A webinar on ‘Avenues in Aerospace Research and Methodology for Research’ was conducted by Dr Dinesh Bhatia - Assistant Professor - Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Nottingham, China. He talked about key challenges facing the aerospace industry; Areas in which one can innovate; Research Methodology talking about as current and future researchers, how to go about researching and shared case studies to follow research methodology. Research is about breaking down existing challenges into realistic deliveries. Dr. Bhatia detailed the timeline of Aviation history after 18th Century and sustainable future by using solar and electric fuel to power our aircrafts. Sharing key challenges, he mentioned about safety and the need to develop technologies that are safe. He further talked about passenger comfort with number of passengers increasing every year and seats are becoming cramped. Dr. Bhatia also mentioned sustainability a key challenge as aviation contributes 12% CO2 emissions for transport.
Talking about areas for aerospace innovation, he mentioned need for improvement in structure and material for aircrafts, improvement in propulsion technology and improvement in aerodynamics. He averred that research methodology involves a process including reviewing the field and identifying the current research, finding gaps & finding other people doing similar research; Theory building based on the review done before proceeding to Theory Testing and finally filling gaps in literature, challenging existing concepts.