Re: Why do we always re-engineer our aircraft??
WorkingHard,
Figures from the SBAC and Stockholm International Peace Institute respectively.
No-one builds the Harrier anywhere any more, if you mean the AV-8B and the UK GR5/7, they were a co-operative programme between the US and UK with the UK providing the fuselage, tailplane, undercarriage, engine and ejection seat, the US providing the wing and nose and each providing its own specific avionics. They were assembled on two final assembly lines, one in the US and one in the UK.
A lot of the perception about the UK aerospace industry revolves around Airbus and the feeling that it is somehow French. It is not, the French may assemble the things but they only make the very forward fuselages. The rest is concived, designed engineered, manufactured, fitted out and tested all over Europe, with a very large percentage taking place in the UK.
Final assembly is not very high tech, it is not a value add process and it does nothing to increase your tecnological capability. BAE were offered the A320 final assembly and they turned it down.