for electromagnetic installations, special engines will be provided. The appearance of new bombers is also expected, but in this direction the principles of destruction will remain the same, and changes will occur only in terms of structural optimization.

supersonic aircraft

This class remains one of the most promising and rich. For example, NASA plans to release a supersonic QueSST by 2020 that will be almost silent. This is an important feature, since it is the high noise levels that until today are the main reason for the ban on supersonic aircraft for the transport of passengers. With the help of new technologies, NASA plans to eliminate noise loads during the transition to ultra-high speed. Interesting project also supports Virgin Galactic. This is a startup called Boom, which, according to some calculations, can reduce the time of flights over the Atlantic by 2.5 times compared to modern supersonic models. The fighter planes of the future, which in the sixth generation will switch to supersonic speed, are not left without attention. So far, these are distant plans, but it is possible that such developments will appear on the RQ-4 and Boeing-F-X UAV platforms. According to some reports, the latest modifications will be able to provide hypersonic speed at the level of 6 thousand km / h. But, again, the operation of the sixth generation models will not begin until 2050.

flying cars

Cinematic images in the form of flying personal cars, even today, seem like a distant fantasy. Nevertheless, Terrafugia expects, if not to implement this concept in the near future, then bring it closer. Not so long ago, the company's developers already presented a private autoplane, but with one caveat - it was more of an airplane, since it required a runway with a flat surface 500 m long. And this is not to mention the difficulties of control, which only a professional could cope with pilot. However, in the new versions, the aircraft of the future from Terrafugia should at least get rid of the need to use the runway. This achievement has already been demonstrated by the latest modification of the TF-X, capable of developing about 350 km / h. In this case, the flight range is 805 km.

hybrid aircraft

The ideas of ecological and energy efficient nutrition have long been used in traditional cars. It is quite logical that they began to be mastered by aircraft designers. In particular, engineers from Boeing have created a conceptual model of SUGAR, which should provide airlines with up to 70% savings compared to vehicles running on conventional fuel. Such a high percentage of energy savings was made possible thanks to electric batteries. While waiting for passengers, SUGAR will be simultaneously filled with traditional fuel and charged from the airport's energy terminal. Conventional fuel materials are intended only for takeoff, and the flight itself is carried out by electric motors. And this is not the only development of this type. Today, aircraft projects of the future are calculated with the possibility of a complete transition to electricity. The most ambitious ideas also concern the accumulation of solar energy, which can make energy supply 100% free.

Innovations in the private segment

Very original developments appear on the private jet market. Thus, the Bombardier Global 8000 model is a business jet designed for 8 seats. He promises to set a flight record without refueling for a distance of about 15,000 km. In this case, the speed will be 950 km / h. Outwardly unusual model SkiGull, which is called an amphibious aircraft, is also interesting. The name is due to the ability of the device to land on the water surface. This is a new development, but in the near future it will be available to everyone who wants to buy it. Icon specialists also offer combined aircraft of the future for private users. The A5 is a two-seat seaplane variant that not only allows you to land and take off from the water surface, but is also able to get out of a spin and, if necessary, eject the pilot with a parachute.

space air travel

The already mentioned company Virgin Galactic is also engaged in tourism in the form of space flights. But in the future, as its representatives note, technologies will also allow ordinary users of aircraft to carry out suborbital flights from one point of the planet to another. That is, there is no talk of flights to the far corners of space, but entering orbit with overcoming the atmospheric layer is possible. Today, an example of the implementation of this idea is the Space Ship Two family of vehicles. Such aircraft of the future will be able to rise to a height of more than 15 km and deliver passengers to different parts of the Earth with minimal time costs.

The future of the Russian aircraft industry

The domestic aircraft industry was in a state of crisis for a long time, and only in last years serious attempts were made to radically change the situation. Prospects for the development of the Russian segment of the industry are associated with two rather successful developments. Firstly, it is the Sukhoi Superjet SSJ 100, which shows decent technical and operational performance, opening up new opportunities for further promotion of the project. For example, in 2019 it is planned to release a modification for 120 seats. Secondly, the aircraft of the future of Russia based on the MS-21 inspire great hopes for the development of the complex. This platform should be released in 2020. This is a short-medium-haul airliner, the power plant of which was created entirely on domestic components.

