Engineering news
Airbus and Rolls Royce bosses said their engineers will work closer than ever before after the opening of the Aerospace Integration Research Centre (AIRC) at Cranfield University. Dozens of university and industry representatives eagerly followed tours around the large new facility, including labs, offices and a simulation centre as well as the cavernous 1,500m² “open space” work area, currently housing a full-size Airbus wing.
The centre, funded by Airbus, Rolls Royce, the university and the Higher Education Funding Council for England, aims to boost the UK’s aerospace research capabilities and ensure promising work does not falter in the “valley of death” between universities and commercial application.
Research in the centre includes work on unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flight patterns, fibre-optic sensing technology for helicopter blades and automated manufacturing of aeroplane parts.
“The word collaboration is absolutely key” for everyone involved, said Cranfield director of aerospace Iain Gray to Professional Engineering. “It’s looking at how you work together… to meet environmental goals, to meet logistics goals, cost and performance value.”
Researchers, some of whom are pilots themselves and can test technology in-flight by taking off from the adjacent airport, work alongside engineers from the partner companies in the centre.
“Airbus and Rolls Royce already work very closely together, but this gives us a new paradigm, really, in terms of our collaboration,” said Airbus head research and technology Mark Howard to PE. “We worked together naturally on existing research projects, but this is probably the lever, the trigger for closer collaboration.”
The AIRC is a “challenge” to all organisations involved to work closer together than ever before, said facility head Tim Mackley. “They are going to have to share more information with each other,” he said to PE. “One key aspect of what we’re doing here is we are giving them the environment where they can start to share, they can experiment.”
Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.