Current Students and Staff

// University News

25 May 2016

Alumnus and Airbus Americas President visits campus from the US

Barry Eccleston, a Loughborough alumnus and current President of Airbus Americas, visited the campus earlier this week to talk to students from the Department of Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering.

Flying to the UK from the United States, Barry met to two groups of Aeronautical Engineering students who presented their recently completed final year Group Design Project.

The student projects presented were from the Electric Aerobatic “Red Bull” Racer team (EAR) and the Unmanned Aerial System team (UAS).

Following a short presentation, the teams introduced and described their designs using examples, images and videos. The EAR team discussed their collaboration with Virginia Tech and used CAD drawings to present their project. The UAS team presented their assembled aircraft, providing Barry with a tour demonstrating the various features of their design.

The opportunity to meet Barry provided students the platform to exhibit the quality of their work to an influential and knowledgeable aeronautical engineer.

Barry studied Aeronautical Engineering at Loughborough, graduating in 1969. His career in aviation and aerospace began at Rolls-Royce where he started as a flight test engineer. He was appointed president of Airbus Americas, Inc. in August 2005.

During his visit, Barry commented: “I’m constantly amazed at the younger generation today who are all a lot more confident in themselves and their capabilities than I felt I was when I graduated. Students should think big and always aim for the top of the totem pole. They should have belief in themselves and be ambitious. But be humble with it. Because you’re not going to do it on your own – you’ve got to have everybody else on board along the way.”