William Crowther

Biography

Bill Crowther has a degree in Aeronautical Engineering (1990) and a PhD in Experimental Aerodynamics (1994) from the University of Bath. He joined the University of Manchester as a lecturer in 1997, became a Senior Lecturer in 2006 and Reader in 2011. He has been director of the Aerospace Engineering Undergraduate Programme since 2011. His research interests include Unmanned Air Vehicle (fixed, rotary and flapping wing), flow control (aerodynamics and micropump development), modelling and simulation of aerospace systems, and experimental aerodynamics. He has taught undergraduate courses on aerodynamics, introductory control, aircraft design and aircraft systems, and was involved in the development of Problem/Enquiry Based Learning at Manchester. Bill led the ''FLAVIIR'' team at Manchester that demonstrated ''the world''s first flapless aircraft'' in 2009 as part of the FLAVIIR project. The Manchester demonstrator aircraft from this project is now on permanent display in the ''Manchester Futures'' gallery at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. The ground breaking ''Tumbleweed'' unmanned helicopter developed as part on MoD sponsored project was displayed for a year in the Science Museum in London. In 2012 and 2013 Bill led research expeditions to the Amazon rainforest for the purposes of surveying bio diversity using Unmanned Air Vehicles which created photo mosaic maps of unprecedented detail for the area and taught a lot about making complex technology work in very remote places. He has led two technology spin out projects from his research at the university of which neither was commercially successful but made him a much better engineer.

External positions

External Examiner, University of Limerick

2015 → 2018