Concordia's women of the sky

As Google’s doodlers noted, today is the 107th birthday of a woman described as “New Zealand's greatest aviator.”

In 1936, Jean Batten broke records with a pioneering solo flight from Kent, England, to her hometown of Auckland. With refuelling stops, it took 11 days and 45 minutes.

These days, the frontiers of aerospace have changed. Here are three Concordia academics who are leading the charge.
 

Nadia Bhuiyan: sustainable aviation

Nadia Bhuiyan, associate director of the Concordia Institute of Aerospace Design and Innovation (CIADI), believes we must embrace innovations that allow for sustainable air travel.

As she wrote in a bilingual newspaper op-ed with green aviation expert Sylvain Cofsky:

"Continued action on environmental sustainability is urgently needed. And Montreal — as one of the top three aerospace capitals of the world — must play a significant role in meeting the environmental challenges associated with the aerospace industry."

With this in mind, CIADI brings together "world-class researchers [who] study the use of composite materials and advanced coatings in aircraft, biofuels in aviation, waste reduction in design, manufacturing and the supply chain, and improved airport operations, among other innovations."

Isabelle Dostaler: groundbreaking business models

Aerospace industry expert Isabelle Dostaler, a professor at Concordia's John Molson School of Business, researches on air transportation systems, which she defines as "from the point where the aircraft is being designed to the point that the air travellers arrive happy at their destination."

She's particularly interested in the new approach embodied by low-cost carriers offering cheap fares, as well as a newer, more efficient business and organizational model: "They have completely changed the rules of the game for other players — older airlines."

Low-cost carriers "allow us to revisit our old ideas about strategy, that companies have to either offer low price or high quality. They manage to do both, and I think there are lessons to be learned here for many managers, many strategists, in many industries — that it’s good if you can manage to combine both excellent or low prices with excellent quality."

This year, when debate raged in the media about whether it was wise to provide federal funding for Bombardier as it struggled to launch its C Series jets, Dostaler made countless appearances to clarify this, and other, complex aerospace issues.

Catharine Marsden: hands-on aerospace engineering

Catharine Marsden — Concordia’s NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) Chair in Aerospace Design Engineering (NCADE) — takes a new approach to a crucial educational component: experiential learning.

This year, she launched an industry apprenticeship program for first-year engineering students that — quite literally — harnesses the power of top industry partners: Bombardier, Pratt & Whitney Canada, Bell Helicopter Textron, Siemens, Marinvent and Altair.

Marsden was inspired by the memory of her own experience in aircraft manufacturing.

Early in her career, she worked as a maintenance technician. “It was while learning all the complexities of aircraft systems that I grew to really love the product.”

This summer, the inaugural cohort of Concordians was selected for industry apprenticeships.

By the end of June, they’d already gained first-hand knowledge of tools and aircraft parts in an intensive eight-week familiarization program co-developed by Cégep Édouard-Montpetit’s École nationale d’aérotechnique (ÉNA). The students collectively dubbed it “aerospace boot camp.”

Snayha Patel, an industrial engineering undergrad who came to the program from Fine Arts, found the experience “fantastic.”

“I knew nothing in this field when I started. Every day I learn something incredibly new.”

Patel has since signed on as an apprentice with Siemens.

Find out more about Concordia professors Catharine Marsden, Isabelle Dostaler and Nadia Bhuiyan.