2012 Annual Meeting (Friday-Saturday 14-15 September 2012)
This year's meeting again coincided with the University's Alumni Weekend. The Jenkin Lecture was given by Frank Chapman (St Catherine's 1977-80 and now Chief Test Pilot of Airbus, Toulouse), on Flight-testing the A380 - from first flight to certification, which gave a superb insight into the work of the test pilot as well as the extent of the tests that modern airliners have to go through to achieve certification.
Instead of the usual talks on the Saturday morning, two excellent tours of Departmental facilities were offered: Prof. Peter Ireland organised a visit to the new Southwell Building in Osney, home of the turbomachinery research group, and Prof. Lionel Tarassenko organised a tour of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering in the Old Road campus in Headington.
Frank Chapman was the Society's guest at a very good dinner on the Friday evening, at the Perch at Binsey.
The Saturday started with minibuses taking people from the Thom Building for the tours of the Southwell Building and the IBME, after which there was the Society's AGM (including the Head of Department's annual report), followed by buffet lunch in the Holder Building Common Room; after lunch the Jenkin Lecture rounded off the day's events:
- The 25th Jenkin Lecture
Frank Chapman : Flight-testing the A380 - from first flight to certification