24 July 2020: In a major milestone GKN Aerospace officially charge of 110,000 sq.ft state of the art Global Technology Centre (GTC) in Bristol. This facility will be GKN’s UK technology hub and will be committed towards aerospace technology of the future. The centre will focus on additive manufacturing (AM), advanced composites, assembly and industry 4.0 processes to enable the high rate production of aircraft structures.
The GTC is jointly funded by Euro 17 million from GKN Aerospace and Euro 15 million from the UK Government. About 300 engineers can work at the facility when at full capacity in 2021.
The GTC will maintain GKN Aerospace’s position at the forefront of technology development for the next generation of energy efficient aircraft.
President of GKN Aerospace’s Civil Airframe business, John Pritchard, said, “This is a real milestone, we are proud to have taken the next step in the UK GTC development with this hand over and we look forward to completing the building and making it a great place to work. We have dozens of committed industry partners already set to join us at the centre as together we shape a more sustainable future of flight.”
The UK GTC was first announced in December 2018 alongside the UK government’s Aerospace Sector Deal. GKN Aerospace has now secured more than 25 collaboration partners for the new Centre.
