It is one of the hottest days of the year. A vortex of straw-hatted waiters is whirling about the roof terrace of Boundary, Shoreditch’s newest palace of gastronomy, ferrying drinks and salade niçoise to an overheated crowd. In their midst, Sir Terence Conran is stretched out in an armchair. Despite the rocketing mercury, he looks cool as a cucumber in his trademark cobalt-blue shirt (he has about 40) and stripey socks, smoking a giant cigar. As he gazes out over the panorama, he reminds me of ...

Rolls-Royce is fighting a last-ditch battle to stop Barack Obama axing a military-engine contract that could see it share an estimated $50 billion (£30.7 billion) in sales over the next two decades.

The aero-engine maker was last week lobbying in Washington to prevent funding being withdrawn for its engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), expected to pearl jewelry replace most combat aircraft in service.

Failure would be a serious setback for Rolls-Royce’s defence business, with job losses on both sides of the Atlantic.
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The United States Air Force (USAF) has approved Rolls-Royce to move to the next phase in developing a jet engine capable of high performance but with low operating costs.

The Pentagon’s decision to proceed with phase two of development of the Adaptive Versatile Engine Technology (Advent) is seen as a huge boost for Rolls-Royce in the lucrative American military market.

Its LibertyWorks division in the pearl jewelry United States is working on jet engine technology that will provide high performance but is capable of shifting down to low speed and low fuel consumption. The USAF hopes that such engines will improve the operating performance of future manned and unmanned fighter aircraft and improve fuel consumption by about 25 per cent. The new technology will also have an impact in the commercial sector, where it could allow engines to ...

The pattern was set, however: at 17, he went to what is now Central St Martins. “I was on the textile design course, but I rapidly got into three-dimensional design because I wanted to make furniture for my bedsit.” He went from there to sharing a workshop in Bethnal Green with one of his tutors, the renowned Scottish sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi, who taught him to keep a Rolodex of ideas and how to make squid-ink risotto. “I made furniture and Eduardo made sculpture. I was always looking in rubbish tips for things that could be reprocessed. There was a lot of scrounging going on.” Paradoxically, for someone whose empire is founded on persuading us to ...

It is one of the hottest days of the year. A vortex of straw-hatted waiters is whirling about the roof terrace of Boundary, Shoreditch’s newest palace of gastronomy, ferrying drinks and salade niçoise to an overheated crowd. In their midst, Sir Terence Conran is stretched out in an armchair. Despite the rocketing mercury, he looks cool as a cucumber in his trademark cobalt-blue shirt (he has about 40) and stripey socks, smoking a giant cigar. As he gazes out over the panorama, he reminds me of ...