British Aviation - A Timeline

In the main part of this web site I have predominantly looked at aviation projects coming out of the UK. In this section I will look specifically at the British aviation industry. As such, excluded here are home designer/builders and the "one-offs" along with, at least for the moment, those companies that are solely involved with UAVs. In addition, to be included the company must have produced at least two machines (not necessarily of different types). With these provisos, the nearly 1000 "companies" that make up the main part of this website are reduced to less than a quarter of that figure.

The charts that follow show these companies in approximately chronological order, except when amalgamation and the like has created an historically related group, when these are shown together to more easily understand their relationships. As such, some companies that have not produced the requisite two machines but have a place within an historical lineage are included for completeness.

Amalgamation has played no small part in the history of British aviation, no more so than the Government forced creation of British Aerospace and likewise its predecessors BAC, Hawker Siddeley and Scottish Aviation, along with Westland Helicopters. For clarity, these four have been broken out into their own charts. Links between charts can be followed using the folder icon.

Flight magazine for 1-7 July, 1914, stated "It may not assemble complete aircraft, but the country's aerospace industry is one of the most influential and capable in the world.". As fine as the latter comment is, it is the opening statement that is the most telling. While not 100% true, the design through build capability of indigenous machines is a shadow of its former self. From a peak of 52 companies designing and producing their own machines, the UK is in 2015 now down to just 10 (see graph).

More telling is a review of just what those ten companies are and what they produce. By far the most significant is the might of BAE Systems, now a major international conglomerate. The company has long since divested itself of commercial aviation, becoming an multinational arms supplier. Even more significantly, it seems to have thrown its hat firmly in the UAV corner, the only home designed manned aircraft in production being the Typhoon and the venerable Hawk. Of course, the workings of the project office are not in the public domain, but the only new manned aircraft in BAE's future is the multi-national Tempest.

Outside of BAE Systems, the remaining nine are relative minnows: Qinetiq and Cranfield are really only research establishments. Britten Norman continues as Britain's only producer of civil aircraft of more than two seats, albeit from all foreign produced parts. Merlin and Layzell produce autogiro kits, the Light Aircraft Company doing the same for fixed wing machines. AeroElvira is hoping to find finance to restart production, but currently is in limbo. Most successful is Europa, who has sold kits into four figures, though not without much financial trouble along te way, and finally Europa's owner Swift is promising a new factory built VLA, but to date (2015) nothing has yet been produced.

There is, of course, much more to the British aviation industry than just that. Beyond those ten companies mentioned above are three of the UK's biggest; Short Brothers, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Bombardier of Canada (and no longer building complete aircraft), Westland, now Leonardo Helicopters, wholly owned by Leonardo of Italy, and Airbus UK, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Franco-German Airbus Industrie. While these provide much technologically leading edge employment in the UK, the resulting intellectual property goes elsewhere.

Further Reading

For further reading on any of the companies shown in the timeline, refer to their individual entries in this website. For a fuller understanding of the British aviation industry as a whole, the reader can do no better than reference Ron Smith's excellent quintet:

British Built Aircraft Volume 1: Greater London (Tempus, 2002)
British Built Aircraft Volume 2: South West and Cental Southern England (Tempus, 2003)
British Built Aircraft Volume 3: South East England (Tempus, 2004)
British Built Aircraft Volume 4: Central and Eastern England (Tempus, 2004)
British Built Aircraft Volume 5: Northern England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (Tempus, 2005)

The following chart shows the history of Britains aviation industry up to 2015.

British Aircraft Corporation

The British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) was formed from the government-pressured merger of English Electric Aviation Ltd., Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft), the Bristol Aeroplane Company and Hunting Aircraft in 1960. Bristol, English Electric and Vickers became "parents" of BAC with shareholdings of 40%, 40% and 20% respectively. BAC in turn acquired the share capital of their aviation interests and 70% of Hunting several months later. On 29 April 1977, BAC, the Hawker Siddeley Group and Scottish Aviation were nationalised and merged under the provisions of Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act 1977. This new group was established as a statutory corporation, British Aerospace (BAe).

Hawker Siddeley Aviation

Hawker Siddeley Aircraft was formed in 1935 as a result of the purchase by Hawker Aircraft of the companies of J. D. Siddeley, the automotive and engine builder Armstrong Siddeley and the aircraft manufacturer Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft. At this time, Hawker Siddeley also acquired A.V. Roe and Company (Avro), Gloster Aircraft Company (Gloster) and Air Training Services. The constituent companies continued to produce their own aircraft designs under their own name as well as sharing manufacturing work throughout the group. In 1948, the company name was changed to Hawker Siddeley Group.

In the late 1950s, the British government decided that with the decreasing number of aircraft contracts being offered, it was better to merge the existing companies, of which there were about 15 surviving at this point, into several much larger firms. Out of this decision, came the "order" that all future contracts being offered had to include agreements to merge companies. In 1959, Folland Aircraft was acquired, followed by de Havilland Aircraft Company and Blackburn Aircraft in 1960. In 1963, the names of the constituent companies were dropped, with products being rebranded as "Hawker Siddeley" or "HS". On 29 April 1977, the Hawker Siddeley Group was nationalised and merged into British Aerospace (BAe) (See BAC).

Scottish Aviation

Originally a flying school operator the company took on maintenance work in 1938. During the Second World War, Scottish Aviation was involved in aircraft fitting for the war effort. This included maintenance and conversion of the Consolidated Liberator bomber.

In the 1960’s the company built some Jetstream turboprop transport and navigational training aircraft following the collapse of the Handley Page Aircraft Company and built Bulldog trainers after the demise of their original manufacturer, Beagle Aircraft Limited. Scottish Aviation merged with the British Aircraft Corporation and Hawker Siddeley Aviation to form British Aerospace in 1977.

Westland Helicopters

In 1960 the government forced the merger of the 20 or so aviation firms into three groups, British Aircraft Corporation and Hawker Siddeley Group took over fixed-wing designs, while the helicopter divisions of Bristol, Fairey and Saunders-Roe (with their hovercraft) were merged with Westland to form Westland Helicopters in 1961.

After various ups and downs, GKN bought into Westland in 1988, acquiring a stake owned by Hanson plc. They soon acquired the shares owned by Fiat which gave them absolute control. In 1994, Westland became a wholly owned subsidiary of GKN. It was merged with Finmeccanica's Agusta helicopter division in 2001, becoming AgustaWestland. In 2004, Finmeccanica S.p.A. acquired GKN's share in the joint venture to become sole owner. In 2016, AgustaWestland was merged into Leonardo S.p.A. (formerly Finmeccanica), where it became the company's helicopters division under the Leonardo Helicopters brand.