Honorary vice-president announced

The AA810 Project is delighted to announce that Professor Sir Peter Gregson has joined our Honorary President, Sir Michael Arthur, as our Honorary Vice-President. An extremely distinguished research engineer, Sir Peter is Chief Executive and Vice-Chancellor of Cranfield University. He has previously been President and Vice-Chancellor of Queen's University Belfast and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Southampton University. He was appointed Knight Bachelor for Services to Higher Education in 2011.

Educated at Imperial College London, he has received the Donald Julius Groen Prize of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Rosenhain Medal and Prize of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining for his research on the development of advanced aerospace aluminium alloys. He holds Honorary Degrees in the UK, Ireland, India and Japan.

Elected to Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2001 and the Royal Irish Academy in 2007, he has been a non-executive director of the Rolls-Royce Group, served on the Board of SEMLEP, the Councils of CBI Northern Ireland, the Royal Academy of Engineering, and the Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils. He served as Deputy Lieutenant of Belfast from 2007 to 2013.

Welcoming Sir Peter to the Project, Spitfire AA810 Restoration Director, Dr Michael Smith, said:

“Sir Peter agreeing to join the team is another highly significant milestone in the project to bring AA810 back to life and so, not only commemorate the extremely important and courageous activities of the WWII Photographic Reconnaissance Unit but also encourage future generations of young people into the worlds of engineering and, in particular, aerospace & aviation.”