Darrel Charles BSc(Hons)

Associate Director & Business Manager Safety & Suitability Technologies

Darrel Charles is Cranfield Aerospace's Operations Director, responsible for IT within the company. He is also the Business Manager of the Safety & Suitability Technologies division, providing technical and commercial leadership to the team.

Darrel joined Cranfield Aerospace's parent, the College of Aeronautics, in 1980 and became Signal Processing Manager in 1984. In that capacity, he was responsible for running a team involved in analysing test data from equipment development and qualification trials. He was one of the founding members of Cranfield Aerospace Ltd., was instrumental in the Company gaining ISO 9000 & TickIT approvals and in achieving the transition from a University department to a fully commercial company.

After graduating from the University of East Anglia with a Physics degree in 1974, Darrel worked at David Brown's Research and Development department in Yorkshire, where he was primarily concerned with marine applications. In 1977 he moved into the aerospace industry, joining the Systems Division of Hunting Engineering Ltd (now Lockheed-Martin UKINSYS Ltd)

Darrel has presented numerous technical papers on the subject of the effects of vibration and shock environments on equipment. As SST's senior consultant he has also complied several hundred technical reports on those issues, particularly relating to military equipment in transportation and deployment, and on land, sea and in the air. He has served on national committees concerned with environmental engineering matters, including contributing to the UK's Defence Standards.