The Midlands is home to a substantial cluster of aerospace industry supply chains, one of the largest in the UK and Europe.
Aerospace is one strand in a Midlands engineering supercluster that weaves together several industry sectors and supply chains. The region is at the heart of the UK’s aerospace industry, specialising in the civil aerospace sector that makes passenger aircraft. (In addition, the region hosts a considerable aviation industry – the region’s airports, airlines and RAF bases.)
Midlands aerospace is characterised by:
- The design and manufacture of aeroengines, advanced aircraft systems and aero-structures.
- Important sites of a leading aerospace ‘Prime’ or Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM - Rolls-Royce), and four global Tier 1 suppliers (ITP Aero UK, Moog Aircraft Group, Parker-Meggitt and Safran Actuation Systems) designing and making sophisticated aircraft systems.
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| Rolls-Royce's UltraFan™ engine, first fully tested in 2023 and capable of running on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), is the world’s largest aero engine technology demonstrator, providing both a new engine design and a suite of technologies that can support more sustainable air travel for decades to come.[Credit: Rolls-Royce] |
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| Moog Aircraft Group in Wolverhampton designed and manufactured the sophisticated actuation system that controls the main rotor blades of the world’s first fly-by-wire commercial helicopter, the US company Bell’s 525 Relentless. [Credit: Moog Aircraft Group]. |
- A deep, high-value design and manufacturing supply chain making aircraft parts for these companies, much of which also exports directly to overseas aerospace customers (initial estimates suggest 40+% by value). The breadth and depth of this Midlands’ “Flying Parts” supply chain is depicted in this technology building blocks graphic.
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- Additional cross-sector businesses and ‘indirect’ suppliers of specialist services and equipment used in its factories and testing facilities that are part of a diverse and deep-rooted supply chain, also supplying into automotive, nuclear, marine, rail and other markets
- A collaborative industry that supports its own regional aerospace cluster body, the Midlands Aerospace Alliance (MAA).
- Aerospace companies that design and manufacture critical technologies for major global aircraft programmes such as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner (below)
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| A Singapore Airlines Boeing 787-10, one of the world’s most advanced passenger aircraft, retracts its landing gear on departure from Hong Kong. Midlands companies making key systems for the 787 include Rolls-Royce in Derby (engine) and Birmingham (engine controls), ITP Aero UK in Nottinghamshire (engine modules), Moog Aircraft Group in Wolverhampton (wing actuation control systems) and Safran Actuation Systems in Wolverhampton (engine thrust reverser systems). A wide range of other “flying parts” manufacturers from across the region make Boeing 787 components. [Credit Dltl2010] |
This page draws on the longer report Aerospace in the Midlands, published in 2024, which also analyses the distribution of national aerospace R&D funding.
