Building on over 450 years of technical excellence and achievements, BAE Systems continues to be a world leader in defence and security systems around the globe.

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The name BAE Systems was created in 1999 through the use of the historic acronym for British Aerospace (BAe) combined with the ‘Systems’ section of partner company Marconi Electronic Systems (Marconi Electronics remains a registered trademark of sectors of that business which were not incorporated under the terms of the merger). The company was formed on 30th November 1999 by the £7.7 billion purchase and merger between Marconi Electronic Systems (MES) - the defence electronics and naval shipbuilding subsidiary of the General Electric Company (GEC) by British Aerospace, an aircraft, munitions and naval systems manufacturer.

Tornado GR4

Today, BAE Systems is a global company engaged in the development and delivery of advanced defence, aerospace, security and information technology systems in the air, on the land and at sea and it employs over 88,000 people worldwide.

As can be seen by the family tree above, BAE Systems has evolved from hundreds of well-known names throughout industry worldwide and can trace its root back to 1560 and the Royal Gunpowder Mills at Waltham Abbey.

In other sectors of this website we hope to represent the multi-faceted nature of our proud heritage but for the purposes of this section we concentrate on our unique place in aviation history.

Genealogy - Aviation (Also see Hawker Siddeley Aircraft)

	English Electric Aviation Limited
	Vickers-Armstrongs Limited
	Bristol Aircraft Limited
	Hunting Aircraft Limited
1960	British Aircraft Corporation
1977	British Aerospace
1999	BAE Systems

Aircraft

For a list of BAE Systems current and supported aircraft please see www.baesystems.com