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Tariffs court fight threatens Trump's power to wield his favourite economic weapon

时间:2010-12-5 17:23:32  作者:Investing   来源:Personal Finance  查看:  评论:0
内容摘要:"Rolls-Royce said it had other priorities and the UK military has very little money."

"Rolls-Royce said it had other priorities and the UK military has very little money."

Aviation is a business with a very long gestation time for a product. It can take 20 years to develop an aircraft. This unforgiving journey is known as crossing the Valley of Death.Mr Varvill knew the business had to raise more funds towards the end of 2024 but big investors were reluctant to jump on board.

Tariffs court fight threatens Trump's power to wield his favourite economic weapon

"The game was being played right to the very end, but to cross the Valley of Death in aerospace is very hard."What was the atmosphere like in those last days as the administrators moved in?"It was pretty grim, we were all called into the lecture theatre and the managing director gave a speech about how the board 'had tried everything'. Then came the unpleasant experience of handing over passes and getting personal items. It was definitely a bad day at the office."

Tariffs court fight threatens Trump's power to wield his favourite economic weapon

This bad day was too much for some. "A few people were in tears. A lot of them were shocked and upset because they'd hoped we could pull it off right up to the end."It was galling for Mr Varvill "because we were turning it around with an improved engine. Just as we were getting close to succeeding we failed. That's a uniquely British characteristic."

Tariffs court fight threatens Trump's power to wield his favourite economic weapon

Did they follow the traditional path after a mass lay-off and head to the nearest pub? "We had a very large party at my house. Otherwise it would have been pretty awful to have put all that effort into the company and not mark it in some way."

His former colleague Kathryn Evans headed up the space effort, the work around hypersonic flight for the Ministry of Defence and opportunities to apply the technology in any other commercial areas.When did she know the game was up? "It's tricky to say when I knew it was going wrong, I was very hopeful to the end. While there was a lot of uncertainty there was a strong pipeline of opportunities."

She remembers the moment the axe fell and she joined 200 colleagues in the HQ's auditorium."It was the 31st of October, a Thursday, I knew it was bad news but when you're made redundant with immediate effect there's no time to think about it. We'd all been fighting right to the end so then my adrenalin crashed."

And those final hours were recorded. One of her colleagues brought in a Polaroid camera. Portrait photos were taken and stuck on a board with message expressing what Reaction Engines meant to individuals.What did Ms Evans write? "I will very much miss working with brilliant minds in a kind, supportive culture."

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