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Aviation History
2001
2001 - 2078.PDF
PARIS 2001 FIGHT • r R&D FUNDING Budget contraints on both sides of the Atlantic are holding back technological developments, according to the aerospace industry DEEDEE DOKE/LONDON The aerospace research and development race is on between Europe and the USA. But on both sides of the Atlantic, industry is in agree ment on one key point: more public money is needed to fuel R&D advancement. In the USA funding is in a continual downward spiral. David Swain, Boeing's engineering chief, notes a decline in US Government investment in aerospace technology, especially aeronautics, over the last several years. He says national funding for aerospace R&D has been cut by 50% over the past 20 years, and NASA's investment in aeronautics research slashed by 40% in the last six years. "Budget constraints mean fewer tech nology initiatives and fewer prototype demonstration programmes. This has translated into fewer opportunities to develop and transition leap ahead technologies...a strong base research and technology programme in aeronautics and aerospace is essential," he says. John Douglass, president and chief executive of the Aerospace Industrie Association, sees an erosion in aerospac R&D investments. "We are putting U aeronautical leadership at risk by on miserly treatment of aviation, and indeei aerospace R&D," he says. He wants to se an additional $50 billion governmen investment over the next five years. EC priorities In Europe, the picture is complicated 0 the European Commission's apparent "on step forward, two steps back" approach ti aeronautics. In 1998, aeronautics assume new prominence among EC priorities • being designated a key action and receiv ing €700 million ($599 million) under th EC's 1998 to 2001 R&D funding vehicle the Fifth Framework Programme. Earlie this year, a top-level group of aeronautic "personalities", appointed by EC researcl commissioner Philippe Busquin, launche the ambitious and comprehensive Visioi 2020 plan (Flight International 6-1 February 2001) to map out industry R&I goals for the next 20 years. Now, however, as the EC plans its outlay for the 2002-2006 Sixth Framework Pro gramme, aeronautics industry leaders fea their sector will lose financial ground ii the next round of R&D funding. Under the tentative Sixth Framewoil financial plan, the EC has linked aeronau tics and space into a single category am proposes to give the two sectors €1 billioi in total. In addition, aspects of air traffn management infrastructure facilitating tb so-called "single European sky" are to b funded under the aeronautics and spao designation. The €1 billion reflects a €301 Goldin makes the jump to leapfrog technologies RAMON LOPEZ / WASHINGTON DC The US debate over research and development spending priorities is particularly vocal over the future of aeronautics. While the US Congress ultimately controls the purse strings at NASA, administrator Dan Goidin - a holdover from the Clinton presidency - has signalled clearly where he intends to spend his research dollars. He plans to restructure aerospace research to focus resources on long-term revolutionary "leapfrog" technologies, ending NASA support for near-term product development by US industry. The restructuring is part of NASAs fiscal year 2002 bud get request, which seeks a 2% increase in funding to $14.5 billion. The spending blueprint, for example, earmarks funding for "morphing air craft" which change their shape using smart structures and controls, but is at the expense of programmes with a narrow, near-term focus. NASAs $26 million rotorcraft pro gramme will be terminated, since "it achieved its goals, and there is only marginal improvement left," says Goldin, adding that "NASA is no longer in the business of subsidising industry to make incremental steps. We are moving away from mature technologies to bold new technolo gies that will excite people to come back to aerospace. We need break throughs. NASA can't support companies with near-term product development." Goldin says an R&D strategy to only undertake long-term, high-risk civil programmes reflects the market shift from the US military to the com mercial sector as the major customer for aerospace products. It also accommodates the flat budgets of the past several years which "required hard decisions about research priorities," including cancel lation of the High Speed Research Programme and the Advanced Subsonics Technology Project, and the planned termination of NASAs rotorcraft work. Goldin believes heli copter R&D is "too near-term and not sufficiently focused on the advanced concepts that might allow vertical flight to play a critical role in our future air transportation system." He says: "Let me be crystal clear We aren't going to look out the back window of the bus drfeanjlhg fond memories of the way things were. Fond memories do not gel us to the future. Instead, we will be driving the bus, looking forward, making tough decisions and determining our future. "We're not interested in yesterday. We are here to create tomorrow. This is not your father's or your mother's NASA. So, even with a tight budget, we are reinvesting for the future," Goldin adds. But Roy Harris, chief technical advisor for the NASA Aeronautics Support Team (NAST), says Goldin should open his eyes. The retired aeronautics director for NASAs Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, believes the USA can avoid '< crisis in civil and military aviation if th( nation maintains a complete aeronau tics programme. The non-profit coalition says America's historic lead in aviation is at risk from continued 62 12-18 JUNE 2001 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.fliqhtinternational.cor
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