- TitleBooklet entitled 'British Aerospace Dynamics Group'
- ReferenceADS/D/02
- Production date1985 - 1985
- British Aerospace plcBiographyBiographyBritish 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 The British government had previously withdrawn from this project although Hawker Siddeley had continued to be involved as a contractor producing wings for their aircraft.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.
- Scope and ContentA booklet giving a history of the British Aerospace Dynamics Group between 1978 and 1985.
- Extent1 item
- LanguageEnglish
- Level of descriptionITEM
- Repository nameScience Museum, London
- British Aerospace Dynamics GroupBiographyBiographyThe Dynamics Group was formed as a separate operating unit within British Aerospace on 1st January 1978 and took over the guided weapons and associated activities of the companies that had been merged to form BAe in 1977. Initially, the new organisation was headed by G.R. Jefferson, previously head of BAC Guided Weapons Ltd, with Tom Kent assisting as General Manager. When it was established the Group consisted of four divisions which were run as separate business units with their own specific responsibilities. These were ground-launched weapons, space and communications, both of which were based at the Stevenage site, ship-launched weapons, based at Bristol, and air-launched weapons, based at Hatfield. In its initial years, the group worked on a number of projects including the Sky Flash and P3T missiles as well as the Sea Dart and Seawolf systems used by the Royal Navy. It also was involved in the European Communications Satellite (ECS) programme and the Marecs satellite. In January 1980 British Aerospace Dynamics Group was joined by Admiral Sir Raymond Lygo, as deputy chairman, and Tom Kent was promoted to Deputy Group Chief Executive. The Group also began a number of international cooperations including the Euromissile Dynamics Group (EMDG) with Aerospatiale and Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB), which aimed to develop a new anti-tank missile and a programme with BTG in Germany relating to the AIM 9L Sidewinder missile. 1980 also saw the group working on the Sea Eagle anti-ship missile, the production of Sky Flash, Rapier and MILAN, and the development of the Giotto probe for the European Space Agency. In August 1980 G.R. Jefferson became Chairman of British Telecom and he was replaced as Chairman and Chief Executive of the Group by Admiral Sir Raymond Lygo. 1981 would see British Aerospace become a Public Limited Company but operations in the Dynamic Group would continue with the same structure as had already been in place. It would continue to work on various missile contracts, including Sea Skua for the Royal Navy and Sky Flash for Sweeden, and would also establish new facilities at the Stevenage site for circuit development and plastics production. In 1982 Sperry Gyroscopes was acquired by the Group and would become a division within it, known simply as Bracknell. The same year would also seem the sale of the Industrial and Vehicle weighing activities, which had previously been part of the division based at Hatfield. Sir Reymond Largo would also become Managing Director of British Aerospace and was replaced by Hugh Metcalfe. 1983 saw the group work on a Cargo Surveillance System and the Sea Urchin mine as well as cooperation with other organisations. This included Bodenseewerk Geraetetechnik/BAe GmBH, a joint company with Germany for missile development and production, and the Wind Energy group, which produced a prototype for the largest wind turbine generator erected in the UK. During 1985 British Aerospace underwent a restructuring as it prepared for privatisation which had been announced by the British Government in 1984 when it stated that it was prepared to sell its 48.43% in BAe to a successful bidder, and this was to occur in May 1985. As part of this restructuring the management structure of the company underwent a streamlining process and this involved the absorption of the Aircraft and Dynamic Groups into one single structure. As a result the Dynamics Group formally ceased to exist on 1st June 1985.
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- contains 8 partsTOPADS Airbus Defence and Space Comms Archive
- contains 16 partsSERIESADS/D Site history material