KEYNOTE LECTURE

Graham Wild

UNSW, Australia

Metrology defines what can be known in science, yet its philosophical foundations are rarely applied to the study of aerodynamic lift, the most measured and misunderstood phenomenon in aerospace. This work will examine how the philosophy of metrology, with its emphasis on definition, traceability, and uncertainty, constrains and enables the formation of scientific explanations. Starting from what we, as metrologists, agree constitutes a valid measurement, the talk explores how different measurement strategies in aerodynamics, pressure fields, velocity fields, and wake diagnostics, determine what can legitimately be stated about lift. Through this lens, the metrological act becomes the bridge between aetiology (causal reasoning) and nomology (lawful description). By analysing which aspects of lift are empirically measurable and which remain inferential, this shows how metrology not only quantifies aerodynamic forces but also shapes the epistemology and ontology of aerodynamic explanation itself.

Dr Graham Wild is currently the Aviation Program Coordinator at UNSW Canberra. He completed his PhD in aerospace vehicle structural health monitoring at Edith Cowan University in Australia and, following initial training toward a pilot pathway, became a Lecturer in Aviation Systems at ECU. He later held the position of Senior Lecturer in Aerospace Engineering and Aviation at RMIT University before moving to UNSW Canberra as a Senior Lecturer in Aviation Technology. His core research centres on sensors and instrumentation, most commonly optical fibre systems, currently applied to high-speed fluid–thermal–structural interactions. Alongside this technical work, he has an unhealthy obsession with the history and philosophy of aerodynamics, particularly in how flight is explained and taught. He has authored and co-authors 250 articles with a diverse range of topics across aerospace and aviation.