Sunday 1 April marked 100 years to the day since the Royal Air Force was formed. The award-winning RAF Museum in NW London hosted over 15,000 visitors across the weekend 1-2 April with a series of activities and events to mark this historic event.

Visitors to the Museum were treated to theatre, family activities and a special appearance from the RAF Baton Relay team.

The Front of House Theatre Company (illustrated) breathed life into some of the amazing stories set among the Museum’s First World War exhibition. Visitors were able to talk to and interact with actors in character representing the voices of the men and women that are part of the RAF Story.

At the close of the day, serving RAF personnel carried the RAF100 Baton into the Museum grounds. The Baton is being carried across the country and around the world, visiting 100 locations in 100 days. The relay started on Sunday (1 April) in central London and the team of RAF runners were met at the Museum by the Museum’s CEO Maggie Appleton who ran the last leg of the relay with the team.

ICAO Secretary General Dr Fang Liu opened the International Council of Aircraft Owner and Pilot Association’s (IAOPA) World Assembly in Queenstown, New Zealand, during the week commencing 25 March, where she took advantage of the opportunity to encourage representatives of general aviation to be more proactive in their ongoing contributions to ICAO’s work.

Dr Liu explained: ‘ICAO remains fully committed to safeguarding the fundamental global interoperability of civil aviation, a key aspect of why aircraft operations have become such an incredible force for peace and economic prosperity in the world. However, when civil aviation authorities fail to take into account the differences between commercial air transport and general aviation, the results can too often be the over-regulation of the general aviation sector.’

It was announced from Montréal on 16 March that the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) had reappointed Dr Fang Liu of the People’s Republic of China as Secretary General of the UN Specialized Agency for a second three-year term, beginning 1 August 2018.

Dr Liu commented: ‘It is my great honour to accept this re-appointment and to continue to drive the transformational changes I have begun across ICAO and its Regional Offices in order to make this a more streamlined and efficient UN specialized agency leading such a dynamic sector.’

‘At present, we are carrying out a full investigation regarding the outage, the implementation of the contingency procedure and the recovery phase, in order to ensure that we identify all necessary improvements and implement them. The trigger event for the outage has been identified and measures have been put in place to ensure no reoccurrence.’

It was reported from Madrid last month that EUROCONTROL, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation, through its Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre (MUAC), and the Founding Members of the iTEC Collaboration, some of Europe’s largest Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSP’s), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly develop components that will enable interoperability between their respective Air Traffic Management systems and help deliver a Single European Sky.

This MoU will see the two organisations jointly develop the Flight Object Manager (FOM) and the System Wide Information Management (SWIM) Node that will underpin the future exchange of flight trajectory data. Sharing of this data is essential to deliver the SESAR concept of operations outlined in the European ATM Master plan and meet the growing demand for air travel in Europe in a safe and efficient way.

Vietnam Airlines is the only airline in Vietnam and the second in the world to successfully operate the most modern new-generation A350-900 XWB when it received the first delivery in 2015. This A350 fleet allows Vietnam Airlines to complete intercontinental long-haul services which is a key factor to the success of the airline in the region.

Since its establishment, Vietnam Airlines has put Europe at the heart of its operation and identified France as the main market and gateway to Europe. This strategic approach started in 1994 when Vietnam Airlines laid the foundation by opening a Vietnam Airlines representative office in France and began operating flights to Paris via Dubai by Boeing 767 ten years later.

Each year, about 100 tonnes of defunct satellites, uncontrolled spacecraft, spent upper stages and discarded items like instrument covers are dragged down by Earth’s upper atmosphere, ending their lives in flaming arcs across the sky. This news was reported in a communiqué issued by the European Space Agency on 30 March.

While still in orbit, these and many other objects are tracked by a US military radar network, which shares the data with ESA, since Europe has no such capability of its own.

It is the task of ESA’s Space Debris team to look at these data and issue updates to ESA Member States and partner civil authorities around the globe.

In the words of Holger Krag, head of ESA’s Space Debris Office: ‘With our current knowledge and state-of-the-art technology, we are not able to make very precise predictions. There will always be an uncertainty of a few hours in all predictions – even just days before the re-entry, the uncertainty window can be very large. The high speeds of returning satellites mean they can travel thousands of kilometres during that time window, and that makes it very hard to predict a precise location of re-entry.’

The Crew Connectivity 2018 Survey Report, sponsored by KVH Industries and Intelsat, shows digital transformation underway in the maritime industry.

According to the report, more seafarers than ever have access to connectivity. Some 75% of seafarers can now use the Internet at sea, which is a rise of 32% or over half a million more crew (520,000, to be exact) since the last survey three years ago. Futurenautics Maritime conducted the first survey in 2012, in an effort to provide data of value to the maritime industry.

