BAE Systems

The Aircraft of British Aerospace and BAE SYSTEMS 1977 - 2017 9

From British AerospAce to BAe sYstems 19 77-

two international partners were
nationalised and could raise the funds
comparatively easily, even raising the
£250m required for the launch aid from
the Thatcher Government for the wing
was an effort.
BAe had already invested £350m of its
own funds in the A300 and A310.
Substantial investment from the
Government and BAe followed in 1987 for
the A330/A340 programme and in 2000
for the A380.

Executive development
BAe 125-
The successful 125 executive jet had been
developed by Hawker Siddeley since 1962
and remained in production thanks to
constant refinements to keep it abreast of
the competition.
The BAe Board agreed to invest in its
next development, the 125-800, to
maintain its market share. The 125-
version not only had uprated engines, but
underwent a substantial redesign, to
improve its performance and
spaciousness, plus its looks, an important
feature in the executive market.

AT P
In addition to the launch of the A320 in
1984, British Aerospace went ahead with
its long-awaited BAe 748 replacement,
the ATP (Advanced TurboProp) assembled
at Woodford. There were high
expectations that the ATP, as a second-
generation, twin-turboprop airliner would
emulate the 748’s strong sales
performance. This new project completed
BAe’s ‘family’ of civil aircraft, with Airbus
offering all the large airliners, to take BAe
into the 21st Century.

British Aerospace’s

military strategy

BAe’s military business grew substantially

in the 1980s - Tornado, Harrier and Hawk

were all in production and winning

export orders and the Nimrod AEW3 was

being built at Woodford. Despite this

positive situation, the company clearly

needed successors to fill its factories.

When BAC and Hawker Siddeley were

merged into BAe in 1977 there were two

military aircraft centres, BAC’s at Warton

and HSA’s at Kingston and it was the

former BAC plant which gradually

became the hub within BAe.

Tornado

Whereas the UK component of the

tripartite Tornado bomber’s design,

testing and production planning had

been BAC’s responsibility, BAe now had

the advantage of projected orders for

over 800 aircraft, providing employment

for 70,000 people in the UK, Germany and

Italy.

EAP and Eurofighter

In the late 1970s, British, French, German,

and Italian companies had initiated

discussions aimed at collaboratively

designing, developing, and producing

‡ BAe ATP G-MATP

during its maiden

flight from

Woodford on 6

August 1986.

(BAE SYSTEMS)

†

British Aerospace’s military aircraft and missiles on

display at Warton. A Typhoon leading, then behind

a Harrier GR5 (left) and Sea Harrier FA2 (right).

The next row has a Hawk 200 (left) and Hawk 100

ZA101 (right), at the back are two Tornado F3s

either side of a Tornado GR1. In between these are

Sky Flash, Sea Wolf, Sea Skua and Martell missiles.

Rapier missile mobile launchers are

also there, as is a Swingfire mobile launcher at the

rear on the right. (BAE SYSTEMS via Warton Heritage)