Flybe / September 2018

61 / 116

SEPTEMBER 2018 / Flight Time / 61
Business News
Did you know Cornwall has a thriving
business community focused on the space
and aerospace industries?
The South West of England is already
the world’s second-largest aerospace
and space cluster, behind Toulouse in
France. And Cornwall is increasingly
making a contribution to the high-tech
innovations being seen in aircraft, drones
and satellites.
“Cornwall Airport Newquay is an
eye-opener,” says James Fairbairn at
Aerospace Cornwall. “As well as frequent
national and international flights and a
growing Enterprise Zone (Aerohub), the
UK’s first Spaceport could be announced
here this summer for small satellite launch
and space tourism.
“With its enormous 2,744m runway, the
airport is also the testing ground for the
Bloodhound SSC, a car powered by a jet
and a rocket that will attempt to break
the landspeed record in 2019 and go over
1,000mph.”
Goonhilly Earth Station on the Lizard,
which relayed Tim Peake’s space
adventures to schools, has just attracted
a £24m investment from financial services
expert Peter Hargreaves, who considers
space research at Goonhilly as the
future. He was no doubt impressed by
Goonhilly’s recent £8.4m contract with
the European Space Agency to upgrade
its 32m antenna to expand satellite and
deepspace communications.
As tourists gaze into the blue skies from
their deckchairs, the race for Cornish
business space should come as no
surprise, as James Fairbairn explains.
“Aerospace Cornwall is co-ordinating
inward investment in these sectors and
making R&D funding available. The
airspace above Cornwall is some of
the least congested in the UK, which
makes it perfect for test flights and
satellite launches. West Wales Airport
and Cornwall Airport Newquay work
in partnership to provide the only
infrastructure and restricted airspace
available to operate Unmanned Aerial
Systems flights beyond the visual line of
sight in the EU.”
Back on the ground, academic and
technical expertise abounds. Let’s not
forget that when Cornwall had significant
mineral deposits underground, mining
helped to inspire Cornish ingenuity.
Richard Trevithick, for example,
developed the first high-pressure steam
engine through his experience of mining.
Add to that Sir Humphry Davy and his
safety lamp; Jonathan Hornblower’s
compound engine; Michael Loam’s man
engine; Arthur Woolf’s high-pressure
compound steam engine; and Henry
To the stars
and back
I F I T ’ S SPACE YOU WANT,
TAKE A LOOK AT CORNWALL
Trengrouse’s rocket-powered maritime
rescue system. And let’s not forget Andrew
Pears, inventor of transparent soap, who
must have been a God-send to so many
oily-handed engineers.
Contemporary innovators are also
flourishing. Falmouth University, for
example, has created Launchpad, an
incubator programme developing high-
tech, success-driven start-ups that work
alongside strategic partners to develop
market-led solutions.
Similarly, the DroneLab research-
group led by Dr Karen Anderson at
The University of Exeter in Cornwall
undertakes cutting-edge scientific
research, investigating spatial and
temporal dynamics of environmental
systems using lightweight, open-source
drone technology – or in other words,
they fly drones in order to understand how
landscapes are created.
Like them, you may never look at open
space in Cornwall in quite the same way
again.
Responding to the
announcement that 2,197
retailers became insolvent in
the 12 months ending Q2 2018,
and the number of individual
insolvencies reached its
highest quarterly level for six
years, the Federation of Small
Businesses (FSB) National
Chairman, Mike Cherry, said:
“Small retailers are up against
a perfect storm of rising
employment costs, spiralling
business rates and high
inflation.
“Some will have benefited
RETAILERS FEELING THE HEATfrom greater consumer
spending throughout the
World Cup and a scorching
summer. For too many, though,
this hasn’t proved enough to
survive on our high streets,
where mounting operating
costs are the norm.
“There are other factors at
play here too – cuts to cash
machine funding and the loss
of thousands of bank branches
in the last few years are hurting
high-street footfall everywhere.
“It’s a real concern
to see almost 1,000 self-
employed individuals suffering
bankruptcies in the first three
months of this year alone.
“The self-employed
community is still denied basic
support in too many areas.
The Government’s 12-month
delay to abolish the Class II NI
system is coming to an end. An
announcement at the Autumn
Budget to remove this charge
on the entire self-employed
population, regardless of their
income levels, would be a
shot in the arm for millions of
entrepreneurs.”