Bristol is celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, perhaps the greatest engineering visionary for transportation that the world has every seen.  200 years later, the largest passenger carrying aircraft in the world, the Airbus A380, will be the focus of a public lecture at Bristol University tomorrow [Tuesday, July 11].

Entitled “Continuing the vision – Airbus A380 and beyond”, the lecture will be given by Gordon McConnell, Senior Vice President Engineering at Airbus UK.  

The lecture takes place at 6 pm on Tuesday, July 11 in the School of Chemistry, Lecture Theatre 1, Cantock’s Close.  It is free and open to everyone but spaces are limited. 

Airbus has achieved remarkable progress over the last 35 years to become world leaders in the large commercial aircraft market. This impressive achievement has only been possible by continuously pursuing an engineering vision which is to develop technically advanced aircraft products which set new standards to meet airline, passenger and other stakeholder requirements.

Gordon McConnell, commenting on his lecture, said: “From the days of Brunel, the great steps in transportation have been driven by people with remarkable engineering vision.   Bristol has played a major role in shaping these great steps and one can trace these farsighted visions up to the A380 aircraft today.  I will touch on the major technical and industrial challenges of the A380 aircraft programme with a focus on the Wing which is designed at Airbus Filton.  I will also look to the future to understand the new challenges facing the next generation of Airbus aircraft and how they might be overcome. 

“Airbus is delighted to be continuing Bristol’s proud engineering heritage in all forms of transportation.”

The lecture is part of this year’s Colston Research Society Symposium, a three-day meeting at the University, which will bring together an international line-up of experts to discuss the direction and key challenges associated with adaptive structures.

The aim of the conference is to allow the next generation of scientists and engineers to find an agenda for research directions of the future, focused on three key themes: smart materials, adaptive systems and applications to mechanical, aerospace and space engineering.

The meeting, sponsored by the Colston Research Society and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), is organised by the University Departments of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering.