Does anyone know anything about doing a PhD at Cranfield (engineering)? What's the University and its reputation like?

Cranfield is highly regarded in the the field of Aeronautical/thermofluids engineering. It's the only public university in UK which has it's own runway and probably one of the few with research strength in aircraft crash investigation

Cranfield is a highly regarded albeit slightly unusual University. It is the only University in the United Kingdom to be a postgraduate only institution. It stopped awarding Bachelor's degrees back in the early 2000s after only 10 years as a University proper.

That said, it is highly regarded for Engineering, with it awarding more than 10% of the UK’s engineering and sciences PhDs.

It also has a decent School of Management.

Ian