Isle of plenty

aerospace expertise and more unusually, new opportunities in space travel.
Well-known for its legendary Manx TT races and for being the home of the world's largest functioning waterwheel, few outside of the industry would know that the island actually has a long and fruitful history in the aviation industry. Beginning with the establishment of the tier one manufacturer RLC Ronaldsway in 1955, the community has formed a natural cluster over the years, attracting expertise from a range of areas, including such brands as GE Aviation, which produces actuation and landing gear elements on the island and US fluid systems manufacturer Swagelok, which employs 170 workers at its Douglas site.

Directly and indirectly, manufacturing now accounts for around 7-8% of the 80,000 population's economy and the importance of aerospace is huge, accounting for over half of that figure. The figure that really stands out though is that engineering business has grown by 50% in the last five years, aided by a variety of strategies, most notably the Isle of Man Aerospace Cluster (IOMAC), established in 2006.

Working collaboratively with the North West Aerospace Alliance (NWAA), the Department of Economic Development (DED), then known as the Department of Trade and Industry, developed the IOMAC to put Isle of Man aerospace expertise firmly on the map and to provide a formal support structure in pursuit of worldwide recognition.

Five years on, the IOMAC includes 17 companies employing over 1,000 skilled workers locally and has been held up by the NWAA as a model cluster, with Government and all members working closely with each other to find new ways of doing business and increasing the strength of all concerned. As well as improved dialogue and more unified strategies, members also meet for quarterly workshops involving local speakers as well as those from the NWAA and key primes worldwide.

Manx appeal

Being a small island does have its advantages and the most critical of these is the way Government interacts with businesses in the region, and indeed the initiatives taken by the Government to bring business into the economy. The general perception is that the Isle of Man is a tax haven and while the advantages in this regard do exist, there are plenty of other reasons to do business for those located there.

The Manx Government is typically involved in extensive dialogue with businesses to ensure concerns are addressed, and understanding the importance of a stable manufacturing base, support also comes in the form of a generous grant scheme offering up to 40% for machinery, new buildings and first year expenses. Initiatives such as ACE (Awareness of Careers in Engineering) that aim to preserve the skills base have also yielded significant results. This year the scheme will reach 3,600 students from primary age upwards. As a result of the past four years campaigning through ACE, the Isle of Man College is oversubscribed for the first time in recent history and when one of the larger companies advertised for six apprentices, it received 66 applications.

The cluster also represents a high level of diversity. Not only are there few conflicts of interest to be found on the engineering side, but initiatives such as the Aircraft Registry set up four years ago, focused on private jet owners and designed to bring high power individuals to the island all add up to a well-balanced and stable economy. The island even has its own MRO capabilities, including European Aviation Maintenance which has particular expertise in servicing British Aerospace ATP and ATR turboprop aircraft as well as private jets.

Working together

It sounds simple, but it is difficult to overstate that one of the most significant things to come out of the cluster has simply been improved relationships. For example, by working together members have already secured joint purchasing agreements and through delegation of resources, companies have been able to tender for larger packages of work from global primes. A joint apprentice scheme is similarly shared and gives young engineers the opportunity to learn a range of disciplines across various businesses, enhancing their value in the labour market.

While trust is certainly aided by the relatively close knit community, some of the comments made by members are remarkable when considering typical customer-supplier relationships.

For example, Martyn Perkins of Ramsey-based subcontractor Manx Engineers describes: “If we have a problem we can run it past engineers from other cluster companies and generally there will be someone who has had that problem before. Cluster members are quite open with each other and it gives everyone access to a whole wealth of expertise. We're not keeping ourselves to ourselves like we used to and together are punching well above our weight on the world stage as a result.”

Courtenay Heading, business development director at Bladon Jets which produces the innovative micro turbines as seen on the Jaguar CX-75 concept car, concurs: “The social aspect is actually really useful. I often meet with people like Martyn in a social context but the serious side of that is I now know what Manx Engineers does and getting together almost always leads to work.”

