THE TALE OF TWO CITIES ...

[Michael Grove]

 ... and the potential future of commercial aviation with

 regard to the consequences of the COVID pandemic and

 respect for the burgeoning Climate Catastrophe and as

 was reported by the sustainablesociety over a year ago:

 "Climate catastrophe requires human responses. Mitigation  

  is now probably too late, as we’ve passed 400 ppm of

  carbon dioxide permanently. This means we are locked

  into temperature rises above the 2 degree ‘safe’ level. This

  is taking us into a new era, the Anthropocene, beyond a

  ‘safe operating space for humanity (Rockstrom et al 2009).

  Therefore we will have to plan for, and more urgently talk

  about, adaptation, disaster management and conflict

  resolution. However and in what manner we come

  together, or not, to address the fact of climate change and

  all of the other ecological challenges, this a ‘wicked social

  problem’ exacerbated by contemporary changes in the

  geopolitical, social and technological order (Ury 2011,

  Streeck 2016, Harari 2016). The Anthropocene may well be

  characterised as a period of insecurity, indeterminancy and

  dissipation of the social order into a miasma of dystopia.

  Human societies are experiencing the dialectic between

  risks arising from modernity and the solutions put forward

  to manage those risks (Beck 1986)." 

  IN the meantime as Alan Tovey, The Telegraph Industry

  Editor has reported that...

 

  "Electric airliners and jets flying at five times the speed of

   sound could be a reality within a decade after Rolls-Royce

   linked up with Reaction Engines, a British business which

   is pushing the limits of aerospace technology.

   The companies have agreed a strategic partnership to

   investigate how Reaction Engines’ designs can be used in

   high-speed aircraft, and how its groundbreaking cooling

   technology can be integrated into military and civil

   aircraft. Oxfordshire-based Reaction Engines has

   developed a “Sabre” engine capable of operating at more

   than 2,500mph and which combines a conventional gas

   turbine with the properties of a rocket. This means it can

   work like a normal jet but switch to rocket-mode fuelled

   by liquified oxygen at high altitude where the air thins

   out. A key part of the design is a super-efficient heat

   exchanger which is light and compact enough to be used

   in aerospace.

   Managing heat generated at high speeds is a vital for

   supersonic flight and also has spin-off uses such as

   cooling, a major challenge for developing electric

   aircraft. It has extensive applications in the automotive

   world."