Hawker Siddeley Group PLC was initially formed as the Hawker Siddeley Aircraft Company on 11th July 1935. The new company was established to acquire all of the shares of the Armstrong Siddeley Development Company and 50% of the shares of the Hawker Aircraft Company. This merged the two largest British aircraft manufacturers and included the subsidiaries of the two companies involved. These consisted of Armstrong Siddeley Motors, Sir W.G. Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Ltd and A.V. Roe and Co, which were part of the Armstrong Siddeley Development Company, and the Gloster Aircraft Company, which was part of Hawker, all of which continued to produce aircraft under their own names. During the Second World War Hawker Siddeley was one of the most important aircraft manufacturers in Britain. During the course of the conflict it produced several important designs including the Hawker Hurricane and Avro Lancaster as well as working on Britain’s first jet aircraft, the Gloster E.28/39, and the first British jet fighter, the Gloster Meteor. In 1945 the company also purchased Victory Aircraft from the Canadian government and transferred to its subsidiary Avro. This then became A.V. Roe Canada but was most often know as Avro Canada. On 22nd June 1948 the company underwent a restricting when it was transformed from a private to a public limited company and underwent a name change. As such it went from being Hawker Siddeley Aircraft Company Limited to Hawker Siddeley Group Limited. In 1957 the Hawker Siddeley Group purchased the Brush Group, which included Brush Electrical Machines and Brush Traction. At the time it also acquired Mirrlees, Bickerton and Day. It also formed Hawker Siddeley John Brown Nuclear Construction as a joint venture to produce nuclear power equipment for marine propulsion, electrical generation and other industrial applications. In 1958 it formed another join company this time with Beyer Peacock, under the name Beyer Peacock (Hymek) Ltd, in order to manufacture diesel hydraulic locomotives. 1959 saw a further joint company, Primapax, which made, hired and sold vending machines. During the late 1950s the British government decided that the number of aircraft manufacturers should be decreased as the number of contracts being offered was being reduced. As a result of this Hawker Siddeley merged all of its aviation interests, Hawker, Avro, Gloster, Armstrong Whitworth and Armstrong Siddeley, into a single division, Hawker Siddeley Aviation during October 1958. In 1959 it also merged its aircraft engine business, Armstrong Siddeley, with Bristol Aero Engines to form Bristol Siddeley Engines. The group also acquired Folland Aircraft and in 1960 purchased both the de Havilland Aircraft Company and the Blackburn Group. By 1961 the Hawker Siddeley Group was made up of 3 major operational groups, Hawker Siddeley Aviation, Hawker Siddeley Industries and A.V. Roe Canada. Avro Canada would be dissolved in 1962 due to the cancellation of the Avro Arrow aircraft with its remaining assets being transferred to Hawker Siddeley Canada. The new company focused on the manufacture of railway vehicles, subway cars and trams. In 1963 the group underwent a further restructuring as the names of its constituent companies were dropped in favour of a single Hawker Siddeley branding. As a result, the company’s products were rebranded with a HS number in place of their previous number. During 1968 the group expanded further by acquiring Crompton Parkinson, which was later combined with Brook Motors, when they acquired this company in 1970, to form Brook Crompton. On 29th April 1977 the Hawker Siddeley Group underwent a major change when, as a result of the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act, its Aviation and Dynamics groups were nationalised and merged with the British Aircraft Corporation and Scottish Aviation to form British Aerospace. Despite this loss of its aviation interests, they only accounted for 25% of the group’s business and as such it was able reorganise its remaining interests in a holding company, Hawker Siddeley Group PLC. The decision was taken to focus this group on railway engineering, industrial electronics and signalling equipment. During the 1980s the Hawker Siddeley Group continued to expand, acquiring Carlton Industries between 1981 and 1984, and GEC Small Machines Company and GEC Alsthom Electromotes in 1989. This success made the group a target for a hostile takeover by the BTR conglomerate and in November 1991 they acquired it for £1.5 billion. The Hawker Siddeley name continued to be used in the group’s switchgear division which was later sold to FKI and later Melrose PLC.

British Aerospace, often abbreviated to BAe, was an aerospace and defence company formed on 29th April 1977. This was a result of the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act which merged the British Aircraft Corporation, Hawker Siddeley Aviation, Hawker Siddeley Dynamics and Scottish Aviation into a nationalised company. The new company controlled a large part of the British aviation industry and was the largest defence contractor in Europe. In 1979 the company joined the Airbus consortium, acquiring a 20% share. The British government had previously withdrawn from this project although Hawker Siddeley had continued to be involved as a contractor producing wings for their aircraft. In 1981 the company underwent a major restructuring. On 1st January the statutory corporation was transferred to a limited company and this was reregistered as British Aerospace PLC. It was then gradually privatised as 51.6% of the shares were sold to the public in February with the remaining 48.4% being sold in May 1985. Despite this the British government retained a single golden share that gave them the power to block foreign control of the company. Also during 1985 BAe would be the primary contractor for the Al-Yamamah arms deal. During the late 1980s British Aerospace would become involved in serval joint ventures and acquired a number of companies which diversified its operations away from aircraft manufacturing. The first of these was undertaken in cooperation with Alenia Aeronautica, Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA and DaimlerChrysler Aerospace AG to form Eurofighter GmBH which would go on to develop the Eurofighter Typhoon. During 1991 it would also form another joint venture with the Sema Group to form a naval defence company, BAeSEMA. The company would also acquire Royal Ordnance on 22nd April 1987, the Rover Group in 1988, Heckler and Koch in 1991 and 30% share in Hutchison Telecommunications. Despite the expansion undertaken during the 1980s BAe would begin to suffer some difficulties during the early 1990s as its property company struggled, Rover sales dropped and the British government undertook a defence spending review. As a result the decision was taken to divest the company of its non-aerospace or defence activities. As a result in 1993 BAE Corporate Jets Ltd and Arkansas Aerospace Inc were sold to Raytheon and in 1994 the Rover Group was sold to BMW whist British Aerospace Space Systems were sold to Matra Marconi Space. As well as this in 1998 it reduced its shareholding in Orange to 5% and acquired the UK operations of Siemens Plessey Systems from Siemens AG. By the late 1990s the consolidation of defence companies was becoming a major issues especially in Europe. The formation of Lockheed Martin and the merger of Boeing and McDonnell Douglas put serious pressure on European companies to consolidate their operations. Initially it was thought that BAe would merge with DaimlerChrysler Aerospace AG but this was put on hold when it emerged that GEC was selling its defence electronics business, Marconi Electronic Systems. It was believed that this may be acquired by an American company. As a result the decision was taken to merge this company with British Aerospace forming a company that was initially known as New British Aerospace. The new company would be formed on 30th November 1999 under the name BAE Systems.

Matra Marconi Space was an aerospace company that was a jointly owned by the British General Electric Company (GEC) Group and the French Lagardere Group. Both of these larger companies merged their space and communications divisions, Marconi Space Systems and Matra Espace respectively, to form the new company in 1990. Claude Goumy of Matra was made the first Managing Director with Richard Wignall of Marconi as his deputy. In 1994 the company would acquire British Aerospace Space Systems and Ferranti Satcomms. 1997 would see the company’s Filton site close with some of the personnel being transferred to their Stevenage site and in 1999 British Aerospace would acquire Marconi Electronic Systems from GEC. This would create BAe Systems which replaced GEC as a joint owner of Matra Marconi Space. In 2000 the company merged with the space division of DaimlerChrysler Aerospace AG (DASA) to form Astrium.