TRANSFORMING THE LANDSCAPE 

The Eurofighter Typhoon is Europe’s largest defence programme, creating, supporting and sustaining 1,000s of jobs across the continent. Across the supply chain working with Eurofighter has had a transformative effect on businesses of all sizes, including some small micro-businesses, unlocking new opportunities and allowing them to build valuable relationships and share knowledge and experience.Being part of the Eurofighter programme team has allowed UK-based Tier Two supplier PRP Optoelectronics to develop and grow and today it remains an integral part of the business.

Programmes Capabilities     3 Min Read

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: Kevin Peart, Managing Director PRP Optoelectronics

United Kingdom:

PRP Optoelectronics

Being part of the Eurofighter programme team has allowed Tier Two supplier PRP Optoelectronics to develop and grow and today it remains an integral part of the business.

Established in 1989, the UK company is a world leader in the custom design and manufacture of optoelectronic displays. It offers complete in-house design, development and manufacturing capabilities for a range of LED light engine and display applications.

PRP has been making the LED warnings panel display and switches for cockpits on the Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft for almost 20 years.

It developed a dedicated warnings panel display system for the programme. The panel features a 28-caption display with 24 fully programmable bi-colour captions with over and underlines, and three fixed legend captions, all fitted into an extremely tight space.

The display system designed by PRP incorporates many novel features and the LED display modules use both analogue and digital application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) technology.

In 2018 the business celebrated a significant milestone; the manufacture of the 1,000th custom LED display for the Eurofighter programme.

PRP relocated from Towcester in Northants in 2014 to new headquarters in Swindon, Wiltshire. This year it has expanded the business across two sites and its workforce has grown in numbers to 35.

Managing director Kevin Peart says that between 10-15 of those staff have been sustained by its Eurofighter work.

The company’s involvement in a pan-European project has had other important benefits. As Peart explains, Eurofighter is “integral to the business”.

He adds: “We have built strong relationships with other businesses: General Dynamics, GE, Korry-Esterline and Ultra Electronics.

“We continually discuss, evolve and improve our services allowing us to take our technology through to other platforms around the world.”

Today PRP supplies a variety of LED displays to the aerospace industry – and it continues to seek out new markets and products in a range of sectors.

The business says its ever growing, varied product line focuses on quality, leading-edge technology and high levels of customer satisfaction.

R&D work continues on the company’s custom RGB monolithic semiconductors and UVC water purification systems.

Peart, who became managing director after an MBO in 2015, adds: “As a business we are very proud to be part of the Eurofighter family, working closely alongside partner businesses and being recognised by our sophisticated client base for our commitment to stringent quality standards and exceptional service.”