Pioneering a dystopian future
It is the season of airshows, back on full power after two years of pandemic cancellations. The Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) finished at the weekend and the Farnborough International Airshow is running from Monday to Friday this week.
For those concerned about the environmental affects of aviation the airshows provide little consolation. While sustainability and low emission air travel are touted as key themes of the events, climate change experts and Parliament’s own Climate Change Committee are casting doubt on the government’s ‘jet zero’ policy on the future of aviation, launched this week. They warn that the technologies this relies on will not be commercially available until 2050 and a strategy to cut down on flights is needed. ‘Pioneer the Future’ looks great on the Farnborough publicity but perhaps at this stage it amounts to little more than securing the workforce and contracts to keep the defence and aerospace sector going.
ForcesWatch take in interest in airshows because of the predictably heavy involvement of military and defence interests but primarily because they are important sites for defence engagement with the public. Many are community-led events where the top spectacles are the RAF Red Arrows, Typhoon or Falcon display teams. Others, such as Wales Airshow and Southport also have a significant military presence on the ground, with hardware and military-themed activities and demonstrations.… Read more