School of Engineering

MSc Aerospace Vehicle Design

Option in Aircraft Design
Full-Time

If you are aiming for a career in engineering in todays aerospace industry, then this is the course for you. Modern aircraft are a complex combination of aerodynamic performance, lightweight durable structures and advanced systems engineering. Air passengers demand more comfort and more environmentally friendly aircraft. Hence many technical challenges need to be balanced for an aircraft to economically achieve its design specification. This course trains engineers to meet these challenges, and prepares them for careers in civil and military aviation.
Focus on your interests Benefit from our reputation

The course teaches the methodology of aircraft design including technical, business and management aspects of civil and military aerospace. Its flexibility allows study to be tailored towards areas of interest such as structural design, stress analysis and systems design.

Excellent career prospects

The aerospace industry has a continuing need to recruit structural designers, stress engineers and systems engineers. Graduates from the MSc in Aerospace Vehicle Design can therefore look forward to a varied choice of challenging career opportunities. Many of our graduates occupy very senior positions in their organisations, making valuable contributions to the international aerospace industry. Accredited by the Royal Aeronautical Society and the Institute of Mechanical Engineers

Cranfield University has been at the forefront of postgraduate education in aerospace engineering since 1946. We have a global reputation for our advanced postgraduate education and extensive applied research. With 94% of Cranfield graduates securing employment within six months, you can be sure that your qualification will be valued and respected by employers worldwide.

Learn from our experience

The academic teaching staff have many years of industrial experience. You will be trained in the use of industry standard software. Our extensive Group Design Project recreates a virtual industrial environment. The course is steered by an Industrial Advisory Committee to ensure that graduates have the necessary skills required by the aerospace industry.

www.cranfield.ac.uk/soe

Entry Requirements: 1st or 2nd class UK honours degree (or equivalent) in an engineering discipline. There is a limited opportunity for candidates with other qualifications to enter the course via a Pre-Masters Year, which provides the necessary level of knowledge of engineering principles applicable to aerospace design. Funding: Limited, e-mail for details. Well-qualified UK applicants may be eligible to apply for the EADS Technology Masters Training Award.

Duration: 1 year full-time. Start date: October Number of places: 40 Application process: By completion of an application form for postgraduate study obtainable from the Universitys website www.cranfield.ac.uk/students or by contacting the Enquiry Office at enquiries@cranfield.ac.uk

Course content
Structure
The MSc in Aerospace Vehicle Design is taught through three main components, a specialist set of lecture modules, a group design project, and an individual research project. Experience-based learning is the key means of assimilating the taught material.

exercise recreates a virtual industrial environment. Students comment that working as an integrated team prepares them well for careers in industry.

Research Project
The individual research project aims to provide the training necessary for individual application to research. Topics consist of conceptual design studies, and theoretical or experimental research into structures or systems disciplines. Some topics may offer collaboration with industry. For a detailed list of projects please refer to the course website.

Student view
We all agree that the Cranfield curriculum is one of the best in Europe since it relates to the work which is expected of us in our respective jobs
Vincent Pitoun, Air France Industrial Branch

Modules
Lectures, case studies, practical exercises and hands-on computer based training are used to transfer the necessary knowledge. Visits to industry to see the application of technology to current projects are used to enhance knowledge, as are lectures from industry specialists. You will also have flights in the University Jetstream and Bulldog aircraft, used to both enhance the learning process and knowledge gained. Mandatory modules are: Airframe Systems Composite Structures Fracture Mechanics and Damage Tolerance Aeroelasticity Design for Manufacture and Operation Reliability and Safety Assessment Stress Analysis Aircraft Performance and Stability and Control Aircraft Conceptual Design Loading Actions. Optional modules are: Accident Investigation Crashworthiness Power Plant Installation Computer Aided Design Finite Element Analysis Structural Dynamics Avionic Systems Design Aircraft Aerodynamics Systems Development Structural Stability.

Assessment
Students benefit from a wide range of assessment methods including examinations, assignments, written thesis, peer review and presentations.

The Cranfield MSc and especially Aerospace Vehicle Design have an outstanding reputation within industry. It is a very powerful asset on my CV
Guillaume Raud

About Cranfield University

Cranfield is a wholly postgraduate university with an international community and a truly global reputation. Our passion for the areas of expertise we operate in and our handson relationship with industry is unparalleled elsewhere in the world. We offer a superb academic: student ratio, state-of-the-art facilities and a proven track record of graduate employment. Our recent institutional audit where the quality and standards of our teaching was assessed bestowed the highest level of recognition possible. Our research income, measured as a percentage of our turnover, puts us as one of the top five research intensive universities in the UK, alongside Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College and UCL.

The chance to work as part of an integrated design team on a real life problem is second to none, and one that I know will be of enormous benefit to me in the future
Ross McKeand, AIRBUS Toulouse

Further Information
Course Director Mr Phill Stocking T: +44 (0) 1234 754692 E: p.stocking@cranfield.ac.uk W: www.cranfield.ac.uk/soe/ postgraduatestudy/ aerospacedesign

Group Design Project

Available online
www.cranfield.ac.uk/soe/ postgraduatestudy/aerospacedesign Course video Course podcast

Each student takes responsibility for the design and analysis of part of the project aircraft a structural or system component, or aspects of operations, performance, reliability or maintainability. This teamwork

www.cranfield.ac.uk/soe