High fliers

With economic good news thin on the ground,

decision to design and manufacture wings for its new CSeries mid-sized passenger aircraft in Belfast was especially welcome.

Its choice of Northern Ireland is a boost to a region with a strong record in transport engineering, growing R&D investment and a base of smaller successful manufacturers.

Michael Ryan, vice-president and general manager of Bombardier Aerospace Belfast, said: 'Over the next five years, Bombardier will be investing more than £500m in Northern Ireland in new facilities, plant and machinery, in engineering R&D and development of the wings, which will be made from advanced composites.'

Bombardier employs more than 5,000 people in Northern Ireland, supported by a massive supply chain. The CSeries work will bring more than 800 extra jobs in wing production during the peak production years of the programme.

Tracy Meharg, managing director of innovation and capability at

, said: 'Bombardier has a huge level of expertise in composites and we're looking at developing advanced materials with them. Their research is of world quality and links into our local universities as well.'