GKN Aerospace’s Post

#Ariane6 powers into space 🚀 Europe's new heavy-lift rocket, Ariane 6, made its #FirstFlight from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana at 16:00 local time on 9 July (21:00 CEST). Ariane 6 is the latest in Europe's Ariane rocket series, taking over from Ariane 5, and featuring a modular and versatile design that can launch missions from low-Earth orbit and farther out into deep space. “With the successful first flight of Ariane 6, the European #SpaceIndustry has moved into a new era,” said Martin Sion, CEO of ArianeGroup. “This historic launch demonstrates the unfailing commitment of our teams and partners, whom I would like to thank warmly for this success, which reflects on the entire European industry. Seeing Europe’s new launcher lift off into space marks the culmination of an outstanding technical and technological adventure, and the beginning of a long history of Ariane 6 operations. The next flight models are already in production and the stages of the second model will be shipped to the Guiana Space Centre this autumn for the first commercial flight of Ariane 6.” This inaugural flight, designated VA262, is a demonstration flight whose aim is to show the capabilities and prowess of Ariane 6 in escaping Earth's gravity and operating in space. Nevertheless, it had several passengers on board. At 21:06 BST, 22:06 CEST, one hour after liftoff, the first set of satellites on board Ariane 6 were released from the upper stage and placed into an orbit 600 km above Earth. Satellites and experiments from various space agencies, companies, research institutes, universities and young professionals were included on this inaugural flight. Read the full press release: https://lnkd.in/ezr-dRvx European Space Agency - ESA CNES ARIANESPACE

Another major achievement from our aircraft test team. We've successfully completed structural tests demonstrating the aircraft structures can sustain the limit load in flight. These tests focus on the airframe as a whole, and are key to ensuring our latest full-scale prototype is as safe and efficient as possible ahead of flight tests. #eVTOL #VX4 #Aerospace

Setting the Tone for Quality, Safety and Compliance “2023 was the safest year in aerospace history. Air travel is the safest form of travel. There is no room for complacency. Quality culture is a key line in defence," Paul Cruise GKN Aerospace. "A positive quality culture looks like speaking up, concerns and opportunities are heard and understood. Everybody plays a part in quality culture. It has to be at the forefront of everybody’s mind every day.” Colin Campbell Scottish Futures Trust: “Construction has a terrible reputation; we work in a safety-critical industry but quality culture is not at the forefront. The time for luck must come to an end to ensure safety. As well as safety the cost of error is too high. Getting it wrong costs everybody and the country. Approx 20% of budgets go towards doing things twice instead of doing things right the first time. We can’t allow ourselves to take 20-25 years to get quality and quality culture right. We have to work together now. We are at the early stages but we have to be determined,“ Karine Rackham, Sellafield Ltd: “Ultimately, I believe quality is about culture and leadership. How do we define and create quality culture? Simply we must evolve. Culture, people and leadership in nuclear is key, it cannot be done in isolation. We need to learn from past failures. We must embed quality culture in everything we do and most importantly recognise good quality culture and acknowledge it.” with Colin Campbell, Associate Director - Improving Project Delivery at Scottish Futures Trust Paul Cruise, VP Quality at GKN Aerospace Karine Rackham, Head of Quality at Sellafield Ltd. Mike Turner, our Head of Profession (Chair) Dr Ruth Hartley Culture and Wellbeing Specialist at Rolls-Royce SMR #CQIQualityLive