Airco (circa 1958)

History

British European Airway’s 1957 requirement for a short haul jet airliner was seen by the Government as an opportunity for a concentration of resources which they saw as of great importance to the future of the aerospace industry in the UK. BEA had already settled on the de Havilland 121, but the Ministry doubted that de Havilland had the necessary resources to fund the project as a private venture. For its part, de Havilland did not object in principle to rationalisation and moved quickly to shore up their position, announcing on 30 January 1958 the formation of the Aircraft Manufacturing Co. Ltd., or Airco for short, with 67½ per cent of the financial risk being borne by de Havilland, 22½ per cent by Hunting Aircraft, 10 per cent by Fairey Aviation. The "Airco" name was,at that time, being used by Wing Commander R.H. Stocken, who accordingly changed his company name to R.H. Stocken and Co. Ltd.

Production facilities were available at Christchurch, Hatfield, Chester and Portsmouth; additional production facilities were available through Hunting Aircraft and Fairey Aviation at Luton and Hayes.The initial capital was set at £1 million. The directors were: Chairman, W. E. Nixon (chairman, de Havilland Aircraft); deputy chairman, Richard Fairey (vice-chairman, Fairey Aviation); managing director, A. F. Burke (managing director, de Havilland Aircraft); C. P. M. Hunting (director, Hunting Aircraft and other Hunting Group companies), A. S. Kennedy (director, de Havilland Aircraft), F. E. N. St. Barbe (director, de Havilland Aircraft) and W. A. Summers (managing director, Hunting Aircraft).

However, with increasing Government pressure for further rationalisation, de Havilland became part of the the Hawker Siddeley Group in 1960, Hunting Aircraft joined the British Aircraft Corporation and Fairey became part of the Westland Group. Thus, the Airco consortium, which would also have included subcontracting support from Handley Page and Saunders-Roe, was effectively dead and all design and manufacturing reverted to de Havilland.

Company References

1. Offers They Couldn’t Refuse: Mergers in the British Aircraft Industry, 1957-62, Professor Keith Hayward, Head of Research, Royal Aeronautical Society