NASA joins UK academics to debate future air & space travel

The two-day conference in London, 'Disruptive Green Propulsion Technologies; Beyond the Competitive Horizon', will focus on distributed propulsion and turbo-electric systems. It will also assess airframes and propulsion systems, their optimal integration, application of alternative fuels, aviation safety and reliability, noise reduction and operating cost amongst other key factors.

Speakers include James Free, Director of NASA’s Glenn Research Centre; Starr Ginn, Chief Engineer for Aeronautics at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center; Richard Parker, Director of Research and Technology at Rolls-Royce; and Sebastien Remy, Senior Vice President, of Airbus Group Innovations.

Conference chair, Professor Emeritus Riti Singh of Cranfield University, commented: “As the world becomes increasingly concerned with climate change, international civil aviation’s contribution towards it is in focus. Turbo-electric distributed propulsion now has the attention of leading international aerospace players. The growth of civil aviation and the need to limit its impact on climate change is set to bring the aerospace industry to its tryst with destiny. Advances in turbo-electric distributed propulsion offer a real way forward. Turbo-electric distributed propulsion is a green disruptive technology which has the potential to address sustainability and anticipated growth of civil aviation. It offers an innovative way forward by addressing sustainability and the anticipated growth of civil aviation and has the attention of leading international aerospace players.”