No.4 HAMILTON PLACE
National Aerospace Library 
The Sopwith Named Lecture was established in 1990 to honour Sir Thomas Sopwith CBE, Hon FRAeS.
In the years prior to World War I, Sopwith became England’s premier aviator and established the first authoritative test pilot school in the world. He also founded England’s first major flight school. Between 1912 and 1920 Sopwith’s Company produced over 16,000 aircraft of 60 types.
Domingo Urena, CEO Airbus Military believes that ‘the creation of Airbus Military national subsidiaries will enable us to strengthen our relationships with our national customers by being even closer to them. This should allow us to better address their needs both in terms of products and services, and enhance our responsiveness to their evolving future needs’.
To pursue his goal in the United Kingdom, Domingo Urena directed Richard Thompson to set up Airbus Military UK to provide UK-based support to the A400M and Voyager programmes. The Secretary of State for Defence has confirmed that the A400M and Voyager will remain key elements of the RAF’s Core Programme.
The Lecture saw Richard explain how Airbus Military UK is partnering with the MOD to develop support and training solutions that will underpin the RAF’s Tactical Air Transport and Air-to-Air Refuelling capabilities throughout the Future Force 2020 era. He discussed how the solutions will draw on the expertise of the RAF in deployed and expenditionary operations, the renowned reliability of Airbus aircraft and industry best practice to deliver an assured and affordable capability.
Recorded: June 21, 2012
About the speaker:
Richard Thompson
Chief Executive, Airbus Military UK
Richard Thompson is Chief Executive of Airbus Military UK and the EADS shareholder representative on the Air Tanker Services Board.
An employee of Airbus Military for the last 13 years, Richard has held a number of senior Commercial and Customer Services positions within the company.
From Toulouse, Richard led over an 8 year period the negotiations and capture process for the original A400M Launch Contract with the 7 participating nations and obtained the export successes in both South Africa and Malaysia. For the last 5 years, Richard has headed up the Airbus Military Customer Services organisation in Madrid. Before that, Richard’s career spanned periods of service both in Westland Helicopters and BAE Systems.
Richard is a languages graduate and served a short-service commission in the Royal Navy.
This Lecture was sponsored by:
