A V Roe and Co Ltd, more commonly known as Avro, was an aircraft manufacturer based in Manchester. One of the first manufacturers of aircraft, the company operated from 1910 until 1963. Avro was founded by brothers Alliott and Humphrey Verdon Roe and was based originally in the basement of the Everards Elastic Webbing Company's factory at Brownsfield Mill in Ancoats, Manchester. Avro also rented a shed at Brooklands airfield, where the finished aircraft were sold. Alliott Verson Roe was the aircraft designer, having already constructed a successful aircraft, the Roe I Triplane, in 1909. The Roe I was the first aircraft completely built from British components. Previous aircraft designs had used parts imported from overseas. Humphrey Verdon Roe was the managing director of the company, bringing funding for the new enterprise from the family webbing company that he also ran. In 1911 Roy Chadwick joined the company as Alliott’s personal assistant, working as a draughtsman. Chadwick became the firm's Chief Designer in 1918. The Avro 500, or Avro E, was the company's first mass produced aircraft. It took its first flight in March 1912. Eighteen of these were built, with most of them entering service with the Royal Flying Corps. In the same year, Avro prototyped the Avro F and Avro G, which were the world's first aircraft with fully enclosed crew accommodation, but neither went into production. September 1913 saw the first flight of the Avro 504. This was a development of the Avro 500 and was purchased by the War Office. As a result, it would see front line service during the early years of the First World War, but was later used primarily for training pilots. The Avro 504 was manufactured for a period of 20 years, with 8,340 being produced in total. The success of the Avro 504 led the company to move to a factory in Miles Platting, Manchester, followed in 1914 by an extension to the company's new works at Newton Heath, which was completed in 1919. Following the end of the First World War the lack of new orders caused severe financial problems for Avro and in August 1920 68.5% of the company’s shares were acquired by Crossley Motors, who needed additional factory space to build automobile bodies. Avro continued to operate, building aircraft at the Newton Heath works, and testing them at Alexandra Park Aerodrome in South Manchester until 1924, when flight testing moved to Woodford Aerodrome in Cheshire. In 1928, Crossley Motors sold their stake in Avro to Armstrong Siddeley in order to pay off losses they had incurred on other projects. Avro became part of the Armstrong Siddeley Development Company, prompting Alliott Verdon Roe's resignation from the company. Chief Designer Roy Chadwick remained at Avro, overseeing the production of training aircraft. Chadwick designed the Avro Tutor in 1930, followed by the twin engine Avro 652, which was later developed into the multirole Avro Anson. The Tutor was bought in large quantities by the RAF. In 1935, Avro became a subsidiary of Hawker Siddeley. As tensions in Europe increased, resulting in the outbreak of the Second World War, Avro returned to the production of military aircraft, producing the Avro Manchester, Lancaster and Lincoln bombers. The twin engine Manchester was unsuccessful, partly due to its Vulture engines. Replacing the Vultures with four Rolls-Royce Merlin engines resulted in the more successful Lancaster. 7,377 of these were produced and saw active service during the war. In 1944, the Lancaster was further developed into the Lincoln, the last piston engine bomber in Royal Air Force service. In order to meet rising demand Avro opened a new factory at Greengate, Chadderton, in 1938, where almost half of all Avro Lancasters were produced, with final assembly at Woodford Aerodrome. The following year, Avro also established an experimental department at RAF Ringway, now known as Manchester Airport, and a shadow factory at Yeadon Aerodrome, now Leeds-Bradford Airport. The Yeadon factory produced 5,500 aircraft including Ansons, Lancasters, Yorks and Lincolns. Towards the end of the Second World War, Avro put into production a number of civil airliners, in order to make up for a drop in military orders. One of these designs was the Lancastrian, which was a conversion of the Lancaster bomber. The second was the Avro York, which was also based on the Lancaster but used a different fuselage. Production of this would be limited until 1944 due to the focus on military aircraft. The final design that the company produced was the Tudor. This used many components from the Lincoln but suffered from the fact that it wasn’t sufficiently advanced when compared to existing designs and as a result it did not achieve many orders. Despite this both the York and Tudor were used in the Berlin Airlift. On 23rd August 1947 Roy Chadwick was killed in a crash involving a prototype Tudor 2 that was undergoing testing. Despite this his impact on the company continued, as he had already begun design work on a number of aircraft that Avro went on to produce. In 1948 Avro produced the Tudor 8 which was powered by four Nene jet engines. This design retained the tail wheel undercarriage, which placed the engine exhausts close to the ground. As a result, the company replaced this with a tricycle undercarriage for the Tudor 9. The design became known as the Avro Ashton, which first flew in 1950. Although this was one of the first jet transport aircraft it was primarily used for research and it was not intended to enter service. On 30th August 1952 the Avro 698 made its first flight. This was a four engine jet bomber that had been developed to replace existing piston engine designs. Further development of the design resulted in the Avro 707 and the Avro 710. The 710 was not put into full production as it was considered too time consuming to develop. The 698 entered service in 1956 under the name Vulcan, with an improved B.2 version introduced in 1960. The Avro Vulcan was retired in 1984 after having only being using in combat once, during the 1982 Falklands War. During the late 1950s the company developed the 748 turbo-prop airliner. This successful design was sold around the world and was later developed into the Ashton transport by Hawker Siddeley. The same period also saw the company’s weapons research division begin development of the Blue Steel nuclear missile. During 1963, parent company Hawker Siddeley restructured its aviation subsidiaries. Each subsidiary had operated under its own brand name, but from July 1963 all subsidiaries were merged into Hawker Siddeley's Aviation Division, which was operated as a single brand. The missile division of the company would become part of the Dynamics Division. Avro as a company ceased to exist, but the Avro was later reused by British Aerospace for their 146 regional airliner, known as the Avro RJ.

