HOMEPAGE
	I spent my week in the Research and Experimental Department of BAE systems. This department is based in Filton, Bristol, so anyone planning to take their work experience here will need to arrange getting to Bristol and back. My day started at around 8.30 and finished a 4.30 (the company has a flexitime system so exact times vary; for example on one day there was an England football match on, so everyone arrived earlier so they could leave earlier). The department is based in a fairly small building (compared to the large factory units belonging to Airbus next door), with various levels for offices, chemistry and biology laboratories (especially chemistry; biological- based products being fairly new developments) a “clean room” for development of very small-scale products and various other rooms e.g. microscope rooms, rooms full of equipment for testing products etc. There is also a separate sub-department, based in a portakabin and a surplus bunker, now used as a workshop/ laboratory, responsible for strength-testing materials. Examples included testing the strength of aircraft fuel cells, tank armour, and effects various materials had on aluminium sheet.