Category Archives: Aerospace industry

Rolls-Royce boss ‘open’ to Germany joining UK’s fighter jet project

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Tufan Erginbilgiç says decision is for the government but German participation remains a possibility

The boss of Rolls-Royce has said he would welcome Germany helping to build Britain’s next-generation fighter jet, arguing it would bring in more business for the project.

The aircraft, designed to replace the Eurofighter Typhoon, is a joint effort between the UK, Italy and Japan. Rolls-Royce is building the engine for the jet, which has attracted fresh attention as plans for a rival Franco-German warplane edge towards collapse.

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Production of French-German fighter jet threatened by rivalries, chief executive says

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Relations between French company Dassault and the German unit of Airbus are reportedly ‘very strained’

The leaders of France and Germany have a “strong willingness” to build a new fighter jet together despite bitter internal rivalries, according to the chief executive of engine manufacturer Safran.

A row over who should lead between French aerospace company Dassault and the German unit of Airbus has threatened to break apart the countries’ efforts to make a next-generation fighter jet.

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Disruption continues at Heathrow, Brussels and Berlin airports after cyber-attack

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Zaventem asks airlines to cancel half of Monday departures, while most of Heathrow flights expected to operate

Hundreds of thousands of passengers at Heathrow and Berlin airports faced flight delays on Sunday after a cyber-attack hit check-in desk software, while cancellations at Brussels airport suggested that disruption of Europe’s air travel would continue into Monday.

Airlines were forced to revert to slower manual check-ins from Friday night after the attack hit Collins Aerospace, which provides check-in desk technology to various airlines.

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Airbus workers vote to strike for 10 days next month in pay dispute

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Unite says stoppages at Broughton and Filton factories could disrupt production of wings and delay deliveries

Thousands of Airbus workers in the UK are to go on strike for 10 days in September in a row over pay that threatens to disrupt the production of aircraft wings.

A series of two-day strikes are planned to begin on 2 September and continue throughout the month at the company’s factories in Broughton, north Wales, and Filton, near Bristol, according to Unite.

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Boeing investors brace for fallout from Trump tariffs

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Jets intended for Chinese airline returned to US, raising fears for planemaker as results near

Investors in Boeing are braced to learn the full impact of Donald Trump’s trade war, amid fears the US planemaker could be hit harder than first expected after jets intended for a Chinese airline were returned to the US.

A Boeing 737 Max 8 plane intended for use by a Chinese airline returned to the US on Monday from Boeing’s China finishing centre, according to flight data cited by Reuters. It followed the arrival in the US on Sunday of another 737 Max painted in the livery of China’s Xiamen Airlines at Boeing’s US production hub in Seattle.

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Europe’s first Mars rover will have UK-built lander

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Airbus also built the Rosalind Franklin rover, due to launch in 2028 to search for signs of past life

Europe’s first rover to be sent to another planet is back on track to reach Mars, with the lander that will deposit it on the surface lined up to be built in the UK.

The Rosalind Franklin rover – named after the scientist who played a key role in the discovery of the structure of DNA – is part of ExoMars, a European Space Agency (Esa) mission to probe whether life once existed on the red planet, and features a drill to retrieve samples, up to 4bn years old, from two metres below the surface.

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Defence firm Thales faces bribery and corruption investigation

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UK Serious Fraud Office and French equivalent ‘will pursue every avenue’ in allegations against Paris-based company

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is investigating suspected bribery and corruption at Thales Group, a multinational aerospace and defence electronics contractor.

The company, which is headquartered in Paris and has a UK subsidiary employing more than 7,000 staff, is known in defence circles for its varied businesses, which include making missiles and launchers, supplying sonar systems for the Royal Navy’s nuclear submarines and designing the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers.

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Boeing faces new scrutiny as US aviation agency opens safety review

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Three-month audit by FAA was not triggered by a specific event but is part of its oversight of safety culture

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on Friday it will open a three-month review of Boeing’s compliance with safety regulations, continuing the agency’s closer oversight of the company since a panel blew off a Boeing jetliner during an Alaska Airlines flight in January.

The FAA said its review will examine key areas of safety processes at Boeing to make sure that they “result in timely, accurate safety-related information for FAA use”.

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Moscow importing western aircraft tyres despite ban, says Ukraine agency

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Exclusive: Michelin, Dunlop, Goodyear and Bridgestone products have found way to Russia via intermediaries

More than $30m (£23m) worth of aircraft tyres made by western manufacturers including the French firm Michelin and Britain’s Dunlop were imported into Russia last year via intermediaries despite attempts to ban the trade, according to a Ukrainian government agency.

Russian aviation is critically dependent on foreign-made tyres and, according to the available customs records, the vast majority imported into the country in 2023 were produced by companies headquartered in France, Britain, the US and Japan.

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Cathay Pacific says 15 jets need new part after Rolls-Royce engine problem

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Singapore Airlines also says it is inspecting aircraft after component failure on rival’s Airbus A350

Cathay Pacific has said it identified 15 Airbus A350 aircraft that need component replacements after a part failed on one of its Rolls-Royce engines minutes after takeoff from Hong Kong on Monday.

A second carrier, Singapore Airlines, said on Tuesday it was also inspecting the engines of its Airbus A350 aircraft “as a precautionary measure”.

