GKN set for £2bn Boeing boost

AEROSPACE and engineering firm GKN is to partner American giant Boeing in building the £14bn Sonic Cruiser passenger jet. The link-up, to be unveiled this week at the Farnborough International Air Show, could be worth up to £2bn for the British company.

GKN, based in Redditch, West Midlands, already supplies parts for Boeing's F15 and F18 supersonic fighter planes and the giant C17 military transporter. It is the first British company to join Boeing on the project.

The firm is being asked to develop high-tech components for the plane, which is expected to be flying by 2008. The timing of the partnership announcement is regarded as highly significant. Doubts have been growing in the industry that the Sonic Cruiser, which will be capable of flying just below the speed of sound from London to Sydney, will ever be built. Boeing hopes the GKN deal will give the project more credibility. Rolls-Royce, based in Derby, is developing a new quiet, 'green' engine for the aircraft.

Partnership in a major project is nothing new for GKN, whose aerospace division, run by Kevin Smith, already has orders to build wing parts for the 550-seat Airbus super jumbo. The Airbus order could be worth £1.4m for each A380 - and orders are expected for more than 300 of the aircraft.

Aerospace parts distributor Umeco will use the Farnborough show to announce a new internet service aimed at streamlining the trade in aircraft components.