QinetiQ's VAAC Harrier Team Wins Prestigious Royal Aeronautical Society Gold Medal

(January 11, 2010) -- In the Centenary year of the of the Royal Aeronautical Society's Medals & Awards, the QinetiQ Vectored-thrust Aircraft Advanced Control (VAAC) Harrier team received a Team Gold Medal - the world's most prestigious and long-standing aerospace awards for achievement, innovation and excellence.

The Gold Medal was awarded to the QinetiQ team for development and flight test activities that have prototyped guidance, control and automatic landing systems for the Short Take-Off & Vertical Landing variant of the Joint Strike Fighter and for its development of the Shipboard Rolling Vertical Landing technique for recovery to the Future Carrier.


The awards were presented on the 10th December at the Society's headquarters in London W1 at the 98th Wilbur & Orville Wright Lecture, which was delivered by Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton on 'Air Power in Ages of Austerity'. Amanda Wright-Lane, the closest living relative of Orville and Wilbur Wright, being the great grand niece of the eldest brother, was also the Guest of Honour.

The first Royal Aeronautical Society's Gold Medal went to the Wright Brothers in 1909. Other notable past Gold Medal recipients include Sir Frank Whittle, Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, Sir Sydney Camm and Sir Frederick Handley Page. The Team Gold Medal was first awarded in 2004 to the SpaceShipOne Team and subsequently to the Airbus A380 Wing Design Team.

Colin Paterson, Chief Engineer for the Joint Combat Aircraft (JCA) programme, praised the VAAC Team for "An exceptional contribution to the success to date of the JCA" and further added that "the team has played a very significant part in the development of the Carrier Strike capability scheduled to be introduced to UK Service by JCA and the Queen Elizabeth Class Carriers."

Source : QinetiQ Group plc (LSE: QQ.L)