December gave us time to reflect on what has been a tough year for many. Throughout the hardship, and despite often being apart, we have been proud to continue to come together to support our chosen charities with fundraising events, from home and onsite when possible. Colleagues around the UK have gone above and beyond to support the NHS with PPE, and to support to the country with aircraft on hand in emergencies. Early in the month, on Giving Tuesday, we looked back over all of the year’s charitable efforts from our colleagues, including our fantastic helicopters apprentices and graduates, who collectively raised over £20,000 for the Yeovil District Hospital Breast Cancer Unit Appeal. Also at the start of the month, we were delighted to be nominated for the World Commerce and Contracting Innovation & Excellence Awards, where we were shortlisted for the Innovation In Crisis Award for our work in 3D printing to produce face shields for the NHS.

Later in December, we were glad to sponsor the Royal Aerospace Society’s Air Power Conference, where Leonardo's Duncan McCrory FRAeS was on the panel to discuss the work that has been undertaken as part of Team Tempest in support of the UK’s Future Combat Air System.

We also spent some time this month looking back on another busy year for Inclusion and Diversity events within the company, and spoke to Leonardo’s UK Head of I&D, Nerys Thomas, about why, with such milestones as our landmark partnership with the Association For Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers (AFBE-UK), she is excited for the future direction of the business, 

2020 has played out differently to how anyone could have expected it would last January, and it is testament to the determination and efforts of our people that we’ve managed to adapt to some big changes in working life. We would like to thank everyone for their hard work in ensuring that Leonardo could have another successful year despite adversity.