The story
Founded by Sir George White, 1st Baronet in 1910.1
Foundation
The British and Colonial Aeroplane Company, Ltd was founded in February 1910 by Sir George White, chairman of the Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company, along with his son Stanley and his brother Samuel, to commercially exploit the fast-growing aviation sector. Sir George met with the American aviation pioneer Wilbur Wright in France in 1909 by chance, during which he became aware of aviation's business potential.
Unlike many aviation companies of the era, which were started by enthusiasts with little financial backing, British and Colonial was well funded from its outset. Sir George chose to establish a separate company from the Bristol Tramway Company, as the venture might be seen as too risky by many shareholders, and the new company's working capital of £25,000 was subscribed entirely by Sir George, his brother, and his son. The affairs of the two companies were closely connected, and the company's first premises were a pair of former tram sheds used for aircraft manufacture at Filton leased from the Bristol Tramway Company. Additionally, key personnel for the new business were recruited from the Bristol Tramway Company, including the chief engineer and works manager, George Challenger.
Flying schools were established at Brooklands, Surrey, which was then the centre of activity for British aviation, where Bristol rented a hangar; and at Larkhill on Salisbury Plain where, in June 1910, a school was established on 2,248 acres (9.10 km2) of land leased from the War Office. By 1914 308 of the 664 Royal Aero Club certificates issued had been earned at the company's schools.
The Bristol Boxkite
The company's initial manufacturing venture was to be a licensed and improved version of an aircraft manufactured in France by société Zodiac, a biplane designed by Gabriel Voisin. This aircraft had been exhibited at the Paris Aero Salon in 1909 and Sir George had been impressed by the quality of its construction. Accordingly, a single example was purchased and shipped to England to be shown at the Aero Show at Olympia in March 1910, and construction of five more begun at the company's Filton works. It was then transported to Brooklands for flight trials, where it immediately became apparent that the type had an unsatisfactory wing-section and lacked sufficient power; even though Bristol fitted the aircraft with a new set of wings, it only achieved a single brief hop on 28 May 1910, after which work on the type was abandoned. Since the machine had been sold with a 'guarantee to fly', Sir George succeeded in getting 15,000 francs compensation from Zodiac.
After this failure, the company decided to embark upon designing its own aircraft to serve as a successor. Drawings were prepared by George Challenger for an aircraft based on a successful design by Henri Farman whose dimensions had been published in the aeronautical press. These drawings were produced in little over a week, and Sir George promptly authorised the construction of twenty examples. The first aircraft to be completed was taken to Larkhill for flight trials, where it performed its first flight on 20 July 1910, piloted by Maurice Edmonds. The aircraft proved entirely satisfactory during flight tests.
The first batch equipped the two training schools, as well as serving as demonstration machines; the aircraft, which gained the nickname of the Boxkite, went on to become a commercial success, a total of 76 being constructed. Many served in the company's flying schools and examples were sold to the War Office as well as a number of foreign governments.
1911–1914
Although satisfactory by the standards of the day, the Boxkite was not capable of much further development and work soon was started on two new designs, a small tractor configuration biplane and a monoplane. Both of these were exhibited at the 1911 Aero Show at Olympia but neither was flown successfully. At this time, both Challenger and Low left the company to join the newly established aircraft division of the armament firm Vickers. Their place was taken by Pierre Prier, the former chief instructor at the Blériot flying school at Hendon: he was later joined by Gordon England. In January 1912 Romanian aircraft engineer Henri Coandă was appointed as the company's chief designer.
During early 1912 a highly secret separate design office, known as the "X-Department", was set up to work on Dennistoun Burney's ideas for naval aircraft. Frank Barnwell was taken on as the design engineer for this project, and took over as Bristol's chief designer when Coandă left the company in October 1914. Barnwell went on to become one of the world's foremost aeronautical engineers, and worked for the company until his death in 1938.
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The company expanded rapidly, establishing a second factory at the Brislington tramway works; the firm employed a total of 200 people by the outbreak of the First World War.
First World War
At the outbreak of war in August 1914, Britain's military forces possessed just over a hundred aircraft and the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) consisted of only seven squadrons equipped with a miscellany of aircraft types, none of them armed. Official War Office policy was to purchase only aircraft designed by the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE), and Bristol had already built a number of their B.E.2 two-seater reconnaissance aircraft. However, pressure from the pilots of the RFC and Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) led to orders being placed for a new aircraft manufactured by Bristol, known as the Scout.
In 1915, Barnwell returned from France, his skills as pilot being considered to be of much less value than his ability as a designer. At this time Leslie Frise, newly graduated from Bristol University's engineering department, was recruited by Barnwell. In 1916, the company's founder Sir George died; he was succeeded in managing the company by his son Stanley.
