Nomination for the VFS-UK Chapter Awards 2024 is now open!
Recording for VFS Seminar: Role of the Helicopter in Aerial Fire Fighting by Prof. Antonio Filippone
On 20th November 2024, Prof Antonio Filippone of the University of Manchester delivered a webinar on aerial firefighting using helicopters. This is part of the Vertical Flight Society UK Chapter seminar series 2024.
Fighting fires is done increasingly for the air by using a variety of assets, because of accessibility, extent of the fires and urgency. Fires now affect regions of the world that are not associated to extreme heat waves, including northern Canada, arctic Russia, and Siberia. The firefighting fleet is made of fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, most of which are converted from other uses. There is a very limited number of vehicles specifically designed for firefighting, but no helicopter. All helicopters are converted from other types of missions.
This webinar reviewed the role and characteristics of the helicopters used today, and makes an assessment on response time, drop of retardants, cycle, and overall cost. A novel aspect is the analysis of flight tracking data. ADS-B data have been collected and analysed for several vehicles and fire incidents across. Flight tracks indicate patterns of cycles, duration, speeds, altitudes and returning to base. The data can be used to learn about performance, effectiveness of firefighting techniques, risks to flight safety, and direct operating costs.
Find out the seminar recording on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMgB2raj4EI
More seminars are planned for the near future. Please stay tuned for our media!
VFS-UK Chapter Event 2024: Updates and Agenda
Only two weeks to go! Join us at the VFS-UK Annual Chapter Event on 23 February in London for talks on helicopter flight tests and exciting updates on new eVTOL start-ups. Join us in celebrating the VFS-UK Award Ceremony and learn about the career highlights of our esteemed lifetime achievement awardees. Stay tuned, book your dates and trips now!
VFS-UK Chapter Awards 2023
Each year, the Vertical Flight Society-UK Chapter presents annual Chapter Awards to celebrate the UK rotorcraft community’s past, present, and future.
We are honoured to present the Chapter Awards 2023 for the following individuals:
Dmitrij Usov (University of Manchester),
Richard E Brown (Sophrodyne Aerospace),
Bryan Finlay (Dstl), and Jeremy Graham (Leonardo Helicopters).
Join us in celebrating their extraordinary achievements at the award ceremony during our Annual Chapter Event at the Royal Airforce Club in London, on 23 Feb 2024. !
VFS-UK Annual Chapter Event: Updates and Agenda
The Vertical Flight Society-UK Chapter is organising the Annual Chapter Event 2024 on the 23rd of Feb, 2024. This year, in addition to invited talks by experts in the rotorcraft field and ceremony for chapter awards, we will also hear some exciting announcements during the event.
Stay tuned and book your dates!
This event will be held at the historical Royal Air Force Club in London. All VFS members living or working in the UK are cordially invited to participate. If you haven’t booked your place, please be quick as tickets are selling out. You can use the Eventbrite below:
Vertical Flight Society – UK Chapter Annual Event Tickets, Fri 23 Feb 2024 at 10:00 | Eventbrite
VFS-UK Annual Chapter Event 2024: Book your place and save the date!
The Vertical Flight Society-UK Chapter is organising the Annual Chapter Event 2024 on the 23rd of Feb, 2024. The event is structured around invited talks by experts in the rotorcraft field. It is also an excellent opportunity to discuss and shape the future of our chapter and future activities.
This event will be held at the historical Royal Air Force Club in London. All VFS members living or working in the UK are cordially invited to participate.
Book your place and save the date now through Eventbrite at
Vertical Flight Society – UK Chapter Annual Event Tickets, Fri 23 Feb 2024 at 10:00 | Eventbrite
Please follow our social media for updates and agenda (tbc).
Call for Nominations: VFS UK Chapter Award 2023
We are calling for nominations for Chapter Awards 2023!
- Chapter Award Categories:
David Gibbings Award for Early Career Achievement: Awarded to a person under the age of 30 for outstanding achievement in vertical flight. An additional award may be made in this category to those who have overcome adversity to deliver their achievements.
President’s Award for Lifetime Achievement: Awarded to a person who has made significant contributions to vertical flight over an extended period of time on multiple projects.
Award for Extraordinary Work in Vertical Flight: Awarded to a person who has made an outstanding contribution to vertical flight through exceptional work on a single project in the last two years.
Anybody working in Vertical Flight in the UK is eligible to be nominated!
- How to submit your nominations:
Please submit your nominations to ukvfsawards@gmail.com, detailing the achievements of the nominee and the positive impact of these achievements on vertical flight. A summary of the career history of the nominee should be provided. Nominations are to be
made by somebody who knows the work of the nominee well and where possible nominations should be seconded by a senior individual within the nominee’s organisation.
- Deadline:
The deadline for nominations is 31 December 2023.
- Awards presentation:
The awards will be presented at the 2024 VFS UK Event, expected to be held at the RAF Club in February 2024. Please see the guidance below on how to submit a nomination for an award.
Joint RAeS/VFS-UK Conference Concluded Successfully!
The joint RAeS/VFS-UK conference on turbulence effects have been a great success! The event was held at Shrigley Hall, Cheshire, on 24-05.
This event brought together brilliant presenters from the UK and abroad. The audience was treated with 12 extraordinary presentations over a tight day, sparking insightful discussions.
