From Montgolfier to Concorde and Beyond, was the title of this years lecture held at the University of Surrey on December 4th.



This described how aviation design and flight aerodynamics had evolved over the years. Our presenter Dr Paul Bruce, an aerodynamicist and lecturer at London's Imperial College, fascinated the audience with his take on the unique challenges of designing craft of all shapes and sizes to defy gravity.



Starting from the early hot air balloon pioneers, Paul moved on to consider conventional aeroplanes and hightlight some key advances in their development which have enabled engineers to produce today's state-of-the-art aircraft.



"Excellent presentation of a very interesting subject. It was pitched for a children's lecture, although it did become slightly complicated at time for some of the younger people". AW



"A very interesting lecture". MC & DC



"A very interesting and well presented lecture. It held peoples interest throughout and it nicely presented an historic and future view of aerodynamics. It was very good to have such a high calibre lecturer as Dr Paul Bruce." DK



If you wish to interact further and pose any further questions, we would be pleased to pass them on to Paul. Also if you have any topics for further schools lectures please feel free to comment in this blog.



Please note that there will be a second presentation of this event at the Bracknell and Wokingham College in March, further details will be provided nearer the time. After this we may make the presentation available for download depending on whether the speaker will agree.