Prestwick Airport is looking to a bright future which hopefully even those who moaned for so long about its rescue might cheer, writes Business Editor Ian McConnell.

One exciting prospect, on which a government decision is awaited, could see a return to whole aircraft manufacturing at Prestwick Airport, where the Jetstream and Bulldog were built in bygone decades.

It was fascinating to speak last Friday with the chief executive of the company aiming to build new military training jets at Prestwick Airport.

Tristan Crawford, founder and chief executive of Aeralis, was highly enthusiastic about the attributes of Prestwick Airport as he noted it had been chosen by the company over 67 other UK sites as the location for the final assembly of its planned jet.

And he highlighted the legacy of whole aircraft manufacturing at Prestwick Airport, recalling how the Jetstream and Bulldog aeroplanes were built there.

Mr Crawford underlined the scale of what is planned at the Ayrshire airport if Aeralis’s proposal for a new jet to train military pilots is selected by the UK Government.

In an exclusive interview with The Herald, he warned a UK Government decision was required by the year-end to enable Aeralis to deliver a replacement for the Hawk jet, flown by the Red Arrows, in time, highlighting his belief the existing aircraft used to train UK military pilots would go out of service in four to five years.

Mr Crawford emphasised Aeralis’s planned jet would be British-made and declared it would be “representative of the UK’s aerospace abilities”.

The current base forecast is that Aeralis would create 350 jobs at Prestwick, potentially growing to 450 over the longer term “at an optimistic sales level”.

The company said: “This reflects the expected proportion........

© Herald Scotland