The Society emerged from the challenges of the pandemic relatively strongly in 2022, with a return to our in-person events, conferences, lectures and outreach work, building on the strength of the Learned output delivered during virtually during 2020 and 2021.

The year was focused on reviewing and strengthening the Society’s Governance structures to take into account both the lessons learnt from the pandemic and our virtual delivery, together with ensuring that we continue to make the Society open and accessible to all.

Developing our membership

The Membership Development Team, with invaluable support from volunteer members delivered 30 briefings, workshops and mentoring training sessions over the year, reaching 300+ potential members and registrants.

There were over 160 nominations recommended by Members and Fellows in 2022 (the process has seen over 575 successful applications via this route since its inception in 2018).

Through the University and FE Colleges visits programme, 2700 full time students joined the Society in 2022 and over 150 apprentices finishing the year with total number of 25,333 members in 113 countries.

The Membership Services Board led the 2022 RAeS survey which was well responded to from both members and non-members. Analysis is currently being completed with a view to communicating the results and outcomes to the membership early in 2023 with an action plan supported by Council and the Trustees.

Promoting professional standards

75 membership and registration 1-to-1 support calls were delivered to support those working towards Engineering Technician, Incorporated Engineer or Chartered Engineer status.

We have reviewed accreditation for 10 academic programmes and 5 professional development schemes and currently accredit 35 Universities and Further Education Colleges, and 17 Professional Development Schemes.

We provide End Point Assessment services to over 65 aerospace, aviation, and advanced science & engineering employers across 5 different Apprenticeship Standards and, with thanks to our team of assessors, completed 393 assessments for apprentices:

• Engineering Technician – ST0457 (Level 3)

• Aircraft Certifying Technician – ST0019 (Level 4)

• Aerospace Engineer – ST0010 (Level 6)

• Aerospace Software Development Engineer – ST0013 (Level 6)

• Post graduate Engineer – ST0456 (Level 7)

Sharing knowledge and stimulating debate

The Aeronautical Journal celebrated the 125th anniversary with a special edition  and increased its impact factor (citations per paper) by 49%.

• During 2022, 243 papers were submitted and 98 of those published

• A record 177,716 papers were downloaded from The Aeronautical Journal’s website during 2022.

• Three new Associate Editors joined The Aeronautical Journal during 2023, including Dr Ruxandra Botez, ETS, Canada, Katherine Smith, University of Manchester and Hever Moncayo, Embry-Riddle, US.

The Journal of Aeronautical History published five new papers including A Celebration of the 250th Anniversary of the Birth of Sir George Cayley.

AEROSPACE magazine celebrated its 50th birthday.

400 events took place across our international branch network with 2,924 attendees at HQ-led events.

• Total of 1,939 attendees across 20 HQ talks, briefings and webinars and 2 social and networking receptions.

• 985 attendees across 9 technical conferences and Specialist Group seminars.

Investment in supporting members CPD. In 2022 members could get help from 88 new e-books aimed at brushing-up skills and access to current awareness material through our e-journals and e-magazine platform.

A new library catalogue has been developed, which now includes 120,127 records detailing our library, journal and archive collections and hosting a growing selection of digital scans from our archive and historic library.

12 new classic podcasts released in 2022, with our content leading the way towards the Society’s total of 146,429 audio listens for 2022.

Influencing opinion

In March 2022, a major joint report was launched from the RAeS and the University of the West of England, shining a light on the significant problem of gender discrimination and the lack of gender diversity amongst pilots in the airline industry with a specific focus on the airline pilot trainer role.

The 2021-22 Greener by Design report was published at the seminar on the Non CO2 climate effects of aviation and brought together stakeholders to agree.

The Human Factors Engineering Sub-Group published a paper on The Development of a strategy to enhance human-centred design for maintenance report which gained good media and industry coverage and will be followed by a seminar in early 2023.

In June, the ICAO Air Navigation Committee visited the RAeS HQ to build on collaborative opportunities and discuss strategic priorities. RAeS representatives from the Specialist Groups discussed aviation climate change impacts, design for maintenance and Mag to True North. The Flight Operations Group later submitted a response to an ICAO survey on this topic of runway designator changes.

David Edwards, Chief Executive of the Royal Aeronautical Society attended the ICAO’s 41st Assembly in Montréal, Canada to reconnect with international delegations and organisations as well as to support our Working Paper on closing the Skills Gap that’s emerged across aviation and aerospace.

With support from across the Specialist Groups network, 10 responses to government consultations were submitted on a wide variety of topics affecting our sector.

Inspirational outreach programmes

Our primary-level Cool Aeronautics programme engaged with 800 pupils.

Falcon 2 Flight Simulator Project (phase one) launched in September 2022 with 76 submissions from schools and youth groups from various regions of the UK.

The Boeing Project Altitude programme delivered events to over 1500 14+ year old students.

Free Fun Kids Radio podcasts and Amy Aviation YouTube animated videos have soared over the last year with 450,000 views overall. Most popular videos include:

•  'How propellers work’ (100,000 views)

•  Satellites (55,000 views

•  Radars (47,000 view)

•  Pilots (32,000 views

•  Jet Engines (25,000 views).

Providing careers advice & guidance

100,000 visits to the Careers in Aerospace Website that provides valuable resources in partnership with Department for Transport and ADS Group.

Over 500 visitors from all over the world interacted with almost 30 exhibitors at Careers in Aerospace & Aviation LIVE. 

1200 students attended careers and employability workshops at colleges and universities across the UK.

Promoting Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

Our woman-to-woman Alta mentoring programme won the ESRC Impact prize for work on empowering women in aviation The prize is issued by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the UK's largest funder of economic, social, behavioural and human data science. 

• Over 400 users with 124 live relationships and we welcomed over 50 people to a networking event at the Farnborough Air Show in July

Delivered 4 EDI webinars and events across the year engaging with over 120 participants to shape discussions and policies including the introduction of a new discrimination reporting feedback system.

Recognition and celebration outstanding achievements

The Medals & Awards Committee awarded 4 Honorary Fellowships and 1 Honorary Companion, and Gold, Silver and Bronze Medal individual and Team recipients together with 5 Specialist Group Named Award recipients this year.

With an increased emphasis on recognising achievement by young people, this year also saw the Young Person’s Achievement Award, four Young Person’s Commendations together with the Alan Marsh Award and the Herbert le Sueur Award.

A silver, 2 bronze and a Young Person’s Written Paper Prize were conferred for papers appearing in the twelve issues of The Aeronautical Journal. A Prize was also awarded for the best paper published in the Journal of Aeronautical History.

Royal Aeronautical Society Foundation - Fundraising

Since 2008/2009 the Foundation has focused on promoting Gift Aid to the Society’s membership and ensuring that these funds are used to support the Society’s charitable objectives. Because of changes to HMRC reporting of Gift Aid, the process has been slow, with no claim being made in 2021 and 2022. The Foundation has however continued to support a number of projects totalling £8,732 (2021: £35,392) with the following projects being supported:

• Cool Aeronautics (travel, venue costs for schools and programme delivery costs);

• Digitisation of the Society & NAL archive;

• Student/Apprentice Learning & Development;

• External STEM & Skills Exhibitions

• RAeS Future Scholarship Fund (formerly Centennial Scholarship Fund).