The Douglas Aircraft Corporation was founded on 22nd July 1921 by Donald Wills Douglas Sr, who had previously been involved in the Davis-Douglas Company, in Santa Monica, California. The new company gained initial publicity from the 1924 first circumnavigation of the world by air, which used the special designed Douglas World Cruiser Aircraft. Also at this time, the company produced a variety of aircraft for the American military. Initially, these were torpedo bombers but later they began manufacturing reconnaissance and airmail aircraft. This proved successful and by 1926 the company was producing 100 aircraft annually and had also begun amphibious aircraft production and moved to a new site at Clover Field, Santa Monica. In 1934 the company began the production of the DC-2 twin-engine aircraft which was followed in 1936 by the DC-3. Both of these designs were part of the Douglas Commercial (DC) series. The DC-3 would prove to be a very successful design with 607 civil aircraft being produced, with around 16,000 military and foreign-built examples being produced. The Second World War would be a time of great growth for the company and it would be the 5th largest producer of equipment for government contracts. During the war, it would produce 30,000 aircraft, including the C-47 Skytrain, A-20 Havoc, SBD Dauntless and A-26 Invader, and employed 160,000 people across seven sites in California, Oklahoma and Illinois. Douglas would also form part of the BVD (Boeing Vega Douglas) Consortium that would produce the B-17 Flying Fortress. The end of the conflict would result in a server contraction of the Douglas Company. Due to the end of government contracts and the large number of surplus aircraft on the market the company was forced to reduce its workforce by 100,000. The post-war period would also see a great deal of research into new aircraft designs and these resulted in the DC-6, introduced in 1946, and the DC-7, produced from 1953 as the company’s last propeller-driven commercial aircraft. From March 1946 it would also begin work on a contract to investigate intercontinental warfare as part of Project RAND, which would later become the RAND Corporation. They also began production of jet-propelled aircraft for both the US military, with the 1948 built F3D Skyknight and later the F4D Skyray, and civil operators. In 1958 the company introduced the DC-8 to try and compete with the Boeing 707. The 1950s would also see the company’s involvement in several missile programmes, producing components for the Skybolt and Thor missiles, as well as the design of the S-IVB stage of the Saturn rockets for NASA. Despite the company’s success by 1967 the company was struggling to meet the demand for the DC-8, DC-9 and A-4 aircraft. It was also short of funds due to the development costs of the new DC-10. As a result, it entered into merger talks with the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation. These were completed on 28th April 1967 and formed the McDonnell Douglas Corporation.

The Air Ministry was created to oversee the formation of the Royal Air Force an amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service. As well as overseeing and managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force it also issued specifications for aircraft to aircraft companies. The prototype aircraft would be tested by the Ministry who would then assigned it with a name.

Founded in 1866 as The Aeronautical Society of Great Britain. The objectives of the society were given as “for the advancement of Aerial Navigation and for Observations in Aerology connected therewith”. The Society moved to its current premises, No. 4 Hamilton Place, in 1938.