Aviation – Page 2 – Made In Preston

Green Party and Lancashire

An election is coming so what will some of the parties be offering to the region. Starting with the Green Party. They deserve a couple of seats in Parliament, I think.

You expect the Green Party to support green policies. Yes, wind power, insulation and waste management are high on the agenda. Along with quite high social provision and low defence provision.

Who could argue with wind, insulation and waste measures? Insulation seems to be one of the biggest factors in reducing energy bills. It isn’t very glamorous though and isn’t going to gain technological credibility so doesn’t get a lot of press.

All those windmills. Are they becoming a bit of a blight already? They’re often not turning, so not very dependable. For the region with its seas, hills and facing the prevailing wind we can expect a lot more who-ever is in power but even more with the Greens. We can also expect Heysham Power Stations to close and the fuel site at Salwick.

Waste? All that plastic packaging and milk cartons. Surely it should be discouraged. Some countries already re-cycle twice as much as the UK without too much difficulty.

Another Green policy is an increase in public transport. Not too long ago their promise of building 30,000 new buses would sound like manna from heaven for this region, Leyland, but now there is hardly any bus building except some body work at East Lancs Coachbuilders, Optare.

There wasn’t much written about reducing car use but cutting rail fares by 30% and expanding public transport implies a reduction in car use. I’m not convinced about a 30% cut in rail fares. A cut from £10 to £7 is only marginally advantageous and if I was spending that every day, a cut from £50 to £35 wouldn’t be life changing. I’m against encouraging distance commuting so in some ways an increase in fares might help that. I have free bus use now and have never used it, so cars will need to be penalised.

The 30,000 buses are an interesting concept. British jobs for British workers? Including steel from Middlesbrough for windmills and buses, although probably it’s the wrong steel and too little, too late and steel making isn’t green.

Taxes on aviation, like VAT on aviation fuel, and restrictions on new runways coupled with reductions in rail fares, might create an advantage to resorts like Blackpool. Especially if the pound sank because of the financial controls the Greens promise.

On defence the Greens are looking at a defensive posture and only venturing overseas under the UN. As UN don’t usually use more than Land Rovers and light armour you could say no overseas capability will be needed. Is that goodbye to Ascension, Falklands and perhaps Gibraltar. Aircraft Carriers and their aircraft and probably a lot of the navy wouldn’t be needed. Trident is definitely out. I wouldn’t hold much hope for the aircraft industry in Lancashire or ship industry at Barrow. As an area with a large defence and nuclear industry how many defence workers does it take to insulate one loft.

The Greens are also big on social welfare including workers and human rights and a citizens wage.

There are other policies about building solar arrays in Africa and using high voltage d.c. transmission lines to bring in the power. As well as local generation. It’s not long ago I was reading about the advantages of the a.c. distribution system so I must re-visit that. Surely a policy like that couldn’t be written without engineering awareness.

The Greens also support the EU, but not as a nation, and support international co-operation, who doesn’t.

As you’d expect, some big changes would result and I was a bit surprised that they seem quite left wing when out of the major elements of the ‘green zone’. I’d support a ‘greener’ track in many aspects and use of local producers and local workers appeals. There’s always a downside to this type of social engineering in that if basic stuff becomes more expensive you’ve less to spend on enjoyment. In conclusion they won’t get my vote but have my support as a pressure group.

BAE SYSTEMS and SFO

BAE SYSTEMS, the biggest high tech employer in Lancashire and the UK, is in the news today. The Serious Fraud Office are saying they will ask the Attorney General to press charges with a punitive £1000 million fine for offering alleged incentives to obtain business in 2 EU and 2 African countries. This is on top of the talk of defence cuts that might injure BAE.

The Lib Dem spokesman is in for the kill, appearing on every broadcast, adamant that this is shocking behaviour although his opinion on other similar shocking behaviour isn’t widely known so maybe he doesn’t like the defence industry.

Just before an election will Gordon Brown fire these arrows into the heart of Britains largest manufacturing company or is he more pragmatic? BAE SYSTEMS has changed its management and is reported to be agreeable to some compromise.

