Liam from Suffolk One Sixth Form College, Ipswich, was welcomed for one week at the Tex ATC/Tex Special Projects design office. Liam’s work experience included modelling a visual representation of an air traffic control room using SolidWorks three-dimensional design-to-manufacture software. Damian Lummis, Design Office Manager and CAD Technicians Jonathan Wicks and Andy Constable offered their help and expertise. Liam made a great impression and we wish him well in his studies.

Tex ATC and Tex Special Projects are subsidiaries of Tex Holdings plc, world-renowned suppliers of hydraulic piling hammers, air traffic control rooms, radio frequency-blocking glazing (EMC/EMI/RFI shielding), road construction equipment, gensets, large-scale marine diesel and traction engine refurbishment, plastic injection moulding and panel products.

Commander Nathan Gray (Royal Navy Test Pilot), Peter Wilson (Test Pilot) and Commodore Jerry Kid (Commanding Officer, HMS Queen Elizabeth) put HMS Queen Elizabeth and F-35 to the test in this BBC Video Top Story recording F-35 fighter jets taking off and landing on HMS Queen Elizabeth for the first time. The single engine swivels 90 degrees during short take off and vertical landing (STOVL) mode and the F-35 hangs eerily in the air as LiftFan blasts 20,000 pounds of unheated air towards the deck. With a wing span of 10.7 m (35 ft), 15.4 m (50.5 ft) in length and a 42.7 m² (460 ft²) wing area, the F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter is capable of speeds up to 1,200 mph.

The innovative Flying Control Room (FLYCO) on board HMS Queen Elizabeth was designed and manufactured by Tex Special Projects. Subsidiaries of UK manufacturing group Tex Holdings, Tex Special Projects and Tex ATC specialise in radio frequency-blocking glazing for both civilian and military applications and the design and manufacture of air traffic control rooms. Clients include BAE Systems, Defence Infrastructure Organisation, Feka, Morgan Sindall, NATS and Thales. Tex ATC have been employed as consultants on numerous air traffic control room projects including Manchester Airport (UK), Mina Mussafah Harbour, Abu Dhabi (UAE), Muscat International Airport (Oman), RAFO Thumrait (Oman) and Suvarnabhumi Bangkok International Airport (Thailand).

Main picture, the first of the UK’s F-35B Lightning II jets to be flown to the UK.