High value

Manx Engineers itself is fairly typical of the sort of technical subcontracting found on the island, typified by high value, low volume work. The company was essentially created at the end of World War II with equipment from the recently closed RAF Andreas site and situated on the doorstep of the famous Laxey Wheel. Two years ago it was sold and relocated to a much larger facility. Typically it produces small, intricate, failsafe parts milled and turned in difficult materials such as military connectors and undercarriage components. Significantly and thanks in part to high quality machinery, Lean thinking and stringent quality control, a lot of work has returned from lower cost economies since the recession.

It's a similar story over at another subcontractor Kiartys, whose name comes from the Manx Gaelic word for ‘just' or ‘true'. With the aid of the then DTI, the company made the switch from toolmaking to precision aerospace work and among other things is now heavily involved in work for a tier one manufacturer, supporting development and pre-production of Rolls-Royce's Trent 1000 and XWB engines, powering the 787 Dreamliner and A350 XWB respectively.

For sales director Steve Riding, it has been the quality and simplicity of Government support that has made this possible. “Our future is precision manufacturing so we needed to invest in equipment,” he explains. “There are no problems with support here because it's so direct. There are no third parties or consultants. You simply apply and you get a yes or no very quickly. Another element is the help we get from everyone across the cluster, one particular example being the advice and direction we received in aiming for AS9001 accreditation.”

As for Bladon Jets, the company's micro turbine product is a prime example of the kind of innovation encouraged on the island and plays to another of its strengths – IP protection. There are already particularly strong mechanisms for this available but a review in the near future is expected to improve this further. This has been a key factor for Bladon, as the design and processing of its turbine is covered by three separate patents.

The key design feature is that blades of this size cannot be mechanically fixed onto a hub, so the main blade is cut from a single piece of aluminium via spark erosion, creating a highly balanced blisk that can achieve speeds of up to 90,000rpm. While the first usage will be as a range extender for electric cars, the purchase of a minority stake in the company by Tata last year will give it the backing it needs to take it into other markets in marine, power generation and eventually aerospace.

Joining the new space race

One of the more unexpected aspects of island life for the uninitiated is its involvement in the space industry. In fact, in a recent study by space market analyst Ascend, the Isle of Man was ranked the nation fifth most likely to return to the Moon. That's odds of 50-1 compared to the UK's 300-1. This is thanks to several highly unusual businesses making the most of a growing space industry contingent, most notably Odyssey Moon, which is competing for the Google Lunar X Prize. This will award $30 million to the first private entity to get a spacecraft to the moon and the Manx-based company already has the backing of Canada's MDA Space Missions and is working with NASA on lunar lander development.

Equally unusual is Excalibur Almaz, which plans to recondition and upgrade two Russian space stations in order to offer full orbital trips around the globe and is intending to launch its first revenue flight in 2013. The island's own CVI Melles Griot Laser Optics is also a key space industry supplier, with its equipment playing a central role in the Mars Phoenix Lander that discovered high altitude snow over Mars in 2008.

All this comes in addition to a whole range of satellite businesses such as ManSat, which organises orbital filings to the International Telecommunications Union for all Earth orbits; and Avanti Communications, Inmarsat, SES, Telesat and Viasat who all conduct satellite operations. Already the spirit of collaboration has surfaced within this growing and so far unofficial cluster with the establishment of the Space Data Association, a non-profit association that facilitates data sharing between organisations. On the educational side, the International Institute of Space Commerce has been set-up in partnership with the International Space University with a remit to become the leading think-tank in the study of the economics of space and become the intellectual home for the industry and space academia around the world.

Considering that ten years ago the Isle of Man didn't have a space interest, this huge progress points towards an industry that is ready to innovate as well as value those that do so. It really may only be a matter of time before the Manx flag is planted on the Moon.

www.aerospace.co.im/iomac