In the last 10 years large British manufacturing businesses have nearly all disappeared or been taken over by foreign companies. An injured company with good products is prey.

Take the water companies they were said to be too fat so they got a windfall tax. Next thing they are owned by the French. How much will BAE be damaged, the shares went down 4% today which doesn’t seem too much although they had already fallen in the last few weeks. How much will this injure the company and who would be interested in taking the business or breaking it up?

Potential Redundancies at BAE SYSTEMS announced

BAE SYSTEMS press report says that 375 local jobs will be lost, 205 at Samlesbury and 170 at Warton. In addition in 2012 the Woodford in Manchester site will be closed with a loss of 630 jobs following completion of Nimrod work. Farnborough has 116 jobs less on Harrier.

The Samlesbury work is said to come with the end of Airbus work for Spirit Aerosystems who are a US based aero-structures company. I was looking at their website and noted that they have recently opened a site in Malaysia and the work to be done there sounded similar to that they quoted at Samlesbury (and Prestwick), including carbon fibre structural components which sound like the high end of capability.

At Warton the job reduction is in manufacturing Tornado, Hawk and Nimrod.

The unions are reported in the LEP as saying that they wish to avoid compulsory redundancy. I don’t know how the F35 / JSF work builds up but it is surprising that with the large quantities forecast for this project that there is a reduction. Particularly at Samlesbury and the total number locally sounds small enough to manage with voluntary arrangements.

On top of that BAE SYSTEMS have recently been trumpeting their UAV projects and although these might be a long way from production quantities that would sustain a workforce they add more scope for jobs in future.

Defence companies have recently been lobbying parliament about maintaining projects and maybe this is a demonstration of the fragility of the workload.

In the UK we are good at defence products, along with pharmaceuticals and finance (sic). Let’s keep them strong.

Day Trip to Blackpool – Rolling Stones and Vulcan

I wasn’t going to write but the worst TV programme I’ve ever seen was driving me crazy in the lounge, something about Jam and Jerusalem. Up till then it’s been a good day with full sun and we went to several events in Blackpool.

First there was an allotment open day near Stanley Park so we had a look in. Some commendable plots and some demonstrating how nature can take over quickly. One lady said the owner next door had been ill and in that year it had grown 4 feet high rushes from the neighbouring marshland.

That was before we went onto Stanley Park which was looking healthy with its floral displays. There was a cool group with the coolest singer on the bandstand making pretty good covers of Rolling Stones numbers – Not Fade Away. Being of the age that NFA was the song of a new era I wanted to join in but one mustn’t be an embarrassing grandpa. Good turn out as well sitting in the pseudo-Roman ampitheatre by the lake.

There was a steam train taking passengers from Blackburn and Preston to Blackpool in what is being called Wakes Week festivities in Blackpool. It was intended to see this but the allotment was an unexpected time sucker and we missed it.

Then we walked to the prom to watch the Blackpool Air Display. The new headlands are ideal with steps like an ampitheatre to the sand and it was packed. RAF Typhoon life size replica and a Tornado cockpit. Flying dispaly of Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, Extras, Vulcan, Red Arrows and lots more. The Vulcan made a short display with a pass followed by a steep climb away to emphasise the noise and that made it all worthwhile – I felt suddenly exhilarated and wanted to shout yah-hoo but thought it might not have looked too good. Although there was a punk meeting in Blackpool and there were some amazing outfits around who might have sympathised. I thought a lot of them looked a bit self conscious yet it’s good to see people being different. There seemed to be a lot of big motorbikes about as well.

The other thing about the headland is that there is now grass on Blackpool prom and people seemed to like it. It’s time they finished the prom it seems to have been in progress for years although the bits finished look good. It was a good day out, didn’t cost much either. Nearly time to watch Louis Theroux, so neat timing.

Eurofighter Typhoon Tranche 3a signed

Announcement today that the UK has ordered another 40 Eurofighter Typhoons and in total the 4 nations involved 112 aircraft. This is just under half of the full Tranche 3 and is being called Tranche 3a.

