The King officially opens Cambridge’s New Whittle Laboratory

He met with researchers, government representatives, and industry leaders from the aviation and energy sectors to find out more about the Laboratory’s mission to shrink the time it takes to develop key technologies in aerospace, energy and defence from years to weeks, in order to accelerate UK growth.

The King last visited the Whittle Laboratory in 2023 – in his first engagement following the Coronation – to break ground on the New Whittle Laboratory. As The Prince of Wales, His Majesty previously visited the Whittle Laboratory in January 2020 and March 2022, as well as hosting an industry roundtable in February 2020 in London with the Sustainable Markets Initiative and World Economic Forum.

The New Whittle Laboratory encompasses two elements: the Bennett Innovation Lab: designed to launch 20-30 missions over a decade, each building a new industry in the UK; and the National Centre for Propulsion and Power: a rapid test facility designed to cut the time between ideas and testing from years to weeks.

Missions will involve small teams of elite engineering talent, operating in a culture which promotes risk and provides access to Formula 1-style rapid fabrication and testing.

Alongside Monday’s official opening, the Frank Whittle Summit brought together major industrial businesses and tech giants to reignite Britain’s industrial engine in aerospace, energy and defence. 

The Summit was hosted in partnership with the Sustainable Markets Initiative, founded in 2020 by the King – then the Prince of Wales – to help convene global business leaders, investors and innovators to accelerate the deployment of breakthrough technologies and strengthen collaboration between industry, academia and government. 

The Summit brought together executives from companies including Rolls-Royce, Boeing, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and Siemens Energy, along with leading AI firms, senior government officials, and top researchers, to kickstart a series of missions to pioneer new technologies and industries in the UK.

These missions will transform and accelerate the UK’s approach to innovation in hardware development and manufacturing across aerospace, energy and defence, harnessing AI and autonomous laboratories to shrink today’s multi-year technology development cycles from years to months. 

World-leading innovation must be in harmony with our planet, and during the event Professor Rob Miller, Chair in Aerothermal Technology and Director of the Whittle Laboratory, celebrated the new Hatton Professorship of Sustainability at Cambridge. Established to mark the coronation of the King – an alumnus of Trinity College – and his championing of sustainability, the Professorship is funded through a £7 million endowment, made up of £5 million from Trinity College and the Hatton Trust, and matched by £2 million from the University.