The aerospace industry of the United Kingdom is the second- or third-largest national aerospace industry in the world, depending upon the method of measurement.[1][2] The industry employs around 113,000 people directly and around 276,000 indirectly and has an annual turnover of around 20 billion.[1][3]

Domestic companies with a large presence in the British aerospace industry include BAE Systems (the world's third-largest defence contractor),[4][5]Britten-Norman, Cobham, GKN, Meggitt, QinetiQ, Rolls-Royce (the world's second-largest aircraft engine maker)[6] and Ultra Electronics. Overseas companies with a major presence include Boeing, Bombardier, Airbus Group (including its Airbus, Astrium, Cassidian and Surrey Satellite Technology subsidiaries), Finmeccanica (including its AgustaWestland, and Selex ES subsidiaries), General Electric (including its GE Aviation Systems subsidiary), Lockheed Martin, MBDA (37.5% owned by BAE Systems), Safran (including its Messier-Dowty and Turbomeca subsidiaries) and Thales Group (including its UK-based Thales Air Defence, Thales Avionics and Thales Optronics subsidiaries).

Current manned aircraft in which the British aerospace industry has a major role include the AgustaWestland AW101, AgustaWestland AW159, Airbus A320 family, Airbus A330, Airbus A340, Airbus A380, Airbus A400M, BAE Hawk, Boeing 767, Boeing 777, Boeing 787,[7]Bombardier CRJ700, Bombardier CSeries, Bombardier Learjet 85, Britten-Norman Defender, Britten-Norman Islander, Eurofighter Typhoon, Hawker 800, Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules and Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. Current unmanned aerial vehicles in which the British aerospace industry has a major role include the BAE Taranis, Barnard Microsystems InView UAV, QinetiQ Zephyr and Watchkeeper WK450.

The British aerospace industry has made many important contributions to the history of aircraft, and was solely or jointly responsible for the development and production of the first aircraft with an enclosed cabin (the Avro Type F), the first jet aircraft to enter service for the Allies in the Second World War (the Gloster Meteor),[8] the first commercial jet airliner to enter service (the de Havilland Comet),[9] the first aircraft capable of supercruise (the English Electric Lightning),[10] the first supersonic commercial jet airliner to enter service (the Arospatiale-BAC Concorde),[11] the first fixed-wing V/STOL combat aircraft to enter service (the Hawker Siddeley Harrier),[12] the first twin-engined widebody commercial jet airliner (the Airbus A300),[13] the first fly-by-wire commercial aircraft (the Airbus A320)[14] and the largest commercial aircraft to enter service to date (the Airbus A380).[15]

AgustaWestland is an international helicopter manufacturer owned by Finmeccanica of Italy. In the United Kingdom, the company has one factory in Yeovil, employing more than 4,000 people.[49] Its main products with a large British content are the EH101, the Super and Future Lynx and the AW139 and AW149.

Airbus (a subsidiary of EADS) directly employs around 13,000 people at its UK division Airbus UK, with estimates that it supports another 140,000 jobs in the wider UK economy.[50][51] The traditional UK workshare in Airbus aircraft is around 20%.[52] Airbus has major sites at Filton in the city of Bristol and at Broughton in north Wales.[50] Filton is the main research and development and support centre for all Airbus wings, fuel systems and landing gear integration.[53] Broughton, which employs over 5,000 people, is the main wing manufacturing centre for all Airbus aircraft and also builds the fuselage and wings of the Hawker 800.[51][53] Since 2006 Airbus has also had a small development centre in the Midlands.[54]

Astrium (a subsidiary of EADS) is the largest space company in Europe and employs around 2,700 people in the UK.[55] It has sites at Stevenage (1,200 employees), Portsmouth (1,400 employees) and Poynton (120 employees).[56][57][58]

The UK-headquartered BAE Systems is the world's second-largest defence contractor and it employs around 36,400 people in the UK.[4][5] The largest aerospace related locations of BAE Systems are Warton, Samlesbury and Brough. The final assembly line for the British Eurofighter Typhoons, a collaborative European programme, is located at Warton. All flight test activity for manned aircraft is undertaken from Warton, which is also the development centre within BAE Systems, for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), UCAVs and the Saudi Tornado upgrade programme. Samlesbury is the production hub of the Military Air Solutions division of BAE Systems. Here, components for the Eurofighter Typhoon, the F35 Lightning II, the Hawk, UAVs, UCAVs and Airbus aircraft get built. At Brough, the BAE Hawk gets produced and final assembled, flight tests are done at Warton. Overall, Military Air Solution has 14,000 employees spread across eight sites in the United Kingdom.[59]

The Britten-Norman Group is a small company with about 100 employees. It is best known for its design of rugged transport aircraft, such as the Islander,[60] Trislander and Defender 4000. To reduce costs, the company (resident on the Isle of Wight) did not perform manufacture of the airframes, but instead outsourced this to Romania. However, it has now moved production of all aircraft back to Daedalus Airfield and also performs in the European hub for the Cirrus SR20 and SR22 final assembly and delivery.[61]

The Canadian company, Bombardier, employs about 5,000 people in its aerospace division in the UK. It can trace its roots back to Shorts Brothers in Northern Ireland. The company has significant workshares in most Bombardier aircraft with its specialities being fuselages and nacelles.

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Aerospace industry in the United Kingdom - Wikipedia, the ...