Conclusion

Perhaps the key trend in the development of the industry can be called the elimination of operational restrictions for aircraft of various classes. And this applies not only to technical indicators, but also to niche barriers. For example, the famous line “airplanes first of all” ceases to be relevant. A fighter from the future, a cargo liner, or a passenger ship may well get the appearance of a helicopter. In some segments, promising models of helicopters are successfully replacing traditional aircraft. It is possible that this trend will continue in the future. In particular, the Bell 525 family of vehicles promises to be the first helicopters with a fly-by-wire control system that minimizes the burden on the crew. And the Helicopters concepts from Airbus should set records in terms of carrying capacity. According to the manufacturer, by 2020 such models will be able to carry loads up to 10 tons.

Image copyright Airbus Image caption An example of what a power pack might look like in the future aircraft Airbus. Instead of the usual "skeleton" of frames, stringers and spars - a light mesh of complex shape

Is it possible that the very concept of flight is completely changed? It is possible that this will be the case in the future. Thanks to new materials and technologies, passenger drones may appear, and supersonic airliners will return to the sky. The BBC Russian service analyzed information about the latest projects of Airbus, Uber, Toyota and other companies to determine in which direction aviation will develop in the future.

• Are you ready to fly drones?
• Self-driving taxi trials begin in Singapore
• Would you like to fly in an unmanned airliner?

urban sky

Now, a fairly large layer of the atmosphere up to a kilometer high remains relatively free over cities. This space is used by special aviation, helicopters, as well as individual private or corporate aircraft.

But in this layer a new species is already beginning to develop. air transport. It has many names - urban or personal aviation, the air transport system of the future, sky taxi and so on. But its essence was formulated at the beginning of the 19th century by futurologist artists: everyone will have the opportunity to use a small aircraft for flying over short distances.

Image copyright Hulton Archive Image caption So the artist in 1820 imagined the future. An individual aircraft was present in such pictures even then

• What projects are aircraft designers working on around the world

Engineers never parted with this dream. But until now, the lack of strong and lightweight materials and imperfect electronics, without which many small devices cannot be launched, have interfered. With the advent of high-strength and lightweight carbon fiber and the development of portable computers, everything has changed.

The current stage in the creation of urban airmobile transport is somewhat reminiscent of the 1910s, the very beginning of the history of aircraft construction. Then the designers did not immediately find the optimal shape of the aircraft and boldly experimented, creating bizarre designs.

Now the common task - to make an aircraft for the urban environment - also allows you to build a wide variety of devices.

Airbus Corporation, for example, is developing three major projects at once - a manned single-seat Vahana, which, according to the corporation's plans, will be able to fly next year, and by 2021 will be ready for commercial flights. Two other projects: CityAirbus, an unmanned multi-person quadcopter taxi, and Pop.Up, which the corporation is developing with Italdesign. This is a single-seat unmanned module that can be used on a wheeled chassis for city trips, as well as suspended from a quadcopter for flights.

Airbus Pop.Up and CityAirbus use the principle of a quadcopter, and Vahana is a tiltrotor (that is, an apparatus that takes off like a helicopter, and then turns the engines and moves on like an airplane).

Quadcopter and tiltrotor schemes are now the main ones for passenger drones. Quadcopters are much more stable while flying. And convertiplanes allow you to develop greater speed. But both schemes allow you to take off and land vertically. This is a key requirement for urban aviation, since conventional aircraft need a runway. And this means that the construction of additional infrastructure for the city will be required.

Other notable projects include the German company eVolo's Volocopter, which is a multicopter with 18 propellers. This is the most successful air taxi project so far, and in the fall of 2017, Dubai has already begun testing it. In June, Dubai's transport management company talked about it with eVolo.

Image copyright Lilium Image caption Lilium is propelled by 36 electric turbines installed in a row on the planes and in two blocks in front of the device.

Another project from Germany - Lilium - is interesting for its unusual layout. This is an electric tiltrotor for 36 small turbines, installed in two blocks along the wing, and with two more blocks in front of the device. The company has already begun test flights in unmanned mode.

Japanese automaker Toyota is investing in the Cartivator project.

And the online taxi service Uber is also developing its unmanned system, in this project it is working closely with NASA to develop technology and software for service in cities with high population density.

