Hangar 46

"Everything tells a story. Everything is there for a reason."Join us in the hangar as we chat to Mr Matt Anderson PSM, on his career, service, storytelling, and his time as Director of the Australian War Memorial.This episode is hosted by Air Commodore Michael Durant.

Hangar 46: Aviators at Avalon International Air Show 2025"It's the best thing I've ever done"Join us at Avalon International Air Show 2025, as we swapped the hangar studio for the airfield and chatted to aviators across the Royal Australian Air Force. We caught up with Aircraftman Jacob Mercieca, Wing Commander Philip "Budgie" Parsons, Flight Lieutenant Sam, Aircraftman Sid Pasupati, Aircraftman Sam Carter, Flying Officer Ben "Hooky" Hook, Flying Officer Isabella Blenkin, and Sergeant Bradley McAuliffe. This episode is hosted by Wing Commander Niki Frost.Please note: This episode of Hangar 46 was recorded at Avalon Airport with some chats recorded during the flying displays.

"That's what we're all there for. We are a CAS team.” Join us in the hangar for the first ever collaboration episode between Hangar 46 and The Cove Podcast, as we chat to Weapons Systems Operator and recently qualified Fighter Combat Instructor Flight Lieutenant Pete, and Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC) Troop Command Captain Craig Hogendyk, on the workings of the collaborative coordination efforts between the two roles, close air support, myth busting, and air power.  This episode is hosted by Hangar 46 Lead Miss Cass Bowers, and The Cove Podcast Host Captain Todd Lempa.

"If we don't talk about it, then you don't know" Join us in the hangar for the first time in 2025, as we chat to Air Vice-Marshal Wendy Blyth, AM, on teamwork, navigating parenthood, and her transition from Head of Air Force Capability into Head Force Design. This episode is hosted by Group Captain Michael Sleeman, and co-hosted by Flight Lieutenant Lily Warrick.

"Just believe in the work you've done" Join us in the hangar as Warrant Officer James Hood chats to Sergeant Shard Malchow and Squadron Leader Joel Ingram on endurance sports, resilience, comradery, and physical fitness. This episode is hosted by Warrant Officer James Hood

"Everything we have that is great, comes about because people contribute to that greatness. It doesn't happen by accident. t happens because people decide to value add." Join us in the hangar as we chat to Air Commander Australia Air Vice-Marshal Glen Braz, AM, CSC, DSM, about his career, his role, and the warfighter mindset. This episode is hosted by Group Captain Michael Sleeman and co-hosted by Leading Aircraftwoman Jazmyn Powell

“It's the ability for our aviators to do that repeatedly and they do. Year in. Year out. Doing the ordinary things extraordinarily well.” Join us in the hangar as we chat to Chief of Air Force Air Marshal Stephen Chappell, DSC, CSC, OAM, about his first 100 days, his intent, and vision. This episode is hosted by Group Captain Michael Sleeman and co-hosted by Corporal Kbora Ali.

Hangar 46 at Exercise Pitch Black 2024: Participant Perspectives -New Zealand Edition "The ability to practice our interoperability with the Australian Air Force is just such a cool and unique part of Pitch Black" Join us as we take the hangar to RAAF Base Darwin for Exercise Pitch Black 2024 and chat to New Zealand participants: Corporal Rachel Pugh, Flight Sergeant David Cresswell, Corporal Katie Sinclair, and Aircraftsman Jese Somerville. This episode is hosted by Cass Bowers. Please note: This episode of Hangar 46 was recorded on base at RAAF Base Darwin during flying hours for Exercise Pitch Black, audio quality may vary. 

Hangar 46 at Exercise Pitch Black 2024: General Kevin Schneider "But to come together as a team is the greatest deterrent effect" Join us as we take the hangar to RAAF Base Darwin for Exercise Pitch Black 2024 and chat to General Kevin Schneider, Commander, Pacific Air Forces; and Air Component Commander, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii. This episode is hosted by Group Captain Matthew Hetherington Please note: This episode of Hangar 46 was recorded on base at RAAF Base Darwin during flying hours for Exercise Pitch Black, audio quality may vary. 

