RAeS Hamburg Lecture in Cooperation with HAW Hamburg, DGLR, VDI & ZAL

The German "Federal Office for Information Security", in German: "Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (BSI) is the German federal cybersecurity authority. During the last several years, it has been playing an increasingly larger role in the national air safety network. It acts as a cooperative partner together with different aviation organizations.

Hendrik Dibbern will describe the role of the BSI in the field of Cybersecurity in Aviation. The BSI works in a field of tension between supervision and cooperation. It deals also with future regulations.

2018 – 2020 Master of Social Science (MSSc) in International Security and Law at University of Southern Denmark.

2020 Start of work at BSI in the area of Critical Infrastructure in the Transport Sector.

Since 2023 Head of Division Cybersecurity at Airports (Referatsleiter W32 – Cybersicherheit an Flughäfen).

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We would like to thank the US Consulate General Hamburg for arranging this lecture. 

Lecture in English

John will discuss the future landscape of research in low-earth orbit following the retirement of the ISS, the development of privately-owned and commercially-operated space stations, and how the various teams are working to grow and develop their ideas, including how best to continue important international collaboration that has been yielding wide benefits over the past three decades.

John M. Horack, Ph.D., is the inaugural holder of the Neil Armstrong Chair in Aerospace Policy at The Ohio State University, with tenured, full-professor appointments in the College of Engineering’s Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering department and the John Glenn College of Public Affairs.  A 30-year veteran of the spaceflight industry, Dr. Horack also serves as the Senior Associate Dean of Engineering at Ohio State and is a globally-recognized leader in space-based research, flight hardware development, program management, and space policy.

Prior to joining Ohio State in 2016, he served for four years as Vice President of Teledyne Brown Engineering’s Space Systems group in Huntsville, Alabama, with responsibility for overseeing all government and commercial Space programs, including Science, International Space Station Payload Operations, Test Support, Flight Hardware, Launch Vehicle and Component Development, and Earth Imaging, including the deployment of the MUSES commercial imaging platform to the ISS and the installation of state-of-the-art Hyperspectral instrumentation for commercial remote sensing.

He has authored or co-authored more than 100 papers and conference presentations.  Dr. Horack has spoken at numerous universities, research institutes, and industrial organizations, and served a term as a Vice President of the International Astronautical Federation. He is also a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Astronomical Society, and an Associate Fellow of the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics.  In April 2020, Dr. Horack was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society (UK). 

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Lecture in English

RAeS Hamburg lecture in cooperation with HAW Hamburg, DGLR, VDI & ZAL

The aviation sector has set ambitious targets to achieve net zero flight by 2050, there are several legislative, operational and technological pathways that will contribute towards this. Some of the greatest challenges are faced in developing solutions that will directly reduce the emissions of the aircraft.

This presentation will provide some insights into what technologies are being explored for future propulsion systems based on new and alternative fuels such as battery, hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuels. It will explain how the incumbent primes are adopting different approaches to decarbonisation, while emerging companies are seeking to carve out niches with their disruptive technologies and business models.

James has over 25 years of experience in applied research in industry and academia, specializing in materials and manufacturing. After a decade in the UK steel industry, he joined the University of Sheffield to advance metals processing, including additive manufacturing and electron beam welding.

As Future Propulsion Lead at AMRC, he works with industrial partners on zero-emission transport technologies. He authored a report on hydrogen storage for the ATI's FlyZero programme and collaborates with ATI’s Hydrogen Capability Network on hydrogen aircraft adoption.

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This year we are organising a visit to Airbus in Seville to see the A400 assembly line. The visit is planned for 31 October. The visit is limited to 20 participants.

This will be a largely “Do it yourself” visit. We are only organising the Airbus visit.  You will have to book your own travel and hotel etc. However recommended flights and hotels are contained in the attachment.

You should aim to arrive on Thursday, 30 Oct. The visit incl. lunch is on the morning of 31 Oct. and there will be more visits and an evening meal on Friday afternoon and evening.

The weekend is free so that you can return home or organise your own programme in Seville or Madrid etc.

Costs: the visit to Airbus is free. Costs for travel and hotel depend on individual requirements but guidelines are given in the attached tips.

You can download the reservation form here. Please complete and return it. We will then confirm your reservation with more information.

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RAeS Hamburg Lecture in Cooperation with HAW Hamburg, DGLR, VDI & ZAL

Aviation is undergoing a technological transformation in both the civil and military sectors, comparable to the introduction of fly-by-wire or autopilot. Advances in data processing, machine learning, and robotics enable numerous new applications and significant operational benefits. Modern software and associated infrastructure play a crucial role.

Applications created using data-processing and learning methods can analyze increasingly large amounts of data, relieving human operators of previously manual tasks and decision-making. Technological applications are also being developed that are crucial for the development of ground-breaking AI capabilities for autonomous air combat systems.

This presentation will highlight selected challenges and solutions for the use of AI algorithms in aviation, focusing on technological aspects as well as industrial and regulatory success factors.