Image copyright Ethan Miller/Getty Images Image caption Passenger drone EHang 184, created by the Chinese company Beijing Yi-Hang Creation Science & Technology Co., Ltd. in 2016

Among aviation experts, there are many supporters of unmanned urban passenger traffic as well as skeptics.

Among the latter is the editor-in-chief of Avia.ru Roman Gusarov. The main problem, in his opinion, is the low power of electric motors and batteries. And effective passenger drones are unlikely to appear in the foreseeable future, despite the fact that a lot of money is being invested in their development.

"Technologies are still quite crude and the systems created with their use are subject to technical failures," Denis Fedutinov, editor-in-chief of the uav.ru portal, said in an interview with the BBC.

According to him, such projects can be just a beautiful publicity stunt and an opportunity to show that the company is engaged in cutting-edge research. He also does not rule out that against the backdrop of enthusiastic publications in the press, many startups may appear, which, having found investors' money, will not be able to create a flying passenger drone.

Executive Director of Infomost Consulting (a company engaged in consulting in the field of transport) Boris Rybak believes that fear is the biggest problem in this area so far. People will be afraid to trust their lives to an aircraft without a pilot for a long time to come.

“When the first self-propelled gasoline carts appeared, they rode with fumes, smoke and roar next to the horses, and the people scattered. But this is normal, then it was scary, and now it’s scary,” said Rybak.

Between the houseamiand birdsami

NASA and the US Federal Aviation Administration are currently working on the Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) program. It is under this program that Uber is partnering with NASA and the FAA.

The development of technologies in this area is far ahead of the development of rules for their regulation. The American program began to be developed in 2015, but the roadmap for its development has not even indicated the deadline for creating rules for flights in densely populated urban areas.

Image copyright italdesign Image caption Pop.Up passenger capsule can be used on a wheeled chassis or attached to a quadcopter

This refers to the flights of drones for the delivery of mail and news video filming. And so far nothing is said about the transportation of passengers in the program.

According to the presentations studied by the BBC Russian Service, in the future, flights of passenger drones in cities will be regulated through building routes in air corridors. The same principle operates in modern civil aviation. In this case, the drones will actively interact with each other and monitor the airspace around to avoid collisions with other drones and other objects in the air (for example, with birds).

However, as Boris Rybak believes, a system built on the principle of free flight would be much more effective, where routes would be built by computers, taking into account the location of all devices in the air.

• Britain begins testing unmanned trucks
• Kangaroo movements confused unmanned vehicles

Will Russia stay away?

In Russia, authorities are also trying to take cautious steps to regulate drone flights in urban environments. So, Rostelecom has been interested in drones for a long time. It is a contractor for Russian Space Systems, which in November 2015 won a 723 million ruble ($12.3 million) tender from Roscosmos to build the infrastructure of the Federal Grid Operator.

Image copyright Tom Cooper/Getty Images Image caption Another project of a supersonic business jet - XB-1 of the American company Boom Technology

This infrastructure will have to provide surveillance of vehicles and unmanned vehicles (including aircraft), land and water manned and unmanned vehicles, by rail, explained the representative of Rostelecom. The operator is creating a prototype infrastructure that will control traffic, primarily drones, and is ready to spend about 100 million rubles ($1.7 million) on subcontractors.

Andrey Tikhonov, deputy head of the Department of Science, Industrial Policy and Entrepreneurship in Moscow, told the BBC that there are no conditions for the appearance of passenger drones in the Russian capital yet.

“Firstly, the regulatory framework for unmanned aerial and ground vehicles has not been fully developed. Secondly, the Moscow infrastructure has not yet been adapted for mass transportation of goods and passengers on unmanned vehicles. goods are still at the testing stage and must receive the appropriate documentation for work in urban conditions. Again, there are questions of compulsory insurance of passengers and many others," he explained.

True, according to him, these problems are not so much stopped by the city authorities as they are forced to look for ways to solve them.

faster than sound

Another area that many aircraft corporations are working on is supersonic passenger transportation.

This idea is not new at all. November 22 marks the 40th anniversary of the start of regular commercial flights between New York, Paris and London on Concorde aircraft. In the 1970s, the idea of ​​supersonic transportation was implemented by British Airways together with Air France, as well as by Aeroflot on the Tu-144. But in practice it turned out that the technologies of that time were not suitable for civil aviation.

