Aerospace facilities
Aircraft Cabin Simulators
Cranfield University houses two aircraft cabin simulators, the Large Cabin Evacuation Simulator and the Boeing 737 cabin simulator. Both of these simulators are used to conduct research into various aspects of cabin safety.
More information on the cabin simulators
Airport
The business airport - Cranfield has a 1800m runway, long enough to accommodate business jets such as the Falcon, Gulfstream and Boeing Business Jet and no runway slots are required.
Find out more about Cranfield Airport
Composites manufacturing
Cranfield is recognised internationally for its work in the area of composites manufacturing. We specialise in advanced composites for automotive, motorsport and aerospace applications. Our composites manufacturing facilities underpin the work of staff and students. Extensive laboratories with associated equipment include an Autoclave and RTM injection facilities for pre-preg and liquid composite moulding manufacture. Automated equipment extends our capabilities in relation to pre-preg tape laying and vacuum forming of composite parts.
Find out more about composites
Computer Aided Engineering Software
Cranfield University supports students through the use of some of the worlds leading computer aided engineering software.
Find out more about these facilities.
Cranfield Aerospace Ltd
Cranfield Aerospace has become a world class supplier of products and services and operate in a number of areas. These include specialist design services for military and civil aircraft, “Turnkey” services for flight evaluation and testing for manned and unmanned aircraft and integration and supply of flight controls for manned and unmanned aircraft.
Find out more about Cranfield Aerospace Ltd
Flight Simulation Laboratory
Flight simulation is playing an increasingly important role in academia in both teaching and research due in part to the rapid development of affordable PC based simulation technologies.
More information on the flight simulation laboratory
Gas Turbine Engineering Laboratory
The Gas Turbine Engineering Laboratories are ideal for testing many aspects of turbo-machinery R&D. Off campus, the site consists of twelve self contained test houses. The facility has a new 1 MW compressed air plant as well as a unique regenerative air heater giving it the capacity of providing clean air at high pressure, temperature and flow.
Find out more about the GTE lab
High temperature surface engineering
Cranfield University has extensive facilities and equipment for Physical Vapour Deposition (PVD), Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD) coating and Vacuum Plasma Spray (LVPS) coating of high temperature components. We have the only university facilities in Europe to deposit Electron Beam Physical Vapour Deposition (EBPVD) thermal barrier coatings onto blades, and the most comprehensive high-temperature coating test facilities within a university worldwide. We have a hot isostatic pressing surface engineering capability within the Centre.
High Performance Computing
HP XC Clusters provide a comprehensive, supported solution for serial and parallel applications, complemented by a robust application development environment and extensive ISV application portfolio. Applications from the leading developers of software for CAE, EDA, Life and Material Sciences, and other disciplines are available on XC Clusters.
Find out more about this facility
Icing Tunnel
The Cranfield Icing facilities include two tunnels. The main tunnel is unique in the university sector and has been specifically designed to facilitate testing in SLD and fine droplet icing. The droplet tunnel is a unique vertical tunnel designed to facilitate icing phenomena at the scale of individual droplet impact events.
Find out more about the icing tunnel
Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM)
IVHM enables the transformation of system data on a vehicle (such as a commercial aircraft) into information to support operational decisions.
Find out more about IVHM
Materials Characterisation Laboratories
The Materials Characterisation Laboratory is exceptionally well-equipped to support industrially orientated research in materials science, and offers a wide range of specialist equipment for fabricating and characterising materials and devices at both the micrometer and nanometer scale.
Find out more about the laboratory.
National Flying Laboratory Centre - University aircraft
Jetstream 31 "flying classroom" - Flight test and airborne research and development activity. Scottish Aviation Bulldog - "Hands on" experience for Cranfield students
Read more about NFLC
Precision engineering facilities
Facilities at Cranfield include state-of-the-art ultra precision, micro engineering and advanced coating laboratories, offering uniquely accurate capabilities in diamond machining, micro milling, micro moulding and surface metrology, supported by highly accurate temperature control.
Find out more about precision engineering
Safety & Accident Investigation Centre
The Cranfield Safety and Accident Investigation Centre is the evolution of the Cranfield Aviation Safety Centre, which has run Aircraft Accident Investigation courses in collaboration with the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch since 1977.
Find out more about the centre
Wind tunnels
Cranfield operates a number of high and low speed wind tunnels capable of investigating a wide range of different flowfields. Facilities exist on the Cranfield and Shrivenham campuses.
Find out more about the tunnels
