Awarded for an outstanding contribution to aviation safety.
Ratan Khatwa is an aerospace engineer who has dedicated over 30 years to improving flight safety in commercial and business aviation. His career has spanned several organizations where his numerous contributions to improved flight deck systems have enabled pilots to fly more safely and reliably.
After earning a Doctorate in Aeronautical Engineering (University of Bristol) Ratan joined the Royal Netherlands National Aerospace Laboratory for seven years, specializing in flight deck Human Factors (HF) assessments of terrain displays and take-off performance monitoring. He moved to Rockwell Collins in 1997 where he developed a HF design and certification process for business aviation flight decks and earned the President’s Award for his leadership of the Flight Safety Foundation’s Approach and Landing Accident Reduction effort. He was subsequently recruited by Don Bateman (“father” of GPWS) to join Honeywell Aerospace where he became a Senior Fellow and later Chief Engineer - Human Factors, overseeing HF design approval across Honeywell’s flight deck systems. He recently joined Boeing where he serves as the Chief Strategist and Designer for flight deck HF.
Ratan has spent three decades as a global HF ambassador cultivating HF into all stages of avionics product development, successfully pioneering HF process excellence and driving the necessary organizational changes. He has taken key technologies from ideation through technology maturation into product development and successful certification of dozens of systems. His portfolio spans individual systems to integrated avionics solutions for Part 23, 25 & 29 flight decks. He has made significant contributions to the development of advanced flight deck systems such as EGPWS, RDR 4000 Weather Radar, Synthetic Vision Systems, TCAS, Auto Pilot Coupled TCAS, CDTI, Runway Overrun Awareness and Alerting System, RAAS, Airport Moving Maps, Uplinked Weather, Touch Screen Controls, and Cursor Control Devices. At Honeywell he provided HF oversight and guidance for integrated flight deck systems on new aircraft including the Embraer E2, Gulfstream G500, Pilatus PC 24, and Falcon 10X and for avionics upgrades on the Airbus 300, Pilatus PC 12, Gulfstream G650 and the Leonardo AW 139 helicopter. He holds fifty patents covering alerting, display, navigation, surveillance, and flight path management functions that are implemented in existing systems. His accomplishments earned him the Honeywell Chairman’s Award and 5 Honeywell Tech Achievement Awards.
In addition, Ratan has authored over 75 technical publications focusing on human-centred design of flight deck systems and landmark flight safety investigations that transformed global safety standards for addressing Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT) and Approach & Landing Accident Reduction (ALAR). He is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and currently Chair of the GAMA Flight Deck Human Factors Design & Certification Working Group, a member of the Flight Safety Foundation’s International Advisory Committee, the RTCA CEO HF Steering Committee, EUROCONTROL’s Global Action Team for the Prevention of Runway Excursions, and is past Chair of EASA’s Flight Deck Design & Certification Sub-Group.
Ratan has played a key role in leading global initiatives to define flight deck standards and shape flight safety priorities to benefit the entire industry and the flying public worldwide. No doubt his technological contributions have saved countless lives. Dr Ratan Khatwa is therefore a very deserving recipient of the Cumberbatch Trophy.
1936/37 Imperial Airways
Sqn Ldr H G Brackley DSO DSC, F J Bailey Esq, W Rodgers Esq AFM, F Dismore Esq,
LA Walters Esq, H J Horsey Esq, O P Jones Esq, A S Wilcockson Esq, A B H Youell Esq
1937/38 Olley Air Services
Captain G P Olley MM, T W Morton Esq, C W H Bebb Esq, F R Midgley Esq, R D Morrison Esq,
J Dendy Esq, G E B Stoney Esq, J E B Scott Esq
1938/39 Messers Wrightways Ltd
J W Duggan Esq, F Brent Esq, P C Fair Esq, G G Stead Esq
1948/49 Air Cdre H G Brackley CBE DSO DSC
1949/50 Aer Lingus
1950/51 No. 3 Line B.O.A.C.
1951/52 Tasman Empire Airways Limited
1952/53 Professor E S Calvert BSc ARSc
1953/54 British West Indian Airways
1954/55 Silver City Airways Ltd
1955/56 Captain W B Calldwell & Captain E W Jorden and Flying Staff, British European Airways, Channel Islands Services
1956/57 Malayan Airways Limited
1957/58 Trans-Australian Airlines
1959/60 James Martin Esq CBE
1960/61 Royal Air Force, Institute of Aviation Medicine
1961/62 Aden Airways Limited
1962/63 D P Davies Esq
1963/64 Blind Landing Experimental Unit of the Royal Aircraft Establishment
1964/65 John Wright Gibbs Esq MBE (posthumous)
1965/66 Britannia 102 + 312 Flights BOAC
1966/67 Dr E S Calvert OBE & J W Sparks Esq
1967/68 W E B Griffiths Esq CBE
1968/69 J A Karran Esq OBE
1969/70 Captain E N Jennings MBE DFC
1970/71 Qantas Airways Limited
1971/72 Captain Frank Ormonroyd DFM MA & Captain Eric L R Poole
1972/73 John W Wilson Esq
1973/74 J F M Moyle Esq
1974/75 John Henri Grant Esq
1975/76 S Gordon Corps Esq
1976/77 Joint Airmiss Working Group (Chairman: Group Captain David Hughes DFC AFC)
1978 not awarded
1978/79 Captain Frank H Hawkins
1979/80 Captain Philip Brentnall DFC
1980/81 John Michael Ramsden Esq
1981/82 VC10 Flight of British Airways
1982/83 Captain T L J Lakin W H Grice Esq Captain P J Hunt (British Airways 'All Weather' Team)
1984 - 1989 not awarded
1989/90 Qantas Airways Limited
1991 - 1992 not awarded
1992/93 Ronald Ashford Esq
1993/94 Ken M Carpenter PhD
1994/95 William D Reynard Esq
1995/96 British Airways Safety Services
1996/97 Don Bateman Esq
1998 not awarded
1999/2000 John Thorpe MRAeS
2000/01 R Curtis Graeber PhD FRAeS
2001/02 S Eric Clark BSc CEng FRAeS
2003 not awarded
2003/04 Alan R Jacobsen PhD
2004/05 Stuart Mathews
2005/06 Kathy Abbott PhD MSc FRAeS
2007 - 2010 not awarded
2010/11 James Ray Klinect PhD and the LOSA Collaborative
2011/12 Harbour Air Seaplanes
2013 - 2014 not awarded
2014/15 Hugh Browning
2016 not awarded
2017 Cdr Ian S Fitter RN
2018 Michael O'Donoghue CBE
2019 WOI Peter R Balcomb AAC
2020 Master Air Engineer Stephen Hammond
2021 Tim Tucker
2022 Dr Ratan Khatwa
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