April comment: Time to bang the drum

Wave the flags and beat your chests with nationalistic pride. This year heralds a perfect storm of major events with the Farnborough International Airshow, a 100 years of the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the centenary to commemorate the end of the First World War. Oh yes, and I nearly forgot the small matter of FIFA’s 2018 Football World Cup finals held in Russia.

Yes, it’s time to strike up the marching bands and acclaim the winners. For some of us they’ll be playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order. Some of us will be unmoved – as if the ejector seat is glued to the floor.

Time and time again we see our manufacturing industry adopt a similar tactic by trying to raise its game and provide a rallying call for its endeavours. While these attempts should be commended, we can be a little too quick to claim that our country is the best in the aerospace industry, and probably every other industry too, come to think of it.

The aerospace industry will always be greater than the sum of its parts. The effects of capitalism, internet digitalisation and a truly global industry have created an open market and we’re free to make, buy and sell wherever we want. However, this means we’re now faced with a set of apparent contradictions. How can any government organisation unite its own supply chain when its suppliers are free to make money by pursuing low cost manufacturing opportunities overseas?

Fans, competitors and aircraft will still swoop, soar, dive and roar. You can bang the drum as hard as you like because not everyone is listening. Meanwhile, here I sit waiting to be unseated by passion.

Mike Richardson, editor

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