In this presentation I will review the advances in manufacturing technology applied to the manufacture of large civil aero engines, but first I think we ought to look back and put these advances into some sort of historical perspective.

Traditionally the level of automation in civil aero engine manufacture has been relatively low. However, the level of technology in the component and that applied to the individual manufacturing operations has been very high.

Automation, from the start of the Industrial Revolution has been directed to the mass production of high volumes of relatively simple stable design components using conventional materials and production processes.