A COMPANY in Midlothian has been named as one of seven across the UK which has been awarded contracts to build parts for two giant aircraft carriers commissioned by the Royal Navy.
Loanhead-based MacTaggart Scott and Co will be paid £13 million to make aircraft lifts for the two ships.
The company was founded in 1898 and developed early seaplane catapults for use by the Royal Navy in the Second World War.
Work on HMS Que
en Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, the biggest and most powerful surface warships ever made in the UK, will create or sustain 10,000 jobs, according to the Ministry of Defence.
The 65,000-ton carriers, which will house a crew of about 1500 and up to 40 aircraft, will enter service in 2014 and 2016.
Contracts for the work, signed at a ceremony last Thursday on the HMS Ark Royal in Portsmouth, are worth a total of £4 billion.
The carriers will be built at shipyards in Portsmouth, Barrow-in-Furness, Govan and Rosyth, with much of the work carried out by BVT Surface Fleet, a newly-formed consortium which comprises BAE Systems and VT Group.
Additional contracts which have been signed with UK companies include deals to produce steel for the vessels, as well as navigation equipment, co-ordination equipment and fibre optics.
The full article contains 227 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
