Formation passenger airliner BAC's origins can be traced to a statement issued by the British government that it expected the various companies involved in the aircraft, guided weapons and engine industries to consolidate and merge with one another. Accordingly, during 1960, BAC was created as a jointly owned
corporation by Vickers, English Electric and Bristol. Internally, the business had two divisions – the Aircraft Division under Sir
George Edwards and the Guided Weapons Division under
Viscount Caldecote. The aircraft operations of the three parents were now subsidiaries of BAC; "Bristol Aircraft Ltd", "English Electric Aviation Ltd" (with Viscount Caldecote as general manager) and "Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd" (under Sir George Edwards). BAC also had a controlling interest in Hunting Aircraft. The parents still had significant aviation interests outside BAC. English Electric had Napier & Son aero-engines, Bristol had 50% of Bristol Aerojet and
Bristol Siddeley engines and smaller investments in Westland and Short Brothers & Harland. Upon the formation of BAC, the Bristol Aeroplane Company (Car Division) was not included in the consolidation. Instead, it was carved off by Sir George White, 3rd Baronet, whose family had founded the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company in 1910 (later the
Bristol Aeroplane Company). BAC's head office was on the top floors of the 100
Pall Mall building in the
City of Westminster, London.
Early endeavours Concorde G-BOAB in storage at
London Heathrow Airport following Concorde's grounding in 2000. This aircraft flew for 22,296 hours between its first flight in 1976 and its grounding. The majority of BAC's aircraft designs had been inherited from the individual companies that formed it. BAC did not apply its new identity retrospectively, hence the VC10 remained the
Vickers VC10. Instead the company applied its name to marketing initiatives, the VC10 advertising carried the name "Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Limited, a member company of the British Aircraft Corporation". The first model to bear the BAC name was the
BAC One-Eleven (BAC 1–11), a Hunting Aircraft study, in 1961. Given the numerous government contract cancellations during the 1960s, the BAC 1–11, which had been launched as a private venture, probably saved the company. Prior to the merger, Bristol had eschewed the subsonic airliner market in favour of working on the
Bristol 223 supersonic transport, The effort continued under BAC and was eventually merged with similar efforts underway at the French aircraft company
Sud Aviation, resulting in the Anglo-French
Concorde. Described by
Flight International as an "aviation icon" and "one of aerospace's most ambitious but commercially flawed projects", sales of the type were lackluster against conventional subsonic airliners, primarily due to the emergence of
wide-body aircraft, such as the
Boeing 747, which made subsonic airliners significantly more efficient. While by March 1969, the consortium had arrangements totalling 74 options from 16 airlines, only two airlines,
Air France and the
British Overseas Airways Corporation, would proceed with their orders. Scheduled services commenced on 21 January 1976 on both the London–
Bahrain and Paris–
Rio de Janeiro routes. at the
Warton factory in 1966 In 1963, BAC acquired the previously autonomous guided weapons divisions of English Electric and Bristol to form a new subsidiary, British Aircraft Corporation (Guided Weapons). The company enjoyed some success, including development of the
Rapier,
Sea Skua and
Sea Wolf missiles. BAC eventually expanded this division to include electronics and space systems and, in 1966, started what was to become a fruitful relationship with
Hughes Aircraft. Hughes awarded major contracts to BAC, including sub-systems for
Intelsat satellites. BAC had inherited the
aerospace activities of several companies via its formation, and research into various space-related ventures continued at the new entity. that was initially investigating
supersonic and
hypersonic flight problems, became interested in the application of such a vehicle for space-related activities, leading to the
BAC Mustard, a
reusable launch system that comprised several near-identical winged vehicles. Development of the TSR-2 was one of the company's most high-profile projects. However, as the programme proceeded, continuous cost rises were incurred, while inter-service rivalry led to frequent challenges of its necessity. During April 1965, the British government announced that it had decided to withdraw its order for the TSR-2, leaving it without an established customer. By this point, the programme was already in the prototype phase and the aircraft had already flown, but political pressure forced development work to cease, leading to the remaining airframes and most supporting equipment and documentation to be destroyed. The TSR-2's last minute termination has been widely viewed as a major blow not only to BAC but the wider British aircraft industry.
