A|D|S today celebrated the unveiling of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner on the opening day of the Farnborough International Airshow.
A significant proportion of the aircraft is British-made and has made its first ever appearance in Britain at the 2010 Airshow. The UK aerospace industry is playing a key role in the state-of-the-art global collaborative programme to deliver the aircraft. The programme is creating new skills and generating novel manufacturing and maintenance processes as well as enhancing competitiveness for Britain. Overall, there will be a multi-billion pound benefit to the UK from the 787 programme, more so than any other Boeing programme.
“The Dreamliner is a terrific aircraft and the British aerospace industry is proud of its major contribution to the programme,” said Ian Godden, Chairman of A|D|S, the UK’s AeroSpace, Defence and Security trade organisation . “With Rolls-Royce engines alongside contributions from other world-leading UK-based companies twenty five per cent of the plane by value is made in Britain.
“The UK is number one in Europe and second only to the US globally in civil aerospace. Our technical expertise in manufacturing and services in aerospace is known throughout the world and this is endorsed by the key roles being played in the 787 Dreamliner programme by a number of leading UK companies.We are delighted to welcome the Dreamliner to the UK for the first time and we are certain that our colleagues from Boeing and their suppliers will enjoy a successful Farnborough International Airshow 2010.”
UK participation in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner is summarised as follows:
• Composites – GKN and Ultra Electronics at Luton and Greenford.
• Aerodynamics – QinetiQ in Farnborough using one of only three large-scale pressurised wind tunnels in the world.
• Engine and nacelle systems – Rolls-Royce, based in Derby, and Goodrich in Wolverhampton. Elements of the fuel system are being manufactured by Eaton Aerospace in Bournemouth and Claverham in Bristol.
• Seating – B/E Aerospace in Newry and Ipeco in Southend-on-Sea.
• Training and simulation – The Alteon facility in Crawley. The simulators are being built in Crawley by Thales UK.
• Landing Gear – Messier-Dowty, AMRC and GE Aviation plus companies such as Corus in Sheffield.
• Control Surfaces – Control Surfaces manufactured in Wolverhampton.
• Electronics and Computing – In Cheltenham, GE Aviation, Systems Division.
• Bringing a European dimension, Alenia’s British suppliers on the 787 include – Aeromet, RTI UK, Cytec and All Metal Service.
Having faced a catalogue of setbacks and problems, the aircraft has been delayed by two years from its original launch date. But with a crafty marketing campaign targeting end-users rather than the airlines themselves, Boeing looks set to still achieve a voluminous order book following the airshow.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o18llmdhpTk&hl=en_GB&fs=1]
