BAE Systems

The Aircraft of British Aerospace and BAE SYSTEMS 1977 - 2017 55

British AerospAce And AirBus

and production of the A310 wing. British
Aerospace, with first-hand experience of
the A300, was the logical choice for the
new wing, but had to compete strongly
with a German-design for the work. Once
again design of the A310 wing was BAe
Hatfield’s responsibility, while Broughton
built them. The 210-seat A310 was
essentially a shorter-fuselage version of
the A300, but with a new wing, modified
engines and improved technology such
as a digital flight control system. The new
wing was a key feature of the aircraft,
providing competitive performance
through significant aerodynamic and
structural improvements. The A310
proved to be moderately successful and
production only ceased in 1998 after 255
had been manufactured.

The A320 – final assembly or
wing contract?
Airbus’s first two airliners, the A300 and
A310 received very respectable sales but
the next Airbus was a game changer.
Meanwhile in mid-1977 BAe also joined
the JET (Joint European Transport)
consortium to build a 130-170 seater and
in return for funding 30-35% of it, the
Government wanted design leadership
and final assembly. The French would not
accept these stipulations, seeing JET as
an Airbus project and would not
negotiate on design leadership or final
assembly.
In 1979 the JET project (which

became the A320) moved from

Weybridge to Toulouse when BAe joined

Airbus. Some on the BAe Board wanted

the company to bid to undertake A320

final assembly at Filton but this would

have required a 30% financial stake in the

project and heavy investment in plant

and equipment. BAe won manufacture of

the entire wing, unlike the A300 and

A310 where the moving surfaces were

built elsewhere. The wing design

originated from the Weybridge plant

rather than Hatfield but manufacture was

centred at Broughton. After intense

lobbying of the Prime Minister, Margaret

Thatcher and very much against the †

‡ A Beluga being

loaded with Airbus

A340-600 wings at

the Airbus

Broughton site.

(Airbus)

‡ Until 2006 the Airbus factories in the UK were owned by BAE. Wings for the A380 are designed and built at Airbus’s two sites in the UK, Filton, near Bristol and
Broughton, North Wales. In Broughton, an 83,500 square metre (over 900,000 sq ft) facility was built to house wing assembly for the A380 as well as other aircraft
manufacturing activity. (Airbus)