1.
British Aerospace
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British Aerospace plc was a British aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer. Its head office was at Warwick House in the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Farnborough, in 1999 it purchased Marconi Electronic Systems, the defence electronics and naval shipbuilding subsidiary of the General Electric Company plc, to form BAE Systems. The company was formed in the United Kingdom as a corporation on 29 April 1977 as a result of the Aircraft. This called for the nationalisation and merger of the British Aircraft Corporation, Hawker Siddeley Aviation, Hawker Siddeley Dynamics, in 1979 BAe officially joined Airbus, the UK having previously withdrawn support for the consortium in April 1969. On 4 February 1981 the government sold 51. 57% of its shares, the British government sold its remaining shares in 1985, maintaining a £1 golden share which allows it veto foreign control of the board or company. On 26 September 1985, the UK and Saudi Arabian governments signed the Al-Yamamah arms deal with BAe as prime contractor, the Al Yamamah deals are valued at anything up to £20 billion and still continue to provide a large percentage of BAE Systems profits. In 1986, With Alenia Aeronautica, CASA and DASA, BAe formed Eurofighter GmbH for the development of the Eurofighter Typhoon, on 22 April 1987, BAe acquired Royal Ordnance, the British armaments manufacturer, for £190 million. Heckler & Koch GmbH was folded into this division when BAe acquired it in 1991, in 1988, BAe purchased the Rover Group which then was privatised by the British government of Margaret Thatcher. In August 1991, BAe formed a naval systems joint venture, BAeSEMA, BAe acquired Semas 50% share in 1998. 1991 also saw BAe begin to experience major difficulties, BAe saw its share price fall below 100p for the first time. On 9 September 1991, the company issued a profits warning, Evans described the troubles as a confluence of events, our property company was hit with a lousy market. Sales of the Rover Group sank by about a fifth and losses mounted, the governments defence spending volumes underwent a major review. Losses in our commercial aerospace division increased dramatically with the recession in the airline industry, in 1992, BAe formed Avro RJ Regional Jets to produce the Avro RJ series, an evolution of the BAe 146. In mid-1992 BAe wrote off £1 billion of assets, largely as part of redundancies and this was largest asset write-off in UK corporate history. The General Electric Company, later to sell its interests to BAe. BAe cut 47% of its workforce,40,000 of which were from the aircraft division. Evans decided to sell non-core business activities which included The Rover Group, Arlington Securities, BAe Corporate Jets, BAe Communications and Ballast Nedam. Although the rationale of diversification was sound the company could not afford to continue the position
2.
Hawker Siddeley
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Hawker Siddeley was a group of British manufacturing companies engaged in aircraft production. Hawker Siddeley combined the legacies of several British aircraft manufacturers, emerging through a series of mergers, in 1977, Hawker Siddeley became a founding component of the nationalised British Aerospace. Hawker Siddeley also operated in other markets, such as locomotive building. The Company was once a constituent of the FTSE100 Index, at this time, Hawker Siddeley also acquired A. V. Roe & Company, Gloster Aircraft Company 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. During this campaign, Hurricanes outnumbered all other British fighters, combined, in 1945, the Hawker Siddeley purchased Victory Aircraft of Malton, Ontario, Canada from the Canadian government, renaming the company A. V. Roe Canada, commonly known as Avro Canada, initially a wholly owned subsidiary of Hawker Siddeley, during its operation, Avro Canada aircraft included the C102 Jetliner, CF-100 Canuck, CF-105 Arrow and VZ-9- AV Avrocar. Only the CF-100 fighter entered full-scale production, other design projects included supersonic transport passenger aircraft, a mach-2 VTOL fighter, hovercraft, a jet engine-powered tank, and the hypersonic Space Threshold Vehicle. After the cancellation of the Arrow, the company began to unravel, roe Canada was dissolved and the remaining assets were transferred to the now defunct Hawker Siddeley Canada. In 1948, the name was changed to Hawker Siddeley Group. The aircraft division would become Hawker Siddeley Aviation and the guided missile, in 1959, the aero engine business, Armstrong Siddeley was merged with that of the Bristol Aero Engines to form Bristol Siddeley. 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, in this period, the company developed the first operational, and, by far, the most successful VTOL jet aircraft, the Harrier family. This aircraft remained in production into the 1990s and remains in service, in 1957, Hawker Siddeley purchased the Brush group of companies that included Brush Electrical Machines, and Brush Traction, which manufactures electromotive equipment and railway locomotives. The Brush prototype locomotives Falcon, and the futuristic but over-weight HS4000 Kestrel, were produced there, other railway engineering assets were acquired, including Westinghouse Brake & Signal and the engine builder Mirrlees Blackstone, which came with the Brush businesses. In the early 1970s Hawker Siddeleys Canada Car and Foundry subsidiary began to build rapid transit vehicles for the North American market, later Hawker Siddeley would sell the same general design to the MBTA in Boston for their Blue and Orange Lines. 7048 cars were delivered to the Blue Line in 1978–80 and 12065 cars were delivered to the Orange Line in 1980–81, Hawker Siddeley also manufactured much of the Toronto subway systems older rolling stock, the H5 and H6 models. The heavy rail manufacturing business, based in Mississauga and Thunder Bay, MBTA also bought a number of commuter rail coaches from the German firm Messerschmitt, thereby teaming Hawker Siddeley with its old World War II rival under the same organisation
3.
Scottish Aviation
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Scottish Aviation Limited was a Scottish aircraft manufacturer, based at Prestwick in Ayrshire. The company were founded in 1935, 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 and this included maintenance and conversion of the Consolidated Liberator bomber. The factory building of Scottish Aviation, which exists today, was formerly the Palace of Engineering at the 1938 Empire Exhibition in Bellahouston Park. The building was dismantled from its Glasgow site and reconstructed, post-war it built robust military STOL utility aircraft such as the Pioneer and larger Twin Pioneer. Much later the company built some Jetstream turboprop transport and navigational training aircraft following the collapse of the Handley Page Aircraft Company and it built Bulldog trainers after the demise of their original manufacturer, Beagle Aircraft Limited. In November 1958, redundancies affecting almost 800 of their 2,500 staff were announced, Scottish Aviation merged with the British Aircraft Corporation, Hawker Siddeley Aviation, and Hawker Siddeley Dynamics to form British Aerospace in 1977. Much of the former Scottish Aviation assets now belong to Spirit AeroSystems, Aerospace industry in the United Kingdom Berry, P Prestwick Airport and Scottish Aviation Robertson, A Lion Rampant and Winged British Aircraft Directory listing
4.
City of Westminster
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The City of Westminster is an Inner London borough which also holds city status. It occupies much of the area of Greater London including most of the West End. It is to the west of and adjoining the ancient City of London, directly to the east of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and it was created with the 1965 establishment of Greater London. Upon creation, Westminster was awarded city status, which had previously held by the smaller Metropolitan Borough of Westminster. Aside from a number of parks and open spaces, the population density of the district is high. Many sites commonly associated with London are in the borough, including St. Jamess Palace, Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament, much of the borough is residential, and in 2008 it was estimated to have a population of 236,000. The local authority is Westminster City Council, the current Westminster coat of arms were given to the city by an official grant on September 2,1964. Westminster had other arms before, which had an identical to the chief in the present arms. The symbols in the two thirds of the shield stand for former municipalities now merged with the city, Paddington. The original arms had a portcullis as the charge, which now forms the crest. The origins of the City of Westminster pre-date the Norman Conquest of England, in the mid-11th Century king Edward the Confessor began the construction of an abbey at Westminster, only the foundations of which survive today. For centuries Westminster and the City of London were geographically quite distinct, Westminster briefly became a city in 1540 when Henry VIII created the short-lived Diocese of Westminster. Following the dissolution of Westminster Abbey, a court of burgesses was formed in 1585 to govern the Westminster area, Jamess, Strand, Westminster, Pimlico, Belgravia, and Hyde Park. The Westminster Metropolitan Borough was itself the result of an amalgamation which took place in 1900. Sir John Hunt O. B. E was the First Town Clerk of the City of Westminster, the boundaries of the City of Westminster today, as well as those of the other London boroughs, have remained more or less unchanged since the Act of 1963. On 22 March 2017, a terrorist attack took place on Westminster Bridge, Bridge Street and Old Palace Yard, five people - three pedestrians, one police officer, and the attacker - died as a result of the incident. More than 50 people were injured, an investigation is ongoing by the Metropolitan Police. The city is divided into 20 wards, each electing three councillors, Westminster City Council is currently composed of 44 Conservative Party members and 16 Labour Party members
5.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
6.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
7.
Aerospace manufacturer
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Aerospace is a high technology industry. In Russia, large companies like Oboronprom and the United Aircraft Corporation are among the major global players in this industry. In the United States, the Department of Defense and NASA are the two biggest consumers of technology and products. By 1999 U. S. share of the market fell to 52 percent. Important locations of the aerospace industry worldwide include Seattle, Wichita, Kansas, Dayton, Ohio. Several consolidations took place in the aerospace and defense industries over the last few decades, between 1988 and 2010, more than 5,452 mergers & acquisitions with a total known-value of US$579 billion were announced worldwide. The largest transactions include the merger of Boeing with McDonnell Douglas valued at US$13.3 billion in 1996, marconi Electronic Systems, a subsidiary of the General Electric Company plc, was acquired by British Aerospace for US$12.3 billion in 1999 merger, to forme BAE Systems. Raytheon acquired Hughes Aircraft Company for $9.5 billion in 1997, Aerospace Aviation accidents and incidents List of aircraft manufacturers List of spacecraft manufacturers Aerospace Industries Association Associação das Indústrias Aeroespaciais do Brasil
8.
English Electric
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The English Electric Company Limited was a British industrial manufacturer formed after the armistice of World War I at the end of 1918. It was created to make one of Britains three principal electrical manufacturing concerns by amalgamating five businesses which, during the war, had been making munitions, armaments and it initially specialised in industrial electric motors and transformers, railway locomotives and traction equipment, diesel motors and steam turbines. In the end its activities expanded to include electronics, nuclear reactors, guided missiles, military aircraft. English Electrics operations were merged with GECs in 1968, the combined business employing more than 250,000 people, two English Electric aircraft designs became landmarks in British aeronautical engineering, the Canberra or B-57 and the Lightning. In 1960, long before the merger with GEC, English Electric Aircraft merged with Vickers, of Preston founded 1880 and its subsidiaries, United Electric Car Company of Preston Willans & Robinson of Rugby which retained a separate identity—not wholly owned. The owners of the component companies took up the shares in English Electric, John Pybus was appointed managing director in March 1921 and chairman in April 1926. Initially J H Mansell of Coventry Ordnance Works, John Pybus of Phoenix Dynamo Manufacturing and W Rutherford of Dick, in November 1919, English Electric bought the Stafford works of Siemens Brothers Dynamo Works Ltd. In 1931 Stafford became English Electrics centre, however, there was no post-war boom in electrical generation. Though English Electric products were indeed in heavy demand, potential buyers were unable to raise the capital funds. In 1922, a reorganisation of the works was carried through. The Coventry Ordnance Works was practically closed down, cables, lamps and wireless equipment were then in buoyant demand, but that would have been a new field for the company to enter. English Electrics business was in electrical and mechanical plant. Both the 1926 general strike and the strike caused heavy losses. In 1929 part of the Coventry Ordnance Works was sold and the shop at Preston. By the end of 1929, it was clear the only solution to English Electrics financial difficulties was a financial restructure, the restructure acknowledged the loss of much of the shareholders capital and brought in new capital to re-equip with new plant and machinery. In the event, an American syndicate fronted by Lazard Brothers and Co. bankers came up with the new capital, in June 1930, four fresh directors were appointed, filling four new vacancies. Ten days later, there was an announcement of an American Arrangement. It was made clear that this technical and manufacturing link did not carry with it any control from America
9.
