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108-590: The British Aircraft Corporation ( BAC ) was a British aircraft manufacturer formed from the government-pressured merger of English Electric Aviation Ltd. , Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) , the Bristol Aeroplane Company and Hunting Aircraft in 1960. Bristol, English Electric and Vickers became "parents" of BAC with shareholdings of 20%, 40% and 40% respectively. BAC in turn acquired the share capital of their aviation interests and 70% of Hunting Aircraft several months later. BAC's origins can be traced to

216-416: A geostationary earth orbit (GEO). According to author Nigel Henbest, Britain was likely unable to pursue Mustard's development alone, but suggested organising a multinational European venture, similar to the conventional Europa and Ariane launchers. The knowledge and expertise developed on this project was subsequently harnessed on later efforts, most prominently the re-usable HOTOL spaceplane project of

324-521: A letter of intent to purchase Lightning and Strikemaster aircraft as well as Thunderbird surface-to-air missiles. The main contract was signed in 1966 for forty Lightnings and twenty-five (ultimately forty) Strikemasters. In 1973, the Saudi government signed an agreement with the British government which specified BAC as the contractor for all parts of the defence system ( AEI was previously contracted to supply

432-463: A proximity fuze it almost guaranteed a kill. BAC joked that the system was a "hit-ile", as opposed to a "miss-ile". It also became clear that the warning radar system would be invaluable in the field, and GASR.3134 was dropped. The first test firings of the missile took place in 1966. The system was extensively tested at Woomera , considerably supported by the Australian Army , an early user of

540-569: A 1-ton Missile Supply Trailer (MST) containing up to 10 further missiles. Blindfire radar (see below) was only provided for a third of fire units in British Army service, but for all fire units in the RAF Regiment. Although accurate and simple to use, the original Rapier system clearly suffered from a lack of all-weather capability. To address this need, BAC started work on a separate radar guidance unit, primarily to improve foreign sales. This led to

648-456: A 1.4-kilogram (3.1 lb) warhead with a contact fuze and a single-stage solid-rocket motor that accelerates the missile to about 650 metres per second (2,100 ft/s), about Mach 2. Engagement time to the maximum effective range is about 13 seconds. Response time from initial target detection to missile launch is about six seconds, repeatedly confirmed in live firing. The whole system and its crew are delivered by two Land Rovers designated

756-566: A 34-inch pitch (or up to 300 passengers at a 30-inch pitch). The British national airline British European Airways (BEA) was publicly interested in the type; during August 1970, BEA's chairman, Sir Anthony Milward, declared his personal optimism for the Three-Eleven. However, Britain's potential Common Market partners warned that, since the Three-Eleven would directly compete against the European Airbus, around which they had largely coalesced,

864-482: A board meeting the issue arose that no one knew what more than one mongoose was called; mongooses? mongeese? The name "Rapier" was suggested and made official. As development continued, it became increasingly clear that the Rapier was far more a formidable weapon than initially expected. The optical tracking system was so accurate that the missile almost always hit the target aircraft, so despite its small warhead and lack of

972-600: A controlling interest in Hunting Aircraft. The parents still had significant aviation interests outside BAC. English Electric had Napier & Son aero-engines, Bristol had 50% of Bristol Aerojet and Bristol Siddeley engines and smaller investments in Westland and Short Brothers & Harland. Upon the formation of BAC, the Bristol Aeroplane Company (Car Division) was not included in the consolidation. Instead, it

1080-820: A government body. This term has been largely subsumed by the more encompassing term: " aerospace industry". In 2015 the aircraft production was worth US$ 180.3 billion: 61% airliners , 14% business and general aviation , 12% military aircraft , 10% military rotary wing and 3% civil rotary wing; while their MRO was worth $ 135.1 Bn or $ 315.4 Bn combined. The global aerospace industry was worth $ 838.5 billion in 2017: aircraft & engine OEMs represented 28% ($ 235 Bn), civil & military MRO & upgrades 27% ($ 226 Bn), aircraft systems & component manufacturing 26% ($ 218 Bn), satellites & space 7% ($ 59 Bn), missiles & UAVs 5% ($ 42 Bn) and other activity, including flight simulators , defense electronics, public research accounted for 7% ($ 59 Bn). The Top 10 countries with

