GKN Aerospace
Part of GKN
1996 GKN Westland Aerospace was incorporated to hold the Westland Aerospace subsidiary
2001 GKN acquired Boeing’s military aircraft structures plant in St Louis, a groundbreaking outsourcing deal.
2001 GKN Westland Aerospace was renamed GKN Aerospace Services Ltd
2004 GKN sold it share in its helicopter joint venture to Finmeccanica. GKN retained the Westland Aerospace business, which had a leading edge in aerostructures and composite materials.
2008 Agreed to buy Airbus’s aircraft wing factory at Filton, near Bristol, for £136m. The deal included contracts for Airbus programmes already being supplied by the plant; GKN also signed up to design and produce wings for the new A350 extra wide body airliner, more than doubling its civil aircraft order book to £5.6bn. GKN planned to invest £125m over the next five years to establish Filton as a specialist in next-generation composite wings, using the Airbus A350 as a showcase. The facility employed 1,500 staff and was expected to make revenues of £375m in the first full year under its new owners.[1]
2012 Acquired Volvo Aero, the aero engine division of AB Volvo
2015 Acquired Fokker Technologies Group B.V.
2015 The aerospace unit supplied parts for the Airbus A350 and the F-35 JSF.[2]
GKN Aerospace employs over 15,000 people in over 13 countries and serves the world’s leading aircraft and aero-engine manufacturers.
See Also
- [1] Company history