AN Ayrshire business that designs and builds sections of wings for jet liners has won this year's Scottish Engineering award.

Prestwick-based Spirit Aerosystems won recognition for the work it has done on developing and producing parts used on the latest generation of planes made by industry leaders such as Airbus and Boeing.

US-owned Spirit employs around 1,000 people in Prestwick, which is a global research and development centre for the group.

The Prestwick operation forms an important part of the aerospace sector in Ayrshire, one of the drivers of the area's economy.

The Scottish Engineering Award is intended to highlight a manufacturing engineering supply company working in Scotland that judges believe has made a significant contribution towards raising the standard of the sector.

Bryan Buchan, chief executive of Scottish Engineering said of Spirit Aerosystems: "In this worthy winner we have a company which is not only highly successful in the here and now but is an active contributor to shaping the future of commercial aircraft through their R&D and design capability."

Past winners of the Scottish Engineering Award include Alexander Dennis, the Falkirk bus builder and Aberdeen oil services giant Wood Group.

Six companies won President's Awards for manufacturing excellence this year. They were: FMC Technologies based in Dunfermline; Hydrasun Limited of Aberdeen; CBC Electric Machines, formerly known as Parsons Peebles, from Rosyth; Peak Scientific Instruments based in Renfrew; SPX Corporation from Glasgow and Doosan Babcock from Renfrew.

Douglas Osborne of Thales Optronics of Glasgow won the Scottish Engineering/Incorporation of Hammermen Award for a young graduate engineer.

The awards were presented at a dinner in Glasgow to mark the 150th anniversary of Scottish Engineering.

The Spirit Aerospace operation in Prestwick developed out of the BAE Systems Aerostructures business that the US firm acquired in 2006.