As a result, the Soviet project was canceled after seven months of operation, and the British-French one after 27 years.

Image copyright Evening Standard Image caption Concorde, like the Tu-144, was ahead of its time, but showed how difficult it is to make a supersonic passenger aircraft

The main reason why the Concorde and Tu-144 projects were curtailed is usually finances. These planes were expensive.

The engines of such devices consume much more fuel. For such aircraft, it was necessary to create their own infrastructure. The Tu-144, for example, used its own type of aviation fuel, which was much more complex in composition; it needed special maintenance, more thorough and expensive. For this aircraft, even separate ladders had to be kept.

Another major problem, in addition to the complexity and cost of maintenance, was noise. During flight at supersonic speed, a strong air seal occurs on all leading edges of the aircraft elements, which generates a shock wave. It stretches behind the plane in the form of a huge cone, and when it reaches the ground, the person through whom it passes hears a deafening sound, similar to an explosion. It was because of this that Concorde flights over the United States at supersonic speeds were banned.

And it is with the noise now, first of all, that the designers are trying to fight.

After the cessation of Concorde flights, attempts to build a new, more efficient supersonic passenger aircraft did not stop. And with the advent of new technologies in the field of materials, engine building and aerodynamics, they began to be talked about more and more often.

Several major projects in the field of supersonic civil aviation are being developed in the world at once. Basically, these are business jets. That is, designers initially try to target the segment of the market where the cost of tickets and services plays a lesser role than in route transportation.

Image copyright Aerion Image caption Aerion develops AS2 aircraft in partnership with Airbus

NASA is working with Lockheed Martin to develop a supersonic aircraft in an attempt to solve the sound barrier problem in the first place. QueSST technology involves finding a special aerodynamic shape of the aircraft, which would "smear" the hard sound barrier, making it blurry and less noisy. Currently, NASA has already developed the appearance of the aircraft, and its flight tests may begin in 2021.

Another notable project is AS2, which is being developed by Aerion in partnership with Airbus.

Airbus is also working on the Concord 2.0 project. This aircraft is planned to be equipped with three types of engines - rocket in the tail section and two conventional jets, with which the aircraft will be able to take off almost vertically, as well as one ramjet, which will already accelerate the device to a speed of Mach 4.5.

True, such projects are being dealt with quite cautiously in Airbus.

"Airbus continues research into supersonic/hypersonic technologies, we are also studying the market to see if these kinds of projects are viable and feasible," Airbus said in an official comment to the BBC Russian Service. "We do not see a market for such aircraft now and for the foreseeable future due to the high costs of such systems. This may change with the advent of new technologies, or with changes in the economic or social environment. In general, so far this is more of an area of ​​study, rather than a priority."

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Is it possible to revive "Concorde"?

It is really difficult to predict whether there will be demand for such aircraft. Boris Rybak notes that in parallel with aviation, information technologies have also developed, and now a businessman who needs to quickly resolve an issue on the other side of the Atlantic can often do it not in person, but via the Internet.

"Flying in business class or in a business jet takes six hours from London to New York. Otherwise, you will technically spend four, well, three forty. Is this [gameskin] worth the candle?" Rybak said about supersonic flights.

According to the experience of Tu-144

However, other Russian aviation specialists think differently. Supersonic aircraft will be able to take their place in the market, says Mikhail Pogosyan, rector of the Moscow Aviation Institute, former head of the United Aircraft Corporation.

"A supersonic aircraft makes it possible to reach a qualitatively new level, it allows you to save global time - a day. Market forecasts say that the introduction of such technologies and such projects will be associated with the cost of such a flight. If such a cost is acceptable and will not be in times different from the cost of a flight on a subsonic aircraft, then I assure you that there is a market," he told the BBC Russian Service.

Pogosyan spoke at the Aerospace Science Week forum at MAI, where he, in particular, spoke about the prospects for creating supersonic aircraft with the participation of Russian specialists. Russian enterprises (TsAGI, MAI, UAC) are participating in the large European research program Horizon 2020, one of the areas of which is the development of a supersonic passenger aircraft.

