Think of Somerset and it’s likely cheddar cheese, rolling hills and cider may spring to mind. Helicopters are probably not high up on the list. But the West Country county, arguably most famed as the home of Glastonbury Festival, is an important UK hub for aerospace. The sector contributes hundreds of millions of pounds to the local economy every year and generates thousands of jobs.
In fact, Somerset’s links with the industry stretch back more than a 100 years. A 1986 flight over the Somerset Levels by test pilot Trevor Egginton in a modified Westland Lynx still holds the Federation Aeronautique Internationale world record for fastest helicopter flight. He achieved a speed of 249 miles per hour (400 kilometres per hour) over a 15-mile course.
In 1915, the Westland Aircraft Works in Yeovil was ordered by the government to produce seaplanes for the First World War, which were moved by horse-drawn cart and rail to the Solent, ready for assembly and testing.
More than a century on and Leonardo Helicopters UK - as the company is now called - still has a vast site in the town, employing thousands of people. The facility is the only place in Britain that still carries out the end-to-end design, development and manufacturing of helicopters.
More than 3,100 staff are based on site, including contractors and 150 trainee graduates and apprentices, who work across departments including planning, engineering, research and innovation, air traffic control, aviation operations, electrical manufacturing and flight safety (among others).
The business, which is part of Italian multinational aerospace and defence firm Leonardo, mainly produces aircraft for the British military - the MoD is the company’s most important customer - as well as for civil use including search and rescue, law enforcement and privately owned helicopters. The helicopters take anything from between 18 months and three years to build, with each one having a multimillion-pound price tag
Managing the smooth running and future growth of such a huge operation is no mean feat - but Leonardo Helicopter UK’s new managing director is determined to do just that. Adam Clarke has been in post just nine months and is quietly confident he will be able to help Leonardo evolve.
“I have a number of visions but ultimately the goal is to continue to grow this business and allow it to flourish as it once did in the past,” he said. “The reason I am here is to take this business in a new direction of travel. We are working on new novel technologies which will take this business to something different in the future, so it is a sustainable business that will be here in another 100 years' time.”
Mr Clarke has worked at Leonardo for 20 years, joining as a project management graduate before working his way up through the company. It’s a journey he hopes will inspire - and, perhaps more importantly, attract - people to come and work for Leonardo.
“I want to make this place an attractive and interesting place to be, and I want people to want to work here. I want to evolve the culture to make us a more dynamic and exciting place.”
He has, arguably, not come into post at an easy time. Although the business remained in operation during the pandemic and did not furlough any staff - Leonardo recorded consolidated revenues of €14.1bn for the 2021 financial year - the current economic climate, he admits, is causing some concerns.
“You can see how the cost-of-living crisis directly impacts employees working on the site and as a business we need to work out how we help our staff go through that. There are also pressures in terms of energy and utilities,” he said.
“The way you have to handle that is you have to be efficient in your operation in order to win new business. A lot of what I am looking at is how we win new business so we have revenue streams to take us forward.”
Leonardo UK has agreed a two-year pay agreement of 12% across 2022 and 2023 for its British employees. Mr Clarke says the company is also offering so-called “custom working” - a different format of flexible working - in a bid to help staff. It allows each department to decide how best to work. For some, that means working from home the majority of the time, for others it’s coming onto the site.
He said: “Each team will agree how to do it. It will allow for a little bit more flexibility as to how many people have to put petrol in their car to come into an office.”
As many businesses are finding, the ground war in Europe is also causing separate issues; among them are shortages of raw materials and electric components. Although Leonardo does not source any materials from Russia directly, it does from mainland Europe, and has been forced to think “creatively” about whether to change any of its designs, according to Mr Clarke.
“We have teams managing the supply chain and looking for alternative sources, and we also look in certain cases where suppliers are restricted whether there are alternative designs or materials that can be used,” he said.
“I think our challenges are no different to anyone else's. We don't have anything uniquely affected by Ukraine-Russia, it's the same as everyone really. It's about active management. There are no restrictions that are preventing us doing business so we are still able to produce the product and deliveries.”
Concerns about the economy are not preventing the aerospace firm from investing in its Somerset operation, either. Among the latest developments is a vast £30m logistics hub. The single-site logistics hub, as it is known, will help support Leonardo Helicopters’ global fleet by housing components and tools. The project has brought together eight different warehouses into one in a bid to increase efficiency.
The external structure was completed in the final quarter of 2022, with final touches expected to be finished in the first quarter of this year.
Sustainability has been a big focus for the hub, which will be equipped with rainwater harvesting tanks so water is recycled for use throughout the building in a non-drinking capacity. It will also have LED lighting and a heat-recovery system that will be used in the main warehouse. A bank of electric vehicle charging points will be installed to support a new fleet of electric commercial vehicles that will distribute components from the hub to the company’s manufacturing facilities.
“It is about making those investments that will effectively have a value return moving forward. We need to keep making those focused investments in order to drive efficiency which allows us to manage these quite complex times,” said Mr Clarke.
'The future will be a mixture of crewed and uncrewed helicopters'
One challenge that is currently facing the aerospace industry is recruiting workers from STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) backgrounds.
“It's a global problem,” said Mr Clarke, who points out the firm currently has 200 vacancies on site, a proportion of which are early-career roles. “We have a number of endeavours trying to bring people back in. We have a very good apprentice and grad scheme with about 150 people each and that is ultimately the way we are trying to deal with recruitment.”
But Mr Clarke believes Britain needs to re-emphasise the importance of engineering.
“In other nations being an engineer is a huge status thing - like a doctor. In the UK we undervalue engineers so elevating the importance of engineering in society is something the UK could help with.”
Leonardo is currently investing heavily in new technologies, particularly around uncrewed aircraft and advanced air mobility. Among its projects is a programme known as RWUAS - or rotary wing uncrewed air system. Last summer, the MoD awarded a four-year contract worth £60m to Leonardo to deliver phase three of RWUAS, including flying an advanced uncrewed vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft prototype known as ‘Proteus’.
“Military doctrine says the future will be a mixture of crewed and uncrewed helicopters, working together,” said Mr Clarke. “We have a mixture of some military focus, but are looking more widely at civil applications.”
But it will be some time yet before the UK sees unmanned helicopters in its skies - mainly due to the length of time it takes the aerospace regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority, to approve such aircraft are safe.
“At the moment there is still a long way to go but that is the aspiration and that will probably drive pace in terms of the military's uncrewed environments. It's an exciting time to be part of it.”
Mr Clarke is very much aware of the challenges that lie ahead for him - and the business. But he is proud of being appointed as Leonardo Helicopter UK’s top boss.
“To become a managing director of any business is not an easy achievement. But to be asked to be part of this business with a huge responsibility for the employees and the future of the region, is a privilege and I am humbled by that.”
The man knows what he wants to achieve, but points out with honesty: “The question you probably need to ask in the future, is have I delivered on that.”
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