Hangar 46 at Exercise Pitch Black 2024: Participant Perspectives - Australian Edition "You get to be a part of something bigger than yourself" Join us as we take the hangar to RAAF Base Darwin for Exercise Pitch Black 2024 and chat to Australian participants: Squadron Leader Eamon Hamilton, Flight Lieutenant Kaylee Verrier, Flying Officer Jarod Beck, Wing Commander Ben Gray, and Leading Aircraftman Will Lauenstein. This episode is hosted by Cass Bowers. Please note: This episode of Hangar 46 was recorded on base at RAAF Base Darwin during flying hours for Exercise Pitch Black, audio quality may vary. 

"It's very exciting to see how we have evolved, how military technology has evolved over the years" Join us as we take the hangar to RAAF Base Darwin for Exercise Pitch Black 2024 and chat to Colonel Lee Mei Yi, the Republic of Singapore Air Force Exercise Director for Exercise Pitch Black 2024. This episode is hosted by Wing Commander Lauren Guest Commanding Officer of No. 13 Squadron and Senior Australian Defence Force Officer of RAAF Base Darwin RAAF Base Curtin (SADFO). Please note: This episode of Hangar 46 was recorded on base at RAAF Base Darwin during flying hours for Exercise Pitch Black, audio quality may vary.

"Time is no longer the sacrificial variable" Join us in the hangar as we chat to Head Force Design Major General Tony Rawlins AM, DSC, about his role, his experiences, and moving forward into the future with the ADF. This episode is hosted by Group Captain Michael Sleeman and co-hosted by Squadron Leader Zac Smit

Reflection, Space Journey, Paint Flecks, and Space as a Domain. Join us as we take the hangar to the National Convention Centre Canberra for the Air and Space Power Conference 2024 and chat to Air Marshal Paul Godfrey and Brigadier General Mike Adamson. In the time since recording, Air Marshal Paul Godfrey has been promoted to Air Marshal and is now the Assistant Chief of Space Operations for Future Concepts and Partnerships at the US Space Force. Brigadier General Mike Adamson has finished his time as the inaugural 3 Canadian Space Division Commander. This episode is hosted by Cass Bowers. Please note: This episode of Hangar 46 was recorded at the National Convention Centre Canberra during ASPCon24, there may be background noises or a difference in audio quality.

"Seek Progress and not Perfection" Join us as we take the hangar to the National Convention Centre Canberra for the Air and Space Power Conference 2024 and chat to Senior Enlisted Leaders. Air Force Command Chief - Military Expert 6 Ng See Lye, Republic of Singapore Air Force Senior Enlisted Leader - Chief Master Sergeant Michael Haywood, Pacific Air Forces' Directorate of Air and Cyberspace Operations Command Chief Warrant Officer - Warrant Officer John Hall, Royal Canadian Air Force Warrant Officer Air Force Ralph Clifton, Royal Australian Air Force Warrant Officer of the Air Force (NZ) - Warrant Officer Kerry Williams This episode is hosted by Warrant Officer Graham Docking and co-hosted by Corporal Kbora Ali. Please note: This episode of Hangar 46 was recorded at the National Convention Centre Canberra during ASPCon24, there may be background noises or a difference in audio quality.

United States Space Force, Space Domain Awareness, and Sense of Calling. Join us as we take the hangar to the National Convention Centre Canberra for the Air and Space Power Conference 2024 and chat to Chief of Space Operations General Chance Saltzman, United States Space Force. During ASPCon24, General Saltzman presented a Keynote Address. This episode is hosted by Air Commodore Ben Sleeman Please note: This episode of Hangar 46 was recorded at the National Convention Centre Canberra during ASPCon24, there may be background noises or a difference in audio quality.

Cultural Initiatives, Storytelling, and Connection. Join us as we take the hangar to the National Convention Centre Canberra for the Air and Space Power Conference 2024 and chat to Indigenous Liaison Officer Flight Lieutenant Steven Warrior, proud Kuarna, Narungga, and Kokatha man. This episode is hosted by Group Captain Glenn Orton. Please note: This episode of Hangar 46 was recorded at the National Convention Centre Canberra during ASPCon24, there may be background noises or a difference in audio quality.