The first project that was worked on by Barnwell after his return, the Bristol T.T.A., was designed in response to a War Office requirement for a two-seat fighter intended to conduct home defence operations against Zeppelin raids. This was not successful but, in 1916, work was started on the Bristol F.2A, which was developed into the highly successful F.2B Fighter, one of the outstanding aircraft of the 1914–18 war and a mainstay of the RAF during the 1920s. More than 5,300 of the type were produced and the Fighter remained in service until 1931.
Another aircraft designed at this time was the Bristol Monoplane Scout. Although popular with pilots, the success of this aircraft was limited by War Office prejudice against monoplanes and only 130 were built. It was considered that its relatively high landing speed of 50 mph made it unsuitable for use under the field conditions of the Western Front, and the type's active service was limited to the Near East.
Inter-war years
By the end of the war, the company employed over 3,000 at its production works, which were split between Filton and Brislington. Its products had always been referred to by the name 'Bristol' and this was formalized in 1920, when British and Colonial was liquidated and its assets transferred to the Bristol Aeroplane Company, Ltd. During this time the company, acting under pressure from the Air Ministry, bought the aero-engine division of the bankrupt Cosmos Engineering Company, based in the Bristol suburb of Fishponds, to form the nucleus of a new aero-engine operation.
There was already a good working relationship between Bristol Aircraft and Cosmos, the Cosmos Jupiter having been first flown in a prototype Bristol Badger in May 1919. For £15,000 Bristol got the Cosmos design team, headed by Roy Fedden, along with a small number of completed engines and tooling. Although it was to be several years before Bristol showed any profit from the aero engine division, the Jupiter engine eventually proved enormously successful; indeed, during the inter-war period, the aero-engine division was more successful than the parent company and Bristol came to dominate the market for air-cooled radial engines. Apart from providing engines for almost all Bristol's aircraft designs, the Jupiter and its successors powered an enormous number of aircraft built by other manufacturers.
Bristol's most successful aircraft during this period was the Bristol Bulldog fighter, which formed the mainstay of Royal Air Force (RAF) fighter force between 1930 and 1937, when the Bulldog was retired from front line service. Since the Bulldog had started life as a private venture rather than an Air Ministry-sponsored prototype it could be sold to other countries, and Bulldogs were exported to, among others, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, and Australia.
During this time, Bristol was noted for its preference for steel airframes, using members built up from high-tensile steel strip rolled into flanged sections rather than the light alloys more generally used in aircraft construction. On 15 June 1935, the Bristol Aeroplane Company became a public limited company. By this time, the company had a payroll of 4,200, mostly in the engine factory, and was well positioned to take advantage of the huge re-armament ordered by the British Government in May of that year. Bristol's most important contribution to the expansion of the RAF at this time was the Blenheim light bomber.
In August 1938, Frank Barnwell was killed flying a light aircraft of his own design; Barnwell was succeeded as Bristol's Chief Designer by Leslie Frise. By the time war broke out in 1939, the Bristol works at Filton were the largest single aircraft manufacturing unit in the world, with a floor area of nearly 25 hectares (2,691,000 square feet).
Second World War
During the Second World War, Bristol's most important aircraft was the Beaufighter heavy two-seat multirole aircraft, a long-range fighter, night fighter, ground attack aircraft and torpedo bomber. The type was used extensively by the RAF, other Empire air forces and by the USAAF. The Beaufighter was derived from the Beaufort torpedo bomber, itself a derivative of the Blenheim.
In 1940, shadow factories were set up at Weston-super-Mare for the production of Beaufighters, and underground at Hawthorn, near Corsham, Wiltshire, for engine manufacture. Construction in the former stone quarry at Hawthorn took longer than expected and little production was achieved before the site closed in 1945. The company's war-time headquarters was located in the Royal West of England Academy, Clifton, Bristol.
Post-war
When the war ended, Bristol set up a separate helicopter division in the Weston-super-Mare factory, under helicopter pioneer Raoul Hafner. This facility was taken over by Westland in 1960.
Other post-war projects included Bristol Cars, which used pre-war BMW designs as the basis for the Bristol 400. Vehicle production was conducted at Patchway, Bristol.
The engine developed for the Bristol 400 found its way into many successful motor cars manufactured by other companies, such as Cooper, Frazer Nash and AC and, in 1954 and 1955, powered the Bristol 450 sports prototype to class victories in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race. In 1953, S.H. Arnolt, a US car dealer who sold British sports cars, commissioned the Bristol Car Division to build a sports car for the US market, called the Arnolt-Bristol. It is estimated that about 177 were built before production ceased in 1958.
