has undertaken design and prototyping of three potential spaceplanes since its founding by David Ashford in 1991. The ESA has endorsed these designs on several occasions. Current major participants AgustaWestland AgustaWestland is an international helicopter manufacturer owned by Leonardo of Italy. In the United Kingdom, the company has one factory in Yeovil, employing more than 4,000 people. Its main products with a large British content are the AW101, the Super and Future Lynx and the AW139 and AW149. Airbus UK Airbus (a subsidiary of Airbus) directly employs around 13,000 people at its UK division Airbus UK, with estimates that it supports another 140,000 jobs in the wider UK economy. The traditional UK workshare in Airbus aircraft is around 20%. Airbus has major sites at Filton in the city of Bristol and at Broughton in north Wales. Filton is the main research and development and support centre for all Airbus wings, fuel systems and landing gear integration. Broughton, which employs over 5,000 people, is the main wing manufacturing centre for all Airbus aircraft and also builds the fuselage and wings of the Hawker 800. Since 2006 Airbus has also had a small development centre in the Midlands. Other Airbus subsidiaries with major operations in the UK include Astrium, Cassidian and Surrey Satellite Technology. Airbus Defence & Space Airbus Defence and Space (a subsidiary of Airbus) is the largest space company in Europe and employs around 2,700 people in the UK. It has sites at Stevenage (1,200 employees), Portsmouth (1,400 employees) and Poynton (120 employees). BAE Systems The UK-headquartered BAE Systems is the world's fourth-largest defence contractor and it employs around 36,400 people in the UK. The largest aerospace related locations of BAE Systems are Warton, Samlesbury and Brough. The final assembly line for the British Eurofighter Typhoons, a collaborative European programme, is located at Warton. All flight test activity for crewed aircraft is undertaken from Warton, which is also the development centre within BAE Systems, for UAVs, UCAVs and the Saudi Tornado upgrade programme. Samlesbury is the production hub of the Military Air Solutions division of BAE Systems. Here, components for the Eurofighter Typhoon, the F35 Lightning II, the Hawk, UAVs, UCAVs and Airbus aircraft get built. At Brough, the BAE Hawk gets produced and final assembled, flight tests are done at Warton. Overall, Military Air Solution has 14,000 employees spread across eight sites in the United Kingdom. Britten-Norman Group The