GKN close to deal with Airbus on Filton

Up to 400 new aerospace jobs are likely to be created when GKN signs a joint venture with Airbus on the Filton site, according to the Bristol Evening Post. The deal includes establishing a new composites manufacturing operation, primarily for the A350 XWB airliner, at Easter Compton between the M49 and M5 and close to Avonmouth Docks. Wing design would continue at Filton.

Cloudy skies over Farnborough

As the world’s aerospace industry gathers at Farnborough, it emerges that Airbus has what might be called ‘a little black book’ of airline customers who might find themselves in financial difficulties. Louis Gallois, chief executive of Airbus’s parent company, EADS, says they have to be “vigilant” but that things are not as bad as they were post 9/11. In fact Airbus expects to figure prominently in the biggest aircraft order of all time.

Top draw at Farnborough is a display by the F-22 Raptor, which should have appeared at the weather-hit RAF Fairford at the weekend. The US Department of Defense will not let its maker, Lockheed, sell it overseas. But without the benefit of export sales it is becoming too expensive for the US military as well.

A plane with wings of glass?

Imagine a plane that has wings made out of glass. Thanks to a major breakthrough in understanding the nature of glass by scientists at the University of Bristol, this has just become a possibility.

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