1188-649: A joint venture company, to develop, market, and produce the Anglo-French Jaguar strike fighter. The Jaguar programme ultimately took the place of several earlier efforts, including the AFVG. The first of the Jaguar's eight prototypes flew on 8 September 1968. During 1973, service entry was achieved with the French Air Force, by which time Breguet had become part of Dassault Aviation . SEPECAT received various export orders for

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1296-559: A lower-cost system, BAC started development of the "Rapier Laserfire" in 1982. Laserfire replaced the original optical tracker unit with a new lidar (laser radar) illuminating system that is considerably smaller, allowing the entire system to be mounted on a single pallet that could itself be mounted on a truck or other flatbed vehicle. Laserfire used a millimetric Doppler radar . Due to its very high frequency of operation and ability to transform its beamshape from narrow azimuth and high elevation to wide azimuth and narrow elevation, Laserfire

1404-621: A massive defence acquisition programme involving the replacement of the country's fighter aircraft and the establishment of an advanced air defence and communications network. American companies seemed guaranteed to win much of this work, however, the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) would ultimately be supplied with large amounts of British-made aircraft and equipment to fulfill their needs. By 1964, BAC conducted demonstration flights of their Lightning in Riyadh and, in 1965, Saudi Arabia signed

1512-503: A massive simulation run and data processing using an IBM 7090 . Complete systems were tested in 1968, with a subsequent production contract in 1969. On a parallel track, the RAF Regiment had been looking for a short-range weapon for airfield defense. Eventually, this led to the development of the Tigercat system in 1967, an adaptation of the Seacat naval surface-to-air missile system. Tigercat

1620-449: A much more extensive change. Greville Beale and Adrian Pollicutt led the development of a significantly different arrangement which was produced in a short period. This included significant changes to armour the M548 vehicle, now designated RCM 748, and to incorporate the diesel-powered Coventry Climax H 30 engine to run the new generator set, and also as the auxiliary power unit. The majority of

1728-516: A number of basic upgrades. Additionally, the search radar was upgraded to be easily shut down in case of an anti-radiation missile attack. FSB included lessons from the Falklands campaign, notable the 'pointing stick' that enabled the detachment commander of a fire unit to point the aiming unit at a target. With the range of upgrades and new components, the original low-cost Rapier system was gone. In order to address international market requirements for

1836-536: A short-range, rapid-reaction weapon, known as the Light Anti-Aircraft (LAA) system. The initial design contest for the LAA was won by British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) in 1960, and given the development name PT.428. This called for a system that could be carried on a single 4-ton Bedford TK truck. The firing unit was a single piece that would normally be placed on the ground during operation, but could be fired from

1944-422: A similar alliance with either Embraer with its E-jet E2 or Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and its MRJ . On 21 December, Boeing and Embraer confirmed to be discussing a potential combination with a transaction subject to Brazilian government regulators, the companies' boards and shareholders approvals. The weight of Airbus and Boeing could help E2 and CSeries sales but the 100-150 seats market seems slow. As

2052-476: A single company. The government envisaged acquiring BAC's capital and merging it with Hawker Siddeley. The ownership of BAC would thus give the government a minority stake in the new company. Although BAC's parent companies were prepared to sell their shares for a reasonable price, the government proposal, in their view, undervalued the group. By August 1967, the success of the BAC 1–11 and defence sales to Saudi Arabia made

2160-508: A special program to restore U.S. competitiveness across all U.S. industries, Project Socrates , contributed to employment growth as the U.S. aerospace industry captured 72 percent of world aerospace market. By 1999 U.S. share of the world market fell to 52 percent. In the European Union , aerospace companies such as Airbus , Safran , BAE Systems , Thales , Dassault , Saab AB , Terma A/S , Patria Plc and Leonardo are participants in