On 23 March it was reported from Northwood, NW London, that Fleet Commanders from Allied and Partnership for Peace nations and senior NATO command representatives had met there for the annual Maritime Operational Commanders Conference (MOCC) two days previously. This conference serves as a platform to openly discuss maritime topics to enhance cooperation across the maritime domain and increase cohesion of effort while providing value back to national navies.

A notice has been received from Dr Simon Blainey, Lecturer in Transportation at the Transportation Research Group, Faculty of Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton.

He writes: ‘This is an exciting opportunity to join the Faculty of Engineering and the Environment at its new Boldrewood Innovation Campus in Southampton. This post is associated with the Transportation Group, a multidisciplinary group founded in 1967 and recognised worldwide as a leading University centre for research, teaching and knowledge exchange in transportation.’

Wärtsilä, a global technology group headquartered in Finland, announced on 19 March that it has acquired Transas, an innovative, digital solutions provider headquartered in the UK.

This acquisition is a recognition of Transas’ strong position in the maritime technologies market and its technological leadership. The transaction will allow Transas to work within a global maritime company in delivering its solutions, bringing scale and value to the industry in need of innovation leadership.

The Danish Maritime Authority is hosting the final conference of the EU-funded digitalisation project EfficienSea2 on 5/6 April.
Efficiensea2 has seen 32 partners from 12 countries collaborating since 2015 to create a more digital maritime world, focusing on developing new communication platforms, international IT-standards and digital services. The project supports the effort recently initiated by the Danish Government through a plan for maritime growth and a digital strategy.

At the project’s final conference in Copenhagen on 5-6 April the resolutions arrived at and communication platforms delivered will be presented and demonstrated. High level representatives from BIMCO, IALA and the Danish Maritime
Authority will also discuss the strategic perspectives of the project.

Moshe Idan, IAAC President, sends a reminder that the deadline for submissions to GSC’18 is nearing.
“Please find the call for presentations for GSC’18 – the 2018 annual workshop of Graduate Students in Systems and Control, where graduate students in systems and control from Israeli universities are invited to present their latest research results. These meetings provide an opportunity for the graduate students to present their work to senior faculty members and to interested delegates from industry, as well as get acquainted with the work of their peers.”

The deadline for submissions is 23 March, 2018.

Trinity House has completed the modernisation of Mumbles Lighthouse in South Wales, upgrading the site’s aids to navigation and control systems to provide simplified maintenance and reliable performance that will extend the life of the station for a further 20 years. This upgrade included refurbishing the solar and power system that supports the new main and standby 15 nautical mile LED lights: two equal range lights which maintain the safety service to the mariner in the event of a failure.

Mumbles is an island several hundred metres off-shore with one of the UK’s largest tidal ranges, with no proper boat landing and a rocky foreshore. Two days of busy helicopter operations delivered numerous loads of equipment and materials, including five cabins, 6,000 litres of fuel and 12,000 litres of water which enabled the site to be established and facilities to be built allowing staff to stay on station, which enabled the welfare and navigational upgrade phases to commence.

Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine USS Hartford (SSN 768) and Seawolfclass fast attack submarine, USS Connecticut (SSN 22) both surfaced within the Arctic Circle on 10 March 10 during the multinational maritime Ice Exercise (ICEX) 2018 north of Alaska. Both fast-attack submarines as well as HMS Trenchant (S91), are participating in the biennial exercise in the Arctic to train and validate warfighting capabilities of submarines in extreme cold-water conditions. ICEX provides the US Submarine Force and partners from the Royal Navy an opportunity to test combat and weapons, sonar, communications and navigation systems in a challenging operational environment. Furthermore, the unique acoustic undersea environment is further compounded by the presence of a contoured, reflective ice canopy when submerged.

The 2018 MWC held in Barcelona attracted more than 107,000 visitors, including 7,700 CEOs, from 205 countries and territories worldwide. GSMA Europe organised and facilitated a comprehensive programme for senior delegates from the EU institutions:

– At the 5th GSMA Europe-EIF high-level roundtable, entitled ‘The Global 5G Promise’, legislators, regulators and industry leaders discussed the forthcoming 5G revolution.

– The European Parliament delegation visited MWC exhibition stands, including those of DT, Orange, Telefónica, Huawei, Nokia, InterDigital and Samsung.

– Vice President Andrus Ansip and Commissioner Gabriel also attended MWC, where they visited the exhibition, the GSMA Innovation City and participated in a roundtable discussion with the CEOs of European mobile operators. In addition, VP Ansip joined the Ministerial Programme panel ‘Supporting the Transition to 5G’ and delivered a keynote on The Future of the Industry: Transatlantic Digital Policy and Regulation. Commissioner Gabriel joined the Trans-Atlantic Policy Dialogue.

– The GSMA Europe-BEREC Roundtable provided an excellent opportunity for the heads of European operators and other industry executives to discuss regulatory developments and the challenges ahead.

