Recently retired from being President & Chief Executive at Robinson Helicopter Company, is giving the Cierva Lecture at London’s Royal Aeronautical Society on Tuesday 5th October.

The Cierva Lecture is named after Juan de la Cierva, FRAeS, an aeronautical engineer who pioneered rotary flight. In 1926 with the backing of the Weir brothers he formed the Cierva Autogiro Company and it was his development of rotor blade design and articulated rotor blades, which played a major role in the first successful helicopter in 1936.

Previous speakers include:

2009 – John Piasecki, President & Chief Executive Officer, Piasecki Aircraft Corporation
2008 – Dr Ing Pietro Alli, Former AW Chief Technical Officer, AgustaWestland
2007 – Andrew Warner, Chief Test Pilot, Eurocopter
2006 – Dr Gordon Leishman, Professor of Aerospace Engineering, University of Maryland, USA
2005 – Richard Case, Managing Director, AgustaWestland
2004 – Air Vice-Marshal David M. Niven CB CBE BSc FRAeS
2003 – Eur Ing David Gibbings CEng FRAeS, Westland Helicopters Flight Test Engineer (Rtd)
2002 – Mr Troy Gaffey, Senior Vice President – Technology, Bell Helicopter Textron Inc
2001 – Professor (Eur.Ing) Reg Austin CEng MSc CdipAF FRAeS
2000 – Captain Eric Melrose Brown, Vice-President, British Helicopter Advisory Board / European Helicopter Association

More details, including a detailed profile of Frank’s experience in the helicopter industry can be found at http://www.raes.org.uk/conference/PDFs/cie10.pdf