Vickers-Armstrongs
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Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927. The majority of the company was nationalised in the 1960s and 1970s, Vickers merged with the Tyneside-based engineering company Armstrong Whitworth, founded by W. G. Armstrong, to become Vickers-Armstrongs, Ltd. Armstrong Whitworth and Vickers had developed along lines, expanding into various military sectors. Armstrong Whitworth were notable for their manufacture at Elswick and shipbuilding at a yard at High Walker on the River Tyne. 1929 saw the merger of the railway business with those of Cammell Laird to form Metropolitan Cammell Carriage and Wagon. In 1935, before rearmament began, Vickers-Armstrongs was the third-largest manufacturing employer in Britain, behind Unilever, in 1960 the aircraft interests were merged with those of Bristol, English Electric and Hunting Aircraft to form the British Aircraft Corporation. This was owned by Vickers, English Electric and Bristol, BAC in turn owned 70% of Hunting. The Supermarine operation was closed in 1963 and the Vickers brand name for aircraft was dropped by BAC in 1965, under the terms of the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act 1977 BAC was nationalised to become part of British Aerospace. The Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act also led to the nationalisation of Vickers shipbuilding division as part of British Shipbuilders, Vickers Container and Packaging Machinery Division, including the Vickers Stitcher and Vickers Hardness Machine business, was bought by Fords Industrial Products, part of Barry Wehmiller in 1986. In 1991 the Vickers Hardness Machinery business was bought by the field engineers. The Vickers Stitcher was still being manufactured in India as recently as 2005, the steelmaking division became part of British Steel Corporation and the remaining interests were divested as the public company Vickers plc, whose various components were later split. The Vickers name ceased to exist in 2003 when Rolls-Royce renamed its acquisitions Vinters plc, Vickers-Armstrongs inherited the Vickers machine gun of 1912 used in World War I from Vickers Limited. An unusual machine gun also made was the Vickers Higson, Vickers produced larger weapons such as the Ordnance QF 2-pounder gun used on tanks. In 1948 Vickers bought the Australian business of Charles Ruwolt Ltd for £750,000 following Ruwolts death in 1946, during WW2 Ruwolts firm produced armaments for the Australian Government, including field artillery such as mortars and howitzer cannon. Vickers-Armstrongs was one of the most important warship manufacturers in the world and these interests were renamed as Vickers-Armstrongs Shipbuilders in 1955, changing again to Vickers Limited Shipbuilding Group in 1968. The Barrow yard was nationalised and became part of British Shipbuilders in 1977, was privatised as VSEL in 1986, the company was also known for its tank designs, starting with the widely used Vickers 6-Ton. It also produced the influential, if never actually produced, Independent A1E1 tank, one of the companys most important designs was the Valentine Infantry Tank, produced in the thousands in World War II. The military vehicle manufacturing interests were divested into Vickers plc, and would pass to Alvis Vickers, now part of BAE Systems Land
10.
Bristol Aeroplane Company
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In 1956 its major operations were split into Bristol Aircraft and Bristol Aero Engines. BAC went on to become a component of the nationalised British Aerospace. Bristol Siddeley was purchased by Rolls-Royce in 1966, who continued to develop, the BAC works were in Filton, about 4 miles north of Bristol city centre. BAE Systems, Airbus, Rolls Royce, MBDA and GKN still have a presence at the Filton site where the Bristol Aeroplane Company was located. Additionally, key personnel for the new business were recruited from the employees of the Tramway Company, including George Challenger as chief engineer and works manager. These flying schools came to be regarded as some of the best in the world, the companys initial manufacturing venture was to be a licensed and improved version of an aircraft manufactured in France by the Societe Zodiac, a biplane designed by Gabriel Voisin. This aircraft had been exhibited at the Paris Aero Salon in 1909 and had impressed Sir George with the quality of its construction. One example was bought and shipped to England to be shown at the Aero Show at Olympia in March 1910, since the machine had been sold with a guarantee to fly Sir George succeeded in getting 15,000 francs compensation from Zodiac. Work was then begun on designing a successor, drawings were prepared by George Challenger for an aircraft based on a successful design by Henri Farman whose dimensions had been published in the aeronautical press. The drawings were made in little over a week, and Sir George authorised the construction of twenty examples, the first to be completed was taken to Larkhill for flight trials, where it made its first flight on 30 July piloted by Maurice Edmonds, proving entirely satisfactory. Many served in the flying schools and examples were sold to the War Office as well as a number of foreign governments. Both of these were exhibited at the 1911 Aero Show at Olympia, at this time both Challenger and Low left the company to join the newly established aircraft division of the armament firm Vickers. Their place was taken by Pierre Prier, the chief instructor at the Blériot flying school at Hendon. In January 1912 the Romanian engineer Henri Coandă was appointed as chief designer, also at this time a highly secret separate design office, the X-Department, was set up to work on Dennistoun Burneys ideas for naval aircraft. Frank Barnwell was taken on as the engineer for this project. Barnwell was to one of the worlds foremost aeronautical engineers. The Company expanded rapidly, opening a factory at the Brislington tramway works. Official War Office policy was to only aircraft designed by the Royal Aircraft Establishment
11.
Hunting Aircraft
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Hunting Aircraft was a British aircraft manufacturer, that produced light training aircraft and the initial design that would evolve into the BAC 1-11 jet airliner. Founded as Percival Aircraft Co. in 1933, the later moved to Luton. It was eventually taken over by the British Aircraft Corporation in 1960, the company was formed as Percival Aircraft Co. in Gravesend in 1933 by Edgar Percival to produce his own designs. Restructured in 1936, it became Percival Aircraft Ltd, and moved to Luton Airport, the company became part of the Hunting Group in 1944. Percival, who had resigned from the board to serve in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve during the war sold his remaining interest in the company at that point and it changed its name to Hunting Percival Aircraft in 1954 and then to Hunting Aircraft in 1957. BAC later became part of British Aerospace, now BAE Systems
12.
Pall Mall, London
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Pall Mall /ˌpæl ˈmæl/ is a street in the St Jamess area of the City of Westminster, Central London. It connects St Jamess Street to Trafalgar Square and is a section of the regional A4 road, the streets name is derived from pall-mall, a ball game played there during the 17th century. The area was built up during the reign of Charles II with fashionable London residences and it became known for high-class shopping in the 18th century, and gentlemens clubs in the 19th. The Reform, Athenaeum and Travellers Clubs have survived to the 21st century, the War Office was based on Pall Mall during the second half of the 19th century, and the Royal Automobile Clubs headquarters have been on the street since 1908. The street is around 0.4 miles long and runs east in the St Jamess area, from St Jamess Street across Waterloo Place, to the Haymarket, the street numbers run consecutively from north-side east to west and then continue on the south-side west to east. It is part of the A4, a road running west from Central London. London Bus Route 9 runs westwards along Pall Mall, connecting Trafalgar Square to Piccadilly, Pall Mall was constructed in 1661, replacing an earlier highway slightly to the south that ran from the Haymarket to the royal residence, St Jamess Palace. When St. Jamess Park was laid out by order of Henry VIII in the 16th century, in 1620, the Privy Council ordered the High Sheriff of Middlesex to clear a number of temporary buildings next to the wall that were of poor quality. Pall-mall, a game similar to croquet, was introduced to England in the early-17th century by James I. The game, already popular in France and Scotland, was enjoyed by James sons Henry, in 1630, St Jamess Field, Londons first pall-mall court, was laid out to the north of the Haymarket – St James road. After the Restoration and King Charles IIs return to London on 29 May 1660, Samuel Pepyss diary entry for 2 April 1661 records that he. Went into St. Jamess Park, where I saw the Duke of York playing at Pelemele and this new court suffered from dust blown over the wall from coaches travelling along the highway. In July 1661 posts and rails were erected, stopping up the old road, the court for pall-mall was very long and narrow, and often known as an alley, so the old court provided a suitable route for relocating the eastern approach to St Jamess Palace. A grant was made to Dan ONeale, Groom of the Bedchamber, the grant was endorsed Our warrant for the building of the new street to St Jamess. A new road was built on the site of the old pall-mall court and it was named Catherine Street, after Catherine of Braganza, wife of Charles II, but was better known as Pall Mall Street or the Old Pall Mall. The pall-mall field was a place for recreation and Pepys records several other visits. By July 1665 Pepys used Pell Mell to refer to the street as well as the game, in 1662, Pall Mall was one of several streets thought fitt immediately to be repaired, new paved or otherwise amended under the Streets, London and Westminster Act 1662. The paving commissioners appointed to oversee the work included the Earl of St Albans, the terms of the act allowed commissioners to remove any building encroaching on the highway, with compensation for those at least 30 years old
13.
BAC One-Eleven
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The British Aircraft Corporation One-Eleven, also known as the BAC-111 or BAC 1-11, was a British short-range jet airliner used during the 1960s and 1970s. It was the second jet airliner to enter service, following the French Sud Aviation Caravelle. The aircraft was produced under license in Romania during the 1980s as the Rombac One-Eleven. The One-Eleven was intended to replace the earlier turboprop-powered Vickers Viscount on short-range routes, the One-Eleven made it to market ahead of rivals such as the Douglas DC-9-10, which gave it a temporary edge on the market. As of 2013, two remain in service as testbeds for Northrop-Grumman. Several aircraft manufacturers raced to release their own passenger jets, including those aimed at the short-haul market, in July 1956, British European Airways published a paper calling for a second generation jet airliner to operate beside their existing turboprop designs. This led to a variety of designs all of the major players in the British aerospace industry. Hunting Aircraft started design studies on a replacement for the successful Vickers Viscount. Around the same time, Vickers started a development of a 140-seat derivative of its VC10 project. Many other aviation firms had produced their own designs. In 1960 Hunting, under British government pressure, merged with Vickers-Armstrongs, Bristol, the newly formed BAC decided that the Hunting project had merit, but that there would be little market for a 30-seat jet airliner. The design was reworked into the BAC107, a 59-seat airliner powered by two 7,000 pounds-force Bristol Siddeley BS75 turbofan engines, BAC also continued development of the larger, 140-seat VC-11 development of the Vickers VC10 which it had inherited. Other competing internal projects, such as the Bristol Type 200, were abandoned following the absorption of Hunting into BAC. The revised design was redesignated the BAC111, with BAC abandoning the VC11 project to concentrate on the more promising One-Eleven, test flying was conducted by Squadron Leader Dave Glaser. On 9 May 1961 the One-Eleven was publicly launched when British United Airways placed the first order for ten One-Eleven 200s, on 20 October Braniff International Airways in the United States ordered six. Mohawk Airlines sent representatives to Europe seeking out a new aircraft to bring them into the jet era, other orders followed from Kuwait Airways for three, and Central African Airways for two. Braniff subsequently doubled their order to 12, while Aer Lingus ordered four, Western Airlines ordered ten aircraft but later cancelled. The CAB also stopped Frontier Airlines and Ozark Air Lines from ordering One-Elevens, although allowing Ozark to order the similar Douglas DC-9, the CAB had also unsuccessfully tried to block Mohawks orders
14.
BAC TSR-2
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The TSR-2 was designed to penetrate a well-defended forward battle area at low altitudes and very high speeds, and then attack high-value targets in the rear with nuclear or conventional weapons. Another intended combat role was to provide high-altitude, high-speed stand-off, side-looking, radar and photographic imagery, some of the most advanced aviation technology of the period was incorporated in order to make it the highest-performing aircraft in the world in its projected missions. Only one airframe flew and test flights and weight rise during design indicated that the aircraft would be unable to meet its original stringent design specifications, the design specifications had been reduced as the results of flight testing. The TSR-2 was the victim of ever-rising costs and inter-service squabbling over Britains future defence needs, the replacements included the Blackburn Buccaneer and McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, both of which had previously been considered and rejected early in the TSR-2 procurement process. Eventually, the smaller swing-wing Panavia Tornado was developed and adopted by a European consortium to fulfil broadly similar requirements to the TSR-2, the introduction of the first practical jet engines in the late-World War II period led to calls for new jet-powered versions of practically every aircraft then flying. Among these was the design of a replacement for the de Havilland Mosquito and this high-speed approach was extremely successful, and a jet-powered version would be even more difficult to intercept. The winning design, the English Electric Canberra, also dispensed with defensive armaments, just as importantly, the designs long, straight wing gave it the lift needed to operate at very high altitudes, placing it above the range where even jet powered fighters were able to operate. This high-speed, high-altitude approach was effective until the late 1950s, sAMs had speed and altitude performance much greater than any contemporary aircraft. The Canberra, and other aircraft like the V bombers or United States B-52 Stratofortress, were extremely vulnerable to these weapons. The first aircraft to fall victim to the Soviet S-75 Dvina SAM was a Taiwanese RB-57, the solution was to fly lower, since radar operates in line-of-sight, detection of an aircraft flying at low altitudes is significantly hindered, thereby reducing time for enemy counter measures. In practice, trees, hills, valleys and any other obstructions reduce this range even more, the Canberra was designed for medium- to high-altitude flight and was not suitable for continuous terrain-hugging flight, this would require a completely different aircraft. Low-level strike aircraft, or interdictors, grew into a new class of their own during the late 1950s, aware of the changing operational environment, the Ministry of Supply started work with English Electric in 1955, attempting to define a new light bomber to replace the Canberra. These early studies eventually settled on an aircraft with a 2,000 nmi ferry range, a crew of two was required, one being the operator of the advanced navigational and attack equipment. The bombload was to be four 1,000 lb bombs, the operational range was to be 1,000 nmi operating off runways of no more than 3,000 ft. The TSR-2 was able to operate at 200 ft above the ground at speeds of Mach 1.1 and this viewpoint was vigorously debated by the aviation industry and within the MOD for years. Senior RAF officers argued against the White Papers premise, stating the importance of mobility, and that the TSR-2 could not only replace the Canberra, in addition to the argument over the need for manned aircraft, additional political machinations had the effect of complicating the project. In September 1957 the Ministry of Supply informed the heads of the companies that the only acceptable proposals would be those issued from teams consisting of more than one company. Another political matter that did not help was the mutual distrust between the various services, at the time that GOR.339 was being defined, the Royal Navy was in the midst of its NA.39 project, which would eventually become the Blackburn Buccaneer
15.
