Without its super-lightweight, ultra-heat-resistant composite components, Pratt & Whitney’s engines for the Lightning jets to be used on Britain’s two new aircraft carriers would not be the same. The company making those parts, unique in their advanced technology as they are for the composites used on Hornet fighters and Black Hawk attack helicopters, is Meggitt.
The British aerospace company, which is in the process of moving its headquarters to the Midlands, has the extraordinary knowhow to produce this kit. The problem is that it hasn’t been making sufficient amounts of money from doing it.
Tony Wood, the former Rolls-Royce executive who has been leading Meggitt for the past 20 months, talks of the business making parts that have to be right first-time and being on