SACP Returns to ARU Peterborough Community Day

The SACP returned to Anglia Ruskin University Peterborough on Saturday 15 August 2026 for the university’s annual Community Day, giving visitors the opportunity to get hands-on with aviation, aerospace and emerging technologies.

Following our attendance at last year’s event, the SACP once again had its own dedicated area at the Peterborough campus. This year, however, there was a major new addition: the SACP Flight Simulator, giving visitors the chance to take the controls and experience some of the fundamentals of flying an aircraft.

The simulator was joined by several other activities from the SACP’s expanding range of interactive equipment and demonstrations.

Visitors could test their skills on our FPV drone simulators, experiencing the speed and precision involved in flying a drone from a first-person perspective. Spot, the Boston Dynamics quadruped robot, was also in attendance and once again proved popular with visitors of all ages.

The SACP’s virtual reality experiences provided another glimpse into the technologies already shaping aerospace and engineering. Visitors could experience flight through VR, while Ogi demonstrated the use of VR design, showing how immersive technology can be used to create and develop ideas within a three-dimensional environment.

The SACP team attending the event included Chris Marshall, who led the FPV drone activities and operated Spot; Mike Stokes, who ran the flight simulator and VR flight experience; and Ogi Damjanovic, who delivered the VR design demonstrations. SACP Chairman Dr Michael Smith was also in attendance throughout the day.

Around 3,000 people attended the university’s Community Day, which featured a wide programme of free activities across the ARU Peterborough campus. The event gave families the opportunity to explore science, engineering, technology, education and a range of other subjects through practical activities and demonstrations.

For the SACP, events such as the ARU Peterborough Community Day provide another opportunity to engage young people and their families outside our usual school programme. By allowing visitors to interact directly with technologies including flight simulation, drones, robotics and virtual reality, we can demonstrate the breadth of opportunities associated with aviation, aerospace and space, and encourage conversations about where these technologies could lead in the future.

We would like to thank Anglia Ruskin University Peterborough for inviting the SACP to participate once again and for another extremely well-attended Community Day.