Bristol Cars
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Bristol Cars is a manufacturer of hand-built luxury cars headquartered on Kensington High Street, London, England. After the Second World War, the car division of the Bristol Aeroplane Company was formed, unlike most speciality automakers, Bristol does not court publicity and has only one showroom, on Kensington High Street in London. Nevertheless, the company maintains an enthusiastic and loyal clientele, Bristol has always been a low-volume manufacturer, the most recent published official production figures were for 1982, which stated that 104 cars were produced in that year. The company suspended manufacturing in March 2011, when administrators were appointed,22 staff were made redundant, in April 2011, a new company was formed by the administrator to sells the original assets to Kamkorp. Since 2011, the company has been restoring and selling all models of the marque while a new model was being developed, the company returned to the automotive business in 2015 with an all-new model, called the Bullet, initially dubbed Project Pinnacle. The car was first revealed to the public on 26 July 2016, the British aircraft industry suffered a dramatic loss of orders and great financial difficulties following the Armistice of 1918. On the outbreak of World War II, Sir George Stanley White, the company now employed 70,000 and he knew he must plan for the time when the voracious wartime demand for Bristol aircraft and aircraft engines would suddenly end. The company began working with AFN Ltd, makers of Frazer Nash cars and British importer of BMWs before the war, on plans for a joint venture in automotive manufacture. As early as 1941, a number of papers were written or commissioned by George S. M. White, Sir Stanley’s son and it was decided to purchase an existing manufacturer for this purpose. Alvis, Aston Martin, Lagonda, ERA and Lea-Francis were considered and it led to the immediate take-over of Frazer Nash by the Aeroplane Company. Aldington and his two brothers had marketed the Frazer Nash BMW before the war, and proposed to build an updated version after demobilisation and this seemed the perfect match for the aeroplane company’s own ambitions to manufacture a high quality sports car. With the support of the War Reparations Board, H. J. Aldington travelled to Munich, by July 1945, BAC had created a car division and bought a controlling stake in AFN. A factory was established at Filton Aerodrome, near Bristol, the Bristol Car Division became an independent entity. Bristol Cars was sold after its parent joined with other British aircraft companies in 1960 to create the British Aircraft Corporation, the car division originally merged with Bristol Siddeley Engines, and was marked for closure, but was bought in September 1960 by George S. M. White the chairman and effective founder, White retained the direction of the company, but sold a forty per cent shareholding to Tony Crook, a leading Bristol agent. In September 1969, only a month before the unveiling of the new Bristol 411 at the Earl’s Court Motor Show, the car was only superficially damaged, but he suffered severe trauma. As time passed it became clear that he would never regain his health sufficiently to return to full-time work, to safeguard the future of his workforce, he decided in 1973 to sell his majority shareholding to Crook. As the ties with the White family were severed, British Aerospace requested the company to move its factory from Filton Aerodrome, the showroom on Kensington High Street became the head office, with Crook shuttling between the two in Bristols light aircraft
16.
Concorde
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Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde is a British-French turbojet-powered supersonic passenger jet airliner that was operated until 2003. It had a speed over twice the speed of sound at Mach 2.04. First flown in 1969, Concorde entered service in 1976 and continued flying for the next 27 years and it is one of only two supersonic transports to have been operated commercially, the other is the Soviet-built Tupolev Tu-144, which was operated for a much shorter period. Concorde was jointly developed and manufactured by Aérospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation under an Anglo-French treaty, twenty aircraft were built, including six prototypes and development aircraft. Air France and British Airways were the airlines to purchase. The aircraft was used by wealthy passengers who could afford to pay a high price in exchange for Concordes speed. In the UK, any or all of the type are known simply as Concorde, the type was retired in 2003 after the crash of Air France Flight 4590, in which all passengers and crew were killed. The general downturn in the aviation industry after the September 11 attacks in 2001. The group met for the first time in February 1954 and delivered their first report in April 1955, at the time it was known that the drag at supersonic speeds was strongly related to the span of the wing. The team outlined a baseline configuration that looked like an enlarged Avro 730 and this same short span produced very little lift at low speed, which resulted in extremely long take-off runs and frighteningly high landing speeds. In an SST design, this would have required enormous engine power to lift off from existing runways, based on this, the group considered the concept of an SST infeasible, and instead suggested continued low-level studies into supersonic aerodynamics. Soon after, Johanna Weber and Dietrich Küchemann at the RAE published a series of reports on a new wing planform, the vortex will lower the air pressure and cause lift to be greatly increased. This effect had been noticed earlier, notably by Chuck Yeager in the Convair XF-92, Weber suggested that this was no mere curiosity, and the effect could be deliberately used to improve low speed performance. Küchemanns and Webers papers changed the nature of supersonic design almost overnight. Although the delta had already used on aircraft prior to this point. Such a layout would still have good supersonic performance inherent to the span, while also offering reasonable take-off. It would also need to have landing gear to produce the required angle of attack while still on the runway. Küchemann presented the idea at a meeting where Morgan was also present, test pilot Eric Brown recalls Morgans reaction to the presentation, saying that he immediately seized on it as the solution to the SST problem
17.
Heathrow Airport
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Heathrow Airport is a major international airport in London, United Kingdom. In 2016, it handled a record 75.7 million passengers, Heathrow lies 14 miles west of Central London, and has two parallel east–west runways along with four operational terminals on a site that covers 12.27 square kilometres. London Heathrow is the hub for British Airways and the primary operating base for Virgin Atlantic. In September 2012, the UK government established the Airports Commission, in July 2015, the commission backed a third runway at Heathrow and the government approved a third runway in October 2016. Heathrow is 14 mi west of central London, near the end of the London Borough of Hillingdon on a parcel of land that is designated part of the Metropolitan Green Belt. The airport is surrounded by the areas of Harlington, Harmondsworth, Longford and Cranford to the north and by Hounslow. To the south lie Bedfont and Stanwell while to the west Heathrow is separated from Slough in Berkshire by the M25 motorway, Heathrow falls entirely under the TW postcode area. As the airport is west of London and as its runways run east–west, for a chronicled history of Heathrow Airport, see History of Heathrow Airport. Heathrow Airport originated in 1929 as an airfield on land south-east of the hamlet of Heathrow from which the airport takes its name. At that time there were farms, market gardens and orchards there, there was a Heathrow Farm about where Terminal 1 is now, a Heathrow Hall and a Heathrow House. This hamlet was largely along a lane which ran roughly along the east. Development of the whole Heathrow area as a much larger airport began in 1944. But by the time the airfield was nearing completion, World War II had ended, the government continued to develop the airport as a civil airport, it opened as London Airport in 1946 and was renamed Heathrow Airport in 1966. Heathrow Airport is used by over 80 airlines flying to 185 destinations in 84 countries, the airport is the primary hub of British Airways and is a base for Virgin Atlantic. It has four terminals and a cargo terminal. Of Heathrows 73.4 million passengers in 2014, 93% were international travellers, the busiest single destination in passenger numbers is New York, with over 3 million passengers flying between Heathrow and JFK Airport in 2013. As the required length for runways has grown, Heathrow now has two parallel runways running east–west. These are extended versions of the two east–west runways from the original hexagram, from the air, almost all of the original runways can still be seen, incorporated into the present system of taxiways
18.
Vickers VC10
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The Vickers VC10 is a long-range British airliner designed and built by Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd and first flown at Brooklands, Surrey, in 1962. The airliner was designed to operate on routes from the shorter runways of the era and commanded excellent hot. Although only a small number of VC10s were built, they provided long service with BOAC. They were also used from 1965 as strategic air transports for the Royal Air Force, the type was retired from RAF service on 20 September 2013. It has been succeeded in the aerial refuelling role by the Airbus Voyager, vC10K3 ZA147 performed the final flight of the type on 25 September 2013. Although privately owned, Britains aviation industry had been government-managed in practice, during the 1950s, the government required the aviation industry to consolidate, in consequence only two engine makers were left by 1959, Rolls-Royce and Bristol Siddeley. In 1951, the Ministry of Supply asked Vickers-Armstrongs to consider a military development of the Valiant V bomber with trans-Atlantic range as a successor to the de Havilland Comet. The concept interested BOAC, who entered into discussion with Vickers, in October 1952, Vickers were contracted to build a prototype which they designated the Type 1000, followed in June 1954 by a production order for six aircraft for the RAF. The planned civil airliner was known as the VC7, development was prolonged by the need to meet the RAFs requirements for short take-off and a self-loading capability. Work started on the prototype but by 1955 the aircrafts increased weight required a powerful engine. In 1955, the government cancelled the RAF order in a round of defence cuts, though BOAC had ordered modified Comet 4s, it viewed the type as an intermediate rather than a long term type. In 1956, BOAC ordered 15 Boeing 707s, several companies proposed a suitable replacement. De Havilland offered the DH.118, a development of the Comet 5 project while Handley Page proposed the HP.97, based on their V bomber, after carefully considering the routes, Vickers offered the VC10. Crucially, Vickers was the only firm willing to launch its design as a private venture, the VC10 was a new design but used some production ideas and techniques, as well as the Conway engines, developed for the V.1000 and VC7. The onboard avionics and flight-deck technology was advanced, a quadruplicated automatic flight control system was intended to enable fully automatic zero-visibility landings. Capacity was up to 135 passengers in a two-class configuration, Vickers calculated that it would need to sell 80 VC10s at about £1.75 million each to break even so, apart from BOACs 25, another 55 remained to be sold. Vickers offered a version, the VC11, to BEA for routes like those to Athens and Beirut. Vickers revamped its plans to try to achieve break-even point with 35 sales at £1.5 million each
19.
Supersonic transport
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A supersonic transport is a civilian supersonic aircraft designed to transport passengers at speeds greater than the speed of sound. To date, the only SSTs to see regular service have been Concorde, the last passenger flight of the Tu-144 was in June 1978 and it was last flown in 1999 by NASA. Concordes last commercial flight was in October 2003, with a November 26,2003 ferry flight being its last airborne operation, following the permanent cessation of flying by Concorde, there are no remaining SSTs in commercial service. However, some aerial company aims at Supersonic business jet, which may bring supersonic transport back again, Supersonic airliners have been the objects of numerous recent and ongoing design studies. Drawbacks and design challenges are excessive noise generation, high development costs, expensive materials, great weight. In 2016, NASA announced it had signed a contract for the design of a modern low-noise SST prototype, the designing team is led by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics. Throughout the 1950s an SST looked possible from a technical standpoint, lift is generated using different means at supersonic speeds, and these methods are considerably less efficient than subsonic methods, with approximately one-half the lift-to-drag ratio. This implies that for any given required amount of lift, the aircraft will have to supply about twice the thrust and this effect is pronounced at speeds close to the speed of sound, as the aircraft is using twice the thrust to travel at about the same speed. The relative effect is reduced as the aircraft accelerates to higher speeds, serious work on SST designs started in the mid-1950s, when the first generation of supersonic fighter aircraft were entering service.2 M-Wing. Avro Canada proposed several designs to TWA that included Mach 1.6 double-ogee wing and Mach 1.2 delta-wing with separate tail, avros team moved to the UK where its design formed the basis of Hawker Siddeleys designs. In the early 1960s, various executives of US aerospace companies were telling the US public, Congress was soon funding an SST design effort, selecting the existing Lockheed L-2000 and Boeing 2707 designs, to produce an even more advanced, larger, faster and longer ranged design. The Boeing 2707 design was selected for continued work, with design goals of ferrying around 300 passengers. The Soviet Union set out to produce its own design, the Tu-144, the SST was seen as particularly offensive due to its sonic boom and the potential for its engine exhaust to damage the ozone layer. Both problems impacted the thinking of lawmakers, and eventually Congress dropped funding for the US SST program in 1971, and all overland commercial supersonic flight was banned. Presidential advisor Russell Train warned that a fleet of 500 SSTs flying at 65,000 ft. for a period of years could raise stratospheric water content by as much as 50% to 100%. According to Train, this could lead to greater ground-level heat, later, an additional threat to the ozone was hypothesized as a result of the exhausts nitrogen oxides, a threat that was, in 1974, seemingly validated by MIT. In 1981 models and observations were still irreconcilable, more recent computer models in 1995 by David W. Fahey expressed that this would not be a fatal obstacle for an advanced SST development - while a big caution flag. Should not be a showstopper for advanced SST development because removing the sulfur in the fuel of the would essentially eliminate the hypothesized 1-2% ozone-destruction-reaction-pathway
20.
