Aeralis Limited, the British start-up developing a modular advanced jet trainer, has entered administration, ending one of the UK’s few prospects for a homegrown replacement for the BAE Systems Hawk. The company’s board appointed David Buchler and Joanne Milner of Buchler Phillips as joint administrators following what Aeralis described as sustained cashflow pressure linked to continued delays to the UK Defence Investment Plan and wider geopolitical factors affecting funding.
Aeralis had aimed to supply a next-generation trainer for the Royal Air Force and a potential successor to the Hawk T1 used by the Red Arrows. The concept centered on a modular airframe with multiple variants, backed in part by Qatari investment and a planned final assembly line at Prestwick in Scotland. The company was seeking around £60 million in UK government support to build a prototype, with private equity expected to fund the remainder.
The collapse comes as the RAF looks to move on from the Hawk T2, whose Rolls-Royce Adour Mk 951 engines have suffered life-limiting defects, and as the advanced jet trainer market is increasingly crowded with off-the-shelf options from Italy, Turkey, South Korea, the United States/Sweden and Czechia. Administrators have indicated that Aeralis’s digital designs and other assets could, in theory, be acquired by a third party, but the future of the program remains unclear.