Peter Czornik is a senior program manager at Helsing and is responsible for the contribution of Helsing to the KI Upgrade in the Eurofighter EK program. Previously he served as a Technical Officer in the Bundeswehr for 14 years.

Frederik Mattwich is a product manager for cognitive electronic battle at Helsing (Product Cirra). 

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RAeS Lecture in English

What is safe? Most national regulation is derived from the requirement to avoid recurrence of previous accidents, or to pursue best practice. It is often written around the assumption of a single-nation acquisition programme, where the customer can control the design and standards used. Most programmes nowadays are multi-national and sometimes the design is not conducted in accordance with recognised standards. In the modern (post Haddon-Cave) era of Type Certification and regulation, how do we deliver a safe FMS programme for a new, but 60-year-old capability, accommodating new technology and systems without asking everyone to start from scratch ?

In this lecture, as well as considering the philosophy of safety delivery, I will look at how we are developing the equipment contribution to the Air System Safety Case for the new Chinook H47 (Extended Range) helicopter for the RAF – through a Type Airworthiness Safety Assessment using Claims Argument and Evidence, supported by an assessment of Equipment Contribution the Risk to Life – to enable our Chief Engineer to understand and transfer risk to the ultimate risk taker. 

The aim of all this work is to make sure that when we send people into harm’s way, they’re at least travelling in a “safe” aircraft, so the presentation will look at the drive for proportionality and pragmatism whilst retaining appropriate levels of rigour. And why that matters.

Helen is currently a Principal Consultant at a small, specialist consultancy firm, SQEP Ltd, where she is the Head of Area for Safety, Environmental and Human Factors disciplines. A former RAF Engineer Officer, she spent nearly 25 years in the RAF and Civil Service, working in both engineering and programme management, working on multiple equipment types (Tristar, Hercules, Nimrod, Eurofighter, Communications and Complex Weapons) as well as having been responsible at a departmental level for Safety, Environment and Quality Assurance. Her early technical specialism of weapons (and ten years in bomb disposal) has resulted in a rigorous but pragmatic approach to hazard identification and risk management. She has served in different specialist roles, including accident investigation, delivery of expert witness testimony, equipment acquisition and recovery of troubled projects. She has also worked for over 15 years in communications, the defence industries and consultancy, implementing key network and intelligence projects, and delivering corporate and individual leadership and technical training, coaching and mentoring. 

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RAeS Hamburg Lecture in Cooperation with HAW Hamburg, DGLR, VDI & ZAL

Recent years have seen an explosion in aeronautical creativity, driven in part by the advent of cheap, powerful electric drive systems and efficient batteries. According to their many proponents, electric-powered aircraft that are capable of vertical takeoff and landing (aka. eVTOL aircraft) promise a future of quiet, efficient urban transport in which travel by air will be seen to be as commonplace and simple as hailing a taxi.

The aerodynamics of these vehicles is very complex, however. The wakes generated by their multiple rotors in the process of generating lift or thrust interact with each other to cause vibration and control problems, transitioning from vertical to horizontal flight is not a simple process, and, particularly when landing or taking off, a range of aerodynamic, structural dynamic and acoustic issues threaten to materialise. To what extent can, and has, the aerodynamic development of these vehicles benefited from past experience with helicopters and other historical VTOL aircraft, and to what extent have and will they require new knowledge to be derived and new design principles to be developed? To what extent do these vehicles pose new challenges that will need to be addressed in novel and creative ways? Perhaps more importantly, what can the study of this new class of vehicles add to the body of aeronautical knowledge as a whole?

Dr Richard Brown is an internationally respected authority on rotorcraft aerodynamics, with over thirty five years of experience in the field. After a long academic career, he now co-directs Sophrodyne Aerospace, an aerodynamics consultancy based in Glasgow. He was recently awarded the Royal Aeronautical Society's Bronze Medal for his contributions over the last decades to our understanding of rotorcraft aerodynamics, and also the Vertical Flight Society's award for extraordinary contributions to vertical flight, specifically for some of his work on eVTOL aerodynamics.

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This event will take place on Tuesday, 2 December 2025 at the Anglo-German Club, Harvestehuder Weg 44, 20149 Hamburg. 

Reception at 18:15

Dinner at 19:00

RAeS Hamburg lecture in cooperation with HAW Hamburg, DGLR,VDI &ZAL

Active control of air flow over aircraft wings can significantly improve aerodynamic performance. Pulsed jet actuation is a particularly promising technology - compared to steady jet injection, it can suppress flow separation much more effectively with reduced mass flow.

Outcomes from the Clean Sky 2 WINGPULSE project will be presented, which was aimed at demonstrating pulsed jet actuator concepts for flow separation control. Results from wind tunnel testing and high-fidelity simulations will be described.

Mark Jabbal was Principal Investigator on the WINGPULSE project. His main research interests lie in fluid flow control for drag reduction (experimental aerodynamics; optimization and vehicle system integration studies).

He is currently Associate Professor and Programme Director of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Nottingham and also a co-opted member of the Royal Aeronautical Society Aerodynamics Specialist Group.