Air France
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Air France, stylized as AIRFRANCE, is the French flag carrier headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. It is a subsidiary of the Air France–KLM Group and a member of the SkyTeam global airline alliance. The airlines global hub is at Charles de Gaulle Airport with Orly Airport, Air Frances corporate headquarters, previously in Montparnasse, Paris, are located on the grounds of Charles de Gaulle Airport, north of Paris. During the Cold War, from 1950 until 1990, it was one of the three main Allied scheduled airlines operating in Germany at West Berlins Tempelhof and Tegel airports. In 1990, it acquired the operations of French domestic carrier Air Inter and it served as Frances primary national flag carrier for seven decades prior to its 2003 merger with KLM. Between April 2001 and March 2002, the airline carried 43.3 million passengers and had a revenue of €12. 53bn. In November 2004, Air France ranked as the largest European airline with 25. 5% total market share, Air France operates a mixed fleet of Airbus and Boeing widebody jets on long-haul routes, and uses Airbus A320 family aircraft on short-haul routes. Air France introduced the A380 on 20 November 2009 with service to New York Citys JFK Airport from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, the carriers regional airline subsidiary, HOP. operates the majority of its regional domestic and European scheduled services with a fleet of regional jet aircraft. Of these airlines, SGTA was the first commercial company in France. The constituent members of Air France had already built extensive networks across Europe, to French colonies in North Africa, during World War II, Air France moved its operations to Casablanca. In 1936, Air France added French-built twin engine Potez 62 aircraft to its featuring a two compartment cabin that could accommodate 14 to 16 passengers. A high wing monoplane, it had a fuselage with composite coating while the wings were fabric covered with a metal leading edge. Equipped with Hispano-Suiza V-engines, they were used on routes in Europe, South America, on 26 June 1945 all of Frances air transport companies were nationalised. On 29 December 1945, a decree of the French Government granted Air France the management of the entire French air transport network, Air France appointed its first flight attendants in 1946. The same year the airline opened its first air terminal at Les Invalides in central Paris and it was linked to Paris Le Bourget Airport, Air Frances first operations and engineering base, by coach. At that time the network covered 160,000 km, claimed to be the longest in the world, Société Nationale Air France was set up on 1 January 1946. European schedules were initially operated by a fleet of Douglas DC-3 aircraft, on 1 July 1946, Air France started direct flights between Paris and New York via refuelling stops at Shannon and Gander. Douglas DC-4 piston-engine airliners covered the route in just under 20 hours, in September 1947 Air Frances network stretched east from New York, Fort de France and Buenos Aires to Shanghai
21.
British Overseas Airways Corporation
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British Overseas Airways Corporation was the British state-owned airline created in 1940 by the merger of Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd. It continued operating overseas services throughout World War II, after the passing of the Civil Aviation Act of 1946, European and South American services passed to two further state-owned airlines, British European Airways and British South American Airways. BOAC absorbed BSAA in 1949, but BEA continued to operate British domestic, a 1971 Act of Parliament merged BOAC and BEA with effect from 31 March 1974, forming todays British Airways. On 24 November 1939, BOAC was created by Act of Parliament to become the British state airline, formed from the merger of Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd. The companies had been operating together since war was declared on 3 September 1939, on 1 April 1940, BOAC started operations as a single company. Linking Britain to the Horseshoe Route taxed the resources of BOAC, although Spain denied access, Portugal welcomed BOACs civilian aircraft at Lisbon. The Empire flying-boats were at their limit on the 1,900 mile Lisbon-Bathurst sector, refuelling at Las Palmas in the Canary Islands was permitted by Spain for some Empire flying-boat flights in 1940 and 1941. In 1941 longer range Consolidated Catalinas, Boeing 314As were introduced to guarantee non-stop Lisbon to Bathurst sectors, BOACs flying-boat base for Britain was shifted from Southampton to Poole, Dorset, but many flights used Foynes in Éire, reached by shuttle flight from Whitchurch. Use of Foynes reduced the chance of interception or friendly fire incidents over the English Channel. BOAC had large bases at Durban, Asmara, Alexandria and a school at Soroti. These were BOACs first New York services and this was the first sustained North Atlantic landplane service. By September 1944 BOAC had made 1,000 transatlantic crossings, in late 1942, the new hard-surface airport at Lisbon permitted the use of civil registered Liberators to North and West Africa and Egypt. Arguably, BOACs most famous wartime route was the Ball-bearing Run from Leuchars to Stockholm in neutral Sweden, initially flown with Lockheed 14s and Lockheed Hudson transports, the unsuitable Armstrong Whitworth Whitley civilianised bombers were also used between 9 August and 24 October 1942. The much faster civilian registered de Havilland Mosquitoes were introduced by BOAC in 1943, between 1939 and 19456,000 passengers were transported by BOAC between Stockholm and Great Britain. At the end of the war, BOACs fleet consisted of Lockheed Lodestars, lend-lease Douglas DC-3s, Liberators, converted Sunderlands, and the first Avro Lancastrians, Avro Yorks, and Handley Page Haltons. The Short Empire, Short S.26 and Boeing 314A flying boats, the Corporations aircraft, bases and personnel were scattered around the world, and it took a decade to reorganise it into an efficient unit at Heathrow. Whilst the major world airlines abandoned flying-boats at the end of WWII, BOAC continued with theirs until 1950, and even introduced the new Short Solent on the leisurely Nile route to South Africa. In 1948, the unpressurised Yorks were still operating passenger services as far afield as Nairobi, Accra, Delhi and Calcutta, after its first six Lockheed 049 Constellations, BOAC had to use some ingenuity to increase its Constellation fleet
22.
Rapier (missile)
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Rapier is a British surface-to-air missile developed for the RAF Regiment and the British Army. It replaced Bofors guns and Tigercat missiles in RAF service and it remains the UKs primary air-defence weapon after almost 35 years of service, and its deployment is expected to continue until 2020. Rapier began development in 1961 as a venture at British Aircraft Corporation known as Sightline. The project was to combat supersonic, low level, high manoeuvrability craft, the operator would keep the telescopic gunsight centred on the target, and the automated systems would guide the missile to that point. BAC joked that the system was a hit-ile, as opposed to a miss-ile, the weapons system had entirely originated from research carried out by Bradfords Colin Baron and John Twinn at the Royal Aircraft Establishment in the 1960s. At the time the British Army was planning on purchasing the advanced American MIM-46 Mauler system for its air-defence needs, when Mauler ran into problems in 1963, the Ministry of Defence issued requirement ET.316 and started funding Sightline as a backup in case Mauler did not deliver. That eventuality came to pass, and ET.316 was completely developed as Rapier, complete systems were tested in 1968, which led to a production contract issued in 1969. On a parallel track, the RAF Regiment had Tigercat developed for it in 1967 from the Seacat naval surface-to-air missile system, in 1972 a trials unit known as the Rapier Pilot Battery was formed jointly by No 63 Squadron RAF Regiment and 9 Light Air Defence Battery Royal Artillery. Comprehensive trials ended in 1973 and the first Rapier unit in British service - No 63 Squadron - deployed to its station in Germany in mid-1974. The original Rapier took the form of a launcher with four missiles, an optical tracker unit. The search radar was of the pulsed Doppler type with a range of about 15 km, the aerial, located at the top of the launcher, rotated about once a second, looking for moving targets that are visible due to their doppler shift. When one was located, a lamp would light up on the Selector Engagement Zone, the radar operator could also blank out returns from other directions, providing jamming resistance. The optical tracker unit was made up of a lower section. The lower section housed the controls, while the upper section housed the tracking optics. The operators optical system was a modified telescope containing a Dove prism to prevent the image toppling as the optics rotate in azimuth and this system meant that, unlike a periscope, the operator did not have to move in order to track the target. The upper section contained a separate missile tracking system that was slaved to the operators optics. Upon detection, the tracking system would then be slewed to target azimuth. The operators field of view would depend on the target range, when the target was found the operator switches to track and uses a joystick to keep the target centred in the telescope
23.
Sea Skua
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The Sea Skua is a British lightweight short-range air-to-surface missile designed for use from helicopters against ships. It is primarily used by the Royal Navy on the Westland Lynx, although the missile is intended for helicopter use, Kuwait employs it in a shore battery and on their Umm Al Maradem fast attack craft. The British Aircraft Corporation began development of the weapon in May 1972, the British Government authorised its production in October 1975. At the time, the missile was known as CL834, in November 1979 the first launches took place at the Aberporth Range in Cardigan Bay. Three missiles were launched from the ground and three by helicopters, further tests were made and in July 1981, full-scale production was ordered of the new missile, now called Sea Skua. With the missile weighing only 320 pounds at launch, a Lynx helicopter can carry up to four, the booster is a Royal Ordnance Redstart steel body, while the sustainer is a Royal Ordnance Matapan light alloy body. The missile flies at subsonic speed to a range of up to 15.5 miles. The official range is declared to be 15 km, but this is widely exceeded, the missile has two sensors, a semi-active radar homing system by Marconi Defence Systems, and a Thomson-TRT AHV-7 radar altimeter, built under licence by British Aerospace Defence Systems. It can be set to travel at one of four pre-selected heights, near the target, the missile climbs to a height at which it can acquire the target. The launching helicopter illuminates the target with its radar, and the homing head homes in on the reflected energy. On impact it penetrates the hull of a ship before detonating the 62 pounds blast fragmentation warhead, a semi armour piercing warhead is also available, this contains 9 kilograms of RDX, aluminium and wax. The fuze is an impact-delayed model, the illuminating radar aboard Lynx helicopters is the GEC-Ferranti Seaspray I band, which weighs 64 kilograms, a power of 90 kW, two modes and a 90° observation field. The Seaspray Mk.3 had an antenna with a 360° field of view. It is capable of operating in a track while scan mode, the missile flight ends after 75–125 seconds, during which time the helicopter can manoeuver at up to 80° from the missile path. In addition to serving with the United Kingdom, the Sea Skua has been exported to Germany, India, Kuwait and it was generally preferred to the similar rival, the French-built AS15 TT, even though the two missiles had similar performance. The guidance of AS-15TT was radio-command, and it required the Agrion 15 radar, Sea Skuas success in active service and its adoption by the Royal Navy resulted in considerable success in the international market. Sea Skuas were launched eight times during the Falklands War, sometimes in bad weather. Four were used against the 800 ton patrol boat/rescue tug ARA Alférez Sobral, two struck the patrol boat on the bridge, one hit the ships fibreglass sea boat, and one passed over the ship
24.
Sea Wolf (missile)
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Sea Wolf is a naval guided missile system designed and built by BAC, later to become British Aerospace Dynamics. It is an automated point-defence weapon system designed as a line of defence against both sea-skimming and high angle anti-ship missiles and aircraft. The Royal Navy has fielded two versions, the GWS-25 Conventionally Launched Sea Wolf and the GWS-26 Vertically Launched Sea Wolf forms, a contract was awarded in 1967 to BAC, Vickers and Bristol Aerojet. Testing lasted from 1970 until 1977, with trials on a modified Leander class frigate, HMS Penelope. During trials, the missile performed impressively, successfully intercepting a 114 mm shell on one occasion, the first deployment, in the GWS-25 form, was on the Type 22 frigate and later on modified Leander class frigates in six-round, manually loaded, trainable launchers. It entered service with the Royal Navy in 1979 and was fired in anger during the Falklands War, current deployment is the GWS-26 Mod 1 system on Type 23 frigates, fielding 32 vertical launch missiles in its missile silo. It is expected to remain in service until 2020, Sea Wolf is powered by the Blackcap solid-fuel rocket to a maximum velocity of Mach 2, and can intercept targets at ranges between 1,000 and 6,000 m and altitudes between 10 and 3,000 m. The warhead weighs 14 kg and is a proximity fused HE-fragmenting type, in the manually loaded form, the missiles are stored on board in individual maintenance-free canisters, sealed until use and handled like a round of ammunition. The systems standard mode is fully automated and uses radar tracking, target detection is carried out using the parent ships surveillance radars. On the Type 23 frigates, these functions have taken over by the Type 996 3D surveillance radar. Target data is processed by the computers and when the system is live. When a target is to be engaged, the ships computer slews one of the two Sea Wolf trackers onto the target. Originally the Type 910, with an I-band radar, was used, low-level targets had to be engaged using the 910s secondary TV mode to manually track the target. Subsequently, the lighter Type 911 supplanted the Type 910, adding a radar and was fitted in the 7th Type 22 Frigate onwards. Unlike Type 910, Type 911 does not have any TV function, the TV camera is retained only to allow the Missile Director to visually confirm targets, and to provide a record of engagements. When lock has been achieved with the missile tracker a round is fired and it is possible for a single tracker to control a salvo of two missiles. The radar and CCTV guidance system were developed by Marconi Radar at Great Baddow, during the Falklands War, Sea Wolf was the Royal Navys only modern point-defence weapon. It equipped the Type 22 frigates HMS Brilliant, HMS Broadsword and these ships were assigned goalkeeper duties, to provide close anti-aircraft defence of the carrier task force
25.