Aviator of the Year, Hope, and Support. Join us as we take the hangar to the National Convention Centre Canberra for the Air and Space Power Conference 2024 and chat to Corporal Kbora Ali, Aviator of the Year. This episode is hosted by Warrant Officer Graham Docking. Please note: This episode of Hangar 46 was recorded at the National Convention Centre Canberra during ASPCon24, there may be background noises or a difference in audio quality.

Listening and learning, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, and strategic environments. Join us as we take the hangar to the National Convention Centre Canberra for the Air and Space Power Conference 2024 and chat to Air Chief Marshal Lord Peach KG, GBE, KCB DL, the UK Prime Minister's Special Envoy to the Western Balkans. This episode is hosted by Group Captain Scott Woodland. Please note: This episode of Hangar 46 was recorded at the National Convention Centre Canberra during ASPCon24, there may be background noises.

Strategic Empathy and Leadership. Join us in the hangar as we chat to Dr Claire Yorke, Senior Lecturer at the Australian War College, Deakin University; about strategic empathy, what does that mean, how does it give context to previous military actions, and how is it used to create efficient and meaningful leaders. Find Dr Claire Yorke's work here at her website. This episode was hosted by Group Captain Jo Brick.

100 Days, Space Command, and Structuring for Success. Join us in the hangar as we chat to Commander, Space Command Major General Greg Novak, AM; about his role and career experience, how the space domain is a domain in its own right and not an enabler, and what he has planned for Space Command. This episode was hosted by Group Captain Michael Sleeman and co-hosted by Captain Peter Rice.

SEAC, rallying points, workforce, recruitment and retention. Join us in the hangar as we chat to Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chief of the Defence Force Warrant Officer Ken Robertson OAM; about his role as SEAC and what that means, his ambitions and goals, and connecting the enlisted workforce. This episode was hosted by Group Captain Michael Sleeman and co-hosted by Corporal Allison Gray. Please note, this episode was recorded in 2023, references may reflect this.

International Relations, Research, Australian Context. Join us in the hangar as we chat to Professor Stephen Burgess; about his time at the Air War College, his research and students, international relations, strategy, and more. This episode of Hangar 46 is hosted by Group Captain Michael Sleeman

Career pathways, cultivation, Ready Reserves, Comradery. Join us in the hangar as we chat to Deputy Chief of Air Force Air-Vice Marshal Harvey Reynolds, AM; about his time on deployment, personal growth, commissioning, his role as DCAF and more.

Growth, workforce, new ideas and experiences. Join us in the hangar as we chat to Wing Commander Ben "Chainsaw" Sawley, Commanding Officer of 1 Flying Training School (1FTS); about his time on deployment, how he shaped his leadership style, and 1 Flying Training School.

Leadership, resilience, identity, and growth. Join us in the hangar as we chat to Group Captain Steve "Fergs" Ferguson, Director Undersea Warfare & Surveillance Contestability Division; about his time in Antarctica, handling his evolution into leadership, his mentors and more.

Political Science. Join us in the hangar as we chat to Professor Eliot Cohen, political scientist and the former Counselor of the United States Department of State; about military powers, recruitment, historical military occurrences, and more.

Military ethics and profession. Join us in the hangar as we chat to Professor David Whetham of King's College London, about military ethics, conflict, and more.

Inspiration, journey, workforce, and experiences. Join us in the hangar as we chat to Warrant Officer of the Air Force Ralph Clifton about what inspired and influenced him, his journey to where he is today, and what superhero he would be.

Workforce, culture, leadership, identity and connection. Join us in the hangar as we chat to Chief of Air Force Air Marshal Rob Chipman, AM, CSC, about his journey to becoming Chief of Air Force, his experiences in the role and the future.

In this talk, we present initial findings of the world-first airborne Neuromorphic Event Based Sensor (EBS) on-board the Defence Experimentation Airborne Platform for enhancing remote sensing for urban and maritime surveillance.

This presentation will discuss the rationale behind the need for alternative jet fuels, the advantages/challenges associated in their uptake and the development of a modular demonstrator kit for producing ‘drop-in' alternative jet fuels from indigenous feedstock.

