Unfortunately the preservation of our aviation heritage and hard-headed business strategy is not a marriage made in heaven!
I was born in Filton during the 1950’s and lived my early life close to the huge factories of BAC and BSEL and, of course, Filton Aerodrome. Most of my family worked in these establishments so it was no surprise that I started my career as an Apprentice at Rolls-Royce and worked for 23 years with them, most of which was based in West Works on the airfield side of the A38 – thus for me Filton holds many special memories!
However, progress marches on and the business models of BAE Systems, Airbus, GKN and Rolls-Royce are nothing like they used to be.
R-R sold off West Works to the Royal Mail in the mid 1990’s, closed Rodney Works and withdrew operations from the airfield. The Technical College was sold-off and BAe/Airbus closed Aviation Services in 2002 and BAe Systems attempted to attract other aviation companies to Filton (Air Livery & MK Airlines to name two) to keep it viable but this ended in disaster. R-R has since closed East Works, sold the land for development and there it still sits to this day as a deserted waste-land. Are we then really surprised that BAe Systems, with the largest holding of local Real Estate, is going to close Filton?
The failure to secure FZO as a commercial Airport back in 1996 really sounded the death knell for the airfield and, unfortunately, this years’ decision by BAe Systems to provide notice of closure is the logical business conclusion to the events that have happened over the last 15-years since then.
I will be extremely sad to see the passing of Filton Aerodrome, not only because of its 100-year aviation history, but also because of my long personal association with it. However in my opinion, the fight to save FZO should have started many years ago and not now – it’s just too late and the wrong time for the aviation industry!