Rate My Professor David MacManus

Professor David MacManus is the Professor of Propulsion Aerodynamics in the School of Aerospace, Transport and Manufacturing at Cranfield University. He earned an Honours B.E. degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1990 and a PhD focusing on the aerodynamics of Laminar Flow Control technologies for civil aircraft, both from the National University of Ireland, Galway. After completing his PhD, he joined Rolls-Royce in Derby in 1997, contributing to turbine aerodynamic design and research. In 2003, he returned to academia as a lecturer in the Department of Aerospace Sciences at Cranfield University and moved to the Centre for Propulsion Engineering in 2010. He currently holds positions as Deputy Head of the Centre for Propulsion Engineering, Head of the Gas Turbine Technology Group within the Centre for Propulsion and Thermal Power Engineering, and Director of Cranfield Defence Aeronautics and Space (CDAS).

David MacManus's research interests span aerodynamics, encompassing both computational and experimental methods, aerospace propulsion, turbomachinery aerodynamics, advanced instrumentation, and engineering design and optimisation. His work covers areas such as Computational Fluid Dynamics, Gas Turbines & Propulsion, Flight Physics, and Power Systems & Turbines. He has been recognized with prestigious awards, including the Royal Aeronautical Society Best Written Paper Award (Silver in 2019 and Bronze in 2010), the AIAA Best Paper Award in 2016, and the ISABE Valensi Award for the Conference Best Technical Paper in 2017. Key publications include "Pathway to non-intrusive in-flight flow diagnostics with filtered Rayleigh scattering" (SAE International Journal of Aerospace, 2026, with Lawson et al.), "Aerodynamics of short intake at high incidence" (International Journal of Turbomachinery, Propulsion and Power, 2026, with Tejero et al.), "Shock-induced fan cowl separation during aeroengine windmilling at diversion from cruise" (AIAA Journal, 2025, with Sabnis et al.), "Coupled fan-intake dynamic distortion characterization at crosswind conditions" (AIAA Journal, 2025, with Piovesan et al.), "Impact of installation on the performance of a civil turbofan exhaust at wind-milling" (Aerospace Science and Technology, 2025, with Goulos et al.), and "Aerodynamics of high-bypass-ratio aeroengine nacelles: numerical and experimental investigation" (Journal of Aircraft, 2025, with Tejero et al.).