Cost and Viability of Options
The issue presented in the question is that two options have to be considered for redeveloping the three aircraft hangars at the old Filton airfield in North Bristol and the budget determined for the establishment of the options has been fixed at £20,000,000. This is a recommendation report that has been prepared in order to select a single option between the two available outcomes that has been presented in the report.
This particular study aims to analyze the options that have been considered for the purpose of redevelopment in terms of three major elements that are cost of establishing the option; how the particular option will affect the science and technology in UK and the way in which it will affect the local environment. It can be evidently stated here that the chosen option will enhance all the three mentioned elements.
Background
The old Filton airfield in North Bristol was closed down on April 2011. The review of the related documents reflect the fact that this particular decision of closing down the airfield was taken after proper scrutiny of the situation for five years. The possible reasons behind the decision of closure were that the airfield had been incurring loss throughout the last decade. Moreover, the frequency of aircraft landings had gradually decreased to zero since the last ten years. Furthermore, the marketing strategy for the promotion of the airfield has been hindered probably by the airfield’s planning use restrictions. (Sunley 2017)
There are a number of options that can be considered for the redevelopment of the Filton airfield. The consideration of the options is important in order to revive the commercial value of the airfield. The options are as follows:
- Flight school – the airfield can be used as a viable option for restructuring the airfield. The flight school could be used for training the individuals interested in obtaining a pilot’s license. The establishment of a flight school in North Bristol would also facilitate better utilization of the airfield (Bleacher 2017).
- Weather station – A weather station refers to a facility that has been established in order to study and forecast the weather and climate of a particular geographical region. The establishment of a weather station in Filton would certainly ensure better utilization of the airfield. Furthermore, a weather station in North Bristol would facilitate accurate forecasts in regards to temperature, atmospheric pressure, wind direction and speed (Viertler and Hajek 2015).
The two requirements that should be considered in the question are as follows:
- Cost – the cost in to establish the first option that is a flight school can be fixed at an amount of £15000000 – £20000000. This is because the initial hiring of the instructors, the setting up of the school, the leasing or buying of the required fixed assets for business will require the indicated budget. The second option on the other hand can be set at a budget of around £10000000. This is because the establishment of a weather station would require a certain number of equipments and tools for analyzing the obtained information about the weather and climate of the region. There are no other major investments for establishing a weather station. (Updegrove and Jafer 2017)
- The cost assumed for the establishment of the flight school has been revealed in the below table in a much detailed way. The segregation of the cost that has been shown below in the table has been assumed and researched from the costs that are available over the internet.(Updegrove and Jafer 2017)
Cost of setting up a flight school |
||
Particulars |
Amount (£) |
Amount (£) |
Construction of the flight school on the airfield (A) |
9000000 |
|
Hiring a group of talented aeronautics experts (B) |
500000 |
|
Providing them the required in the usage of the machines (C`) |
500000 |
|
Initial investment for setting up the facility (A+B+C`) |
10000000 |
|
Leasing the required equipments |
2000000 |
|
Different models in regards to the models of airplanes |
2000000 |
|
Cost of maintenance |
1000000 |
|
Promotion and marketing |
3000000 |
|
Total set up cost |
8000000 |
|
Total cost of setting up the flight school |
18000000 |
The cost for the setting up of the weather station has been provided below. Furthermore, a probable assumption has been undertaken that the equipments that will be needed to carry out the necessary weather proceedings will have to be bought in sufficient numbers in order to ensure that the data provided by each of these equipments are accurate and that no discrepancy occurs while carrying out the meteorological analyses. The segregation of the cost that has been shown in the below table has been researched over the internet. (Grover, Kapoor and Horvitz 2015)
Cost of setting up a weather station |
||
Particulars |
Amount (£) |
Amount (£) |
Construction of the station on the airfield (A) |
5000000 |
|
Hiring a group of talented meteorology experts (B) |
500000 |
|
Providing them the required training in the usage of the machines (C`) |
500000 |
|
Initial investment for setting up the facility (A+B+C`) |
6000000 |
|
Equipments |
||
RWIS Wireless Sensor (x5) |
400000 |
|
GHG monitor (x10) |
400000 |
|
Roadside Weather Information System (x10) |
300000 |
|
Environmental Sensing Station (x10) |
400000 |
|
Hygrometer (x10) |
400000 |
|
Digital thermometer (x10) |
500000 |
|
Barometer (x10) |
300000 |
|
Digital wireless rain gauge (x10) |
50000 |
|
Cup Counter Anemometer (x10) |
48000 |
|
Barigo Thermo Hygrometer (x10) |
6000 |
|
Digital Temperature Humidity Data Logger (x10) |
50000 |
|
Tipping bucket rain gauge (x10) |
500000 |
|
Wireless weather station (x10) |
46000 |
|
Digital Thermometer (x10) |
600000 |
|
Total amount for equipments |
4000000 |
|
Total Cost |
10000000 |
Advancement of science and technology – the establishment of a flight school will lead to the generation of a batch of pilots who can serve the country as a part of the air defense team. Nevertheless, the knowledge imparted in the flight school can be used for making the required innovation in this particular field. The weather station will definitely enhance the research and development process in regards to the study of meteorology and climatology.
