British Aircraft Corporation

British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) was created in 1960 after government pressure to rationalise an industry where ‘far too many companies were competing for a diminishing number of contracts’. Out of this policy came the decision to offer new contracts only to organisations that had been formed through various mergers and takeovers. 
 
One of the first contracts to be awarded to the new entity was for the TSR2, a supersonic all-weather Tactical Strike Reconnaissance aircraft to replace the English Electric Canberra.  
 
The Vickers-Armstrongs submission was initially selected and appointed as prime contractor, with English Electric Aviation appointed as the subcontractor.  An initial amalgamation was agreed and the Bristol Aircraft Company and Hunting Aircraft soon joined the group. In 1963, BAC acquired the guided weapons interests of both Bristol and English Electric and created companies to serve the newly-emerging space and electronics industries.
 
The cancellation of the TSR2 project in 1965 was a major blow to the company although its continued success in the civil airliner market with the BAC One-Eleven, and in the military sector with the improved English Electric Lightning and Canberra and the new BAC Strikemaster meant that the factories were still stretched to capacity.
 

In 1966, BAC reached an agreement with Breguet in France to build the SEPECAT Jaguar ground attack aircraft and the first of eight prototypes first flew in September 1968. MBB, Fiat and Fokker joined forces with BAC in March 1969 and formally created Panavia Aircraft GmbH to produce the Tornado, of which almost 1,000 were ultimately produced worldwide.
 
A major landmark in world aviation was created on 2nd March 1969 with the first flight of the Anglo-French Concorde. The supersonic airliner would set new levels of comfort and performance on routes around the world and was said to be the pinnacle of British aviation engineering expertise.
 
Alongside the achievements of BAC, the Hawker Siddeley Group was also experiencing success with the likes of the Harrier 'jump jet' fighter and Trident airliner. Both companies competed for contracts throughout the 1960s and early 1970s - until the British Government indicated its desire for the two to merge.
 
On 29th April 1977 the British Aircraft Corporation, Hawker Siddeley Aviation (and independent Scottish Aviation) were all finally nationalised to form British Aerospace.