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Rolls-Royce is FTSE 100’s biggest faller as Cathay Pacific inspects A350 fleet

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Shares in engineering firm slide as airline cancels flights after finding engine component failure on aircraft

Shares in Rolls-Royce, the leading British engineering company, were the biggest faller on the FTSE 100 on Monday after Cathay Pacific Airways identified an engine component failure on an aircraft and began inspecting its entire Airbus A350 fleet.

The Hong Kong-based airline, which has cancelled 24 return flights so far while it performs the “precautionary” checks, said a number of aircraft would be out of service for several days. Shares in Rolls-Royce closed down 6%.

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‘Not stranded in space’: how Nasa lost control of Boeing Starliner narrative

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Technical issues and poor comms led many to believe two astronauts are lost in space, but a return date is imminent

It should have been a welcome public relations triumph for Boeing, an opportunity to show that even if panels were falling from its aircraft, it could still fly humans into space and return them safely to Earth.

And for a while at least, it looked like it had been successful. The majestic June launch of the much-delayed and over-budget Starliner capsule from Florida, ferrying two Nasa astronauts to the International Space Station, offered a glimpse of a bright new future in the heavens for the troubled aerospace giant.

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Top pilots’ union sounds alarm as regulators consider smaller crew sizes

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Firms accused of putting profits over safety as EU group weighs cutting minimum number of pilots from two to one

Aerospace giants have been accused of putting profits ahead of safety as officials consider cutting the minimum number of pilots required on commercial flight decks from two to one.

The move, which is currently being evaluated by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), would weaken standards to the “lowest common denominator”, the world’s largest union of airline pilots has warned.

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Europe is unprepared for risks from Russia and Trump, says Airbus boss

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Aerospace group chief executive urges UK and Europe to pool efforts and merge fighter jet programmes

Europe is unprepared for war with Russia or the risk that Donald Trump could withdraw the US from Nato and needs to ramp up spending on defence equipment, the boss of Airbus has said.

Guillaume Faury, the chief executive of Europe’s biggest aerospace and defence company, said it was a “defining moment” for the continent’s defence industry, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 brought war to western Europe’s borders.

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Rolls-Royce swings to £1.6bn profit with cost cuts ‘well under way’

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Engine-maker says it has made £150m of its £400m to £500m savings target, with up to 2,500 jobs to go

The British engine-maker Rolls-Royce has said cost-cutting plans that will result in it axing up to 2,500 jobs by the end of next year are “well under way”, as it swung to a £1.6bn underlying operating profit for 2023.

The aerospace engineering specialist reported the statutory pre-tax profits for 2023 against losses of £1.5bn in 2022, helped by cost savings and better-than-expected revenues.

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Shetland island’s remote location is giving UK space industry a boost

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SaxaVord on Unst has become UK’s first spaceport to be licensed for vertical rocket launches

For centuries, Unst has been famous for its richly varied of wildlife, pristine beaches and unspoilt sea views. Now the remote Shetland island is leading Britain into space.

A former RAF base on a remote peninsula of the island has become the UK’s first licensed spaceport for vertical rocket launches. It will allow up to 30 satellites and other payloads to be launched into commercially valuable polar, sun-synchronous orbits, which are in high demand from satellite operators for communications and Earth observation.

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Spanish company launches reusable rocket in breakthrough for European space ambitions

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Startup PLD Space says launch of Miura-1 is ‘just the beginning’ amid European drive to send satellites into orbit

Spanish company PLD Space launched its reusable Miura-1 rocket early on Saturday from a site in south-west Spain, carrying out Europe’s first fully private rocket launch and offering hope for its stalled space ambitions.

The startup’s test nighttime launch from Huelva came after two previous attempts were scrubbed. The Miura-1 rocket, named after a breed of fighting bull, is as tall as a three-storey building and has a 100kg (220-pound) cargo capacity. The launch carried a payload for test purposes but this would not be released, the company said.

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BAE agrees to buy space technology firm Ball Aerospace for $5.6bn

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Weapon maker’s takeover of US firm comes amid global surge in spending on military and spying technology

Britain’s biggest weapons manufacturer, BAE Systems, has agreed to buy the US space technology company Ball Aerospace for $5.6bn (£4.4bn), in one of the largest takeovers by a UK company this year.

The FTSE 100 defence company said the purchase of the Colorado-based business would help it to expand in technologies that are US defence priorities.

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‘More than annoying’: German foreign minister abandons Oceania trip after plane problems

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The Airbus A340 taking Annalena Baerbock to the region twice had to turn back to Abu Dhabi after refuelling

Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has been forced to abandon a trip to Oceania after a problem with her government plane twice forced it to return to Abu Dhabi.

Baerbock set off from Berlin on Sunday, but a mechanical problem with her ageing German air force Airbus A340’s landing flaps meant it had to turn back to Abu Dhabi after a refuelling stop there. The aircraft took off again on Monday night, but the technical problem resurfaced and the plane had to return to the Emirati capital again.

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Saudis ask to join UK, Italy and Japan’s joint air combat programme

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UK-backed move could help spread cost of developing fighter jet and drones, but may prove controversial

Saudi Arabia has asked the UK, Japan and Italy to be made a full partner in their joint effort to build the next generation of fighter jets, in a move backed by the British government.

Companies from the UK, Japan and Italy are working together to build a new fighter jet and other systems such as drones under the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), also known as Tempest. The programme aims to deliver the first planes by 2035, a tight turnaround.

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