A large part of the North West's economic health is down to the success of BAE Systems in building military aircraft. Michael Taylor had lunch with Nigel Whitehead, the man in charge.
Wherever in the world Nigel Whitehead is when he wakes up to face another day at the helm of the UK's aerospace industry, he has some fairly awesome responsibilities ahead of him. And some moral ones: as managing director of BAE Systems Air Solutions he makes weapons of mass destruction. But more of that later.
When we met for lunch in Preston he had just signed off a sales proposal for a £35bn order for military aircraft for Japan. I had to ask him if I'd heard that right. Billion, not million, he reassures. He had also digested the news that Lord Drayson - widely liked within BAE Systems - was stepping down as the minister for defence procurement, to be replaced by Lady (Ann) Taylor of Bolton - an unknown entity, but an extremely important contact inside the UK government's Ministry of Defence, which is still BAE's biggest customer.
Drayson was credited with implementing a new era in relations between the defence systems industry - BAE, effectively - and the government, which tries to balance value and competition with protection of a national asset in research and capability. It will never be perfect, but the Defence Industrial Strategy, agreed in December 2005, established the basic principle that BAE Systems was the cornerstone of the defence industry. Had it not done so, the future of the company as a rock of British industry was in question.
"Lord Drayson made a very successful contribution and it is very disappointing to see him leave, but the path he established should be maintained," says Whitehead.
As befitting someone with an enormous job in an enormously important business, Whitehead doesn't have typical weeks. He's on the executive committee of BAE Systems and a member of the UK and Rest of World Board, reporting to the chief operating officer, Ian King.
The week before we met he had spent time in Washington DC, Japan, London and back to base at the sprawling BAE Systems site at Warton in Lancashire, close enough to his home in Preston to have a more sensible working day.
Without getting too drawn into the complex internal structures of BAE Systems, Whitehead runs a division called Military Air Solutions. It employs 16,500 people across 24 sites, including the main three, which are Warton and Samlesbury in Lancashire and Woodford in Cheshire.
He mainly looks after manufacture and development of the latest MRA4 Nimrod aircraft, the manufacture and delivery of the Eurofighter Typhoon, in conjunction with Spain, Italy and Germany, and work on the F-35 Lightning II alongside Lockheed Martin. A big part of all of this is Training Solutions work around the Hawk fighter planes and the rapidly developing work around some unmanned aircraft and various other secret projects you aren't allowed to talk about.
And yet, for all this scale and all of this huge infrastructure, BAE Systems is actually a "prime systems integrator" - putting all the bits together on an aircraft, or system, that are done elsewhere by some 600 different businesses in the supply chain. "We go through a process where we physically piece it all together again and go through total product testing. In practice we have months, maybe years, proving concepts and organising with suppliers to prove to customers we can do it," he says.
Logistically and economically BAE is on fairly solid ground after a few years of overruns and fraught relations with the Ministry of Defence. The order book is healthy and the pipeline of new business is strong.
But politically and ethically his business is subject to a much harsher public spotlight and uncertainty never seems too far away. In 2007 a Serious Fraud Office enquiry into supposed backhanders to Saudi officials was controversially halted. It is now to be scrutinised again in a judicial review brought about by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) and an organisation called Corner House. This kind of thing clearly irks BAE, but Whitehead restricts his reaction to this latest twist by saying just a few words.
"BAE Systems was not a party to the court hearing, which was a matter between Corner House, CAAT and the government. Any questions should therefore be directed to those parties," he says.
On the wider issue of alleged corruption in the arms trade he is more expansive. "In 23 years I've never seen any impropriety or any intent to influence any export market from us or from the UK government. The stakes are too high to play it any other way.
"My employees have to answer these same questions at parties, but we look in incredulity at the crass insensitivies spoken about our relationship with Saudi Arabia," he says.
If there is a debate to be had, he says, it's about what kind of role the defence industry plays in the national economy. It's easy to sense a frustration that such a fundamental question still hasn't been adequately answered. "Personally I drive to work each day and vote with my feet and say that we need a defence industry that sells overseas. We are part of that chain," he says.
Indeed, he's given his life to it. Before taking up his current role Whitehead was responsible for the military aircraft manufacturing and production programmes in BAE Systems including Typhoon, Nimrod MRA4, F-35 Lightning II, Hawk and emerging Uninhabited Air Vehicles projects. And apart from a brief period when he ran the team building the Astute Class Submarine development and production, he's always been active in military aircraft design, development, production and support programmes for 22 years, working in the UK, Sweden and Australia.
A tough-looking Scot with a certain intensity about him, Whitehead modestly says he's got where he is through hard work, as well he might with a quarter of his time taken up with travelling, shuttling up and down the country and to see overseas customers. "I'm not ferociously bright, but I work really hard," he says. "The result always matters to me. At work I've identified an ethos and have found motivation and stimulation through that."
He's also come full circle in his life. As a nine-year-old it was a visit to the Woodford facility that inspired him to lean towards science and engineering - now he's managing director of the division that runs the place.
He admits now that the image of engineering and manufacturing isn't what it should be. "We engineers design iPods, laptops as well as fighter aircraft," he says. "It's an important part of what I do to inspire young people about all things aeronautical. I have to make BAE Systems the company of choice to those who want to design and build the Starship Enterprise."
BAE Systems is currently recruiting 1,000 people at Warton and Samlesbury over the next year or so. It's why the issue of inspiring young minds is so important to him. "We are getting the quality of people we need. Yes, there's a war for talent, but we have been more successful in attracting talent. My job is about opening youngsters' minds. That's why we invite schools and colleges to come and see what we do," he says.
He also pursues what he sees as good environmental practice by exploring new ways of stripping paint from aircraft, or by greater efficiencies in fuel usage and alternative energy sources.
So from showing groups of kids around Warton and travelling the world to crafting complex documents to foreign governments, Whitehead has to maintain a detailed knowledge of geopolitical events to prepare for the next twists and turns in his business.
He also runs his life on an incredibly tight schedule. Our lunch was scheduled for 12:30 until 14:00. Precisely.
Conversationally, I have yet to meet a businessman in this kind of setting who is as frighteningly well-informed on global events and international politics. There will be a cause and effect on defence strategy of a resurgent Russia, we debate. The progress of the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan can have a bearing on the defence policy of the UK government and what the specific needs might be in the future.
Maybe it's all that time on planes, but it's clear he has to make the case for a strong air defence for the UK, I suggest. "On a daily basis," he says.
And with a glance at his watch, and his driver, it was 13.59, and he was gone.