Hughes Aircraft Company
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The Hughes Aircraft Company was a major American aerospace and defense contractor founded in 1932 by Howard Hughes in Glendale, California as a division of Hughes Tool Company. During World War II the company designed and built prototype aircraft at Hughes Airport. These included the famous Hughes H-4 Hercules, better known by the nickname for it, the Spruce Goose, the H-1 racer, D-2. At the start of the war Hughes Aircraft had only four full-time employees—by the end the number was 80,000. Hughes Aircraft was one of many aerospace and defense companies which flourished in Southern California during, by the summer of 1947 certain politicians had become concerned about Hughes alleged mismanagement of the Spruce Goose and the XF-11 photo reconnaissance plane project. They formed a committee to investigate Hughes which culminated in a much-followed Senate investigation. Despite a highly critical report, Hughes was cleared. In 1948 Hughes created a new division of the company, the Aerospace Group, two Hughes engineers, Simon Ramo and Dean Wooldridge, had new ideas on the packaging of electronics to make complete fire control systems. Their MA-1 system combined signals from the radar with a digital computer to automatically guide the interceptor aircraft into the proper position for firing missiles. At the same time other teams were working with the newly formed US Air Force on air-to-air missiles, delivering the AIM-4 Falcon, the MA-1/Falcon package, with several upgrades, was the primary interceptor weapon system of the USAF for many years, lasting into the 1980s. The company became TRW in 1965, another company and a major competitor to Hughes Aircraft. In 1951 Hughes Aircraft Co. built a plant in Tucson. By the end of year, the U. S. Air Force had purchased the property. This Tucson plant is still in operation under the ownership of Raytheon Co, Howard Hughes donated Hughes Aircraft to the newly formed Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 1953 allegedly as a way of avoiding taxes on its huge income. Pat Hyland was hired as president and general manager of Hughes Aircraft, he would ultimately become company president. Under Hylands guidance, the Aerospace Group continued to diversify and become massively profitable, the company developed radar systems, electro-optical systems, the first working laser, aircraft computer systems, missile systems, ion-propulsion engines, and many other advanced technologies. The Electronic Properties Information Center of the United States was hosted at the Hughes Culver City library in the 1970s, EPIC published the multi-volume Handbook of Electronic Materials as public documents. Greg Jarvis and Ronald McNair, two of the astronauts on the last flight of the Space Shuttle Challenger, were Hughes alumni, Hughes Aircraft Ground Systems Group was located in Fullerton, California
26.
Intelsat
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Intelsat, S. A. is a communications satellite services provider. As of March 2017, Intelsat is to merge with Softbank backed OneWeb, the agreement is to merge in a share-for-share deal. SoftBank will buy voting and non-voting shares in the company for $1.7 billion in cash. Shares that Softbank-OneWeb will buy in the company will be bought for $5 per share. As of March 2011, Intelsat operates a fleet of 52 communications satellites and they claim to serve around 1,500 customers and employ a staff of approximately 1,100 people. The intergovernmental organization began on 20 August 1964, with 11 participating countries, on 6 April 1965, Intelsat’s first satellite, the Intelsat I, was placed in geostationary orbit above the Atlantic Ocean by a Delta D rocket. In 1973, the name was changed and there were 80 signatories, Intelsat provides service to over 600 Earth stations in more than 149 countries, territories and dependencies. By 2001, INTELSAT had over 100 members and it was also this year that INTELSAT privatized and changed its name to Intelsat. Since its inception, Intelsat has used versions of its dedicated Intelsat satellites. Intelsat completes each block of spacecraft independently, leading to a variety of contractors over the years, Intelsat’s largest spacecraft supplier is Space Systems/Loral, having built 31 spacecraft, or nearly half of the fleet. The network in its early years was not as robust as it is now. Fortunately, during the Apollo 11 moonwalk, the moon was over the Pacific Ocean, and so other antennas were used, as well as INTELSAT III, to avert the US governments interference with Intelsat, Intelsats senior management unsuccessfully considered relocating the IGO to another country. On 18 July 2001, Intelsat became a company,37 years after formation. Prior to Intelsats privatization in 2001, ownership and investment in INTELSAT was distributed among INTELSAT members according to their use of services, investment shares determined each member’s percentage of the total contribution needed to finance capital expenditures. Satellite services were available to any organization, and all paid the same rates. Today, the number of Intelsat satellites, as well as ocean-spanning fibre-optic lines, modern satellites are more robust, lasting longer with much larger capacity. Intelsat Americas-7 experienced a power failure on 29 November 2004. The satellite returned to service with reduced capacity, Intelsat was sold for U. S. $3. 1bn in January 2005 to four private equity firms, Madison Dearborn Partners, Apax Partners, Permira and Apollo Global Management
27.
Warton Aerodrome
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Warton Aerodrome is located near to Warton village on the Fylde in Lancashire, England. The aerodrome is 6 NM west of Preston, Lancashire, UK, today the airfield is a major assembly and testing facility of BAE Systems Military Air & Information. It is also part of Lancashire Enterprise Zone, Warton Aerodrome has a CAA Ordinary Licence that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction as authorised by the licensee. In 1940 new runways were built at Warton so that it could act as an airfield for the RAF Coastal Command station at Squires Gate airfield in Blackpool. On 14 August 1944 Glenn Miller, recently promoted to the rank of major, on 23 August 1944, the accidental crash of a USAAF Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber caused the Freckleton Air Disaster. It then became a Royal Air Force station, in 1947, English Electric took over the site, moving its main design office there from the Strand Road site in Preston in 1948. With the merger of English Electric Aviation and the other divisions of the major British manufacturers in 1960. BAC was then nationalised and merged with Hawker Siddeley and Scottish Aviation to form British Aerospace in 1977, BAe was later privatised in 1981 and was renamed BAE Systems in 1999. In June 2010 The Sun reported that poisonous red back spiders had been discovered in a consignment of parts from Australia, the article expressed fears that these spiders would colonise the surrounding countryside. As a routine response, BAE Systems employed a specialist contractor who quickly managed to eliminate the spiders, BAE Systems also implemented a number of measures to prevent further incursions of foreign species in subsequent consignments from Australia. Warton was used as the base for all British development aircraft, Warton has been home to the initial Typhoon squadrons of the Royal Air Force, No.17 Squadron and No.29 Squadron. BAE states that this allows inevitable problems with any new aircraft to be ironed out by BAE personnel on site. BAE plans to offer this on site service to any export customers, Warton was also used for development flying of the Nimrod MRA4 Maritime Reconnaissance and Attack aircraft until the aircraft was cut in the Strategic Defence and Security Review in 2010. The final new build Tornado left Warton in 1998, a GR.1 for Saudi Arabia, following this the main assembly hall was re-fitted as the final assembly site of the Eurofighter Typhoon. BAE estimate that modern manufacturing techniques allow the 30 week assembly time for a Tornado to be reduced to 16 weeks for the Typhoon. Warton is the base for BAE Systems Corporate Air Travel department which operates scheduled services for employees to Farnborough, Munich, Filton, Cambridge, RAF Coningsby, and RAF Marham. The Farnborough and Munich services are provided by Corporate Air Travels BAe 146 aircraft, many ad hoc passenger flights also take place operated by various VIP operators including the Queens Flight. The site is not open to the public and these Families Days were free of charge and typically included demonstrations of activities, tours of simulation facilities and impressive flying displays
28.
Breguet Aviation
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The Société des Ateliers dAviation Louis Breguet also known as Breguet Aviation was a French aircraft manufacturer. The company was set up in 1911 by aviation pioneer Louis Charles Breguet, the company, together with the British Aircraft Corporation, was a parent to SEPECAT which was formed to develop and produce the SEPECAT Jaguar aircraft. In 1971 it merged with Dassault to form Avions Marcel Dassault-Breguet Aviation, breguet-Richet Gyroplane - experimental single-seat helicopter-like craft with four rotors. Breguet-Richet Gyroplane No.2 Tandem biplane with a pair of large inclined propellers providing both thrust and lift, Breguet Type I - Single-seat tractor configuration biplane with boxkite-like tail on booms. Breguet Type II - Development of the Type I, with an undercarriage and the tail carried at the end of a fuselage-like structure. Did not fly Breguet Bre.4 - Single-engine two-seat biplane bomber, pusher configuration Breguet Bre.5 - Single-engine two-seat biplane escort fighter. Bomber aircraft Breguet 17 - Smaller version of Breguet 14, fighter aircraft. 11E - coaxial helicopter prototype Breguet 460 Vultur - Twin-engine light bomber Breguet 470 - Twin-engine airliner, only one unit built. Also Br.731 Breguet Deux-Ponts - Br. 761/763/765 Four-engine double-deck large airliner, Breguet 790 Nautilus - Single-engine flying boat Breguet 890 Mercure - Civil/military transport Breguet Br 900 Louisette - Single-seat competition sailplane. Breguet Br 901 Mouette - Single-seat competition sailplane, Breguet Br 904 Nymphale - Two-seat sailplane. Breguet Br 905 Fauvette - Single-seat competition sailplane, Breguet 940 - Four-engine STOL transport aircraft. Turboprop engines Breguet 941 - Four-engine STOL transport aircraft, turboprop engines Breguet Vultur - Br.960 Twin-engine two-seat naval anti-submarine aircraft. Jet engine and turboprop engine Breguet Taon - Br.1001 Single-engine single-seat jet strike aircraft, Breguet Alizé - Br.1050 Single-engine three-seat naval anti-submarine aircraft. Turboprop engine Breguet 1100 - Twin-engine jet fighter Breguet Atlantique - Br.1150 Twin-engine naval reconnaissance aircraft, turboprop engines Leduc 0.10 Leduc 0.21 Leduc 0.22 Before 1914, in addition to producing aircraft, the firm produced a few six-cylinder engined cars. During the Second World War the company produced a car powered by batteries. The motor was capable of producing two different levels of output, first gear and Reverse gear were provided with 36 volts, while Second gear equated to 72 volts. An advertisement for the car in 1941 claimed a range of 100 km between charges without mentioning that this range was available where adhering to steady cruising speed of 20 km/h. Cruising at a steady 40 km/h would, on the basis, have given a range of 65 km. The car had a modern looking all-enveloping two-seater body with a long tapered tail which contained the motor
29.
SEPECAT Jaguar
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A carrier-based variant was also planned for French service, but this was cancelled in favour of the cheaper Dassault Super Étendard. The airframes were manufactured by SEPECAT, a joint venture between Breguet and the British Aircraft Corporation, one of the first major joint-Anglo-French military aircraft programs, the Jaguar was exported to India, Oman, Ecuador and Nigeria. In the Gulf War, the Jaguar was praised for its reliability and was a valuable coalition resource, the aircraft served with the French Air Force as the main strike/attack aircraft until 1 July 2005, and with the Royal Air Force until the end of April 2007. It was replaced by the Panavia Tornado and the Eurofighter Typhoon in the RAF, in both countries several companies tendered designs, BAC, Hunting, Hawker Siddeley and Folland in Britain, Breguet, Potez, Sud-Aviation, Nord, and Dassault from France. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed in May 1965 for the two countries to two aircraft, a trainer based on the ECAT, and the larger AFVG. Cross-channel negotiations led to the formation of SEPECAT in 1966 as a joint venture between Breguet and the British Aircraft Corporation to produce the airframe. As a result, the initial Br.121 design needed a thinner wing, redesigned fuselage, a rear cockpit. A separate partnership was formed between Rolls-Royce and Turbomeca to develop the Adour afterburning turbofan engine, the Br.121 was proposed with Turbomecas Tourmalet engine for ECAT but Breguet preferred the RR RB.172 and their joint venture would use elements of both. The new engine, which would be used for the AFVG as well, would be built in Derby, Dassault favoured its own Mirage G aircraft above the collaborative AFVG, and in June 1967, France cancelled the AFVG on cost grounds. The RAF had initially planned on a buy of 150 trainers, however, the RAFs strike line-up was at this point intended to consist of American F-111s plus the AFVG for lighter strike purposes. While the RAF had initially planned to buy 150 trainers, the TSR2, as a result, by October 1970, the RAFs requirements had changed to 165 single-seat strike aircraft and 35 trainers. The Jaguar was to replace the McDonnell Douglas Phantom FGR2 in the air support, tactical reconnaissance and tactical strike roles. Both the French and British trainer requirements had developed significantly, and were eventually fulfilled instead by the Alpha Jet, from these apparently disparate aims would come a single and entirely different aircraft, relatively high-tech, supersonic, and optimised for ground-attack in a high-threat environment. The first of eight prototypes flew on 8 September 1968, a two-seat design fitted with the first production model Adour engine and this aircraft later went supersonic on its third flight but was lost on landing on 26 March 1970 following an engine fire. The second prototype flew in February 1969, a total of three prototypes appeared in flight at the Paris Air Show that year, the first French A prototype flew in March 1969. In October a British S conducted its first flight, an M prototype flew in November 1969. The M had an airframe, an arrestor hook and different undercarriage, twin nosewheel. After testing in France it went to RAE at Thurleigh for carrier landing trials from their land based catapult, in July 1970 it made real take offs and landings from the French carrier Clemenceau
30.