– Finally, the GSMA Government Leadership Award went to Estonia. Mats Granryd, Director General of the GSMA, presented the award to Urve Palo, the Estonian Minister of Entrepreneurship and Information Technology.

MWC 2019 will be held on 25-28 February in Barcelona.

The Young Aviation Professionals Programme is a special development programme targeted for the next generation of aviation professionals. It is led by ICAO in conjunction with IATA and ACI. The twelve-month annual programme is open to candidates who have advanced university qualifications and a minimum of two years professional working experience in aviation-related regulatory activities and/or the air transport industry. Once they have completed the programme, participants are well positioned to help satisfy the rapidly growing talent and innovation needs of the global aviation community.

Abstracts are invited for ION GNSS+ 2018: GNSS + Other Sensors in Today’s
Marketplace, the 31st International Technical Meeting of the ION Satellite Division taking place from 24 to 28 September 2018 (with Tutorials on 24 to 25
September) at the Hyatt Regency Miami in Miami, Florida.

ION GNSS+ 2018 is the world’s largest technical meeting and showcase of GNSS technology, products and services and will bring together international leaders in GNSS and related positioning, navigation and timing fields to present new research, introduce new technologies, update current policy, demonstrate products and exchange ideas.
Note: This year ION GNSS+ 2018 features two unique tracks, each with different
abstract and manuscript submission requirements.

With the F-35 fighter aircraft being introduced in Europe currently, there is a growing need to establish European regional maintenance capabilities.

Terma has substantial expertise and experience in developing, designing, and manufacturing electronic components and software to industries and customers within the international defence market.

Scandinavian Avionics has substantial expertise and experience within the areas of maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) of avionics components for both civil and military aircraft and helicopters.

In practice, Terma and Scandinavian Avionics will:

– Jointly, as one team, provide a proposal on support of F-35 avionics toward the F-35 Programme Office;

– Seek mutual MRO possibilities on the EH-101 helicopter, UH-60R Seahawk, and C-130;

– Jointly invest in depot stand-up capability and seek possibilities to establish the facility in close cooperation with the Danish Ministry of Defence.

Moshe Idan,1 president of Member Institute of IAIN, the Israeli Association for Automatic Control (IAAC) advises that the 4th HIT Workshop on Mathematics and Control Theory – A meeting around mathematics, control, navigation and related fields – will be held on 1 May 2018 at the HIT Holon Institute of Technology, Building 3, Conference Room, Holon, 5810201, Israel.

See the programme and the flyer.

ECDIS Ltd, IAIN Corporate Member, is a privately-owned UK-registered company. Originally offering just the IMO 1.27 Generic ECDIS course, it went on to become the largest global independent company in its field, now offering over 30 STCW courses.

Their original IMO 1.27 Generic ECDIS course is now delivered around the world every week to thousands of seafarers.

EcdisENC.com, part of the group which provides services to over 250 shipping companies globally, claims to be the world’s cheapest ENC chart distributor.

US Department of Defense, Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office (CTTSO), the Israel Ministry of Defense, Defense Research and Development Directorate (MAFAT), and the MIT Enterprise Forum of Israel have announced CTTSC3, a unique contest to identify and support start-ups, entrepreneurs, and innovators that are driving the next breakthroughs in technology for combating terrorism.

This contest is open to start-ups worldwide with technology that can help prevent terrorism, protect people, data, or infrastructure from terrorists, assist counter-terrorism and law-enforcement organizations, or facilitate recovery from terrorist attacks. (This year the contest also includes a separate special track for Urban Navigation technologies).

It was announced from Linthicum Heights, Maryland, on 1 March that MITAGS-PMI has established the latest Navigation Skills Assessment Program® (NSAP) training centre in Mumbai, India. The new facility is located on the campus of Anglo-Eastern Maritime Training Centre (AEMTC), India’s leading maritime institute.

The NSAP® is a risk-based measurement tool utilizing Class A Full Mission Simulators to objectively measure mariner skill compliance against internationally accepted STCW standards. It focuses specifically on the core skills required of licensed deck officers and includes a one-on-one discussion about the specific skills of each mariner assessed by the programme.

Seafarers depend on a robust distress and safety system when life is in danger at sea. The fifth session of the IMO Sub-Committee on Navigation, Communications and Search and Rescue convened from 19-23 February and focused on core areas of IMO’s work relating to safety at sea.

WCO-2018 intends to provide a unique international platform for exchange of ideas and experiences amongst researchers, practitioners and regulators in this field. It is expected that more than 120 oral and 40 posters will be presented together with plenary lectures.

Focus will be on the fields of Ocean Economy, Maritime Law, Ocean Engineering, Ocean Energy, Green Port, Shipping, Marine Management and Environment Protection, Ocean Science and so forth. These presentations will identify or offer solutions to problems, use case studies, identify knowledge gaps or collaborative opportunities, and discuss broader applications.