Global Aerospace – Reflections and Crystal Ball Gazing. A lecture by John Whalley, Director of the Aerospace Wales Forum

Small Lecture Theatre 2:30 – 3pm Thursday 16th February

60 years ago the population of the world was 2.5 billion. It was the beginning of the Jet Age. Britain lead the way with the Comet, the world’s first long range jet airliner. We also had “press button A” telephone boxes, British Railways and steam trains, single channel black and white televisions, a wireless with the BBC Home Service and 78 rpm records.

The population of the world has now grown to 7 billion and the amount of global trade in a day exceeds that of a whole year in 1950. Your mobile phone has more computing power than a large corporation had back then. Britain no longer builds airliners but the UK still leads the way in wing design and manufacture with most Airbus wings built here in Wales. The UK still has the second largest aerospace sector in the world, forming an integral part of what is now a global aerospace industry. Wales has a strong presence with some 25000 jobs and £5 billion of turnover.

The future looks bright, but with some real challenges. There are lots of problems to be tackled and that is what engineering is all about. The world’s population and world trade will continue to grow and this is driving the demand for airliners ever upwards. Typically Boeing and Airbus have a five year order backlog and despite the recession their production rates continue to rise.

New opportunities and new competitors are emerging. China is building 100 new airports and will take a quarter of new airliners over the next 20 years. Not surprisingly, as well as taking aircraft from the established players they are creating their own industry and with their new company Comac, they see a future dominated by ABC – Airbus, Boeing and Comac.

Growth also brings environmental challenges. Aerospace has done a great deal to reduce noxious emissions but will need to do more if aviation is going to keep flying. Aircraft will become more efficient with new engine technology, materials and radical new designs.

The last sixty years have been very exciting. The next will be even more so.

Are you ready to take the challenge?

This lecture has been kindly sponsored by HE STEM.

John Whalley

John Whalley has been Director of the Aerospace Wales Forum since its foundation in 2002. Aerospace Wales is the industry association for Wales having some 150 member companies and organisations including Airbus, EADS Cassidian, British Airways, Hawker Beechcraft, Raytheon Aircraft, BAE Systems, GE and General Dynamics.

Prior to joining Aerospace Wales John spent 30 years with British Aerospace in both the civil and military aircraft businesses. He served as a Director on various divisional boards for 15 years and held a range of portfolios including Engineering, Quality, Human Resources and Project Management. He was involved with a wide range of aircraft programmes including Airbus types, BAe146 airliner, Tornado, Typhoon and Harrier.

He is currently involved in a range of consultancy projects in the aerospace, rail and civil engineering sectors and serves as a Governor of the Wales Quality Centre. He is a European Engineer, Chartered Engineer and a Chartered Quality Professional.