Dassault Aviation
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Dassault Aviation SA is an international French aircraft manufacturer of military, regional, and business jets, a subsidiary of Dassault Group. It was founded in 1929 by Marcel Bloch as Société des Avions Marcel Bloch or MB, after World War II, Marcel Bloch changed his name to Marcel Dassault, and the name of the company was changed to Avions Marcel Dassault on 20 January 1947. In 1971 Dassault acquired Breguet, forming Avions Marcel Dassault-Breguet Aviation, in 1990 the company was renamed Dassault Aviation. The Dassault Aviation Group is headed by Eric Trappier since 9 January 2013, the Société des Avions Marcel Bloch was founded by Marcel Bloch in 1929. In 1935 Bloch and Henry Potez entered into an agreement to buy Société Aérienne Bordelaise, in 1936 the arms industry in France was nationalised as the Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques du Sud Ouest. Marcel Bloch was asked to act as delegated administrator of the Minister for Air, during the occupation of France the countrys aviation industry was virtually disbanded. Marcel Bloch was imprisoned by the Vichy government in October 1940, in 1944 Bloch was deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp by the German occupiers where he remained until it was liberated on 11 April 1945. On 20 January 1947 Société des Avions Marcel Bloch became Société des Avions Marcel Dassault to reflect the name adopted by its owner, from the 1950s to late 1970s exports become a major part of Dassault’s business, major successes were the Dassault Mirage series and the Mystere-Falcon. In 1965 and 1966 the French government stressed to its various defense suppliers the need to specialize to maintain viable companies, Dassault was to specialise in combat and business aircraft, Nord Aviation in ballistic missiles and Sud Aviation civil and military transport aircraft and helicopters. On 27 June 1967 Dassault acquired 66% of Breguet Aviation, under the merger deal Société des Avions Marcel Dassault was dissolved on 14 December 1971, with its assets vested in Breguet, to be renamed Avions Marcel Dassault-Breguet Aviation. Dassault Systèmes was established in 1981 to develop and market Dassault’s CAD program, Dassault Systèmes was to become a market leader in this field. In 1979 the French government took a 20% share in Dassault and established the Societé de Gestion de Participations Aéronautiques to manage this, in 1998 the French government transferred its shares in Dassault Aviation to Aerospatiale. On 10 July 2000, Aérospatiale-Matra merged with other European companies to form EADS, in 2000 Serge Dassault resigned as chairman and was succeeded by Charles Edelstenne. Serge Dassault was appointed honorary chairman, the American company Atlantic Aviation based in Wilmington, Delaware, was acquired in October 2000. On 18 December 2000, Dassault Aviation was the first French company to be certified ISO 9001/2000 by BVQI, within fifteen years or so, thanks to developments in I. T. the industrial design offices went from using drawing boards to computerized 3D-modelling. Physical models were replaced by virtual digital mock-ups enabling a first version to be produced that is directly operational and this veritable industrial revolution was made possible thanks to PLM software from Dassault Systemes. Virtual plateau technology, allowing all the offices to work together simultaneously within short deadlines, was deployed for the Falcon 7X trijet program. In this way, for the first time, the primary parts, airbus sold some of its ownership back to Dassault in 2014, and further reduced its share to 27% in 2015
31.
Rolls-Royce Holdings
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This article is about the Rolls-Royce aircraft engine and power systems business and its owner since 1987. For previous owners, see Rolls-Royce Limited, for the present day manufacturers of automobiles for BMW, see Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. Rolls-Royce is the world’s second-largest maker of engines and has major businesses in the marine propulsion. All of its shares are tradeable on the London Stock Exchange, Rolls-Royce was the worlds 16th-largest defence contractor in 2011 and 2012 when measured by defence revenues. It had an order book of £71.6 billion as of January 2014. Rolls-Royce Holdings plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE100 Index, as of June 2013, it had a market capitalisation of £22.22 billion, the 24th-largest of any company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange. Rolls-Royce grew from the business of F H Royce which was established in 1884 and ten years later began to manufacture dynamos. C S Rolls established a business with F H Royce in 1904 because Royce had developed a range of cars which Rolls wanted to sell. A corporate owner was incorporated in 1906 with the name Rolls-Royce Limited and its business and assets were bought by the government using a company created for the purpose named Rolls-Royce limited. This company remains in existence today and carries on Rolls-Royce business under the name Rolls-Royce plc, Rolls-Royce plc returned to the sharemarkets in 1987 under the government of Margaret Thatcher. In 2003 ownership of Rolls-Royce plc was passed to Rolls-Royce Group plc incorporated 21 March 2003 which issued its own new shares for payment to the previous shareholders. In 2011 in the same way Rolls-Royce Group plc passed ownership on 23 May 2011 to Rolls-Royce Holdings plc a wholly new company incorporated 10 February 2011, Rolls-Royce plc remains the principal trading company. Rolls-Royce Holdings plc, like its predecessor, is merely a holding company. The group included Clarke Chapman, Reyrolle and Parsons, the company was renamed Rolls-Royce Industrial Power Group. It was sold off piecemeal over the decade as the company re-focused on its core aero-engine operations following the recession of the early 1990s. On 21 November 1994, Rolls-Royce announced its intention to acquire the Allison Engine Company, the two companies had a technical association dating back to the Second World War. Rolls-Royce had previously tried to buy the company when General Motors sold it in 1993, owing to Allisons involvement in classified and export restricted technology, the 1994 acquisition was subject to investigation to determine the national security implications. On 27 March 1995, the US Department of Defense announced that the deal between Allison Engine Co. and Rolls-Royce does not endanger national security, in 2000, this restriction was replaced by a more flexible Special Security Arrangement
32.
Bristol Siddeley
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Bristol Siddeley Engines Ltd was a British aero engine manufacturer. The company was formed in 1959 by a merger of Bristol Aero-Engines Limited, in 1961 the company was expanded by the purchase of the de Havilland Engine Company and the engine division of Blackburn Aircraft. Bristol Siddeley was purchased by Rolls-Royce Limited in 1968, Bristol Siddeley Engines Limited was formed by a merger, effective from the 1 April 1959, of the Bristol Aero-Engines and Armstrong Siddeley Motors. These were the engine manufacturing companies of the Bristol Aeroplane Company. The share capital of Bristol Siddeley was held in equal proportions by these two parent organisations, at around the same time Bristols aircraft manufacturing was being subsumed into the British Aircraft Corporation along with those of English Electric and Vickers-Armstrong. Armstrong Siddeley Motors had been producing aero-engines and motor-cars since it had formed in 1919 with the merger of Siddeley-Deasy. Bristol Aero-Engines had been formed in 1920 when the Bristol Aeroplane Company had taken over the assets of the Cosmos Engineering Company. The purpose of the new company was to combine the research, the aircraft side of Blackburn became part of Hawker Siddeley. Both of these companies had long histories in the aero-engine industry, the de Havilland Engine Company Limited had the de Havilland Sprite which was a rocket engine with a military type test certificate. In 1954, the company had produced the axial turbojet Gyron of 30,000 lbf thrust, the de Havilland Engine Companys portfolio included the Gnome turboshaft. In 1952 an agreement was signed which enabled Blackburn Engines Limited to produce engines based on the Turbomeca range of gas turbine engines. These were developed for use as auxiliary power units for large aircraft. Bristol Siddeley was bought by Rolls-Royce Limited in 1966 for £63.6 million in order to prevent competition from a collaboration between BSEL, Pratt & Whitney and Snecma. Bristol Siddeley retained its own identity and marketing organization, Bristol Siddeley Engines Limited is still a listed but dormant company within the Rolls Royce group. The company was one of the largest of its kind in the world, Aero engines produced by the company included piston engines, turboprops, turboshafts, turbojets, turbofans, auxiliary power units, ramjets and liquid propellant rocket engines. The two shaft BS143 was proposed for the MRCA, but the takeover by RR caused the adoption of the three shaft RB199 instead, hypersonics were explored in a shock tube near the High Altitude Test Plant at Bristol, in support of BS1012 hypersonic engine thinking. High supersonic ramjets for long range missiles were tested in the HATP. Bristol Siddeley also manufactured diesel engines under licence from the German company Maybach and these were for installation in British Rail Class 42 and Class 52 locomotives which were themselves based on licensed German designs but with as much British-built content as possible
33.
General Electric Company
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The General Electric Company, or GEC, was a major UK-based industrial conglomerate involved in consumer and defence electronics, communications, and engineering. The company was a constituent of the FTSE100 Index, in December 1999, GECs defence arm, Marconi Electronic Systems, was amalgamated with British Aerospace to form BAE Systems. The rest of GEC continued as Marconi plc, the financial troubles that followed the bursting of the dot-com bubble in 2001 led to the restructuring in 2003 of Marconi plc into Marconi Corporation plc. In 2005, Ericsson acquired the bulk of Marconi Corporation plc, along with its principal subsidiary, the remainder of the business was renamed Telent. GEC had its origins in the G. Binswanger and Company, regarded as the year GEC was founded,1886 saw a fellow immigrant, Hugo Hirst, join Byng, and the company changed its name to The General Electric Apparatus Company. Their small business found success with its unorthodox method of supplying electrical components over the counter. Hugo Hirst was a salesman who saw the potential of electricity and was able to direct the standardisation of an industry in its infancy. He travelled across Europe with an eye for the latest products, the following year, the company acquired its first factory in Salford, where electric bells, telephones, ceiling roses and switches were manufactured. In 1889, the business was incorporated as a company known as General Electric Company Ltd. The company was expanding rapidly, opening new branches and factories and trading in everything electrical, in 1893, it decided to invest in the manufacture of lamps. The resulting company, was to lead the way in lamp design, GEC was incorporated as a public limited company, The General Electric Company Ltd. In 1902, its first purpose-built factory, the Witton Engineering Works, was opened near Birmingham, with the death of Gustav Byng in 1910, Hugo Hirst became the chairman as well as managing director, a position he had assumed in 1906. Hirsts shrewd investment in lamp manufacture was proving extremely profitable, in 1909, Osram began production of the most successful tungsten filament lamps in the industry. Rapidly growing private and commercial use of electricity created huge demand, the company expanded both at home and overseas, with the establishment of agencies in Europe, Japan, Australia, South Africa, and India. It also did trade with South America. The outbreak of World War I transformed GEC into a player in the electrical industry. It was heavily involved in the war effort, with such as radios, signal lamps. Between the wars, GEC expanded to become a global corporation, the takeover of Fraser and Chalmers in 1918 took GEC into heavy engineering and bolstered their claim to supply everything electrical
34.
