UK Government civilian research fleet

[Daysleeper]

Is it me, or have we (HM government) got an inappropriately diverse way of managing a lot of aeroplanes doing similar-ish work for ultimately the same funding body? Looking at that list you've got a mix of government and contractor crews, government and contractor ownership, three difference registration nationalities, and separate management scattered across numerous sites and organisations.

(3) Does anybody know of any attempts in the past to bring these numerous bodies together in any way - not necessarily managerially, but at-least talking to each other about practices and lessons learned? (Or even sharing crews, given that many of these aircraft are flying relatively low hours.)

The problem with trying to simplify this is that the point is to put a sensor package in a particular place at a particular time, The registry and type of airframe is not very relevant to the data gathering so long as it can fly the mission profile.

The BAS fleet need a rugged turboprop for obvious reasons. The FAAM aircraft was/is a one off provided by the prime contractor because it was going spare. The rest are based in the cheapest twin piston that has the endurance and lifting capacity for that particular mission.

There has been some talk in the past about this mix, but the sensor loads are quite diverse and the mission profiles and weather requirements equally so. The advantage of the old twin piston is the low airframe costs so it can be equipped for a specific role and then parked waiting for the weather. And the low hours may be over an annual basis but on "good" weather days they will all be flying their socks off.

These are generally niche operations that in the grand scheme of things pay peanuts but form a very significant part of the revenue of the smaller operators who actually do it. Trying to homogenise the contracts to a single management company would result in something that is probably larger than many could cope with but too small to attract the really big players. The loosing bidders would go out of business and then there would be no competition thus overall cost to HMG would go up.

Just my thoughts....

[Jetstream Rider]

Don't know if you have this covered already, but have a look at Directflight's website (they operate the Met Office 146/RJ), it seems they have Cessna 406's too - although not in a flight test role.

Directflight - Off-shore Aerial Surveillance

[Bear 555]

Cranfield Jetstreams

The University (NFLC) operates J31 G-NFLA as a flying classroom, but interestingly also has J-31 G-BWWW on its AOC, operating it on behalf of BAE Systems conducting R&D mainly on UAV Systems.

If you assume some of that work is MoD funded then I guess it's public money?

[JimCrawford]

To clarify an earlier point: When Snoopy (C130 XV208) of the Met Research Flight lived at Farnborough there was indeed a dedicated military crew, not TP. I believe it was regarded by some Herc crew as a desirable posting because it involved considerable autonomy and diverse and interesting flying all over the world. Much more fun than trucking. The dedicated crew, based in the same building as the MetO science staff, also meant that they developed an expertise in understanding what we wanted and we developed a corresponding expertise in what they could provide. It also generated a strong mutual respect. When Snoopy went to Boscombe the crew was drawn from the Heavy Aircraft Test Squadron and so some continuity was lost, the science staff staying at Farnborough (although with a few false alarms to move with the aircraft) until the eventual split move to Exeter (MetO HQ) or Cranfield (FAAM).

Fond memories, some in a rather alcoholic haze, good times.

Jim

[Dusty_B]

I wouldn't call survey work 'research'...
And the OS is a totally self-funded agency, so the aircraft are not publicly funded.
GANAF however would fall into that category, but isn't dedicated to the task - she's for hire to whoever needs that type of platform. Same goes for any other ad-hoc charters that research agencies might want jacked up. And sticking with the DC3 theme, if you include the fisheries and MCA patrol aircraft, then you can include the Dakota and Electra spray ships too! That's a wide net...

[Trim Stab]

What about those civilian-registered DA42 surveillance aircraft also on the RAF register?

[nodrama]

With regards to the 5 BAS aircraft:

They spend at least 6 months of the year in (and ferrying to/from) Antarctica. In addition, some of them are sometimes used for shorter detachments to Greenland.

For the majority of the rest of the time they are in maintenance, nowadays usually in Canada, and I wouldn't class them as low-hour aircraft. In Antarctica they tend to fly as much as the weather will allow them to.

BAS operational planning can be 3 years + in advance and the 'flying season' is fairly intense, so the aircraft are pretty well tied up for BAS use only.

Equipment used for survey work, e.g. mag, camera, I believe is a NERC asset and not purely used by BAS.

[ninja-lewis]

Edinburgh University has a Diamond HK36 (G-GEOS) used for geosciences research and survey. Not sure how much, if any, funding is provided by NERC or sources outside UoE (which you could as a public source in it's own right really).