In our Suppliers’ Spotlight series, the best in British engineering and manufacturing and members of Team AW149 UK tell their story.

Team AW149 UK is Leonardo’s onshore supply chain for the AW149 helicopter. Featuring more than 70 companies from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, Team AW149 UK members play a vital role in the latest-generation AW149. 

Since 1997, RDDS Avionics Limited has been based in Margate, Kent. The company started from the inspiration of Ray Smith, an engineer, producing displays and video management hardware for the police alongside the UK’s Search and Rescue (SAR) service.

In the early 2000s, RDDS began its close working relationship with Leonardo in Yeovil. Marcus Harland, RDDS Business Development, comments on the collaboration: “Quickly, we built a reputation for creating innovative, rugged aerospace hardware amongst the project teams at Leonardo Helicopters, which brought in exciting new opportunities for RDDS, allowing us to expand our product base and grow our team significantly.”

Furthermore, RDDS has supported a number of flagship Leonardo programmes, including the latest AW101 SAR mission fit with the company’s keyboards and video management hardware.

“Here at RDDS we have been supplying rugged, mission-ready electronics to Leonardo for over 20 years and we are incredibly proud to be continuing our long-standing relationship into the future with the AW149 Team. Video management hardware and control panels have been a core pillar of our business for over 25 years and we look forward to strengthening and innovating even further with Leonardo and the flight teams across the world who rely on our equipment to support their missions,” says Marcus Harland.

Today, RDDS focuses on the development of unique hardware solutions for rugged or safety-critical environments. The company’s product offerings extend from off the shelf hardware for mission management, to the development of bespoke equipment to meet the various needs of its customers, whether it is a small signal conversion unit to connect two uncooperative pieces of equipment, or an ultra-wide touchscreen display for the control of safety-critical systems.

“Working with Leonardo has helped us develop our capabilities and skillsets into a highly valuable partner for aerospace engineering. Our reputation at Leonardo for developing highly reliable hardware has led to us applying our skillset to a wide range of engineering disciplines, which puts RDDS in a unique position amongst UK suppliers – there are very few companies of our scale and agility that hold the same degree of capabilities and accreditations,” adds Marcus Harland.

For further information, please visit https://rdds.co.uk.