Pogosyan listed the main properties of such an aircraft - a low level of sonic boom (otherwise the aircraft will not be able to fly over populated areas), a variable cycle engine (it needs to work well at subsonic and supersonic speeds), new heat-resistant materials (at supersonic speed the aircraft gets very hot), artificial intelligence, as well as the fact that one pilot can fly such an aircraft.

At the same time, the rector of the Moscow Aviation Institute is convinced that the project of a supersonic aircraft can only be created at the international level.

Image copyright Boris Korzin/TASS Image caption According to Sergei Chernyshev, Russia has preserved the school of creating supersonic passenger aircraft

The head of the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute named after Professor N. E. Zhukovsky (TsAGI) Sergey Chernyshev said at the forum that Russian specialists are involved in three international projects in the field of supersonic passenger aviation - Hisac, Hexafly and Rumble. All three projects do not aim to create a final commercial product. Their main task is to investigate the properties of supersonic and hypersonic vehicles. According to him, now aircraft manufacturers are only creating the concept of such an aircraft.

In an interview with the BBC, Sergey Chernyshev said that strong point Russian aircraft manufacturers is the experience of creating supersonic aircraft and their operation. According to him, this is a strong aerodynamic school, extensive experience in testing, including in extreme conditions. Russia also has a "traditionally strong school of materials scientists," he added.

"My subjective forecast: [a business jet] will appear on the horizon of 2030-35. Academician Poghosyan believes that between 2020 and 2030. He gave them ten years. This is true, but still closer to 2030," Sergey Chernyshev said.

"Ordinary" unusual liners

The main task of aircraft designers today is to achieve an increase in the fuel efficiency of the aircraft, while reducing harmful emissions and noise. The second task is to develop new control systems, where the computer will perform more and more tasks.

Now no one can be surprised by the fly-by-wire aircraft control system, when signals from the control stick or steering wheel, pedals and other organs are transmitted to the rudders and other elements of mechanization in the form of electrical signals. Such a system allows the on-board computer to control the actions of the pilot, making adjustments and correcting errors. However, this system is already yesterday.

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• Why do aircraft corporations make identical planes?

Kirill Budaev, vice president of Irkut Corporation for marketing and sales, told the BBC that the Russian company is working on a system where only one pilot will fly the aircraft, and a specially trained senior flight attendant will perform the functions of the second during takeoff and landing. During the flight of an aircraft at flight level, one pilot is enough, according to Irkut.

According to the laws of nature

Another major innovation that has appeared in the last decade is composite materials. The development of light and strong plastics can be compared to the use of aluminum in post-war aviation. This material, together with the advent of efficient turbojet engines, changed the face of aircraft. Now exactly the same revolution is happening with the composite, which is gradually replacing metal from aircraft structures.

Aircraft design is increasingly using 3D printing, which allows more complex shapes to be created with high precision. And to reduce fuel consumption.

Airbus and Boeing, for example, use the latest LEAP engines from CFM International. The injectors in these engines are 3D printed. And this allowed to increase fuel efficiency by 15%.

In addition, now the aviation industry has begun to actively develop bionic design.

Bionics is an applied science that studies the possibilities practical application in various technical devices of principles and structures that have appeared in nature due to evolution.

Image copyright Airbus Image caption Bracket designed with bionic technology

Here's a simple example - the picture above shows a bracket similar to the one used on an Airbus aircraft. Pay attention to its shape - usually such an element is a solid piece of triangular metal. However, by calculating on a computer the forces that would be applied to its various parts, the engineers figured out which parts could be removed and which parts could be modified in such a way as not only to lighten, but also to strengthen such a component.

Much more complex work was carried out by a group of scientists led by Nils Aage, professor at the Technical University of Denmark. In October 2017, they published a report in the journal Nature, in which they talked about how they calculated the force set of a Boeing 777 airliner wing - a complex structure of rather thin jumpers and struts - on the French Curie supercomputer.

As a result, according to the researchers, the weight of the two wings of the aircraft could be reduced by 2-5% without losing strength. Considering that both wings weigh 20 tons in total, this would give a saving of up to 1 ton, which corresponds to an estimated reduction in fuel consumption of 40-200 tons per year. But this is essential, isn't it?

At the same time, the bionic design in the future, according to aircraft manufacturing corporations, will be used more and more. The aircraft in the first illustration to this text is only a sketch of Airbus engineers, but it already shows the principle by which the power set of aircraft of the future will be created.

