Who are they now? - Companies from the golden years
Its easy to assume that the well known companies from the 1930s, 40s and 50s just faded away or went bust. The truth is though that many are now known by other names and are still active in aircraft or other types of engineering.
Some, such as Short Brothers of Belfast, who have become Bombardier, are familiar to most of us. How about a thread which captures the formerly iconic names in their current form? A couple to get the ball rolling: Boulton & Paul of Wolverhampton (Defiants, gun turrets etc.) - Now part of Moog, making actuators. Gloster Aircraft (Gamecock, Gladiator, E28/39, Meteor) - Became part of BAe Systems although Esterline Darchem, make thermal insulation parts for Airbus & Rolls-Royce on the Brockworth site. |
Originally Posted by Mechta
(Post 9984459)
Boulton & Paul of Wolverhampton (Defiants, gun turrets etc.) - Now part of Moog, making actuators.
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Some have also fragmented, for example Dunlop is now Meggit in Coventry, and other places, but still Dunlop Aircraft tyres in Birmingham.
Folland in Hamble is now GE Aviation. Dowty Rotol in Cheltenham is now GE Aviation. Dowty Rotol in Gloucester is now Safran. Westland in Yeovil is now Leonardo. Vickers Armstrong at Hawarden is now Airbus. Bristol at Filton is now Airbus. English Electric at Warton and Samlesbury are now BAE Systems. Shorts at Rochester is now BAE Systems. There are many many more... |
Fairey
Now Westland/Leonardo, FBM Babcock Marine, Spectris plc at Egham making instruments and controls , and WFEL (formerly Williams Fairey Engineering Limited), the latter manufacturing portable bridges. |
Gloster Aircraft (Gamecock, Gladiator, E28/39, Meteor) |
IIRC the Honda factory at South Marston was originally a Vickers Armstrong shadow factory which last built electrical wiring looms for the BAC 1-11.
Almost as bizarre is that a significant portion of the British Aircraft Industry is alive & well and living in Wichita, Kansas. Apart from the many engineers who came across the pond in support of the Challenger (and later CRJ) program, several ex-Shorts engineers came for the Learjet 45 and never went back. Beech took over building the HS125 so they offered anyone from Chester who wanted to move a job in Wichita. When, a few years later, Airbus came back to Chester looking for the old Wing Group to design the A380 wing, they were informed that they were now in Kansas! Which is why one of Airbus' Design Offices is in downtown Wichita. |
Originally Posted by ICT_SLB
(Post 9985999)
IIRC the Honda factory at South Marston was originally a Vickers Armstrong shadow factory which last built electrical wiring looms for the BAC 1-11.
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Airwork Services still around as part of the V T Aerospace group.
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Originally Posted by dixi188
(Post 9986110)
Airwork Services still around as part of the V T Aerospace group.
(See other thread) |
Originally Posted by JENKINS
(Post 9987883)
Alan Cobham's Flying Circus.
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Noordyne { Norseman} Absorbed into Canadair.
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And Marshalls is still Marshalls
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Originally Posted by Yobbo
(Post 9988343)
Noordyne { Norseman} Absorbed into Canadair.
One of the last uses for the north side Flight Shed, which may have once been their factory, was for the prototype CRJ-100 (A/C 7001) of which I was one of the test team. |
dixi 188
VT Aerospace is now Babcock - since 2012 ;) |
Noorduyn Norseman
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Originally Posted by ICT_SLB
(Post 9985999)
IIRC the Honda factory at South Marston was originally a Vickers Armstrong shadow factory which last built electrical wiring looms for the BAC 1-11.
G |
Originally Posted by Genghis the Engineer
(Post 10002075)
My Dad was a design draftsman there in the 60s, and before that an apprentice. They built the Scimitar and Attacker there. From what he's told me, they closed down most aircraft manufacturing and all of the design effort around 1967.
G |
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