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Episode 42 of the “Aerospace Ambition Podcast” featuring Prof. Ulrich Schumann (DLR) is out!

Talking Points

• Influential Mentors and Career Journey: Ulrich reflects on formative mentorships, including ties to Werner Heisenberg, and a career spanning fluid dynamics, turbulence, and contrail science.
• Contrail Science Essentials: An accessible explanation of contrail formation, persistence, and their climate impact, including the Schmidt Appleman Criterion and radiative effects.
• Advances in Contrail Research: Key milestones in understanding contrails, evolving public discourse on aviation’s non-CO2 effects, and debates shaped by influential studies.
• Contrail Prediction Models: Insights into CoCiP’s framework, integration with pycontrails, and advancements through observational datasets and modeling techniques.
• Future of Contrail Management: Exploring bold visions for contrail mitigation, trial strategies, and the role of contrail science in sustainable aviation.

Guest

Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schumann is a world leading expert in atmospheric physics. He earned his doctorate in Turbulence in 1973, was Director of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at DLR the German Aerospace Center from 1982 until 2012, and now lectures on aviation climate impact at Technical University Munich.

Professor Schumann is widely known for his seminal works on contrail science, contributing to the 1999 IPCC report and developing the contrail cirrus prediction tool CoCiP. He has also cooperated on various aviation research projects with the FAA, EUROCONTROL, NATS, ECMWF, airlines and engine industry.

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Episode 41 of the “Aerospace Ambition Podcast” featuring Dr Regina Pouzolz (Deutsche Aircraft) is out!

Talking Points

• What makes the regional aviation market unique, and how does it shape Deutsche Aircraft’s focus?
• Why has Deutsche Aircraft chosen e-kerosene for its D328-eco turboprop over alternatives like hydrogen or battery-electric solutions?
• What were the key findings from the Climart project about contrail formation with "non-drop-in fossil kerosene"?
• How important are fuel standards like those set by ASTM for advancing sustainable aviation technologies?
• What are the biggest technical and regulatory challenges in bringing the D328-eco to market, and how is Deutsche Aircraft addressing them?

Guest

Regina has nearly two decades of experience in aerospace and a passion for minimizing aviation's environmental footprint. She previously worked at Airbus’ Future Projects Office in Toulouse and as a Senior Consultant at McKinsey. Later, at MTU Aero Engines, Regina played a pivotal role in integrating climate impact assessments into the evaluation of future engine concepts. She now is the Director of Sustainable Flight at Deutsche Aircraft.

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Episode 40 of the “Aerospace Ambition Podcast” featuring Dr Alexandru Rap (University of Leeds) is out!

Talking Points

• Key drivers of aviation's climate impact: CO₂, contrails, NOₓ, and their interactions
• Contrail formation factors: humidity, engine efficiency, and soot emissions
• Advances in modelling persistent contrails and mitigating their warming effects
• Fuel innovations: reducing soot with bio-kerosene, e-kerosene, and hydrotreating
• Hydrogen aviation's potential: increased water vapour vs reduced soot emissions
• Lessons from military aviation on contrail avoidance for climate mitigation

Guest

Alex is an Associate Professor in Atmospheric Science at the University of Leeds’ School of Earth and Environment. Two of his many areas of expertise are aviation’s climate impact and contrail parameterisations for climate models. He led his university’s work for the ATI that is the UK Aerospace Technology institute, as part of the FlyZero program and is now working with Airbus and Rolls-Royce on the Contrails Assessment for future aircraft and propulsion architectures and aerosol cloud interactions.