2268-457: A statement issued by the British government that it expected the various companies involved in the aircraft, guided weapons and engine industries to consolidate and merge with one another. Furthermore, the government also promised incentives to motivate such restructuring; the maintenance of government research and development spending and the guarantee of aid in launching "promising new types of civil aircraft". One particularly high-profile incentive

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2376-533: A third Land Rover (a 12 V winch-equipped 101 FC) with the designation Tracking Radar Tractor (TRT). With sales to Iran came the additional requirement for a fully-mobile version of Rapier to protect the Chieftain tanks being supplied on a UK MOD contract. BAC responded by adapting the Rapier system to fit on the M548 , a cargo-carrier version of the ubiquitous M113. Development started in 1974 as "Tracked Rapier", with

2484-440: A two-stage shaped burn and laminated body solid rocket motor; ceramic substrate surface mount PCBs; completely new electronic systems and software; both analogue and digital proprietary ASICs; highly ECM resistant front end and command link with redundant encoding; fully Digital Autopilot incorporating Kalman state filtering; inertial navigation comprising ring-laser roll and rate gyroscope; Kapton ribbon cabling. The missile warhead

2592-457: A very narrow "pencil" beam and tracks both the target and missile. To allow the operator to monitor the Blindfire system when it tracks the target, the existing optical tracker follows the Blindfire radar, although it is possible for the optical tracker to be manually "laid on" a second target whilst the Blindfire engages the first. The Blindfire trailer carries its own generator unit, and is towed by

2700-456: Is Japan ), strong transportation infrastructure (#5, #1 is Hong Kong ), a healthy economy (#10, #1 is China ), but high costs (#7, #1 is Denmark ) and average tax policy (#36, #1 is Qatar ). Following were Canada , Singapore , Switzerland and United Kingdom . Within the US, the most attractive was Washington state , due to the best Industry (#1), leading Infrastructure (#4, New Jersey

2808-403: Is #1) and Economy (#4, Texas is #1), good labor (#9, Massachusetts is #1), average tax policy (#17, Alaska is #1) but is costly (#33, Montana is #1). Washington is tied to Boeing Commercial Airplanes , earning $ 10.3 billion, is home to 1,400 aerospace-related businesses, and has the highest aerospace jobs concentration. Following are Texas, Georgia , Arizona and Colorado . In the US,

2916-511: Is based. Several consolidations took place in the aerospace and defense industries over the last few decades. Airbus prominently illustrated the European airliner manufacturing consolidation in the late 1960s. Between 1988 and 2010, more than 5,452 mergers and acquisitions with a total known-value of US$ 579 billion were announced worldwide. In 1993, then United States Secretary of Defense Les Aspin and his deputy William J. Perry held

3024-471: Is the successor company to numerous British aircraft manufacturers which merged throughout the second half of the 20th century. Many of these mergers followed the 1957 Defence White Paper . Marconi Electronic Systems , a subsidiary of the General Electric Company plc , was acquired by British Aerospace for US$ 12.3 billion in 1999 merger, to form BAE Systems . In 2002, when Fairchild Dornier

3132-517: The A320 . Tier 1 consolidation also affects engine manufacturers : GE Aerospace acquired Avio in 2013 and Rolls-Royce took control of ITP Aero . Rapier missile Rapier is a surface-to-air missile developed for the British Army to replace their towed Bofors 40/L70 anti-aircraft guns . The system is unusual as it uses a manual optical guidance system, sending guidance commands to

3240-500: The Airbus A380 , less than 100 major suppliers outsource 60% of its value, even 80% on the A350 . Boeing embraced an aggressive Tier 1 model for the 787 but with its difficulties began to question why it was earning lower margins than its suppliers while it seemed to take all the risk, ensuing its 2011 Partnering for Success initiative, as Airbus initiated its own Scope+ initiative for

3348-567: The Bombardier Global Express pioneered the "Tier 1" supply chain model inspired by automotive industry , with 10-12 risk-sharing limited partners funding around half of the development costs. The Embraer E-Jet followed in the late 1990s with fewer than 40 primary suppliers. Tier 1 suppliers were led by Honeywell , Safran , Goodrich Corporation and Hamilton Sundstrand . In the 2000s, Rolls-Royce reduced its supplier count after bringing in automotive supply chain executives. On

