FLYING HIGH
STOKELEY’S Burdon Engineering has won the contract to supply the Eurofighter - the high-capability combat jet which is dominating military airspace above Europe.
The five-year £4m deal with Messier-Dowty - the world’s biggest supplier of landing gear - takes the company into a the highly specialist military aerospace sector for the first time.
It has already led to further orders to supply the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner and the Airbus A340, also through Messier-Dowty.
Burdon, which is investing £20m in new facilities, said the Eurofighter contract would be fulfilled in a dedicated manufacturing cell.
The firm’s customers already include Rolls-Royce and Aston Martin, Caterpillar, Airbus, and Volvo Aerospace.
Managing director Barry Hindson said: “By investing in the very latest technology Burdon is able to compete for the best contracts in the market place and this is one we are certainly delighted to have won.
“Every time we win a contract like this it is good news for us in terms of credibility within the aerospace industry and good news for the local economy.”
The Eurofighter Typhoon - a twin-engine multi-role strike aircraft, with a top speed of 1328mph, or just under twice the speed of sound - is made for European Air Defence Systems.
It is already used by the Royal Airforce, the German Luftwaffe and the Italian and Spanish Airforces. Austria has ordered another 15, while Saudia Arabia has signed a £4.43bn contract for 72 aircraft.
As well as working in the safety-critical aerospace industry Burdon also machines highly-complex parts for the prestige automotive market.
It also supplies the earth moving and oil and gas industries.
The firm is in the process of a £20m expansion that will bring an extra 85,000 sq ft of buildings for manufacturing, office, warehousing and assembly space.
Over the next five years the firm expects to take on a further 150 staff.
Burdon Engineering is a production CNC machining company with 35 years’ experience - supplying top-quality precision products to multi-national companies in a global market.
The firm provides a fully-integrated engineering service - production CNC machining, low-cost, high-quality material sourcing, assembly, warehousing and JIT delivery.
Messier-Dowty, a SAFRAN Group company, is the world leader in the design, development, manufacture and support of landing gear systems.
Messier-Dowty landing gear is in service on more than 19,500 aircraft making over 35,000 landings every day.
The company supplies 33 airframe manufacturers and supports 2,000 operators of large commercial aircraft, regional and business aircraft, military aircraft and helicopters.
It is also the majority shareholder of the worldwide MRO network, Messier Services.
Messier-Dowty and Messier Services together have 4,300 employees across sites in Europe, North America and Asia, and posted sales in the region of 738m euros in 2006.
