Heritage

Welcome to BAE Systems' Samlesbury heritage page where you can take a step back in time and reflect on the early beginnings of the Samlesbury site as an important base for innovative and inspiring aerospace design and production in the first half of the last century and beyond.

Construction of the Samlesbury site began in 1939 when the Air Ministry instructed the English Electric Company to proceed with the construction of Flight Shed Number 1 to enable the aircraft produced at their Preston and Rugby manufacturing operations to be assembled and flight tested.

The first of the English Electric Hampden bombers arrived at Samlesbury by road on the last day of 1939 for further assembly work. Two months later, on the 22nd February 1940 the aircraft took off on its maiden flight from Samlesbury and the birth of a high successful operation that would see thousands more aircraft take to the air in proud succession in the years to follow. Over the next two years a total of 770 Hampden bombers were delivered and by December 1942 all five main sheds and three runways had been completed. In 1944 alone, 800 Halifax's were built and by the end of the war, over 3,000 new bombers had flown from Samlesbury. A year later and more over 1,350 Vampire jet fighters were assembled.

The first aircraft to be wholly designed and built by English Electric and flown from Samlesbury was the Canberra which flew from Samlesbury in 1949. Over 1,300 Canberras were built, 644 at Samlesbury, which were delivered to a large number of air forces between 1951 and 1964.

Samlesbury's involvement with the aircraft continued until 1988 as a result of a long term refurbishment and major servicing programmes, undertaken to extend the life of the aircraft past its 50th Anniversary.

 In the early 1950s work began at Samlesbury on final assembly of the Lightning. This was the first, and only, all British production supersonic military aircraft. Capable of speeds well in excess of Mach 2 and able to climb to 40,000ft in two minutes, the aircraft had matchless performance in its interception role. Deliveries commenced in 1958 and continued through to 1972 and total production exceeded 330 aircraft.

Another aircraft with supersonic capability that did not make it to full production was the TSR 2. Work on this started in the early 1960s. Although designed as a tactical strike/reconnaissance aircraft its performance gave it an additional capability in the strategic role. It also possessed what was claimed to be the most advanced navigation and attack system in the world. However, a change in Government policy led to its cancellation in 1965. Towards the end of the 1960s production of the Jaguar aircraft commenced.

This venture with the French represented the first international military aircraft collaboration, though in the commercial field Samlesbury had been involved in the building of air intakes for Concorde.The French constructed the front and centre fuselage whilst manufacture of the wings was carried out at Samlesbury between 1972 and 1985. More than 550 deliveries of this aircraft took place.

Samlesbury is now involved in the manufacture of major units for other military and civil aircraft. These include Eurofighter Typhoon, an extremely important programme which will comprise 620 aircraft plus exports. In partnership with Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, Samlesbury is undertaking work on the JSF programme.

 

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