Bill Gale, Professor of Aviation and Aerospace Engineering

Inaugural lecture

‘An Interdisciplinary Approach to Sustainable Aviation’

Access to safe, reliable and affordable civil aviation has had a profound effect on both business and leisure and the worldwide demand for civil aviation continues to increase. However, growing concerns over the sustainability of civil aviation present a major threat to this vital industry. To complicate matters, sustainability means vastly different things to the various key constituencies of the civil aviation industry, in the broadest sense. Environmental sustainability is multifaceted, encompassing global, near-airport and airliner cabin considerations. Furthermore, the overall sustainability of civil aviation extends to the financial viability of the airlines and managing efficiently, safely and securely the expected growth in the capacity of the worldwide air transportation system. Gale will argue that many of these issues are interrelated to a significant extent and a response requires a highly interdisciplinary approach. Gale will illustrate this, using examples from his research in the US, which is continuing at Leeds.