Cranfield has established a world-wide reputation for its University as a centre of excellence in aviation over many years.

Borne out of this was the successful commercialisation of new products and services during the 80’s and 90’s with the formation of an independent commercial business that then became Cranfield Aerospace Ltd in 1997.

Since then, Cranfield Aerospace has become a world class supplier of products and services in its own right.

We have chosen to compete only in areas where we provide superior value in the market:

• Specialist design services for military and civil aircraft.
• “Turnkey” services for flight evaluation and testing for manned and unmanned aircraft.
• Integration and supply of flight controls for manned and unmanned aircraft.
• Motion cue systems for flight simulation and training.
• Customised high speed data acquisition and analysis.
• Runway and helideck friction surveys.
• Evaluation of dynamic mechanical environments for land, sea and air vehicles.

Everyone at Cranfield Aerospace knows that our continued success rests on the importance we attach to a number of simple principles and values throughout the business:

Customers represent our only source of revenue and our primary reason to exist. Quality and personal integrity are of the utmost importance in all that we do. Our success depends on the mutual confidence and trust of four key groups of people: our customers, our employees, our suppliers and our shareholders. Competitive achievement for the future necessitates a process of continuous improvement.

As we now proceed to expand our business in the United States, Continental Europe and Asia Pacific, we are proud of where and how we can add value to our customers’ business. Our position in the market will continue to be earned through a reputation for proven customer benefits, superior responsiveness and quality of service.

Cranfield Aerospace Engineering holds the Company’s military and civil design approvals and provides a range of services in both the military and commercial sector for customers who require the design, build and experimental flight of both manned and unmanned airborne systems. Aerospace Engineering has a substantial track record and pedigree for conversion of aircraft for experimental purposes and in particular provides a turnkey service for undertaking flight trials, using experimental platforms. Work undertaken includes research into and development of new technologies; Sense and Avoid, Experimental Radars, Atmospheric Research, various new Avionic modifications for the civil and military markets.

Cranfield Aerospace Engineering provides a range of design services for the aircraft primes in the areas of certification requirements, capture and clearance, and flight clearances for both manned and unmanned airborne systems. As well as being approved by both the CAA and EASA to design, build, and fly experimental aircraft solutions, Aerospace Engineering is also approved to provide military aircraft releases (MAR’s) as well as conduct experimental flight trials for the Ministry of Defence and its major primes.

Aerospace Engineering’s links with Cranfield University provide a unique capability in the marketplace to take new technologies such as composite structures through to certifiable solutions for the aircraft industry.

Motion Cueing Systems

Within Aerospace Engineering this business group is responsible for the Company’s range of motion cueing products supplied around the world for both fast jet and helicopter applications. These systems provide “g” cues to the pilot under training through the seat itself and are therefore particularly suitable for integration into fixed base simulation without the need for 6 DOF motion. We have supplied Motion Cueing Seat systems and g-suit systems for Department of Defence programmes in the United States, the majority of US primes in the simulation industry, the majority of Europe’s Fast Jet programmes, and a number of customers in the Asia Pacific region. The Motion Cueing technology provided by Cranfield Aerospace Limited has been derived over many years of effort in Research and Development undertaken by both the Company and Cranfield University. The Company’s reputation is second to none in providing high quality, high fidelity g-cueing for simulator based training in the military sector.

Uninhabited Air Vehicles

For Uninhabited Air Vehicles (UAV) Cranfield Aerospace (CAe) offers customers a specialist service for the design and manufacture of control systems plus the ability to undertake the entire task of UAV design, systems integration and flight test in accordance with customer requirements.

We have worked on many UAV projects for clients such as UK MoD, The Boeing Company and QinetiQ. Over the past 20 years we have established a reputation for market leading innovation in UAV’s and have made major contributions in the area of research aircraft for UK MoD.

Safety and Suitability Technologies

The Safety & Suitability Technologies group (SST) is primarily concerned with the effects of vibration and shock on equipment in 'dynamic' and often harsh environments. With increasing reliance upon sophisticated systems and effective structures, the integration of equipment into real world environments is something that predictive modelling as yet, cannot achieve. Combining accumulated expertise with studies of loads and climatic environments SST help to ensure that the latest technological developments are translated into safe and reliable systems for the most demanding use.

From the design and manufacture of specialist instruments and the project management and conduct of data gathering trials through to the processing and assessment of data, SST undertake practical and analytical research studies and provide consulting advice to efficiently meet the various needs of clients. SST have over 35 years of experience working with UK MoD and have built up an impressive base of mainly defence related commercial customers. A secondary, but important additional business stream for SST is that of Aircraft Ground Operations, which include runway and helideck friction surveys and specialised testing such as aircraft water ingestion trials.