Course Catalogue

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In this course, students will take part in a simulated aircraft development programme in which the objective will be to mature an aircraft design from a given concept to an early-detailed state. At the beginning of the course, each student will be assigned membership of a representative aerospace 'organisation' working on this programme. This would either be the aircraft manufacturer, engine manufacturer, airframe systems supplier, or regulator. These mock organisations will have to work together to successfully complete the programme, within budgetary, time, and simulated legal, security, and commercial constraints.

Five in-person one-hour lectures to introduce the course and to provide feedback/discuss progress.

One in-person three-hour formative feedback session

One in-person supervision session (to review progress and allow for discussion) of three hours once a week.

One in-person one-hour guest lecture per week.

Mandatory Entry Requirements

Successful completion of all Year-3 core courses on the MEng Aeronautical, Aerospace Systems, or Mechanical Engineering with Aeronautics degree programmes, or similar.

None

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■ Group technical report (50%). Each student will have a clear, designated task and a related section of the report that is to be completed by them (worth 40%). The group will receive a mark for the report (worth 10%).

■ Individual professional practice report (25%)

■ Group presentation or video (25%)

Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. Where, exceptionally, reassessment on Honours courses is required to satisfy professional/accreditation requirements, only the overall course grade achieved at the first attempt will contribute to the Honours classification. For non-Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below. 

The aims of this course are to:

■ provide students with a simulated work environment, representative of the aerospace industry, in which they must fulfil both technical and non-technical tasks.

■ familiarise students with the challenges of working within and across large multidisciplinary teams to achieve a complex collective objective - the development of a highly integrated engineering product (a civil airliner) from concept to definition freeze.

■ provide students the opportunity to hone their technical skills in a particular aspect of aircraft design, while considering how the activities associated with this relate to and affect the higher-level objectives of a typical aircraft development programme.

■ introduce students to important ethical, legal, security, environmental, societal, and commercial aspects that need to be considered when executing large aeronautical development programmes.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ apply a comprehensive knowledge of engineering principles and techniques, as well as appropriate information/data and engineering judgment, to formulate an original solution to a complex aeronautical design problem.

■ apply an integrated or systems approach to the solution of a complex technical problem, meeting a wide variety of stakeholder needs.

■ justify selection of and evaluate appropriate materials, equipment, engineering technologies and processes, as well as quality and risk management techniques related to an aeronautical design problem.

■ identify managerial, commercial, environmental, societal, legal, ethical, security, and equality, diversity, and inclusion aspects/challenges common in engineering organisations and programmes and formulate appropriate measures to address these.

■ function and communicate effectively as an individual, and as a member or leader of a multidisciplinary engineering team.

■ formulate and execute a plan for self-learning and development to achieve a set of professional objectives to support an aeronautical development programmes.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.