News
Industry first as planner made Fellow Of Royal Aeronautical Society
18 Dec 2019London-based Associate Director Tabitha Knowles has notched up an industry first after being recognised as a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.
Tabitha joins the company of noted Fellow RAeS luminaries including astronaut Tim Peake, entrepreneur Richard Branson and Britain’s first cosmonaut Helen Sharman.
Tabitha has professional qualifications in airport planning and town planning, and worked in the industry for over 10 years before joining Lichfields in 2015.
Her extensive experience in airport growth strategy, planning and design, has seen her appointed to the Department for Transport’s Aviation Strategy Expert Panel. She has worked with many of the worlds’ leading airports including Heathrow and Gatwick.
Tabitha says she wrote to the RAeS to see if she could become a member only to be told she had gone one better - and would be made a ‘Fellow’.
It is a great honour and humbling to be recognised by the RAeS in this capacity, along with the acknowledgment of the valuable role planning has to play to support a thriving yet evolving aviation sector that must grow in a safe, secure and sustainable way.
A spokesperson for the RAeS says “the Royal Aeronautical Society has been recognising achievement in aviation and aerospace since 1866’.
Fellowships are appointed on the basis of outstanding contributions and experience in the profession of aeronautics, and reflect the growing diversity of backgrounds and expertise. We’re very pleased to welcome Tabitha as a Fellow of the RAeS.” said the spokesperson.
Over the years the Fellowship has included some of the best-known figures in aviation history, including RJ Mitchell (designer of the Spitfire), Juan de la Cierva (inventor of the autogyro) and Diana Barnato Walker (the first British woman to break the sound barrier).
The RAeS says the majority of today’s Fellows have backgrounds in commercial aviation - airlines, design and manufacturing - the military and space.
Lichfields has a long history in the Aviation sector, dating back to the 1960s with its work on the Roskill Commission on a third London airport. The firm has secured numerous noteworthy planning permissions, such as London City Airport’s original permission to become an airport, the introduction of jet aircraft, and increasing movement numbers.
Lichfields currently advises a range of the UK’s airports, providing planning, economics and specialist aviation technical services, and is a respected commentator on aviation issues.
Tabitha, who is believed to be one of the first planners to become an RAeS Fellow, recently published her own research on whether current aerodrome safeguarding is fit for purpose.