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3456-474: The CSeries partnership between Airbus and Bombardier Aerospace could trigger a daisy chain of reactions towards a new order. Airbus gets a new, efficient model at the lower end of the narrowbody market which provides the bulk of airliner profits and can abandon the slow selling A319 while Bombardier benefits from the growth in this expanded market even if it holds a smaller residual stake. Boeing could forge

3564-703: The Department of Defense and NASA are the two biggest consumers of aerospace technology and products. The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the United States reported that the aerospace industry employed 444,000 wage and salary jobs in 2004, many of which were in Washington and California, this marked a steep decline from the peak years during the Reagan Administration when total employment exceeded 1,000,000 aerospace industry workers. During that period of recovery

3672-628: The Fire Unit Truck (FUT) and the Detachment Support Vehicle (DSV). Royal Artillery batteries comprised three troops each of four fire units, while RAF Regiment squadrons had eight fire units. By 1980, each Royal Artillery fire unit consisted of a 24-volt, 101 FC 1 tonne Land Rover towing the Rapier Launcher and carrying four missiles on board, a 2.8 m (109 in), 3/4 ton, 24 V FFR (Fitted For Radio) Land Rover towing

3780-622: The Gulf War , 12 and 16 Regiment Royal Artillery tracked batteries, quickly fitted with sat-nav for desert use, combined to provide Tracked Rapier support to deployed armoured regiments. Tracked Rapier was retired in the early 1990s, due to manning limitations when the Towed FSC version entered service. It has since been replaced by Starstreak missile launchers mounted on the Alvis Stormer . Shortly after introducing FSA, "Field Standard B" (FSB) added

3888-507: The Sukhoi Su-7 became common and higher performance designs were in the pipeline. Against low-flying aircraft, only anti-aircraft guns were suitable, as they could be quickly swung and fired in seconds. However, the relatively short range of their Bofors 40/L56 guns meant they had only a very short period of time in which the aircraft was close enough to fire on. To improve this, the Army began

3996-503: The "Last Supper" at the Pentagon with contractors executives who were told that there were twice as many military suppliers as he wanted to see: $ 55 billion in military–industry mergers took place from 1992 to 1997, leaving mainly Boeing , Lockheed Martin , Northrop Grumman and Raytheon . Boeing bought McDonnell Douglas for US$ 13.3 billion in 1996. Raytheon acquired Hughes Aircraft Company for $ 9.5 billion in 1997. BAE Systems

4104-512: The 'Pointing Stick', the Tracked Rapiers were upgraded, with the latest version included a thermal-imaging enhanced tracker which enabled single vehicle 24-hour operation without the need for the Blindfire unit. A modified M548 Missile Resupply Vehicle carried replacement missiles, a relief crew, and additional field kits, rations and water. A further M548 was configured as a REME Forward Area Support team with test facilities and spares. During

4212-718: The 1960s, the BAC 1–11, which had been launched as a private venture, probably saved the company. Prior to the merger, Bristol had eschewed the subsonic airliner market in favour of working on the Bristol 223 supersonic transport , The effort continued under BAC and was eventually merged with similar efforts underway at the French aircraft company Sud Aviation , resulting in the Anglo-French Concorde . Described by Flight International as an "aviation icon" and "one of aerospace's most ambitious but commercially flawed projects", sales of

4320-453: The 1980s. Development of the TSR-2 was one of the company's most high-profile projects. However, as the programme proceeded, continuous cost rises were incurred, while inter-service rivalry led to frequent challenges of its necessity. During April 1965, the British government announced that it had decided to withdraw its order for the TSR-2, leaving it without an established customer. By this point,

