Farnborough International Airshow 2008Venue: Farnborough, England. |
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Dave Harvey The figures are staggering - 256 aircraft were ordered at the Farnborough International Airshow, worth a total of $40.5bn to the European plane maker Airbus. Behind the headline figures lies an intricate web of suppliers that will spread this money to the corners of Somerset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire. One of those suppliers is Tom Hitchings, of Tods Aerospace in Somerset. "One hundred and fifty people working in Crewkerne, Somerset, making parts for Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier," Mr Hitchings explains to a potential customer. "If you go into the premium class seating area on many of the world's airlines, you'll probably be walking on something we made." He brandishes pieces of carbon fibre taken from a Cathay Pacific 777,and shows me a flap used on the new Airbus military transport plane, the A400M. He has been doing this all week and he has traded more than 100 business cards with potential buyers. |
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Above: Tom Hitchings, Lord Digby Jones