Airbus A300
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The Airbus A300 is a short- to medium-range wide-body twin-engine jet airliner that was developed and manufactured by Airbus. The A300 can typically seat 266 passengers in a layout, with a maximum range of 4,070 nautical miles when fully loaded. Development of the A300 began during the 1960s as a European collaborative project between various aircraft manufacturers in Britain, France, and West Germany, in September 1967, the participating nations signed a Memorandum of Understanding to manufacture the aircraft. The British withdrew from the project on 10 April 1969, a new agreement was reached between Germany and France on 29 May 1969, and Airbus Industrie was formally created on 18 December 1970 to develop and produce the A300. The type first flew on 28 October 1972, Air France, the launch customer for the A300, introduced the type into service on 30 May 1974. During the 1990s, the A300 became popular with freight operators. Production of the A300 ceased in July 2007, along with its smaller A310 derivative, the freighter sales for which the A300 had previously competed in later life are instead fulfilled by the A330-200F, a derivative of the newer Airbus A330. To overcome this factor, the report recommended the pursuit of multinational collaborative projects between the leading aircraft manufacturers. European manufacturers were keen to explore prospective programs, the proposed 260-seat wide-body HBN100 between Hawker Siddeley, Nord Aviation, and Breguet Aviation being one such example. During the mid-1960s, both Air France and American Airlines had expressed interest in a twin-engine wide-body aircraft, indicating a market demand for such an aircraft to be produced. The word airbus at this point was an aviation term for a larger commercial aircraft. Addition work included moving elements of the wings being produced in the Netherlands, as such, the A300 would feature the first use of composite materials of any passenger aircraft, the leading and trailing edges of the tail fin being composed of glass fibre reinforced plastic. Béteille opted for English as the language for the developing aircraft, as well against using Metric instrumentation and measurements. According to Airbus, this approach to market research had been crucial to the companys long term success. On 26 September 1967, the British, French, and West German governments signed a Memorandum of Understanding to start development of the 300-seat Airbus A300, at this point, the A300 was only the second major joint aircraft programme in Europe, the first being the Anglo-French Concorde. Under the terms of the memorandum, Britain and France were each to receive a 37.5 per cent work share on the project, sud Aviation was recognized as the lead company for A300, with Hawker Siddeley being selected as the British partner company. In December 1968, the French and British partner companies proposed a revised configuration and it had been feared that the original 300-seat proposal was too large for the market, thus it had been scaled down to produce the A250. The dimensional changes involved in the reduced the length of the fuselage by 5.62 meters
35.
McDonnell Douglas DC-10
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The McDonnell Douglas DC-10 is a three-engine wide-body jet airliner manufactured by McDonnell Douglas. The DC-10 has range for medium- to long-haul flights, capable of carrying a maximum of 380 passengers and it features two turbofan engines mounted on underwing pylons and a third engine at the base of the vertical stabilizer. The model was a successor to McDonnell Douglass DC-8 for long-range operations, and competed in the markets as the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar. In its early years the DC-10 had a safety record, however. Production of the DC-10 ended in 1989 with 386 delivered to airlines and 60 to the U. S. Air Force as air-to-air refueling tankers, the largest operator of the DC-10 is U. S. cargo airline FedEx Express. The DC-10 was succeeded by the related McDonnell Douglas MD-11, the DC-10s last commercial passenger flight took place in February 2014, although freighter versions continue to operate. Despite the airliners popularity, only a few DC-10s are on display, DC-10s are also used for specialist services, such as the Orbis International Flying Eye Hospital, which has a compartment for performing eye surgery. Following an unsuccessful proposal for the U. S. Air Forces CX-HLS in 1965, the DC-10 became McDonnell Douglass first commercial airliner after the merger between McDonnell Aircraft Corporation and Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967. An early DC-10 design proposal was for a four-engine double-deck wide-body jet airliner with a seating capacity of 550 passengers similar in length of a DC-8. The proposal was shelved in favor of a trijet single-deck wide-body airliner with a seating capacity of 399 passengers. The DC-10 was first ordered by launch customers American Airlines with 25 orders, the first DC-10, a series 10, made its maiden flight on August 29,1970. Following a test program with 929 flights covering 1,551 hours and it entered commercial service with American Airlines on August 5,1971 on a round trip flight between Los Angeles and Chicago. United Airlines began DC-10 service on August 16,1971, americans DC-10s had 206 seats and Uniteds had 222, both had six-across seating in first-class and eight-across in coach. The DC-10s similarity to the Lockheed L-1011 in design, passenger capacity, the first DC-10 version was the domestic series 10 with a range of 3,800 miles with a typical passenger load and a range of 2,710 miles with maximum payload. The series 15 had a typical range of 4,350 miles. The series 20 was powered by Pratt & Whitney JT9D turbofan engines, before delivery of its aircraft, Northwests president asked that the series 20 aircraft be redesignated series 40 because the aircraft was much improved over the original design. The FAA issued the series 40 certificate on October 27,1972, the series 30 and 40 were the longer-range international versions. The main visible difference between the models is that the series 10 has three sets of landing gear while the series 30 and 40 have an additional centerline main gear, the center main two-wheel landing gear was added to distribute the extra weight and for additional braking
36.
Lockheed L-1011 TriStar
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The Lockheed L-1011 TriStar, commonly referred to as the L-1011 or TriStar, is a medium-to-long-range, wide-body trijet airliner by Lockheed Corporation. It was the third wide-body airliner to enter commercial operations, after the Boeing 747, the airliner has a seating capacity up to 400 passengers and a range over 4,000 nautical miles. Its trijet configuration has three Rolls-Royce RB211 engines with one engine under each wing, and an engine, center-mounted with an S-duct air inlet embedded in the tail. The aircraft has a capability, an automated descent control system. The L-1011 TriStar was produced in two fuselage lengths, the original L-1011-1 first flew in November 1970, and entered service with Eastern Air Lines in 1972. The shortened, longer range L-1011-500 first flew in 1978, the original-length TriStar was also produced as the high gross weight L-1011-100, up-rated engine L-1011-200, and further upgraded L-1011-250. Post-production conversions for the L-1011-1 with increased takeoff weights included the L-1011-50 and L-1011-150, between 1968 and 1984, Lockheed manufactured a total of 250 TriStars, assembled at the Lockheed plant located at the Palmdale Regional Airport in southern California north of Los Angeles. The aircrafts sales were hampered by two years of delays due to developmental and financial problems at Rolls-Royce plc, the manufacturer of the TriStars engines. After production ended, Lockheed withdrew from the aircraft business due to its below-target sales. Lockheed had not produced civilian airliners since 1961 with the L-188 Electra, in the 1950s the Electra was designed for turboprop propulsion, which Lockheed had successfully used on the C-130 Hercules military transport. Lockheed won contracts for jet military transports with the C-141 StarLifter, Boeing lost the military contract, but its private venture 747 captured what would become a much larger civilian airliner market for wide-body airliners. Having experienced difficulties with some of their programs, Lockheed was eager to re-enter the civilian market with a smaller wide-body jet. The aircraft was conceived as a jumbo twin, but a three-engine design was ultimately chosen to give the aircraft enough thrust to take off from existing runways. The design featured an interior with a maximum of 400 passengers, a three-engine layout, low noise emissions, improved reliability. A further major difference between the L-1011 and the DC-10 was Lockheeds selection of the Rolls-Royce RB211 as the engine for the L-1011. As originally designed, the RB211 turbofan was an advanced design with a carbon fiber fan. This made the L-1011 more efficient, a selling point. The L-1011 and DC-10s engineering approach differed greatly, by contrast Lockheed would take the most advanced technology of the day and when that technology was lacking, Lockheed created it for the L-1011
37.
Turbofan
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The turbofan or fanjet is a type of airbreathing jet engine that is widely used in aircraft propulsion. Thus, whereas all the air taken in by a turbojet passes through the turbine, a turbofan thus can be thought of as a turbojet being used to drive a ducted fan, with both of those contributing to the thrust. The ratio of the mass-flow of air bypassing the engine compared to the mass-flow of air passing through the core is referred to as the bypass ratio. Most commercial aviation jet engines in use today are of the high-bypass type, afterburners are not used on high-bypass turbofan engines but may be used on either low-bypass turbofan or turbojet engines. Other noise sources are the fan, compressor and turbine, Jet noise is reduced with chevrons, sawtooth patterns on the exhaust nozzles, on the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 and General Electric GEnx engines used on the Boeing 787. Turbofans are thus the most efficient engines in the range of speeds from about 500 to 1,000 km/h, turbofans retain an efficiency edge over pure jets at low supersonic speeds up to roughly Mach 1.6. Modern turbofans have either a large single-stage fan or a fan with several stages. An early configuration combined a low-pressure turbine and fan in a single rear-mounted unit, early turbojet engines were not very fuel-efficient as their overall pressure ratio and turbine inlet temperature were severely limited by the technology available at the time. In 1939-1941 Soviet designer Arkhip Lyulka elaborated the design for the worlds first turbofan engine, although several prototypes were built and ready for testing, Lyulka was in 1941 forced to abandon his research and evacuate to the Urals following the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. So the first turbofan to run was apparently the German Daimler-Benz DB670 with a first run date of 27 May 1943, turbomachinery testing, using an electric motor, had started on 1 April 1943. The engine was abandoned later while the war went on and problems could not be solved, the British wartime Metrovick F.2 axial flow jet was given a fan, as the Metrovick F.3 in 1943, to create the first British turbofan. The original low-bypass turbofan engines were designed to improve efficiency by reducing the exhaust velocity to a value closer to that of the aircraft. The Rolls-Royce Conway, the worlds first production turbofan, had a ratio of 0.3. Civilian turbofan engines of the 1960s, such as the Pratt & Whitney JT8D and the Rolls-Royce Spey had bypass ratios closer to 1, the first General Electric turbofan was the aft-fan CJ805-23 based on the CJ805-3 turbojet. It was followed by the aft-fan General Electric CF700 engine with a 2.0 bypass ratio and this was derived from the General Electric J85/CJ610 turbojet to power the larger Rockwell Sabreliner 75/80 model aircraft, as well as the Dassault Falcon 20 with about a 50% increase in thrust. The CF700 was the first small turbofan in the world to be certified by the Federal Aviation Administration, there were at one time over 400 CF700 aircraft in operation around the world, with an experience base of over 10 million service hours. The CF700 turbofan engine was used to train Moon-bound astronauts in Project Apollo as the powerplant for the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle. A high-specific-thrust/low-bypass-ratio turbofan normally has a fan, developing a relatively high pressure ratio and, thus
38.
British European Airways
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British European Airways, formally British European Airways Corporation, was a British airline which existed from 1946 until 1974. BEA operated to Europe, North Africa and the Middle East from airports around the United Kingdom, from 1946 until 1974, BEA operated a network of internal German routes between West Berlin and West Germany as well. Formed as the British European Airways division of British Overseas Airways Corporation on 1 January 1946, operations commenced from Croydon and Northolt airports, with DH89A Dragon Rapides and Douglas DC-3s. During 1952, BEA carried its millionth passenger, and by the early 1960s it had become the western worlds fifth-biggest passenger-carrying airline, in 1950, BEA operated the worlds first turbine-powered commercial air service with Vickers Viscount 630 prototype, from London to Paris. The airline entered the jet age in 1960 with de Havillands DH106 Comet 4B, on 1 April 1964, it became the first to operate the DH121 Trident, on 10 June 1965, a BEA Trident 1C performed the worlds first automatic landing during a scheduled commercial air service. For most of its existence, BEA was headquartered at BEAline House in Ruislip, BEA ceased to exist as a legal entity on 1 April 1974 when the merger with BOAC to form British Airways took effect. On 1 January 1946, the Attlee government lifted wartime restrictions on civil flying in the United Kingdom, BOAC formed a British European Airways division on 1 January 1946 in anticipation of that years Civil Aviation Act. Following its formation, BOACs new division began taking over Transport Commands operations from 4 March 1946, on that day, it inaugurated a weekly Dakota service from Northolt to Madrid and Gibraltar. This was followed by additional Dakota services to Stavanger and Oslo, Copenhagen, as well as Athens via Marseille, on each of these flights, half of the Dakotas 16 seats were reserved for UK government officials. Initially, crews continued to wear BOAC uniforms, although some services still used Croydon for some time, the main operating base moved to RAF Northolt. On 1 August 1946, the Civil Aviation Act 1946 was given Royal Assent and this established BEA as a crown corporation in its own right and transferred primary responsibility for scheduled air services from the UK to Europe to BEA. The Civil Aviation Act 1946 furthermore provided for nationalisation of private, independent British scheduled airlines, the first flight operated by the newly constituted British European Airways Corporation departed Northolt for Marseille, Rome and Athens on the day of its formation at 8,40 am. This was followed by further route launches to Amsterdam, Brussels, initially, BEA supplemented its ex-RAF Transport Command Dakotas with Dragon Rapides and Avro Nineteens. Between August and October 1946, BEA took delivery of the first 11 of an eventual 83 Vickers Viking piston-engined airliners and these were BEAs first new aircraft, which it leased from the UK government. The first Viking revenue service departed Northolt for Copenhagen on 1 September 1946, compared with the Dakota, the Viking took 35 minutes less to reach Copenhagen from London. Following their introduction on the London–Copenhagen route, Vikings began replacing Dakotas on BEAs services to Amsterdam, Oslo, Stockholm, Gibraltar, the following month, BEAs Belfast operations transferred to Nutts Corner while Dakotas replaced the Jupiter class Ju 52s from 1947. On 1 February 1947, the process of merging the wholly private, railway Air Services, Isle of Man Air Services, and Scottish Airways were among the first independents merged into the new corporation. On 24 September 1947, BEA assisted in the formation of Cyprus Airways on the island of Cyprus in the Eastern Mediterranean in co-operation with the Government of Cyprus,1947 was also the year BEA operated its first scheduled all-cargo flight from Northolt to Brussels with a DC-3 freighter
39.
