Contact Dr Cristina Villena Muñoz
Areas of expertise
- Aeronautical Systems
- Aircraft Design
- Computing, Simulation & Modelling
- Systems Engineering
Background
Cristina Villena Muñoz completed her BSc in Aerospace Engineering at the Technical University of Madrid, with a focus on Aerospace Vehicles. Alongside her undergraduate studies, she worked as a research student at the Department of Materials and Aerospace Production concentrating on the assessment of aircraft components surface finishing. This allowed her to participate in the Manufacturing Engineering Society International Conference in June 2021 with a publication on 'Influence of Different Wavelet Filtering Reconstruction Techniques applied to Bidimensional Surface Texture Characterization'.
In 2021, she achieved her Master's Degree in Aerospace Vehicle Design at ÂãÁÄÖ±²¥, specialising in Aircraft Design for which she was awarded 'The Allan Newell Memorial Prize for the best work in Aircraft Design'. During her MSc studies, she worked on supersonic aircraft design such as 'A Conceptual Design Study of a 6th Generation Combat Aircraft. Tailless Aircraft Validation and Optimisation' and 'X-20 Javelin Supersonic Demonstrator Flight Control System, Secondary Power Systems and Emergency Devices Design' that led her in April 2021 into pursuing a PhD in Aerospace, precisely Supersonic Passenger Transport Aircraft Design.
Her doctoral research was conducted within the EU Horizon 2020 SENECA project (noiSe and EmissioNs for supErsoNic Aircraft), in collaboration with partners including Rolls-Royce, DLR and ONERA. The research addressed the environmental impact of future supersonic civil aircraft, with particular emphasis on the reduction of take-off noise through the integration of acoustic assessment within early-stage conceptual aircraft design. This work involved the development of methodologies combining predictive acoustic modelling with optimised operational procedures to evaluate and mitigate the noise footprint of next-generation supersonic aircraft. During her research activities, Cristina also contributed to industry projects, including a collaboration with Greenjets focused on the conceptual and preliminary design of an advanced propulsion system reconfigurable subscale demonstrator to facilitate the flight testing of innovative electric jet engines developed by Greenjets.
Cristina currently works as a Teaching Fellow in Aircraft Propulsion Integration and Aerospace Systems Development within the Aircraft Design Group at ÂãÁÄÖ±²¥. She contributes to postgraduate teaching in the Aerospace Vehicle Design MSc programme, delivering lectures and practical sessions on aircraft propulsion, propulsion–airframe integration, aircraft design methodologies, and systems design process. She also supervises Group Design Projects and Individual Research Projects, while supporting curriculum development and assessment design.
Her research interests focus on advanced aircraft concepts for future high-speed and low-emission aviation, including supersonic, hypersonic and blended-wing-body configurations, as well as propulsion integration challenges and environmental impact assessment.
Her research interests focus on the design and evaluation of advanced aircraft concepts for future aviation, including high-speed configurations such as supersonic and hypersonic vehicles, next-generation efficient transport aircraft such as blended-wing-body concepts, and the assessment of their environmental impacts.
Current activities
Currently involved as Co-Investigator in the Horizon Europe EXAELIA project (2025–2028), contributing to the conceptual design and development of a large sub-scale demonstrator for a future blended-wing-body long-range airliner.