Aerospace firms win £250m fighter work
FOUR North West aerospace companies have been appointed by BAE Systems to work on the joint strike fighter programme in a contract that could be worth more than £250m.
Manchester-based Hyde Aero Products; RLC Group in Altham, Lancashire; John Huddleston Engineering of Blackpool and Thyssenkrupp, based at Bamber Bridge near Preston, will be working on the F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter project over the next ten years.
The companies are part of the North West Aerospace Alliance’s (NWAA) £8m Aerospace Supply Chain Excellence (ASCE) programme which is working with 26 companies to strengthen the region’s supply chain.
Martin Wright, chief executive of the NWAA, said: “For these four companies, all of which are working through the ASCE programme, to have been selected by BAE Systems in a contract which could be worth in excess of £250 million, is a clear sign that the work NWAA ASCE Programme is succeeding.”
BAE Systems is working with Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman on the F-35 programme, mainly on the airframe including manufacture of the fuselage, vertical and horizontal tails and wing tips.
Much of the work is carried out at BAE Systems’ Samlesbury site, Lancashire. At its peak, the project will manufacture more than one aircraft every day by 2016.