A great thank you to all presenters and participants! The presentation details will be made available to all participants soon.
VFS-UK/RAeS Conference: Technical Program Released!
The technical program and instructions for the joint VFS-UK/RAeS Conference: “Turbulence, the unseen threat to vertical flight” are now released!
This event will take place at Shrigley Hall Hotel & Spa, Pott Shrigley, Cheshire, SK10 5SB, 24th May 2023. Leading experts around the UK will gather to deliver outstanding presentations on turbulent effects.
- Technical Program
| 9:30 | Welcome & Introduction |
| 9:45 | Paper1 Federico Rovere, G. Barakos, and R. Steijl, “Brownout Modelling“, Univ. of Glasgow |
| 10:15 | Paper2 Tao Zhang, George Barakos, Furqan, and Malcolm Foster, “High-fidelity Aerodynamic Modelling of the Operation of a Heavy-lift eVTOL“, Univ. of Leicester, Univ. of Glasgow, GKN Aerospace |
| 10:45 | Paper3 Sam Bull, Dami Adeyemi, and Dom Wilson, “Experimental Investigation of a Mini-tab Device for Whirl Flutter Control“, Univ. of Bath |
| Coffee break | |
| 11:00 | Paper4 Neale A. Watson, Mark Prior, Ieuan Owen, Mark D. White, “The Effect of Turbulent Wakes on Rotorcraft Recovery to an Offshore Platform“, Univ. of Liverpool |
| 11:30 | Paper5 Nicholas Fernande, Christopher Dadswell, Ieuan Owen, Mark D. White, “Development of a Real-Time Piloted Simulator Framework for Rotorcraft Operations in Dynamic Environment “, Univ. of Liverpool |
| 12:00 | Paper6 Dave Howson, “Development of a wind turbulence criterion for the safe operation of helicopters to offshore installations“, CAA (online presentation) |
| Lunch break | |
| 14:00 | Paper7 V. Page and M. Jump, “Simulation of a quadcopter tethered to a fixed object in a reduced order model turbulent environment“, Univ. of Liverpool |
| 14:30 | Paper8 I. C. Ardelean, D. Usov, B. Parslew, P. Hollingsworth, and A. Fillipone, “Verification of Energy-Based Path Planning Methods in Urban Wind Environment for Aerial Robotics“, Univ. of Manchester |
| 15:00 | Paper9 Lars Christian Munch, Rémi Jacques Gérard Gan, Jacob Bach Meldal, and Thomas Vesth, “Characterization of freestream- and wind turbine wake-added turbulence for Rotor-Nacelle Assembly- and support structure design purposes”, Oersted |
| Coffee break | |
| 15:15 | Paper10 Jamie M, Sayer, Merrick Stanley, “Flight Model Interaction with Airflow Disturbance Field”, QinetiQ |
| 15:45 | Paper11 Terry Bullock, “Impacts of Turbulence and Thermal Plumes on Offshore Eastern Canada Helicopter Operations“, WSP |
| 16:15 | Paper12 Douglas Barnes, “Regulatory Environment and Issues in relation to UAS Operation”, AAIB |
| 16:45 | Summary, discussion |
| 17:30 | End |
- Instruction for Presenters
- The regular presentation time is 25 minutes + 5 minutes for Q&A. Presentation as PowerPoint or PDF.
- A laptop, projector, and microphone will be provided on-site. It is recommended that you upload/copy your presentation to the laptop before your session. If you wish to use your personal equipment, please connect and calibrate in advance before your session.
- Virtual attendance: if you cannot attend in person and prefer a virtual presentation, please record your presentation and send to the Organising Committee by 22-05. Please make sure to connect for the Q&A session (Where appropriate, presentations will be synchronised online. Links are to be confirmed.)
- The presentation language is English. Please prepare all your documents and slides in English.
- There are no specifications or guidelines for the design of your slides. However, please use standard fonts such as Arial, Geneva, Helvetic or Lucida Sans in your presentation. Otherwise, we cannot exclude the possibility of unintentional text displacement in your presentation on the presentation computer.
- Copyright Statement: the authors confirm that they and/or their company or organisation hold copyright on all original material included. The authors also confirm that they have obtained permission, from the copyright holder of any third-party material included in this paper, to publish it as part of their presentation. The authors confirm that they give permission or have obtained permission from the copyright holder to present at this event.
For more info and updates, please follow the official site of VFS-UK at uk.vtol.org and Linkedin ‘Vertical Flight Society UK Chapter’. We look forward to seeing all the attendees at the event!
Registration open for joint VFSUK-RAeS Conference 2023
Conference registration is now open for the joint VFSUK-RAeS Conference: “Turbulence, the unseen threat to vertical flight”. The conference will take place at Shrigley Hall Hotel & Spa, Pott Shrigley, Cheshire, SK10 5SB, 24th – 25th May 2023. Leading experts around the UK will gather to deliver outstanding presentations on turbulent effects. The technical programme and instructions for speakers will be released soon.
- Conference Registration
For conference registration, please use the online store set by the University of Manchester below:
- Hotel Booking
If you need to book a room at Shrigley Hall, please use the Eventbrite link below. The link is valid until 17 April, after which rooms will have to be booked directly with the hotel.
We look forward to seeing you at the conference!