Abstract
How much longer do you think it’ll be before Farnborough hits the commercial and trade headlines as one of the UK’s burgeoning centres of hi-tech? I’m willing to bet on it happening before this year’s out.
With a premier international airshow showcasing its pulling power, Farnborough is booming as a hub for hi-tech. Ever since Britain’s first powered flight in October 1908 by Sam Cody, Farnborough airfield has been the centre of civil and military aviation research and development in the UK. Until 1998 it was predominantly the home of major aerospace and defence interests of Ministry of Defence agencies in their various incarnations. Then, in 2000, after a public inquiry into planned future use, TAG International was granted planning permission for use of the site for business aviation. Since then there’s been considerable investment to modernise the airport – it’s now the leading business airport in Europe – and aerospace related businesses and services have literally taken off.
The airport has now become the springboard for new technology parks, notably Cody Technology Park as an immediate neighbour and the redeveloped Royal Pavilion, just down the road. Companies who were around at the beginning, QinetiQ and DSTL as particular examples, are still there with fifty plus other private aerospace and defence businesses. But it’s in the new technology parks where the growth has spread to provide a near full house of services across the engineering and science sectors. The big names include Atkins, Augusta Westland, Balfour Beatty, IBM, Fluor, GE Oil & Gas, JAE and QuEST Global Engineering. A host of not-so-big names cover process control instrumentation, electronic testing equipment, data centres and cloud storage services, engineering safety solutions and electronic security. Not surprisingly, given Farnborough’s history in aerospace and defence, the international Security Intelligence Centre was opened in the Cody Technology Park in December 2011and the UK Defence Solutions Centre opened in March this year. So, in short…there is lift off. And if you have any personal predilections you might be interested to know that the only activity not directly connected with the expansion and development of technology is – apart from the flying – the Mile High charter service at the airport!
Now let’s connect. In my last column I asked what the Institute was doing about the emerging technologies of the Internet of Things and Industry 4.0. Well, as a start we’re directly involved with a new publication, to be launched later this year, on the subject. SAGE Publications, current publishers of our Transactions and this well-thumbed magazine, have on their drawing board a ‘Journal of Connectivity’ and, in response to their invitation last year, the Institute is to be the principal sponsor. SAGE are picking up all the costs involved, but we will be overseeing the editorial direction. Professors Ron Summers, Loughborough University, and Zhipeng Wu, Manchester University, both Fellows of the Institute, are the joint editors and are presently involved with putting together an editorial team. I’d be kidding you if I didn’t say that from the off this publication will have a distinct academic bias – largely to accommodate the research and development being made in smart technology. But it’s a promising start that will help us to get a handle on the new technologies of smart systems.
Since the Reavill Report in 2006, on the future of the Institute, change has pretty much become a constant for us. Not all of this has been immediately visible, particularly where matters of constitution and governance are concerned. In other areas, though, there has been progress. We may not compare with the larger, older and more established institutions but bridges have been patiently and persistently built with industry and the level of support from employers, for a range of our activities, is at its highest since at least the past fifteen years. One consequence of this is that, during the years when other institutions experienced declining membership, our numbers held even, with a slight increase in our MInstMC and FInstMC grades in two of the lean years. Looking to the future, however, it’s clear that we have to grow. The newly revised Strategic Plan, originally cast in 2009, is all about this and, until we can get it onto the new website currently being built, contact me if you’d like a copy. In the meantime there is a fresh impetus and plans for a re-focused marketing effort.
One growing distraction are the increasing calls being made, from umbrella professional bodies in particular, for the Institute to provide a policy and code of practice on the issue of ‘Diversity’. Call me a dinosaur, but the whole issue is a sad indictment of a society and its engineering and science professions who have let the nannies with their well-practiced cant get the better of basic common sense. That said, this is our policy: ‘We don’t care where you come from, what you look like or what your gender is; If you can meet our criteria and standards for professional qualification you’re very welcome to join us’. (I ‘cant’ say fairer than that!). And a code of practice? Well, we’ve never closed the door to anyone on that basis and on numerous occasions have actually gone the extra mile to help individuals who are struggling to meet the requisite criteria and standards. We don’t need a ‘Diversity Officer’ for that.
Just how good do you think you are at keeping a secret? QinetiQ in Farnborough operate one of the most important wind tunnels in the world and Boeing has been testing aircraft there for the last three decades. Obviously QinetiQ can’t say what’s inside at present, but word on the street has it that Boeing is testing its 777X or 737Max aircraft. So if you can’t keep a secret just ask anyone else you mouth off to not to tell everybody else!
Here’s digging for you…
Advance Notice of Annual General Meeting
The
This will be followed immediately by an
Both meetings are open to all members, but only Hon Fellows, Fellows, Members, Licentiates registered as IEng and Associates registered as EngTech, may vote.
P J Martindale
Chief Executive Officer