UK Defence & Aerospace Industry - News & Discussion

[Spitfire9]

Talking of exports, I read in the (notoriously unreliable) Indian media that Bharat Dynamics claims it is close to receiving an order for locally built/assembled Starstreak missiles for the Indian army. The expected order is said to be worth 250 crore which, I think, is about 30 million US dollars. India has a large army. I wonder how many Starstreak they could end up buying.

[SW1]

Potentially quite significant news in a number of ways

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-68453469

Boeing has confirmed it has begun talks aimed at buying Spirit Aerosystems.
Spirit has a major operation in Northern Ireland but it is unclear if Boeing would keep that part of the business.
The Reuters news agency has reported that Airbus has explored the possibility of buying's Spirit's NI operation.

Spirit manufactures the wings for the Airbus A220 at a factory in Belfast.
Reuters added that a deal with Airbus is not likely to happen in the short term.
Spirit is one of Northern Ireland's largest and most important manufacturing businesses with more than 3,000 employees.

The company has been in Northern Ireland since 2019 when it bought Bombardier's operations, ending a long period of uncertainty for the workforce.

[new guy]

Potentially quite significant news in a number of ways

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-68453469

Boeing has confirmed it has begun talks aimed at buying Spirit Aerosystems.
Spirit has a major operation in Northern Ireland but it is unclear if Boeing would keep that part of the business.
The Reuters news agency has reported that Airbus has explored the possibility of buying's Spirit's NI operation.

Spirit manufactures the wings for the Airbus A220 at a factory in Belfast.
Reuters added that a deal with Airbus is not likely to happen in the short term.
Spirit is one of Northern Ireland's largest and most important manufacturing businesses with more than 3,000 employees.

The company has been in Northern Ireland since 2019 when it bought Bombardier's operations, ending a long period of uncertainty for the workforce.

Nationalise it over selling it to Boeing if we can't get it into airbus hands.

[tomuk]

Potentially quite significant news in a number of ways

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-68453469

Boeing has confirmed it has begun talks aimed at buying Spirit Aerosystems.
Spirit has a major operation in Northern Ireland but it is unclear if Boeing would keep that part of the business.
The Reuters news agency has reported that Airbus has explored the possibility of buying's Spirit's NI operation.

Spirit manufactures the wings for the Airbus A220 at a factory in Belfast.
Reuters added that a deal with Airbus is not likely to happen in the short term.
Spirit is one of Northern Ireland's largest and most important manufacturing businesses with more than 3,000 employees.

The company has been in Northern Ireland since 2019 when it bought Bombardier's operations, ending a long period of uncertainty for the workforce.

Nationalise it over selling it to Boeing if we can't get it into airbus hands.

I'm not sure Airbus would be too happy with Boeing buying Spirit at all not just due to Belfast. By volume Airbus are a bigger custonmer than Boeing are of Spirit.

There are ex Bombardier plants in Dallas, TX, Belfast and Morocco making A220 bits and plants in Oklahoma, France and Glasgow making other Airbus parts.

[SW1]

The plants in the UK and America are also heavily involved in defence programs that would not sit easily within airbus or Boeing.

I cant see airbus wanting their business jet or nacelle business either as there not on airbus products. It could become complicated.

[tomuk]

The plants in the UK and America are also heavily involved in defence programs that would not sit easily within airbus or Boeing.

I cant see airbus wanting their business jet or nacelle business either as there not on airbus products. It could become complicated.

The problem is that Spirit are losing money on the programmes so aren't attractive to a competitor like Triumph, GKN or Raytheon. The Boeing purchase is basically a bailout just to keep the parts flowing.

A four way split? Boeing and Airbus taking on their respective commercial programmes and GKN and Raytheon the miltar and bizjet us\eu parts.
Or maybe a Boeing\GKN split with Airbus 'sponsoring' the GKN takeover of its programmes?

[SW1]

The plants in the UK and America are also heavily involved in defence programs that would not sit easily within airbus or Boeing.

I cant see airbus wanting their business jet or nacelle business either as there not on airbus products. It could become complicated.

