November's top 10 contract wins in engineering

Airbus had a very successful time at the Airshow, winning a total of 211 orders and commitments worth $20.5bn (£12.9bn). The order intake included 135 firm orders worth $13.7bn — for 130 A320-neos and five A380s — and 76 memoranda of understanding (MoU) worth $6.8bn. Qatar Airways made the single-largest firm order, for 50 A320-neos and five A380s, worth $6.4bn. Boeing said it landed nearly $20bn worth of orders at the show, excluding options.

Land transport, too, was the subject of a number of contracts, including one awarded to Sevcon for it to supply drivetrain control technology for a range of utility and all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) being manufactured in China. The company’s specialist Gen4 microprocessor controllers are to be used in a powertrain platform developed by Zhejiang Xinyang Industry, an established manufacturer of UTVs (utility task vehicles), ATVs, Jeeps, go-karts and amphibious vehicles.

The electric range of UTVs is being developed for sale in Europe, the US and Southeast Asia and is powered by a 48V, 5kW motor that will be controlled by a Sevcon Gen4 size 4 motor controller. The vehicle, which will have a top speed of 45kph and a range of up to 80km, attracted considerable interest at its recent launch at the EICMA show in Milan.