Satellite launches motorsport business into aerospace

Citation

(2007), "Satellite launches motorsport business into aerospace", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 79 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2007.12779eab.031

Satellite launches motorsport business into aerospace

Satellite launches motorsport business into aerospace

British company and new Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC) member, Prodrive, is leading the motorsport industry's race to space by going into orbit as part of a satellite manufactured by Surrey Satellite Technology.

Earlier this year, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to take the satellite into a low- earth orbit. The satellite carried the Cibola Flight Experiment payload developed by the Los Alamos National Laboratory and will be used for ionospheric and lightning studies. Prodrive has manufactured the lightweight panels, which carry the satellite's imaging equipment.

The Banbury-based company is best known for running the Subaru World Rally Team and Aston Martin Racing. In 2008, it will become the twelfth team on the Formula One grid. With increasing interest from the aerospace industry for its skills, it has now launched a new specialist manufacturing operation to produce components for the aerospace industry.

Chairman, David Richards, said: “This is a first for Prodrive and quite possibly any motorsport business. However, I believe it will become increasingly common in the future as the skills and manufacturing capabilities we have in the motorsport industry are ideally suited to the demands of aerospace businesses. With our race and rally programmes, we are used to developing innovative products, which work in demanding environments and which are made to the highest quality standards.”

The satellite project combined the skills of Prodrive's machining operation, which manufactured the aluminium frame, outer skin of the panels and all inserts, with its composite operation, which assembled the units (Figure 1).

Figure 1 Work at Prodrive