Podcast | Sopwith Lecture 2014 - The UK Aerospace Technology Enterprise: Latent Growth or Losing Ground?

International acquisition activity in the UK pharmaceutical sector has recently heightened concern over investment in UK research and development and the implications for the nation’s science base.

The UK aerospace sector is a major export revenue earner and similarly has deep roots both in research and in advanced manufacturing, facets that are vital in the re-balancing of the UK economy.

Much has been achieved through the creation of a number of ‘growth partnerships’ between dwindling UK industry and focussed exploitation by a profit-focused UK Government.

The sustainability of this approach in the aerospace and defence sectors was discussed at the lecture, as was the long-term implications for the creation of intellectual property in the UK.

Consideration was also given to whether design, development and manufacture in the UK will ultimately give way to build-to-print.

About the speaker:

Sir Brian Burridge, Vice President Strategic Marketing, Finmeccanica UK

Sir Brian Burridge is the Vice President Strategic Marketing at Finmeccanica UK and is currently the Technology and Enterprise Team Lead in the Defence Growth Partnership.

He previously spent a full career as a pilot in the Royal Air Force holding a front-line command at every level in the Service and spent a number of years in MOD policy posts.

He left the Royal Air Force in January 2006 as Commander-in-Chief Strike Command.

He is the President of the Air League and also the Vice President Defence on the Council of ADS, the aerospace, defence and security sectors' trade association.

With a first degree in physics, an MBA and two honorary doctorates, Sir Brian was previously a research fellow in political science at King's London and is now a visiting professor at the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Reading.

US Navy's stealthy Zumwalt destroyer is moored at Bath Iron Works

In a Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013 file photo, the Navy's stealthy Zumwalt destroyer is moored at Bath Iron Works, in Bath, Maine. 

The skipper of the technology-laden Zumwalt is Capt. James Kirk, and his futuristic-looking vessel sports cutting-edge technology, new propulsion and powerful armaments, but this ship isn't the Starship Enterprise. 

The technology-laden Zumwalt taking shape at Maine's Bath Iron Works is unlike any other U.S. warship. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

Captain Kirk's futuristic-looking vessel sports cutting-edge technology, new propulsion and powerful armaments, but this ship isn't the Starship Enterprise.

The skipper of the stealthy USS Zumwalt is Navy Capt. James Kirk, and yes, he's used to the jokes about the name he shares with the TV starship commander played by actor William Shatner.

"I don't take any offense," he told reporters in an interview. "If it's a helpful moniker that brings attention to help us to do what we need to do to get the ship into the fleet and into combat operations, then that's fine."

While it's no starship, the technology-laden Zumwalt taking shape at Maine's Bath Iron Works is unlike any other U.S. warship.

The Navy's largest destroyer will feature a composite deckhouse with hidden radar and sensors and an angular shape that minimizes its radar signature. Its unusual wave-piercing hull will reduce the ship's wake.

It's the first U.S. surface warship to use electric propulsion, and its power plant is capable of producing enough electricity to light up a small city and to power future weapons like the electromagnetic rail gun.



Inside, it's just as unique. The number of sailors needed to stand watch will be reduced through the use of cameras and video monitors that show what's going on outside.

The bridge will indeed look like something from "Star Trek" with two chairs surrounded by nearly 360 degrees of video monitors.

A handful of reporters accompanying Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Thursday got a first look at the ship's interior while it's under construction. It's due to be christened in the spring.

The 610-foot (186-meter)-long ship has the highest level of automation on a U.S. surface warship, with systems in place to combat flooding and to put out fires, among other things.

Because of automation and technology, the number of sailors needed to run it will be nearly half the number serving on the current Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.

All this whiz-bam technology comes at a price that sailors couldn't have imagined in the mid-1960s, when the first episodes of "Star Trek" aired on television.

The first-in-class Zumwalt will cost northward of $3.5 billion, a price tag so high that the Navy was forced to reduce the number of ships in the series to just three.

NASA - Space Shuttle Enterprise Moves to Intrepid

Atop a barge on Wednesday, June 6, 2012, the space shuttle Enterprise was towed on the Hudson River past the Statue of Liberty on its way to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, where it will be permanently displayed.

Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Star Trek Convention 2009!

It's been more than 20 years since William "Captain Kirk" Shatner told a roomful of Trekkies to "get a life" on Saturday Night Live, but Star Trek conventions are still going strong.

Leonard Nimoy and Shatner himself will be among more than 70 special guests at the official convention in the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel this summer.

Most guest celebrities will take fans' questions while on stage, but the convention Web site has a warning: Asking for hugs, telling stars you love them, giving gifts and telling long personal stories while other Trekkies patiently wait to ask a question is "quite self-centered" and unacceptable in this universe.