New ventures On 17 May 1965, the British and French governments announced the signing of a pair of agreements to cover two joint projects; one based on the French aircraft company
Breguet Aviation Br.121 ECAT ("Tactical Combat Support Trainer") proposal; this would evolve into the
SEPECAT Jaguar. The other was the
BAC/Dassault AFVG (Anglo-French Variable Geometry), a larger, variable geometry
carrier-capable fighter aircraft for the French Navy (
Aéronavale) as well as fulfilling interceptor, tactical strike and reconnaissance roles for the RAF. The AFVG was to be jointly developed by BAC and
Dassault Aviation, while the proposed
M45G turbofan engine to power the aircraft was to also be jointly developed by
SNECMA and Bristol Siddeley. During May 1966, BAC and Breguet formally created
SEPECAT, a joint venture company, to develop, market, and produce the Anglo-French Jaguar strike fighter. The Jaguar programme ultimately took the place of several earlier efforts, including the AFVG. The first of the Jaguar's eight prototypes flew on 8 September 1968. During 1973, service entry was achieved with the French Air Force, by which time Breguet had become part of
Dassault Aviation. SEPECAT received various export orders for the Jaguar: overseas nations that flew the type included
India,
Ecuador,
Nigeria and
Oman. Dassault were less supportive of SEPECAT, preferring to promote its own aircraft; several potential customers for the Jaguar were convinced to order Dassault's
Mirage series instead. In the first half of the following year, BAC submitted its proposals for the production of two separate double-decker versions of the VC10, which was commonly referred to as the
Super VC10; however, it was quickly recognised that the British government would be required to supply substantial support for the initiative to succeed, involving "several tens of millions of
pounds". According to aviation author
Derek Wood, the enlarged double-decker, which was to be equipped with the proposed
Rolls-Royce RB178 turbofan engine, would have had good commercial prospects, yet financing for the programme was not forthcoming and the
British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) has ultimately opted to procure the rival Boeing 747 instead. In 1967, the British, French and German governments agreed to start development of the 300-seat
Airbus A300. The British national airline
British European Airways (BEA) was publicly interested in the type; during August 1970, BEA's chairman, Sir Anthony Milward, declared his personal optimism for the Three-Eleven. BAC, with the Lightning/Strikemaster contract;
British Aerospace, with the
Al Yamamah contracts; and most recently
BAE Systems, with the order for
Typhoon multi-role fighters, have all benefited from large arms contracts with Saudi Arabia.
Tornado Panavia Tornado F3 (also known as the
Tornado ADV) taxiing for take-off In June 1967, the AFVG was cancelled due to the withdrawal of French participation. Britain then turned to a national project, the UK Variable Geometry (UKVG), for which
BAC Warton was given a design contract by the
Ministry of Technology. These studies eventually became known as the BAC Advanced Combat Aircraft programme. In 1968, Britain was invited to join Canada and the F-104 Consortium (a grouping of Germany, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands), all of whom wished to replace their current aircraft with a common design, subsequently described as the Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MRCA). On 26 March 1969,
Panavia Aircraft GmbH was formed by BAC,
MBB,
Fiat and
Fokker. In May, a "project definition phase" was commenced, concluding in early 1970. Two aircraft designs resulted: the single-seat Panavia 100 and the twin-seat Panavia 200. The RAF favoured the 200, as did Germany after its initial enthusiasm for the 100. In September 1971, the governments of Britain, Italy and Germany signed an Intention to Proceed (ITP) with the
Panavia Tornado. On 30 October 1974, the first British prototype (the second to fly) took off from the BAC airfield at Warton. The three governments signed the contract for Batch 1 of the aircraft on 29 July 1976. BAC and subsequently British Aerospace would deliver 228
Tornado GR1s and 152
Tornado F3s to the RAF.
Merger speculation and nationalisation For most of its history, BAC was the subject of rumour and speculation that it was to merge with
Hawker Siddeley Aviation (HSA). On 21 November 1966,
Fred Mulley, the
Minister of Aviation, announced in the
House of Commons that: The government envisaged acquiring BAC's capital and merging it with Hawker Siddeley. The ownership of BAC would thus give the government a minority stake in the new company. Although BAC's parent companies were prepared to sell their shares for a reasonable price, the government proposal, in their view, undervalued the group. By August 1967, the success of the BAC 1–11 and defence sales to Saudi Arabia made the prospect of the parent companies selling their shares less likely. In December 1967,
Tony Benn, the Minister of Technology, while reiterating his desire to see a merged BAC and HSA, admitted it would not be possible. Akin to BAC, the Hawker Siddeley Group was expanded by merger, while engine design and manufacturing was concentrated at Rolls-Royce and the newly formed
Bristol-Siddeley Engines. Helicopter development was given to
Westland Helicopters. During 1966,
Rolls-Royce acquired Bristol Aeroplane from BAC, integrating the firm into its Bristol Siddeley aero-engine business, but declared it had no interest in the BAC shareholding. Despite this, Rolls-Royce still had not disposed of its BAC shareholding when the business was declared to be
bankrupt during 1971. The 20% share was eventually acquired from
receivership by Vickers and
GEC, which had acquired English Electric during 1968. On 29 April 1977, BAC, the Hawker Siddeley Group and
Scottish Aviation were nationalised and merged under the provisions of
Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act 1977. This new group was established as a statutory corporation,
British Aerospace (BAe). ==Products==