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Develop future leaders with digital skills to innovate solutions towards sustainability and efficiency in aviation.

Increasingly, more intelligent aircraft are being introduced and point to the future of electric and hydrogen-powered aircraft, autonomous flying taxis and space commercialisation. As more intelligent and conscious aircraft enters service, aircraft and support systems are also becoming more intelligent.

This MSc programme aims to develop professionals to innovate and apply digital technology in the aerospace industry. The course adds the digital component to aeronautical engineering graduates. It helps them to expand from the design and manufacture foci of established aeronautical engineering programmes to the wider aviation industry opportunities.

The course is also a route for non-aerospace engineering and computing graduates who aspire to enter the aviation industry. In addition, the course is a career development path for aerospace industry professionals to boost their digital and innovation skills.

Who is it for?

This course is applicable to a broad range of applicants with backgrounds from aerospace, engineering, maths, physics and computing to experienced professionals looking to gain new skills in the area of digital aviation technology.

Why this course?

New and emerging generations of connected aircraft are entering service at pace. Aviation digitalisation spans the aircraft, airline, airport, airspace, MRO, ground operations, lessors and the wider ecosystem. New skills in the Internet of Things, robotics, AI, machine learning, AR/VR, big data analytics, predictive maintenance, blockchain, etc. are sought by the industry.

While the digital technology is similar to other industrial sectors, the safety conscious and highly-regulated aviation industry imposes technology adoption hurdles specific to the aerospace regulatory and culture.

• Unique Cranfield global research airport learning environment.
• World-leading research centres - Cranfield University IVHM Centre has been leading research in the predictive health maintenance with technology adopted by major aircraft manufacturers.
• Digital MRO and hangar laboratories together with the Cranfield Boeing 737-400 ground demonstrator.
• HILDA digital high performance computing ecosystem with up to 10.5 PetaFlops processing power, 2.5 PB storage and 200GBits/s network.
• Work with industrial standard aviation IT systems.

Practical research projects make up 60% of the study. The group design project (GDP) develops the students’ professional practice to work as part of a team, plan and management project, and communicate ideas and results. The GDP design, implement, validate and test an aspect of digital aviation, applying the knowledge acquired in the taught modules and integrate the various methods learnt.

The individual research projects (IRPs) allow the students to specialise on a digital aviation topic relevant to their career development. The real-world relevance of the research project topics is an effective differentiator in the job market.

Informed by industry

The MSc course content has been based on advice from the Industrial Advisory Board (IAB), comprising leaders from Boeing, Etihad, easyJet, Saab, STS Aviation, SITA, Thales, TUI, and others across the aviation sector.