UK Future Flight Capability Analysis
The Future Of UK Aviation
In the UK, £300mn was invested in the Future Flight Programme (2020 to 2025) which will deliver >2000 jobs by 2029 and a 1.8% increase in GDP by 2030. The UK is home to a globally competitive capability to deliver future aviation solutions and ripe for investment and scale.
Your browser may be blocking third party cookies, to view embeded content you will need to allow third party cookies.
The Growth Of Regional Innovation Clusters
For future flight to become a reality, a breadth of capability is required including aerospace, technology, data, sensing, air traffic management and regional planning.
The top regions with the highest number of organisations operating in the future flight space are:
- South East England [66 org., 19.5% of total],
- London [59 org., 17.4% of total],
- South West England [49 org., 14.5% of total],
- Scotland [28 org., 8.3% of total], and
- West Midlands [25 org., 7.4% of total].
The analysis demonstrates how industrial clusters consisting of a breadth of capability have the capacity to truly transform people’s lives within UK regions and drive a more seamless, integrated transport system.
Among the top five regions with the highest number of future flight organisations, the following regional capability clusters were identified:
- South East England: Drones [12 org.],
- London: Drones [8 org.],
- South West England: Advanced Air Mobility and AI [8 org. each],
- Scotland: Drones [6 org.], and
- West Midlands: Software [5 org.].
(NB: The above capabilities are represented by the largest number of organisations in each region.)
Main Technologies and Services Supporting the UK Future Flight Supply Chain
The four-year UKRI Future Flight Programme was a critical catalyst to building consortia of disparate capability, working together to enable future flight to be a reality.
The most frequent capabilities and services provided are:
- Aerospace [56 org., 16.5% of all organisations],
- Drones [35 org., 10.3% of all],
- Consultancy [20 org., 5.9% of all],
- Digital & Communications [19 org., 5.6% of all], and
- Infrastructure [17 org., 5.0% of all].
(NB: organisations can offer more than one capability/service; hence, the total number of capabilities offered is higher than the unique number of organisations.)
The Future Flight Programme was also a critical enabler to industry and academic collaboration, enabling the earliest of ideas to translate into commercial reality.
The analysis draws out the breadth of organisation types with the most common types of organisations:
- Industry [254 org., 74.9% of total],
- University [29 org., 8.6% of total],
- Research Organisation [26 org., 7.7% of total],
- Professional Services [11 org., 3.2% of total], and
- Government and Public Bodies [5 org., 1.5% of total].
Next Steps and Engagement
If you wish to add your organisation to the UK Future Flight Capability Analysis, please complete this form for review.
If you wish to be connected to any of the organisations in the analysis, please contact our expert Andrew Hooley.
PROGRAMME
This analysis is part of Future Flight
Building the aviation ecosystem needed to speed up the introduction of electric sub-regional aircraft, advanced air mobility vehicles and drones into the UK.