History
In the early 1990s the mini-cluster of aerospace engineering companies centre in East Lancashire found itself in the depths of recession. Work on key defence contracts was tailing off and successor projects stalled due to indecision among some of their key partners.
In a sink or swim initiative, several leading aerospace industry figures in the area that had contributed so much to the dawning of the “jet age” decided it was time to join forces, recognising that future competition would not lie just across the road, but in a new globalised marketplace.
Previously fiercely secretive and competitive, they realised that they could not continue to survive if they simply stood still.
The idea was put before the then Prime Minister John Major and won support from other organisations, notably Lancashire County Council, who would later become key stakeholders in the initiative.
From these early beginnings, the Consortium of Lancashire Aerospace, forerunner to the North West Aerospace Alliance, was formally established in 1994.
Its launch was pioneered by just a handful of “grass roots” aerospace manufacturing companies who cast the die for a new concept in participation that was to become the model for many others throughout the UK, Europe and further a field.
