Students view group project aircraft design models in display cabinet
The relationship between aviation and the environment is one of the key challenges facing developed societies. With specialist facilities and key academics who work jointly across aviation and the environment, Cranfield is uniquely placed to prepare you for a career in the ever-evolving space, aerospace and astronautics sectors.
“My individual thesis project was an internship and focused on distributed training applied to deep learning. I would really recommend doing a postgraduate course and really work hard for it, it helped me find my future career path and get an interesting job.”
Hugues Gérard,
Machine Learning Engineer, Teads,
(Computational and Software Techniques MSc 2022)
Students view group project aircraft design models in display cabinet
UK No. 1
Over a third of all aeronautical and aerospace engineering master's students in the UK study with us.
(Higher Education Statistics Agency, 2020-2021)
specialisms
Our aerospace capabilities combine expertise in manufacturing and transport systems mirroring the real world.
Over three-quarters of our Aerospace learners come from outside the UK, representing 60 nationalities.
(Figures from July 2023)
Research in action
Student challenge to counter threat from UAV swarms
BAE Systems sponsored a multi-university swarm competition at Cranfield. The teams had to answer a scenario based on the real and emerging threats that exist to protect urban spaces, airfields and airports from such incidents. Increasingly capable, UAV’s are becoming more affordable and easy to source, so there is a need to counter these systems in a robust and affordable manner using innovative solutions.
The students used a combination of technologies including artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, together with innovative thinking and close co-operation between UAVs to autonomously detect, intercept and neutralise hostile drones.
“A highlight from my time at Cranfield so far has been using the facilities in the library, the airfield and runway airstrip. I would have never thought I would study my subject with so much practicality.”
Prathibha Perumal,
current student, (Aerospace Vehicle Design MSc)
Investing in innovative facilities
Cranfield is the only university in Europe with its own fully-operational airport, aircraft and air navigation service provider on campus. This global research airport, a national asset for the UK, features extensive facilities including wind tunnels and avionics laboratories. In addition, we continue to invest in our aerospace facilities to ensure we add the value you need:
- Aerospace Integration Research Centre (AIRC): The AIRC fosters collaboration between industry and academia. One of it’s unique features is its focus on integration, where new aerospace technologies are rapidly developed and tested for current and future aircraft concepts for the aviation of tomorrow.
- Air traffic management laboratory: With an integrated airport control tower simulator and high-fidelity flight simulators, we can investigate the impact of the different air traffic management agents on airspace users.
- Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) laboratory: Used for flight testing in the areas of guidance, navigation, control and surveillance.
- Gas turbine engineering laboratories: Equipped with a 2MW compressed air plant and regenerative air heater, giving the capacity of providing clean air at high pressure, temperature and flow.
- Delta High Performance Computer: An academic supercomputer for scientific, data analytic and machine learning applications, predictive modelling and simulation tasks. Supporting 250-300 users, it reduces the time taken to perform complex research by carrying out calculations across many processors simultaneously.