The problem is that Spirit are losing money on the programmes so aren't attractive to a competitor like Triumph, GKN or Raytheon. The Boeing purchase is basically a bailout just to keep the parts flowing.

A four way split? Boeing and Airbus taking on their respective commercial programmes and GKN and Raytheon the miltar and bizjet us\eu parts.
Or maybe a Boeing\GKN split with Airbus 'sponsoring' the GKN takeover of its programmes?

The Boeing bailout is because Boeing are going to pause there 737 rates again, and suppliers cannot cope with the continued stop start nature of the mess Boeing has got themselves into.

That would be too complicated certainly for belfast and Prestwick because the engineering and manufacturing teams support multiple programs in the same factory complexes.

[SD67]

Boeing are in a serious pickle. Buying.Spirit means reversing the strategy of the last 2 decades.And they bring the liability back onto their books - no one else to blame now.

Luckily they still have a few dumb customers like us prepared to pay twice the USAF price for a P8 LOL

[SW1]

FAA is cracking the whip may put the recent news in context.

https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/updates-bo ... x-aircraft

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)’s six-week audit of Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems, prompted by the January 5 incident involving a new, Boeing 737-9 MAX aircraft, found multiple instances where the companies allegedly failed to comply with manufacturing quality control requirements.

To hold Boeing accountable for its production quality issues, the FAA has halted production expansion of the Boeing 737 MAX, is exploring the use of a third party to conduct independent reviews of quality systems, and will continue its increased onsite presence at Boeing’s facility in Renton, Washington, and Spirit AeroSystems’ facility in Wichita, Kansas.

The FAA will thoroughly review all of Boeing’s corrective actions to determine if they fully address the FAA’s findings.

[tomuk]

FAA is cracking the whip may put the recent news in context.

https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/updates-bo ... x-aircraft

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)’s six-week audit of Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems, prompted by the January 5 incident involving a new, Boeing 737-9 MAX aircraft, found multiple instances where the companies allegedly failed to comply with manufacturing quality control requirements.

To hold Boeing accountable for its production quality issues, the FAA has halted production expansion of the Boeing 737 MAX, is exploring the use of a third party to conduct independent reviews of quality systems, and will continue its increased onsite presence at Boeing’s facility in Renton, Washington, and Spirit AeroSystems’ facility in Wichita, Kansas.

The FAA will thoroughly review all of Boeing’s corrective actions to determine if they fully address the FAA’s findings.

Well that isn't going to help Spirit' cashflow. Are we looking at a Chapter 11\Administration situation?

[SW1]

FAA is cracking the whip may put the recent news in context.

https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/updates-bo ... x-aircraft

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)’s six-week audit of Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems, prompted by the January 5 incident involving a new, Boeing 737-9 MAX aircraft, found multiple instances where the companies allegedly failed to comply with manufacturing quality control requirements.

To hold Boeing accountable for its production quality issues, the FAA has halted production expansion of the Boeing 737 MAX, is exploring the use of a third party to conduct independent reviews of quality systems, and will continue its increased onsite presence at Boeing’s facility in Renton, Washington, and Spirit AeroSystems’ facility in Wichita, Kansas.

The FAA will thoroughly review all of Boeing’s corrective actions to determine if they fully address the FAA’s findings.

Well that isn't going to help Spirit' cashflow. Are we looking at a Chapter 11\Administration situation?

It’s the reason the story broke that Boeing were looking to buy them back.

[jonas]

Britten-Norman. Nice to see aircraft work being brought back home, and seemingly making a success. :- Click on photo full story.

https://britten-norman.com/uk-productio ... en-norman/

[TheLoneRanger]

Britten-Norman. Nice to see aircraft work being brought back home, and seemingly making a success. :- Click on photo full story.

https://britten-norman.com/uk-productio ... en-norman/

Britten-Norman should expand their horizons by getting into Drone manufacturing of various sizes and capabilities - it is a good income stream and helps develop and maintain new skills. Not all drones need to be done by BAe !