Airbus wins £100m grant to build ultra-light wings in UK

THE aerospace and defence giant Airbus has been handed almost £100m in grant funding to support the further development of ultra-lightweight wings in Britain.

The company is among several manufacturers in the life sciences, automotive and aerospace industries to have been promised government cash ahead of tomorrow’s Budget.

Yesterday, Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, said the £360m package would help to grow the economy and support jobs in the UK.

The money going to Airbus is part of efforts to boost the research and development of technologies that will reduce the carbon emissions of aircraft, under plans to reach net zero targets.

Lighter and longer wings made of carbon fibre or composite materials will allow aircraft to create more lift while using less fuel, the company believes.

However, the resulting wingspan of around 45 metres (147ft) means the wings will need folding tips, for when planes are taxiing from airport runways to their parking spaces. At the same time, the company is looking at whether the wing tips could be made to rotate to take better advantage of wind conditions. Airbus has previously received £117m of public funding towards the scheme, known as the “wing of tomorrow” programme, and yesterday Mr Hunt confirmed it had been allocated another £96m.

The wings are being designed at the company’s site on the outskirts of Bristol, where both the Concorde jets and Bristol Blenheim bombers were built. They will be built at Airbus’s factory in Broughton in Flintshire, north Wales.

The Government said it was also awarding £40m to Cambridge-based Marshall Group to help develop zero-carbon aircraft engine technology.

Mr Hunt said: “We’re backing the industries of the future with millions of pounds of investment to make the UK a world leader in manufacturing, securing the highly skilled jobs of the future and delivering the long-term change our country needs to deliver a brighter future for Britain.”

It came as German engineering giant Siemens announced it was set to open a new research and manufacturing facility for rail signalling and control systems in Chippenham, Wiltshire.