Effects on the local environment – both the options will possibly affect the local environment positively. In addition to this all the options will also enhance the economic and commercial value of the North Bristol
The options have been compared in order to analyze the viability of the chosen outcomes. The comparison has been drawn on the basis of the requirements presented in the question.
Cost – The cost for establishing the flight school as pointed out earlier has been fixed at £15000000 – £20000000.
Advancement of science and technology – The advancement of science and technology will be best facilitated by the flight school. This is because the flight school will result in the generation of candidates that will bring about the required innovation in this particular field.
Comparison of Options Based on Requirements
Effects of the local environment – The effect on the local environment in regards to the flight school would be that it would add to the economic and aesthetic value of the location. In addition to this, the flight school would also enhance the commercial position of the place.
Cost – The cost for establishing the weather station has been fixed at £10000000.
Advancement of science and technology – It must be noted here that the weather station is also a viable option in regards to advancement of science and technology as the weather station will help to provide much insight into the weather of North Bristol.
Effects of the local environment – The establishment of the weather station would certainly contribute to the meteorological aspects of North Bristol.
Cost – The comparison of the cost structure reflects the fact that the establishment of a weather station would be the most suitable option in terms of the fixed budget however, in terms of profitability and exposure, option one that is a flight school would be the most suitable.
Advancement of science and technology – The comparison of the options in relation to the aspect of advancement of science and technology indicates the particular fact that the flight school would be a better option in comparison to a weather station. This is because the flight school would not only lead to a talented batch of pilots but also open the scope of required innovation in the same field.
Effects of the local environment – The comparison of the two options in regards to the effects of the local environment reveals the fact that the option of establishing a flight would be more advantageous.
Conclusion
Thus, it can be concluded that the two options that have been considered for reviving the old Filton airfield in North Bristol has been considered in terms of their cost and the particular way in which they contribute to their operational surroundings or environment. It has been found out as follows:
- Option 1 that is the flight schools utilizes a budget of £15000000 – £20000000. The establishment of this particular option will best ensure the requirement of advancement of science and technology in UK.
- Option 2 that is the weather station utilizes a budget of £10000000. The establishment of this particular option will certainly contribute to the meteorological aspects of North Bristol.
The particular recommendation in regards to the above mentioned case is that option one of establishing a flight school, should be considered. This is because it does not only is a profitable venture but also contributes in a more positive way to its operational surroundings in comparison to a weather station.
References and Bibliography
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Grover, A., Kapoor, A. and Horvitz, E., 2015, August. A deep hybrid model for weather forecasting. In Proceedings of the 21th ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (pp. 379-386). ACM.
Kempton, W., Kiamilev, F., McGee, R. and Waite, N., University of Delaware, 2017. Electric vehicle station equipment for grid-integrated vehicles. U.S. Patent 9,754,300.
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Sunley, P., 2017. Case Study Report.
Updegrove, J. and Jafer, S., 2017, September. Recommendations for next generation air traffic control training. In Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC), 2017 IEEE/AIAA 36th (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
Viertler, F. and Hajek, M., 2015. Requirements and design challenges in rotorcraft flight simulations for research applications. In AIAA Modeling and Simulation Technologies Conference (p. 1808).
Wilson, N.D., Basile, E. and Dusenbury, M., 2016. Funding Changes from the Department of Veterans Affairs: Measuring the Impact on Undergraduate Flight Student Career and Academic Goals. Collegiate Aviation Review, 34(2), p.86.