Aerospace and Energy Challenge

The UK aerospace industry is the largest and most comprehensive in Western Europe and the second largest in the Western World. Employing 195,000 people in some 300 companies, of which the two largest are British Aerospace and Rolls‐Royce, the industry designs, constructs, sells and supports products ranging from civil and military aircraft, engines, guided weapons and space vehicles, to a wide variety of components, sub‐assemblies, electronic and avionic equipment, plastics and marine engineering products, and has many other diverse scientifically‐based programmes. The industry is responsible for some of the largest contracts ever awarded for overseas support and consultancy services and has, within its constituent companies, experience second to none in the organisation and management of major international collaborative projects. Operating predominantly in the intensely‐competitive and fast‐moving international arena, aerospace makes one of the more positive contributions to the UK balance of payments. Since 1971, exports have risen from £328 million a year to the 1978 record level of £1,200 million and already the forward order books of British Aerospace and Rolls‐Royce alone total over £5 billion, much of it for export. In the longer term, market forecasts predict a vast potential for aerospace products, particularly in the commercial aircraft sector, where continuing technological developments have resulted in lower real costs of air transport and led to a new era of mass travel. But the air transport industry needs fuel and the aerospace industry, with its history of technological innovation, its constant quest for more‐efficient and durable products and its stimulation of other industries through advanced design requirements and spin‐off activities, is well placed to make a positive contribution, directly and indirectly, to combating the UK energy challenge.