When Osprey was formed in 2006, our role in the early identification of aviation issues and in resolving conflict between aviation and renewable stakeholders positioned Osprey as the undisputed market leader and was our main source of revenue. Our approach totally redefined the way that planning applications are now addressed in the industry, and our staff have been able to demonstrate time and again that we can identify and implement innovative solutions to solve even the most complex wind farm challenges.
However, over the past few years Osprey has undergone a major transformation. In 2015, the end of subsidies for onshore wind farms essentially removed almost 20% from our order book. Fortunately, we’d seen it coming (although we didn’t anticipate it happening overnight as it did), and had already started to move into different areas.
Despite these challenges, we continued to grow and the transformation set us up for the incredible leap we have experienced this year. We were fortunate in that many of the skills we developed working with wind farms were transferable to new areas such as Airspace Management and Drone Regulation.
In the end, it was a really strong effort by the entire team to move forward and convince new clients of our worth. Today, our business continues to go from strength to strength and our biggest contracts cut across a range of areas.
Project MARSHALL is a £1.5 billion contract to modernise Air Traffic Control facilities at every RAF, Army and Royal Navy airfield. Osprey is responsible for all safety support to the programme, essentially providing all of the documentation to prove that the upgrades are acceptably safe. We have also been appointed by the MOD (in competition with some very large companies) to manage aspects of the safety of the RAF’s new transporter aircraft the European A400M Atlas.
The aviation industry remains strong, it’s highly innovative and there’s always something exciting coming along. The challenge for Osprey will be to embrace the future and continue to be as agile as we were when we were four people in a shed.