In 1960, the founder's grandson, Sir George S.M. White, (3rd Baronet), was instrumental in preventing the car division being lost during the wider company's merger with BAC. Accordingly, Bristol Cars Limited was formed, and remained within the Filton complex. Sir George retired in 1973 and Tony Crook purchased his share, becoming sole proprietor and managing director. Pre-fabricated buildings, marine craft and plastic and composite materials were also amongst the company's early post-war activities; these side-ventures were independently sold off.
Bristol was involved in the post-war renaissance of British civilian aircraft, which was largely inspired by the Brabazon Committee report of 1943–5. In 1949, the Brabazon airliner prototype, at the time one of the largest aircraft in the world, first flew. This project was deemed to be a step in the wrong direction, gaining little interest from military or civilian operators, resulting in the Brabazon being ultimately cancelled in 1953. At the same time as the termination, Bristol decided to focus on development of a large turboprop-powered airliner, known as the Britannia. Capable of traversing transatlantic routes, it proved a commercial success; both it and the Bristol Type 170 Freighter were produced in quantity during the 1950s. However, sales of the Britannia were poor and only 82 were built, primarily due to its protracted development; having been ordered by BOAC on 28 July 1949 and first flown on 16 August 1952, it did not enter service until 1 February 1957. Bristol was also involved in helicopter development, with the Belvedere and Sycamore going into quantity production.
Another post-war activity was missile development, culminating in the production of the Bloodhound anti-aircraft missile. Upon introduction, the Bloodhound was the RAF's only long range transportable surface-to-air missile. Bristol Aero Engines produced a range of rocket motors and ramjets for missile propulsion. The guided weapons division eventually became part of MBDA.
In the late 1950s, the company undertook supersonic transport (SST) project studies, the Type 223, which were later to contribute to Concorde. A research aircraft, the Type 188, was constructed in the 1950s to test the feasibility of stainless steel as a material in a Mach 2.0 airframe. By the time the aircraft flew in 1962, the company was already part of BAC.
In parallel with these supersonic studies, several subsonic designs were schemed in this period, including the Type 200 (a competitor of the Hawker Siddeley Trident) and its derivatives, the Type 201 and Type 205. None of these designs were built.
Merger into BAC
In 1959, Bristol was forced by Government policy to merge its aircraft interests with English Electric, Hunting Aircraft, and Vickers-Armstrongs to form the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Bristol formed a holding company which held a 20 per cent share of BAC, while English Electric and Vickers held 40 per cent each.
In 1966, the Bristol holding company which held 20 per cent of BAC and 50 per cent of Bristol Siddeley engines was acquired by Rolls-Royce. Bristol also had the following holdings and subsidiary companies at this time:- Bristol Aerojet (50 per cent) – Bristol Aeroplane Co Australia – Bristol DE Mexico SA (78 per cent) – Motores Bristol De Cuba SA – Bristol Aeroplane Co of Canada – Bristol Aero Industries Ltd – Bristol Aeroplane Co USA – Spartan Air Services Ltd (46.5 per cent) – Bristol Aeroplane Co New Zealand – Bristol Aircraft Services Ltd – Bristol Aeroplane Plastics Ltd – SECA (30 per cent) – Short Bros & Harland (15.25 per cent) – SVENSK-ENGELSK Aero Service AB – TABSA (25 per cent) – Westland Aircraft Ltd (10 per cent).
The Bristol Aeroplane Company of Canada
The Canadian Bristol group of companies was the largest of the overseas subsidiaries. The group undertook aircraft handling and servicing at Dorval Airport, Montreal. Vancouver Airport was the base for Bristol Aero Engines (Western), Ltd., one of the Canadian company's four operating subsidiaries. Work at Vancouver included the overhaul of Pratt and Whitney and Wright engines for the R.C.A.F. and commercial operators. Bristol Aircraft (Western), Ltd (Stevenson Field, Winnipeg) was formerly MacDonald Brothers Aircraft, and was the largest of the subsidiaries and the group's only airframe plant. Bristol de Mexico, S.A. de CV. (Central Airport, Mexico City), overhauled piston engines for South American operators. Bristol de Mexico S.A. obtained a license to manufacture Alfred Herbert Ltd machine tools in 1963 and commenced assembling their centre lathes in 1963. They also commenced building their own design of small engine lathes for the Mexican Government to be installed in training schools throughout Mexico. Malcolm Roebuck was hired from Alfred Herbert Ltd along with William Walford Webb Woodward to supervise this project.
Nationalisation
In 1977, BAC was nationalised, along with Scottish Aviation and Hawker Siddeley, to form British Aerospace (BAe), which later became part of the now-privatised BAE Systems. The Canadian unit was acquired by Rolls-Royce Holdings and sold in 1997 to current owner Magellan Aerospace.
From Wikipedia’s article on Bristol Aeroplane Company, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4