Developed primarily to provide a flight research platform in support of the Department' s various research activities, this aircraft is also used to enhance skills in airframe design and fabrication, instrumentation, flight control systems and operational aspects of UAVs. The Aerospace group is also very active in the design of advanced engineering structures using finite element analysis, structural optimisation and advanced manufacturing techniques for composite structures. The facilities of the School and its significant testing and manufacturing capabilities are also available to industry. The School has built up an advanced composite structures design and manufacturing facility. Its engineering expertise covers research, design and manufacturing with advanced carbon fibre and other composites over a range of applications from aerospace to medical, to sporting goods.
Research is of a world-wide standard.
Students are given practical skills in structural analysis using the most modern computational tools, many of which have been researched and developed in-house. Flight Dynamics and Control Flight dynamics and control is a multi-disciplinary field involving the integrated analysis of aerodynamic, inertial, structural and propulsive properties of a flight vehicle, and the application of powerful tools from control and optimisation theory to achieve desired performance characteristics. For modern aircraft, dynamic analysis and control system design are an integral part of the design process, during which vehicle behaviour can be validated by simulation prior to the development of expensive hardware. Once in flight, dynamic models and control algorithms are essential for many autopilot functions such as stability augmentation, flight path tracking or fully autonomous operation. Research in flight dynamics and control encompasses many topics, including unsteady aerodynamics, structural dynamics, aeroelasticity, flight mechanics, aircraft performance, flight simulation, guidance and optimisation, estimation, system identification and flight control systems.