EDITORIAL

A second golden age of aeronautical design

Ask many aviation enthusiasts and aerospace professionals, what was the ‘golden age’ of aeronautical design, when horizons were unlimited and anything seemed possible, and it is a fair bet that many may suggest the late 1940s or 1950s.

Then, the aviation industry had come out of a shattering global conflict, one that reshaped the industry. For example, the construction of concrete runways required during WW2 doomed those that envisaged larger and more luxurious seaplanes.

For a young aviation designer or aeronautical engineer, these were heady times. Delta-winged bombers, jet airliners, newfangled helicopters, supersonic fighters, flying cars and early attempts to leave Earth’s orbit and reach for the cosmos helped create the modern age we live in.

Meanwhile, in the present day, the aviation industry is just emerging from another major crisis and, yet again for young aeronautical engineers, the horizons are now simply immense, presenting an almost unlimited canvas for innovation and creativity. Hypersonic vehicles, eVTOL air taxis, swarming drones, reusable rockets, sixth-generation fighters and private space stations offer a staggering variety of opportunities from AI coders to thermodynamic specialists – with many becoming feasible only in the past 20 years.

But interestingly, perhaps the biggest open space for innovation is in civil aviation (see Alternative Propulsion Conference Report), where the environmental challenge is driving designers to throw out conventional assumptions and configurations as they seek to incorporate electric, hybrid-electric and hydrogen power into future airliner designs.

The net zero challenge is immense but so are the opportunities for talented young engineers, coders and designers to create the future of flight.

Tim Robinson 
FRAeS, Editor-in-Chief
tim.robinson@aerosociety.com
@RAeSTimR