We take pride in our heritage. From the first gunpowder mills of the 16th century, through the industrial revolution, the dawn of aviation, the exploration of space and the secure navigation of our cyber and online worlds, our company has been at the forefront of technical innovation for the past 450 years.

Over that period, our company and its historic predecessors have generated a huge number of records and artefacts, many of which are now preserved within our archival collections, managed by dedicated heritage teams across the business. We believe that our heritage is at the heart of who we are, representing our past, informing our present, and helping to shape our future. Here in our online heritage centre we aim to share some of our incredible stories with you – find out about the people, places, products and companies who have formed part of our history and contributed to our success over the years, and explore our company timeline below to discover more about our journey.

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The Evolution of BAE Systems:
A Historic Timeline

BAE Systems is the successor to various aircraft, shipbuilding, armoured vehicle, armaments and defence electronics companies. Click on the button below to download our timeline in Adobe PDF format.

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The Evolution of BAE Systems: A Historic Timeline

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D Day 80
Construction work at the Marconi Research Centre site, Great Baddow, Essex, August 1960.
Image of the month - August 2026
Construction work at the Marconi Research Centre site, Great Baddow, Essex, August 1960.
Ref: 6008032

This image, from our Marconi photographic collection, shows the final stage of the construction of new facilities at the Marconi Research Centre, Great Baddow, in August 1960. The site, which had been acquired by Marconi back in 1936, brought together various radio, television and telephony research teams in a single location. As technology developed, new buildings and equipment were required, and this image captures just one of a number of developments at the site over the years.

Behind the newly erected building can be seen a Chain Home radar tower, which was part of the first early warning radar network in the world, and which would prove so effective during the Second World War. The tower, which was moved to Great Baddow in 1956 from its original location at RAF Canewdon in Essex, can still be seen at Great Baddow today, which is now home to BAE Systems Digital Intelligence.

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WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT BAE SYSTEMS ARCHIVE COLLECTION?

While BAE Systems was formed with the merger of British Aerospace (BAe) and Marconi Electronic Systems in 1999, the company's roots can be traced back much further, through multiple aerospace, defense and manufacturing companies.

BAE Systems manages and preserves this rich history in its heritage archive collections, which are managed by a dedicated team of archivists, heritage professionals, and volunteers. In addition to preserving its own historical collections, BAE Systems actively supports and collaborates with other heritage initiatives,such as the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, and also has long standing relations with museums and heritage centres whose holdings contain elements of the company's history, including the RAF Museum and the Imperial War Museum.

As well as physically managing the collection, BAE Systems is actively working to digitise siginicant elements of its collections to aid in future preservation and access, a commitment which underscores BAE Systems' dedication to safeguarding and sharing the legacy of British aerospace and defense innovation.

The BAE Systems Heritage Archive contains some 16 million individual records. These range from physical objects and models, to technical drawings, manuals, reports, books, photographs and film and video collections, and cover our history across air, land, sea, space and cyber domains.

BAE Systems Heritage Archive collection mainly holds material of a technical or photographic nature, and does not hold personnel records, which were likely disposed of by the HR departments of the individual companies as part of normal record keeping and disposal practices. We do hold various in house company magazines, which sometimes provide details on individual staff members, but they are far from comprehensive. For the majority of our previous employees across our history we are unfortunately unlikely to be able to provide any infomation.

The BAE Systems Archive is primarily a resource used to support the company and its staff, and is not open to the general public for walk in visits. By prior arrangement it is possible to visit the archive to consult material, but this is at the discretion of the company archivist, and due to the nature of the material held and the various access restrictions in place, much of the collection is not available to external users.

On occasion we are able to provide tours of our main archive store in Farnborough for interested groups. To make an enquiry to visit, please contact us.

We are always keen to acquire material which relates to our history, in particular where it may fill a gap in our records, but we are unable to accept unsolicited donations. We are also keen to ensure that we are the correct location for such donations, since, depending on the nature and type of material being donated, on occasions it may be better being donated to other heritage organisations instead. Should you have material which you think relates to our history, and which you would like to donate to our archive, please contact us and we would be happy to discuss.