BAC Strikemaster
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The BAC167 Strikemaster is a British jet-powered training and light attack aircraft. It was a development of the Hunting Jet Provost trainer, itself a jet engined version of the Percival Provost, a total of 146 were built. The Strikemaster was capable of operating from rough air strips, with ejection seats suitable even for low-altitude escape. Operations by the type were restricted by most military users after the Royal New Zealand Air Force found fatigue cracking in the wings of its aircraft, many aircraft retired by Botswana, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia and Singapore have found their way into museums and private collections. The Strikemaster was deployed by the Royal Air Force of Oman on several occasions during the Dhofar Rebellion, three Strikemasters were shot down over the course of the war, including one lost to an SA-7 missile. The Ecuadorian Air Force deployed the Strikemaster during the brief 1995 Cenepa War, an Ecuadorian Strikemaster crashed during a training mission in the Northern Border area, near Colombia, on 25 March 2009. Both pilots ejected, one died of injuries received during the rescue attempt. Strikemaster Mk 80, Export version for Saudi Arabia,25 aircraft, Strikemaster Mk 80A,20 aircraft were sold to Saudi Arabia as part of a follow-up order. Strikemaster Mk 81, Export version for South Yemen, four aircraft, Strikemaster Mk 82, Export version for Oman,12 aircraft. Strikemaster Mk 82A,12 aircraft were sold to Oman as part of a follow-up order, Strikemaster Mk 83, Export version for Kuwait,12 aircraft. Strikemaster Mk 84, Export version for Singapore,16 aircraft, Strikemaster Mk 87, Export version for Kenya, six aircraft. Strikemaster Mk 88, Export version for New Zealand,16 aircraft, Strikemaster Mk 89, Export version for Ecuador,22 aircraft. Strikemaster Mk 89A, A number of aircraft were sold to Ecuador as part of a follow-up order, Strikemaster Mk 90, Export version for Sudan. The last Strikemaster was delivered to Sudan in 1984, Strikemaster 80,136 Strikemaster 90,10 Botswana Botswana Defence Force Air Wing operated briefly ex-Kuwaiti Mk 83s and ex-Kenyan Mk 87s. Ecuador Ecuadorian Air Force received BAC Strikemaster Mk 89/89A aircraft, Kenya Kenya Air Force received BAC Strikemaster Mk 87 aircraft. Kuwait Kuwait Air Force received BAC Strikemaster Mk 83 aircraft, New Zealand Royal New Zealand Air Force No.14 Squadron RNZAF received 16 BAC Strikemaster Mk 88 aircraft. Strikemaster Ltd operates two ex-RNZAF BAC Strikemaster Mk 88 aircraft, Oman Royal Air Force of Oman received BAC Strikemaster Mk 82/82A aircraft. Saudi Arabia Royal Saudi Air Force received BAC Strikemaster Mk 80/80A aircraft, Singapore Republic of Singapore Air Force received BAC Strikemaster Mk 84 aircraft, all retired in 1984
40.
English Electric Lightning
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The English Electric Lightning is a supersonic fighter aircraft of the Cold War era. It was designed, developed, and manufactured by English Electric and it was then marketed as the BAC Lightning. The Lightning was the only all-British Mach 2 fighter aircraft, the Lightning was used by the Royal Air Force and the Royal Saudi Air Force. Although it was the RAFs primary interceptor for more than two decades it was never required to attack another aircraft, the Lightning is powered by two Rolls-Royce Avon turbojet engines in a unique staggered stacked installation in the fuselage. This performance made the Lightning a fuel-critical aircraft, meaning that its missions are dictated to a degree by its limited range. Later developments provided greater range and speed along with aerial reconnaissance, following retirement in the late 1980s, many of the remaining aircraft became museum exhibits and, until 2010, three Lightnings were kept flying at Thunder City in Cape Town, South Africa. In September 2008, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers conferred on the Lightning its Engineering Heritage Award at a ceremony at BAE Systems site at Warton Aerodrome. The specification for the aircraft followed the cancellation of the Air Ministrys 1942 E. 24/43 supersonic research aircraft specification which had resulted in the Miles M.52 programme. Teddy Petter, formerly chief designer at Westland Aircraft, was an early proponent of Britains need to develop a supersonic fighter aircraft. Petter initiated a proposal with F. W. Freddie Page leading the design. By July 1948 their proposal incorporated the engine configuration and a high-mounted tailplane but was designed for Mach 1.5. As a consequence it had a conventional 40° degree swept wing This proposal was submitted in the November, on 29 March 1949 MoS granted approval for English Electric to start the detailed design, develop wind tunnel models and build a full-size mockup. The design that had developed during 1948 evolved further during 1949, to achieve Mach 2 the wing sweep was increased to 60° with the ailerons moved to the wingtips. In late 1949 low-speed wind tunnel showed that a vortex was generated by the wing which caused a large downwash on the tailplane. Following the resignation of Petter, Page took over as team leader for the P.1. In 1949, the Ministry of Supply had issued Specification F23/49, on 1 April 1950, English Electric received a contract for two flying airframes, as well as one static airframe, designated P.1. The Royal Aircraft Establishment was sceptical of Petters swept wing concepts, to test the design of both the wing, the tailplane and to assess handling, Short Brothers were issued a contract to produce the Short SB5 in mid-1950. This was a research aircraft and was designed so that different wing sweep angles could be assumed by the single aircraft
41.
Royal Saudi Air Force
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The Royal Saudi Air Force, is the aviation branch of the Saudi Arabian armed forces. The RSAF has developed from a defensive military force into one with an advanced offensive capability. The RSAF maintains the third largest fleet of F-15s after the American, the backbone of the RSAF is currently the Boeing F-15 Eagle, with the Panavia Tornado also forming a major component. The Tornado and many aircraft were delivered under the Al Yamamah contracts with British Aerospace. The RSAF ordered various weapons in the 1990s, including Sea Eagle anti-ship missiles, laser-guided bombs, al-Salam, a successor to the Al Yamamah agreement will see 72 Eurofighter Typhoons delivered by BAE. The RSAF was formed in the mid-1920s with British assistance and it was re-organized in 1950 and began to receive American assistance from 1952 including the use of Dhahran Airfield by the United States Air Force. The Saudi forces are equipped with mainly western hardware, main suppliers are companies in the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Both the UK and the US are involved in training programs conducted in Saudi Arabia, during the 1980s and 1990s, by Middle Eastern standards the armed forces of Saudi Arabia were relatively small. Its strength however was derived from advanced technology, aircraft training is executed on the Pilatus PC-9, BAe Hawk, Boeing F-15D Eagle and the Northrop F-5F Tiger II. The C-130 Hercules is the mainstay of the fleet and the Hercules is assisted by CASA CN-235s. Reconnaissance is performed by 17 Squadron with its RF-5E and the Boeing E-3A is the Airborne Early Warning platform operated by 18 Squadron. The VIP support fleet consists of a variety of civil registered aircraft such as the Boeing 707,737 and 747, Lockheed Tri-Stars, MD11s. Nonetheless, the RSAF announced its intention to purchase the Typhoon from BAE Systems in December 2005, on 18 August 2006 a memorandum of understanding was signed for 72 aircraft in a GB£6–10 billion deal. Following this order, the investigation of the Al Yamamah contract was suppressed by the British Prime minister Tony Blair in December 2006, on 17 September 2007 Saudi Arabia announced it had signed a £4. 4bn deal with BAE Systems for 72 Typhoons. On 29 December 2011, the United States signed a $29.4 billion deal to sell 84 F-15s in the SA configuration, the sale includes upgrades for the older F-15s up to the SA standard and related equipment and services. On 23 May 2012, British defence firm BAE Systems is to sell 22 BAE Hawk advanced jet aircraft to the Royal Saudi Air Force for a total of £1.9 billion. The deal also includes simulators, ground and training equipment and spares, on April 2013, British defence firm BAE Systems delivers the first two new Typhoons of 24 to Saudi Arabia. In 2013, the USAF tendered for security services to protect the Saudi air force from Cyberwarfare, on 12 August 2009, UPI reported that Saudi Arabia was seeking upgrades for their E-3 fleet and aerial refuelling tanker aircraft
42.
Riyadh
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Riyadh is the capital and most populous city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of Riyadh Province and belongs to the regions of Najd. It is situated in the center of the Arabian Peninsula on a large plateau, the current mayor of Riyadh is Ibrahim Mohammed Al-Sultan. He was appointed mayor in 2015 and it has been designated a global city. During the Pre-Islamic era the city at the site was called Hajr, Hajr served as the capital of the province of Al Yamamah, whose governors were responsible for most of central and eastern Arabia during the Umayyad and Abbasid eras. Al-Yamamah broke away from the Abbasid Empire in 866 and the area fell under the rule of the Ukhaydhirites, the city then went into a long period of decline. In the 14th century, North African traveller Ibn Battuta wrote of his visit to Hajr, describing it as the city of Al-Yamamah. Later on, Hajr broke up several separate settlements and estates. The most notable of these were Migrin and Mikal, though the name Hajr continued to appear in local folk poetry, the earliest known reference to the area by the name Riyadh comes from a 17th-century chronicler reporting on an event from the year 1590. In 1737, Deham ibn Dawwas, a refugee from neighboring Manfuha, Ibn Dawwas built a single wall to encircle the various quarters of Riyadh, making them effectively a single town. In 1744, Muhammad ibn Abdel Wahhab formed an alliance with Muhammad ibn Saud, Ibn Saud then set out to conquer the surrounding region with the goal of bringing it under the rule of a single Islamic state. Ibn Dawwas of Riyadh led the most determined resistance, allied forces from Al Kharj, Al Ahsa. However, Ibn Dawwas fled and Riyadh capitulated to the Saudis in 1774, ending years of wars. The First Saudi State was destroyed by forces sent by Muhammad Ali of Egypt, Ottoman forces razed the Saudi capital Diriyah in 1818. They had maintained a garrison at Najd and this marked the decline of the House of Saud for a short time. In 1823, Turki ibn Abdallah chose Riyadh as the new capital, following the assassination of Turki in 1834, his eldest son Faisal killed the assassin and took control, and refused to be controlled by the Viceroy of Egypt. Najd was then invaded and Faisal taken captive and held in Cairo, in 1889, Abdul Rahman bin Faisal, the third son of Faisal again regained control over Najd and ruled till 1891, where after the control was regained by Muhammad bin Raschid. Internecine struggles between Turkis grandsons led to the fall of the Second Saudi State in 1891 at the hand of the rival Al Rashid clan, the al-Masmak fort dates from that period
43.
Thunderbird (missile)
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The English Electric Thunderbird was a British surface-to-air missile produced for the British Army. Thunderbird was primarily intended to attack higher altitude targets at ranges up to approximately 30 miles, AA guns were still used for lower altitude threats. Thunderbird entered service in 1959 and underwent a major upgrade to Thunderbird 2 in 1966. Ex-Army Thunderbird Is were also operated by the Royal Saudi Air Force after 1967, Thunderbird was the Armys only heavy anti-aircraft missile. As missile systems like Thunderbird made flight at medium and higher altitudes practically suicidal, nap-of-the-earth flying became the norm and even shorter-range, thunderbirds role was taken over by the much smaller BAC Rapier as they became available. The Thunderbird originated in a proposal to English Electric in 1949 to develop a missile to ground based air defence to the British Army in the field. As such, it was intended to replace the 3. 7-inch heavy anti-aircraft gun that fulfilled this role during World War II, like the 3.7, the new missile would be operated by the Royal Artillery. English Electric created a Guided Weapons Division to work on the project, as the missiles were the least understood technology, the MoS decided to implement their deployment in two stages. Stage 1 called for missiles with a range of only 20 miles with capabilities against subsonic or low-supersonic attacking aircraft, the Stage 1 missile would be used to protect the V bomber bases in the UK, as well as the British Army in the field. The Stage 1 missile would be replaced with a much higher-performance and longer-range Stage 2 system in the 1960s. The Stage 2 missile was to have increased range, speed. Two entries were accepted for the original Stage 1 proposal, English Electrics existing project under the name Red Shoes, the two systems were very similar in design and performance, with the Bristol model differing primarily by offering somewhat longer range at the cost of being less mobile. Given the similarities, a set of radars was developed that could be used with either design. This consisted of a Ferranti developed search radar and the illuminating radar was the RRDEs Yellow River fire control radar built by British Thomson-Houston. The fuselage had a slight boat-tail narrowing at the rear under the control surfaces. The sustainer was to be a fuel rocket developed for the missile. The boosters featured a single oversized fin of their own, and are easy to spot due to a small flat surface at the end of every fin. This surface provided an outward drag component that help pull the booster away from the body when released, helped by the boosters asymmetrical nose cone