Good employment news in the area. Some might say it could have been better but it takes some uncertainty away. This order is only half the quantity originally expected and the Ministry of Defence and RAF are making noises that they don’t want any more Typhoons the difference being taken up by export orders.

F35 JSF engine work in East Lancs

Rolls Royce announced it is investing in new plant at its Barnoldswick facility in East Lancashire to make engine fan blades for the Joint Strike Fighter. The total investment in product development across the UK by RR and the government is valued at £300m.

Earlier in the year the Barnoldswick plant was subject to job losses so this is a boost in the area. Overall it adds to the north-wests part in the aircraft and defence manufacturing industry and this has both an upside and a downside. The upside being the jobs are generally highly skilled and quite well paid but the downside being subject to the fluctuations of one sector. Particularly the F35 which will have a large airframe facility at BAE SYSTEMS Samlesbury. Good news for jobs in the next few years anyway.

Typhoon Tranche 3 initial signature

On May 14th the Prime Minister added his signature to the 4 nation requirement that will start negotiations for tranche 3 of Eurofighter Typhoon. As is often the case the defenders of budgets in the treasury didn’t want to spend the money and the other services were saying their requirements should be given priority. Pressure from the partners including the threat of payments for delays meant the PM had to take the plunge. Current plans are that this will enable continuous production beyond 2013 so with the JSF coming on stream ever later this is good news for the workforce. Although the JSF appears to be a large metalwork job, rather less sophisticated than Typhoon work. There are still more export orders hoped for and work on a fully electronic radar is underway I was reading in Aviation Week.

English Electric Canberra 60 years old

Just read Aircraft Illustrated, May 2009, and the big article with loads of pictures about it being 60 years in May since the first flight of the Canberra. Some interesting stuff about the choice of name that I hadn’t read before.

First flight 13th May 1949.

Designed in Preston at the Corporation Street offices of English Electric, where there is now a supermarket, and built at Strand Road, Warton and Samlesbury. One of the best aircraft made in Britain, achieving several firsts and being bought by many air forces, including the USAAF.

I did a webpage on Made in Preston some time ago. Click below.

http://www.madeinpreston.co.uk/Aviation/canberra.html

BAE shares up

I was reading that the US defence budget has been cut and it sent BAE shares up as it’s thought their business might actually increase. At risk are some of the big US projects like the Raptor for which BAE, in the US, supplies electronics. Increases to the F35 JSF budget next year and potentially for maintenance of vehicles being kept in service longer are thought to be positive. On the downside the UK is looking at delaying its defence budget commitments possibly Typhoon Tranche 3 and the new Carriers. Although Harrier life might be extended for use on the new carriers.

So locally there might be some effect via the F35 and Typhoon and maybe the Harriers. Work for several years should get through this recession.

First of the Few

Watched a DVD – First of the Few – last night, a freeby from the Daily Mail. It’s a wartime propaganda film about the development of the Spitfire. A great story although the film has a few porkies.

What has this got to do with Preston? Afterwards, I envisaged the English Electric factories in the 40’s ‘headhunting’ a visionary designer, Petter, to produce the Canberra. The work of the team to produce that pioneering jet bomber followed by the supersonic Lightning fighter and pondered about its future.

The film shows a young RJ Mitchell, of Supermarine Ltd near Southampton, having a vision in 1922 to produce a plane like a bird rather than the string bound bi-planes of the time. His vision resulted in a monoplane of single fuselage/wing construction that won the Schneider Trophy. Vickers then took over Supermarine and its designer and eventually the design became the Spitfire. The film touches on the private funding by people like Lady Houston and Mr Royce that enabled continuity in the ‘peaceful’ thirties. Mitchell had visited Germany and was allegedly aware of their work beyond the treaty agreement and this drove him to greater efforts despite his illness.

At that time the Spitfire and the Hurricane were the leading edge of fighter aircraft and designed at Supermarine(Vickers) and Hawker. It would be hard to imagine the changes in aircraft form just after the war with the jet engine and the decline of these companies. The all metal swept-wing, jet engined supersonic Lightning was built in Preston less than 20 years after the Spitfire. We can only wonder what lies ahead for our local aircraft manufacturing business.