Although we were unable to attend any of this year’s planned summer air shows in person, July was still one of our busiest months thanks to the Virtual RAF Fairford Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT), the RNAS Yeovilton ‘Airday Rewind’, and Farnborough International Airshow (FIA) Connect keeping the ball rolling.
The much-awaited 2020 edition of the Royal International Air Tattoo was replaced with Virtual Air Tattoo, a weekend-long livestreaming event featuring virtual versions of the planned displays, along with live interviews and unseen footage from previous years. We were delighted to see former Typhoon Display Team pilot Flt Lt Jim Peterson talking us through the performance of the Typhoon from 2019. We have been proud to sponsor the team this year, and sad that we haven’t been able to watch them in action, but it was great to see some clips of the Eurofighter Typhoon ‘bringing the noise’. On the second day of the show, Nick Whitney, Leonardo Helicopters MD, gave a virtual tour of our Yeovil site, and together with some of our STEM ambassadors who would have been at the event supporting the show’s Technozone, introduced some of the aircraft designed and built there. Team Tempest also used the event to share a video highlighting some of the progress the team has made of the last 2 years and to promote some new interactive Tempest content on the Royal Air Force website.
One of the biggest dates in our calendar, the Farnborough International Airshow, was also moved to an online platform this year in the form of FIA Connect. We joined peers from across the sector during a week of productive conversations and leading industry debates. Over 150 speakers took part in the event, including Leonardo CEO Alessandro Profumo who was a panellist in the showcase opening event of the conference. Leonardo also supported the launch of the Defence Growth Partnership’s Digital Skills Framework, a UK portal designed to train people in our sector with skills to take advantage of the digital revolution. Lynda McVay, Leonardo Director of Skills and Capability and DGP Skills lead Chair, joined the panel to launch the portal. The Aerospace Growth Partnership hosted a showcase of personal case studies, including those from Ed Raggett, Assistant Campaign Manager at Leonardo, and our UK Director of Government Affairs, Clive Higgins.
There was big news from Team Tempest at FIA Connect, with Defence Secretary Ben Wallace announcing that seven more companies, as well as British universities and SMEs, would be joining Leonardo and the other core Team Tempest members to secure the UK’s position as a global leader in combat air.
Yeovilton Air Day, the popular Royal Navy airshow with strong links to our Yeovil site, was also sadly cancelled this year. Luckily, the organisers provided us with Air Day Rewind, a live-streaming event featuring the best displays from the past 20 years, including flights from Leonardo helicopters and the Typhoon Display Team.
July saw the Chief of the Air Staff’s Air Space and Power Conference take place once again, which Leonardo supported as Industry Partners. We heard from attendees who provided insightful debate around the Information Advantage for the Next Generation Air Force, while CAS Sir Mike Wigston and the Defence Secretary both made keynote speeches.
To end the month, Leonardo’s UK MD Norman Bone looked back on the achievements of the company managing to adapt to lockdown, and set out a new flexible approach to future working, which would culminate in the custom working policy to aide our committed workforce, whether on site or at home, and going forward, make our many exciting career opportunities across the UK business, more accessible to a wider demographic.