The M2A initiative will continue at least until the end of 2005 when it is intended to hold a conference and, says the MIA project manager Pim van Baarsen, hopefully announce a continuation of the scheme. Van Baarsen reports that the MIA plans next year to start working together with UKT&I trade officers overseas in organising inward missions for aerospace companies to visit Britain. He says “the impact of our programme has been really fantastic and we have actually been approached by some overseas officers, who have aerospace companies wanting to get involved in the UK's Motorsports Valley.”

The contacts between motorsport and aerospace can begin at a very early stage. Kingston University, for one, offers courses in both disciplines from foundation to post graduate level. It is noteworthy, says the University's Paul Brandon how many study for an aerospace degree with the intention of finding work in racing. This tends to be particularly so with the subjects of aerodynamics or materials.

According to Prodrive's Ben Sayer, the “biggest shock” that aerospace people experience when first talking to the motorsport fraternity is “how fast we can turn round ideas. They cannot believe how quickly we can take a brief and produce a finished article.”

It is said that the aerospace industry is conservative and moves at a far more leisurely pace than motor racing. However, there were some at Farnborough who expressed surprise in just how archaic its methods can be.

XTrac's business development manager, non-motor sport Robin Price has pointed to the fact that the two sectors can learn from each other. At last year's Farnborough his company received in excess of 70 enquiries. That event also “gave us the opportunity of seeing other technologies.” Obvious interest was show by such as aero engine manufacturers - including some of the “major players” - in the company's gearbox business. However, there were others interested in consultancy work on such as lubrication. More recently Xtrac has, indeed, taken on a consultancy job for an aerospace firm. It is also expecting to receive an order for a gearbox with a technical novel solution. The aerospace customer concerned has already tried, unsuccessfully, to find an answer to its problem outside the motorsport fraternity.

Ways of reducing cost and weight are eagerly being sought by the aviation world and Boeing is one to have acknowledged the dept that it owes to “the racecar industry” in the development of composites for its latest airliners, including the 7E7 Dreamliner. It also signed a consultancy agreement with Renault F1 last year. The 7E7 is to be constructed primarily of the composite materials that Boeing currently uses just for the tailplane of its 777. The company claims to have extensive composite experience and is already the world's largest producer of graphite composite structures. However, as Prodrive's composites manager Turl Taskent points out, the composite structures found in motor sport tend to be more complex than those used in the aerospace industry.

As a result of the Farnborough event a number of aerospace companies said that they would be visiting Prodrive's then-new composite operation on the old Reynard site in Brackley. Interest was also shown in the company's CFD capabilities. Ben Sayer stated that the outcome of the show was “better than we had thought.”

Perhaps significantly, three of the 10 MIA exhibitors at Farnborough 2004 - Lola Cars, Retrac Composites and Prodrive - have composite businesses, the former two already involved with the aerospace sector. Lola has worked on the 330+ knot Meggitt Defence Systems Voodoo aerial target, significantly bringing down its weight.

According to design engineer Ken Campbell “the main aspects that we looked at were down-scaling the parts count of the aircraft and reducing the weight. We also wanted to enable an identical build for the future and also to have off-the-shelf parts.” The main fuselage is a two-piece carbon composite, the main part having a removable top portion with the V-tail still attached. The parachute bay is integrated and the only add-ons are the wings, which are assembled together for a complete span.

In all, three motorsport suppliers co-operated on the Voodoo UAV programme. DPS Composites, which works for F1 teams including Jordan and is said to have been one of the first to pioneer the use of carbon fibre in motor racing, was contracted for the design of the prototype airframes, while Ilmor designed the 145hp engine. DPS Composites' responsibilities also included the cooling of the engine and the packaging of payloads. The company also numbers British Airways and Qantas among its customers.

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