{"id":537663,"date":"2026-04-18T11:22:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T11:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/537663\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T11:22:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T11:22:13","slug":"highland-community-bids-for-major-7-million-spaceport-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/537663\/","title":{"rendered":"Highland community bids for major \u00a37 million spaceport project"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n A community company in Machrihanish, Argyll and Bute<\/a>, is aiming to persuade the UK Government<\/a> and the European Space Agency to choose Argyll over Cornwall for the home of a major space project.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n Known as Invictus, an aerospace<\/a> consortium, the project plans to develop a reusable aircraft that is aiming for its first flight by early 2031.\n<\/p>\n

\n The \u00a37 million initiative will lay the groundwork for horizontal space launch in the UK by using \u201cair-breathing hypersonic propulsion\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

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\n Cara Clements, business<\/a> manager at the community-run Machrihanish Airbase Community Company (MAAC), said she knows they have \u201ca lot of work to do,\u201d but is hopeful they can land the project.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe have to ensure the community is properly informed about what a hypersonic testing project would mean for local residents, schools, businesses, farmers, and the local economy,\u201d Clements added.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s one of our jobs to ensure that consultation takes place.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe also have to help persuade the Westminster<\/a> Government to support the Invictus project coming to the UK,\u00a0 and we have to persuade the European Space Agency why Invictus should come to the west Highlands rather than southern England.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Clements said that Invictus would bring hundreds of high-quality, well-paid jobs to Machrihanish, which would boost the local population, making shops and restaurants busier.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cGetting Invictus here would be totally transformational\u201d, Clements said.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cLike many rural communities, we struggle with depopulation and this project would totally revitalise the community.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n MAAC said they would use an old 1000-acre RAF airfield, which they purchased from the Ministry of Defence in 2012 for \u00a31 to host the project.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n The community company has already made parts of the site available for commercial use with the aim of creating a sustainable future for the Campbeltown area.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n The RAF developed and used the airfield until the 1950s when it also hosted US military and Nato. As part of the Cold War, the site was expanded significantly, taking over large areas of farmland to facilitate the military.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cCreating local jobs is the number one priority for the community group,\u201d Clements said.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

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\n \u201cWe have had success in attracting small and medium businesses and a lot of our business and storage units are busy.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe\u2019re also very happy that a former Cold War aircraft hangar at Machrihanish is being transformed into what is believed to be the world\u2019s first fully-automated bonded whisky warehouse.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cBut Invictus would take us to the highest level.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n MAAC said it hopes its location near the end of a peninsula will be a positive attraction for the project, along with the community’s limited population, so that disturbance to the surrounding areas would be limited.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n Clements said the community company said they are \u201cchecking\u201d all relevant funding channels that could help make the site more \u201cattractive\u201d to decision makers.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cAs well as good roads, we have a superb deep water port at Campbeltown which would work well for the INVICTUS project,\u201d Clements added.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere is a lot of local support and a lot of community experience after 50 years of RAF and Nato in Machrihanish. We already have accommodation available on the MACC site\u00a0 for about 100.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Community Land Scotland\u2019s director of communities and operations, Sally Reynolds, said that her organisation supports and promotes all community ownership of land and buildings.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

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\n \u201cIt is fantastic to see the Machrihanish Airbase Community Company doing such good work to help bring Invictus to Kintyre.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe effort they are putting in shows how community experience, knowledge and ambition make a huge difference to revitalising their localities, and it would be a fantastic achievement if the Machrihanish community groups can help bring Invictus to Argyll.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n The final decisions on whether the UK Government will support Invictus and whether the multi-million project goes to Machrihanish or Cornwall is expected over the next 12-18 months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A community company in Machrihanish, Argyll and Bute, is aiming to persuade the UK Government and the European…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[90,416,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-537663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-space","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}