Graduate aircraft design education

Cranfield University believes that the best way to learn about design is to do it, and that group design projects are a very powerful means of providing practical experience. This is not unique, but what is unique is the practical detail achieved in the MSc course. Cranfield's approach is to invest at least 3 man-months work by staff in the preparation of each project, before it is presented to the students. This defines the aircraft's shape, aerodynamics and mass, and is equivalent to work done by Project Officers in industry. Students who wish to perform their own conceptual designs may do so for their individual research theses which are the other main activities of the MSc course. Some 25 students are allocated the responsibility for the design of a major part of the aircraft. These responsibilities take the form of a major structural component, a flying control surface or a mechanical system such as fuel, or the flying control system. Reliability, maintainability, performance and cost are overall design topics also studied by students. This paper describes the design of an entry-level executive jet, as an example of the group design project. The paper also describes the other elements of graduate education at Masters and Doctoral level.