Electricity

The engine is the most important and most expensive part of an aircraft. And it is he who determines the configuration of any aircraft. Currently, most aircraft engines are either gas generators or internal combustion, gasoline or diesel engines. Only the smallest part of them works on electricity.

According to Boris Rybak, all decades of existence jet aviation the development of fundamentally new aircraft engines was not carried out. He sees this as a manifestation of the lobby of oil corporations. Like it or not, but for the entire post-war period, an effective engine that would not burn hydrocarbon fuel did not appear. Although even atomic ones were tested.

Now in the global aviation industry, the attitude towards electricity is changing dramatically. The concept of "More Electric Aircraft" has appeared in world aviation. It implies a greater electrification of the units and mechanisms of the apparatus compared to modern ones.

In Russia, technologies within the framework of this concept are handled by the Technodinamika holding, which is part of Rostec. The company develops electric reverse drives for the future Russian PD-14 engine, drives for the fuel system, retraction and extension of the chassis.

“In the long term, we are certainly considering large commercial aircraft projects. And in these large aircraft, we will most likely use a hybrid propulsion system before moving completely to electric propulsion,” Airbus said in a comment. The power-to-weight ratio in modern batteries is still very far from what we need, but we are preparing for a future where this is possible."

Russian President Vladimir Putin, watching the first flight of the new Tu-160 bomber in Kazan, suggested that aircraft manufacturers think about creating a supersonic passenger aircraft. The iz.ru portal recalls the history of such aircraft, which were already in operation in the USSR, France and Great Britain.

Aviation is the future, military aviation, in order to ensure the country's defense capability, and civil aviation too. But we, we have just discussed, need to think about the civilian version of such aircraft. With such a vast territory as ours, it does not take much longer to fly from Moscow to New York than to Vladivostok. Therefore, I am sure that it will be in demand,” the head of state said, commenting on the resumption of serial production of the Tu-160 bomber at the Kazansky
aircraft factory.

The first thing to note is that discussing the above proposal straightforwardly, in the variant of creating a supersonic passenger aircraft directly on the basis of a multi-mode bomber-missile carrier with variable wing geometry, is a rather difficult task. This is not only an expensive solution due to the unjustified design complexity in civil aviation. The cruising speed of the Tu-160 is subsonic - 850 km / h, which, by the way, is 30–60 km / h lower than that of conventional modern wide-body aircraft, which casts doubt on even such a narrow hypothetical niche as a business jet for billionaires. We also recall that the cruising speed of both supersonic aircraft in commercial operation (Tu-144 and Concorde) exceeded Mach 2 and was about 2200 km / h.

“Of course, we are not talking about creating an aircraft based on the Tu-160. Now several projects of supersonic business jets are being worked out in the world, some of them were studied with the participation of Russian research centers, ”Vedomosti quotes a top manager of one of the aviation industry enterprises in this regard.

The issue of resuming the program of a fundamentally new supersonic passenger aircraft is an independent complex topic for discussion by specialists in the design and operation of aircraft. In the event that a sufficiently capacious market niche is found for the aircraft, which pays for the costs of its creation and maintenance costs, the issue will move to the second stage, namely, the search for a design team in Russia capable of solving the task.

At the moment, two programs of fundamentally new aircraft (Superjet and MS-21) are being implemented in the country, and the industry is also being integrated into the Chinese project of the CR929 wide-body airliner. In fact, they are all built around " civil aircraft Sukhoi and Irkut (A.S. Yakovlev Engineering Center), which, under the proposed model of reforming the United Aircraft Corporation, will be merged into a centralized company dealing with commercial aircraft.

In the meantime, let's try to remember how the fate of previous supersonic airliners turned out.

First second

The design of supersonic passenger aircraft in the world began in the late 1950s. The Soviet Union, having concentrated resources, made the car the first - in just five years from the moment the decision to start development was made, until the first flight, which took place "under the Christmas tree" on December 31, 1968.

The car was extremely innovative for the domestic aviation industry (especially civil), it introduced a lot of innovations. Here and retractable into the fuselage of the front horizontal tail (used on takeoff and landing), and a raised nose, closing the glazing of the pilot's cabin at high speed, and the most interesting examples of on-board equipment.