This presentation will focus on small toy drones, which can be called “IEDs in the sky” and analyze the current situation in which it is becoming difficult for airbase-based warfare and traditional air defence systems to cope with.

This talk examines methods of relative orbit determination using angles-only measurements of objects in Low Earth Orbit, as exemplified using the M2 cubesat mission.

This talk will give an overview over handpicked projects on materials design, advanced microscopy and modelling of manufacturing processes for modern aerospace alloy parts.

This presentation covers verification methods applied for low-cost satellite projects (currently 5 satellites in orbit) at UNSW Canberra Space

This presentation will explore developments in Cubesats, Space Domain Awareness, SATCOM and in-orbit artificial intelligence at the UNSW Canberra Space, which is one of the largest concentrations of space researchers in Australia with about 30 academic and professional engineering staff covering all necessary engineering disciplines and with access to the necessary facilities to enable end-to-end space mission capability.

We propose to use the aerodynamic forces generated by a drone's rotors and interactions between the air and surrounding surfaces during flight as a sensor to drive a collison avoidance algorithm causing the aircraft to pitch or roll away from nearby objects through entirely passive means.

This presentation will comprise an overview of the current status of Australia's Hydrogen industry and will showcase selected examples of recent activities across the Mission's pillars, including technological developments in areas relevant to innovation and resilience in air and space power.

In future high-end warfighting contingencies capability needs that are currently met in months or years must be met be within days. In this presentation, NX will share the results from an exercise in which an example high-end capability had a solution designed, produced, tested and delivered in a week.

In this presentation, CASG NX will explain how it has facilitated key Industry 4.0 changes for Defence through its Agile approach and partnerships.

This talk provides an update of the work conducted at UNSW Canberra Space to address the challenges in the LEO domain through combining light curves collected by the Falcon Telescope Network (FTN) with GPU accelerated ray tracing techniques that are benchmarked against truth data obtained from the RAAF-funded M2-A, M2-B, and M2 Pathfinder missions.

In this presentation, we discuss how to understand behaviour shaping and influence of swarm systems using livestock mustering, which can be used for smart autonomous systems design philosophy, swarm agent models, and centre of influence techniques.

In this talk, we outline the principles for capturing the value of disruptive innovations, in order to aid the Defence Cooperative Research Centre to award research grants to rightful winners; nurture emerging leaders and entrepreneurs; encourage ambition with risk appetite; find novel solutions to needs and demonstrate; create, capture and manage a complex portfolio of trade-able sovereign IP; build more high-tech Australian jobs; and support industry's partnership with Defence.

In this talk, two categories of pathways for alternative fuels are considered: (1) commercially available solutions that could be adapted and progressed immediately to a demonstration/pilot; (2) and those that require further development over the next five years.

This talk presents a unique microfabrication technique using microstructured light patterns to produce shark-skin inspired “riblet” microstructures for reducing skin-friction drag experienced by aircraft.

This presentation dicusses the virtual trade framework which enables defence to rapidly adapt to merging technologies and skillsets. Virtual Trades are intended to complement the existing mustering framework by incentivising the establishment of emerging skillsets and providing a talent pool to meet future needs.

In order to ensure a resilient spacecraft production (e.g. Buccaneer Main Mission), we present our efforts to develop testing methodologies such as: space thermal testing using a thermal vacuum chamber, magnetometer testing using a Helmholtz cage, life cycle testing using external radiation chambers, and attitude control testing using a hemispherical air bearing table and Helmholtz cage.

To improve space traffic management and mitigate the collisional orbital risk, we propose to combine optical observations with passive radio frequency measurements to increase the determination accuracy of orbiting satellites.

This presentation will focus on an upcoming mission referred to as the Buccaneer Main Mission (BMM) that will launch a 6U CubeSat into low Earth orbit to explore new approaches for calibrating the Jindalee Operational Radar Network (JORN).

In this talk, I will discuss how RAAF leveraged Additive Manufacturing to engage academia with the RAAF workforce to bring about an innovative environment to materialise future capabilities and disruptive thinking.

This talk will discuss the drivers and challenges for Australia's ambitions for the growth of the space sector, which is predicated on the availability of a qualified (e.g. graduates in the STEM disciplines) and experienced workforce.