Dr Guy Gratton (2025 Fellow)
Nomination #1 (Sebastien Burwitz):
Guy Gratton was one of the first flight test professionals I've met in my career, just shortly after graduating from NTPS' Light Aircraft Flight Test Course.
We met at the 2013 SFTE-EC symposium in Braunschweig, Germany and again at the 2014 SFTE-EC symposium in Lulea, Sweden. There, he held an interesting and unconventional talk about a giant British Airship. It also included a giant British cow, for some reason. Guy has been a longtime SFTE member and I think his senior member status must be way older than mine.
He is a friendly, very experienced flight tester with a unique history, having spent time at ETPS, working as leading manager at British FAAM with it's unique BAe 146 research aircraft, as lecturer / associate professor at Cranfield and Brunel university and flight testing mostly small and light aircraft, partly in the context of his teaching, partly on a private basis. He also was one of the first pioneers to first-fly a fully electric driven aircraft in 2022, Cranfield's eKub, of course presenting his experience to the flight test community.
Guy did not leave it to presenting at multiple symposia on multiple subjects and active flight testing, he also published a superb book: Initial Airworthiness - Determining the Acceptability of New Airborne Systems in 2018.
Guy has done an excellent and outstanding job in not only educating the seasoned flight testers in an interesting way by his symposia contributions, but also the next generations of aeronautical engineers.
He has a good sense of humour and is an ideal role model when it comes to flight testing and flight safety. He also immediately knew the only WWII RAF legend, test pilot, engineer, holder of more FAI world records than I'd have wall space to put them and James Bond stunt pilot I ever personally met in my life: wingman Ken Wallis.
This nomination was quickly written from the top of my head, due to the last chance e-mail. It is surely missing many more aspects that I either forgot or don't even know about. To research them would surely be possible, should you decide to select him.
Nomination #2 (Jim Fawcett):
Dr. Guy Gratton is a UK Chartered Engineer also holding current flying instructor, commercial pilot and test pilot qualifications with over 2300 flying hours, who has an international reputation for his research work on a various aspects of aviation related to safety, low emissions aircraft, and to climate change. He has extensive print and broadcast media experience. He has worked across military and civil aviation, including airborne research, airworthiness (including writing a standard textbook on initial airworthiness), and has published 31 papers in peer reviewed journals. He has taught aerospace engineering subjects at all levels, including PhD supervision, taken various roles in the creation of new undergraduate and postgraduate courses, and acted as an expert witness in 17 legal cases related to air accidents. Dr Gratton has managed research projects in the UK and overseas, and also two high profile research facilities - FAAM at Cranfield for 6 years, and MoD Environmental Test Facilities at Boscombe Down for 1 year, with teams of up to 40 people, and budgets up to £6m.pa.
His current role is Associate Professor of Aviation and the Environment. Faculty of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Cranfield University, UK, where he is developing and leading new research directions mainly in electric aircraft and climate change; aviation relationships; media outreach; teaching on MScs as required; flying as test and research pilot; Flight Test and Certification Group Head within Centre for Aeronautics; Deputy Director for multi-university Centre for Doctoral Training in Net Zero Aviation; Director for new MSc in Flight Test Engineering.
Dr. Gratton's academic qualifications include a PhD in Aerospace Engineering "An Experimental and Theoretical Evaluation of Airworthiness Evaluation Techniques for Small Light Aeroplanes", University of Southampton and a BEng(Hons) Aeronautics and Astronautics, also from the University of Southampton. His professional memberships include
- Fellow, Royal Aeronautical Society (2006);
- Fellow, Institution of Mechanical Engineers (2010);
- Associate Fellow, Society of Experimental Test Pilots (2016);
- Senior Member, Society of Flight Test Engineers (2023);
- Member, Society of Authors (2020).
Guy has been a consistent supporter of the SFTE (the European Chapter in particular) and the FTSW, submitting and presenting papers at multiple symposia over the years (see attached).
There is no doubt in my mind that Dr Gratton is a worthy candidate for election as Fellow of the SFTE, espousing as he does the academic and professional aspects of the profession of flight test engineering, whilst ensuring the promotion of the discipline and the Society through his frequent and eloquent media engagements.
SFTE Publications
- G Gratton, Lessons from Project EnabEl, Proceedings of the 2024 European
Symposium of the Society of Flight Test Engineers, Vienna May 2024 - G Gratton, & S Daniels, Creating an MSc in Flight Test Engineering – a snapshot of
work in progress, Proceedings of the 2024 European Symposium of the Society of Flight
Test Engineers, Vienna, May 2024 - Steven Daniels, Guy Gratton, Identifying best practices in the use of flying
classrooms, European Symposium of the Society of Flight Test Engineers, Rome, May
2023 - GB Gratton, Flight Testing the Titanic: re-visiting the loss of His Majesty’s Airship R101,
Proceedings of the European 46th SETP and 25th SFTE Symposium, 15-18 June 2014,
Luleå, Sweden - M Bromfield, G Gratton, T Watson, Flight Testing in a University Environment,
proceedings of the 24th European Symposium of the Society of Flight Test Engineers,
June 2013. - GB Gratton, Planning And Execution Of Atmospheric Research Flight Operations in the
United Kingdom Following the 2010 Icelandic Volcano Eruption, Proceedings of the 41st
International Symposium of the Society of Flight Test Engineers, Washington DC Sep
2010 - M Bromfield & GB Gratton, Loss of Control Testing of Light Aircraft and a Cost Effective
Approach To Flight Test, Proceedings of the 41st International Symposium of the Society
of Flight Test Engineers, Washington DC Sep 2010 - M Bromfield & GB Gratton, Supporting the investigation of factors affecting loss of
control of light aircraft, Proceedings of the 40th Annual International Symposium -
Society of Flight Test Engineers, Linkoping, Sweden, Sept 2009 - GB Gratton & TC Porteous, Protecting the Flight Test Programme, Proceedings of the
first European Flight Test Safety Workshop, London, 2007 - GB Gratton & SJ Newman, The tumble mode, where Test Pilots fear to tread,
proceedings of the Joint European Symposium of Society of Experimental Test Pilots
and Society of Flight Test Engineers, London Jun 2004 - Non-SFTE publications too numerous to list...