The aircraft was actively promoted to foreign markets, but it was never released “abroad”. A plane crash in June 1973 during a demonstration flight at the Le Bourget air show also made a bad advertisement for the car.

I had to look for a place for her only inside the USSR. However, even with new engines (in the Tu-144D version), the machine, which, according to the terms of reference, was calculated for a non-stop flight Moscow-Khabarovsk, could only perform it with a minimum load.

As a result, passenger traffic on this route did not start, and two aircraft were taken to the Moscow-Alma-Ata line. The cost of a ticket for the flight was 82 rubles. For comparison: a flight on a subsonic car along the same route cost 62 rubles, and for a similar price (83 rubles) it was possible to fly by an ordinary plane from Moscow to Irkutsk.

Passenger flights Tu-144 were conducted only from November 1977 to May 1978. Aeroflot tried with all its might to get rid of an expensive and capricious car that did not fully meet its requirements.

Taking advantage of the crash of the experimental Tu-144D aircraft, which occurred near Yegoryevsk on May 23, 1978, regular supersonic passenger traffic in the USSR was stopped in favor of the Il-62. For some time they were used for urgent delivery of small cargoes to the Far East. The Tu-144 program was finally closed in 1983 after the launch of the first domestic Il-86 wide-body aircraft into mass production.

No consent

The Tu-144 was the first passenger supersonic aircraft to take off, but the British-French Concorde, whose first flight took place in March 1969, entered commercial service earlier. Since the development was joint Franco-British (Concorde and translated as "consent"), the car was received by British Airways and Air France (seven each).

Concorde performed its first flights in January 1976, these were the London-Bahrain and Paris-Rio de Janeiro routes (with an intermediate stop in Dakar). Subsequently, the aircraft was used for flights to the USA: to Dulles Airport (in the suburbs of Washington), but mainly to New York. Planes also flew from London to Barbados, Toronto, Miami and Singapore, and from Paris to New York, Mexico City, Caracas.

Aircraft were expensive and could not compete with economical transatlantic "heavy carriers" such as the Boeing 747. The Concorde did indeed cross the Atlantic twice as fast: 3.5 hours instead of 7. But it consumed twice as much fuel as the 747s (and three times as much as the newer Boeing 777), at the same time, it had a four times smaller passenger capacity and required special maintenance, which, moreover, could not be saved due to the small number of cars in the series.

As a result, the key indicator - fuel consumption per 100 km of flight in terms of one passenger - reached 17 liters, while the same indicator for wide-body competitors was in the range of 2.5–3.5. Even the optimistic design indicator of the total cost of operation in terms of one passenger back in 1972 was estimated to be twice as high as that of contemporary 747s.

Spare parts were also produced in small batches, practically on order, and the operator faced incredible overhead costs. At the same time, the aircraft did not carry side cargo (except for very small ones), which further reduced the opportunity to earn money on a transatlantic flight.

An expensive stylish car, a symbol of a bygone era, kept only due to high ticket prices. The widespread opinion about unprofitability is wrong: it brought operating profit, because there were enough people with big money to pay for a status flight. Cars on the main New York-London line left with an average of 70-80 passengers on board out of 100 seats, while the flight paid off already with 35 tickets sold.

At the end of the period of operation, the press wrote that British Airways was extracting up to $30-50 million a year from its Concorde, Air France was much less - up to $3 million. besides, they partially got them at the expense of state support. The British, of their seven, received two aircraft for the symbolic price of £1, while the French took three for £1 each.

In addition, until the mid-1980s, governments actively subsidized airlines, financing up to 80% of their operating costs. There were no prospects for expanding the business, the aircraft remained a narrow niche offer for very rich people, an element of prestigious consumption.

In the spring of 2003, both airlines made a joint decision to stop using aircraft, last flights took place in November of the same year. The catastrophe of 2000 near Paris dealt a strong blow to supersonic vehicles, where a French Concorde with 109 passengers and crew members crashed. Among the reasons also called the general crisis of the air transportation market after September 11, 2001 and the growing cost of service. In addition, the machines continued to fly in the technical form of the late 1970s, and the project to modernize their on-board equipment (in particular, the electronics of the cockpit) required significant money and efforts to organize the production of small batches of products.

As a result, the airlines decided that they would extract more profit from the business classes of conventional airliners.

Konstantin Bogdanov