ONE hundred years ago Orville and Wilbur Wright completed the first controlled powered flight on the windswept sands of North Carolina.

The Wright brothers' achievement launched the world into the age of aviation. The North West can boast the first commercial aircraft factory, the development of 100 types of plane and a major contribution to the first-ever jet engine.

The consequences of the Wright brothers' feat are felt nowhere more keenly than in East Lancashire, where the aerospace industry employs thousands and leads the way in the UK for cutting-edge technology. SIMON HAWORTH reports

EAST Lancashire has been at the epicentre of the industry since it all began and has played a vital role in bringing the UK aerospace business to where it is today.

Around a third of all the UK's aerospace manufacturing base is located in the North West. And much of this is centred in East Lancashire where both BAE Systems, in Samlesbury, and Rolls-Royce Barnoldswick are found. Planes designed and developed in the region include Nimrod, Tornado, Airbus and the Eurofighter.

The Second World War provided a big impetus for East Lancashire's aerospace industry as the Government shifted aerospace production away from heavy bombing in the Midlands and the South.

'Shadow' factories, such as the giant GEC complex at Clayton-le-Moors, were built for the war effort and remain a major driver of the local economy.

Clitheroe, Burnley and Barnoldswick were all closely linked with Sir Frank Whittle's early development and production of the jet engine. The son of a Lancashire inventor and mechanic, young Frank designed the first practical form of modern gas turbine in 1930.

The development team, moved from bomb-blitzed Coventry in 1940 to the relative safety of the disused Waterloo cotton mill in Clitheroe. The move was to change aviation history as Clitheroe took its place as the premier research station for the jet engine.

The development team, relocated from Coventry, worked in closely-guarded secrecy to develop the engine that was to power the Gloucester Meteor fighter jet. To produce the sheet metal required for the first 20 engines, former cotton mills at Hargher Clough and Wood Top in Burnley were acquired by the government and occupied by Lucas.

In 1943, Rover handed the development of Whittle's invention to Rolls Royce in Barnoldswick where work continued up to 1948. By 1944, the Gloucester Meteor fighter aircraft was the first plane in full production powered by Whittle's engine.

Today, the turbojets in many British and American aircraft owe their origins to Whittle and the many Lancashire workers who brought it into production.

Whittle's invention has also given East Lancashire the lasting legacy of an aerospace industry that remains at the cutting edge of technology.

The Rolls-Royce facility in Barnoldswick - the town that put the B in the best-selling RB2 11 engine - now makes fan blades for a wide range of engines, including the market-leading Trent series.

Hurel-Hispano, formerly Lucas Aerospace, in Burnley, is now part of the French-owned Snecma group and is the town's largest manufacturer providing just under 600 jobs.

Burnley's Smith's Aerospace is celebrating landing a £40million contract with Rolls Royce. The firm, based at Wood Top, is supplying post production engine components over the next five years. The contract win safeguarded the long-term future of the business which employs 300 people in the area.

The new Smiths Aerospace contract gave the group the confidence to move into a new, purpose-designed £6million factory at the Network 65 Business Park in Hapton, which was opened last month.

Managing director Richard Thorley said: "We are obviously extremely pleased to be in this position where we are taking a lead in the industry. This contract win is very important for the future security of the business."

Further down the supply chain, there are hundreds of smaller high-tech companies in East Lancashire who are reliant on aerospace contracts.