The UK aerospace sector is an enigma. Second in size only to the US industry, it produces no complete civil aircraft. Its key players base huge parts of their business and earn most of their revenue from overseas, while many of its biggest employers, such as Airbus, Shorts and Thales, are foreign owned. It missed the great European consolidation that created EADS and gets no favours from a government with a staunchly open defence procurement policy. On the eve of Farnborough, our survey looks at the challenges facing UK aerospace, from national champion BAE Systems to SMEs battling to stop customers moving supply offshore
Source: Flight International