4428-548: The 200, as did Germany after its initial enthusiasm for the 100. In September 1971, the governments of Britain, Italy and Germany signed an Intention to Proceed (ITP) with the Panavia Tornado . On 30 October 1974, the first British prototype (the second to fly) took off from the BAC airfield at Warton. The three governments signed the contract for Batch 1 of the aircraft on 29 July 1976. BAC and subsequently British Aerospace would deliver 228 Tornado GR1s and 152 Tornado F3s to

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4536-517: The 300-seat Airbus A300 . BAC argued against the proposal in favour of their BAC Three-Eleven project, intended as a large wide-bodied airliner like the Airbus A300, Douglas DC-10 and Lockheed TriStar . Like the One-Eleven, it would have carried two Rolls-Royce turbofan engines, mounted near the tail, but have been able to accommodate up to 245 passengers seated in an eight abreast configuration at

4644-718: The AFVG was cancelled due to the withdrawal of French participation. Britain then turned to a national project, the UK Variable Geometry (UKVG), for which BAC Warton was given a design contract by the Ministry of Technology . These studies eventually became known as the BAC Advanced Combat Aircraft programme. In 1968, Britain was invited to join Canada and the F-104 Consortium (a grouping of Germany, Italy, Belgium and

4752-484: The Army and the RAF Regiment . Whether GASR.3132 was designed for Sightline, or Sightline for GASR.3132, is not clear in existing references. The new concept was given the name "Defoe". An even smaller and cheaper system lacking an early warning radar was also considered under GASR.3134. In 1963, Defoe was made official, given the development target ET.316. BAC management initially gave it the name "Mongoose", but during

4860-408: The Army signed a contract to upgrade all Rapier systems to an enhanced version. A Mark 2 missile variant commenced development in 1986 culminating in a complete re-design which entered service in the mid-1990s. Along with a further upgrade of the proximity fuze, the new missile incorporated (then) state-of-art technologies including: Von Karman supersonic aerodynamic profile; composite propellant, with

4968-693: The CSeries, renamed A220, and E-jet E2 are more capable than their predecessors, they moved closer to the lower end of the narrowbodies . In 2018, the four Western airframers combined into two within nine months as Boeing acquired 80% of Embraer's airliners for $ 3.8 billion on July 5. On April 3, 2020, Raytheon and United Technologies Corporation (except Otis Worldwide , leaving Rockwell Collins and engine maker Pratt and Whitney ) merged to form Raytheon Technologies Corporation , with combined sales of $ 79 billion in 2019. The most prominent unions between 1995 and 2020 include those of Boeing and McDonnell Douglas;

5076-769: The French, German and Spanish parts of EADS; and United Technologies with Rockwell Collins then Raytheon, but many mergers projects did not went through: Textron-Bombardier, EADS-BAE Systems, Hawker Beechcraft-Superior Aviation, GE-Honeywell, BAE Systems-Boeing (or Lockheed Martin), Dassault-Aerospatiale, Safran-Thales, BAE Systems-Rolls-Royce or Lockheed Martin–Northrop Grumman. The largest aerospace suppliers are United Technologies with $ 28.2 billion of revenue, followed by GE Aviation with $ 24.7 billion, Safran with $ 22.5 billion, Rolls-Royce Holdings with $ 16.9 billion, Honeywell Aerospace with $ 15.2 billion and Rockwell Collins including B/E Aerospace with $ 8.1 billion. Electric aircraft development could generate large changes for

5184-539: The Hawker Siddeley Group and Scottish Aviation were nationalised and merged under the provisions of Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act 1977 . This new group was established as a statutory corporation, British Aerospace (BAe). Products usually known under the BAC name include: In addition BAC continued with the Bristol Bloodhound and English Electric Thunderbird surface-to-air missiles. BAC

5292-465: The Jaguar, overseas nations that flew the type included India , Ecuador , Nigeria and Oman . Dassault were less supportive of SEPECAT, preferring to promote its own aircraft; several potential customers for the Jaguar were convinced to order Dassault's Mirage series instead. During 1964, both BAC and its principal domestic rival, Hawker Siddeley , conducted detailed studies on the prospects of producing stretched versions of their existing airliners,

5400-527: The Laserfire tracking system was capable of being operated at night, target acquisition was optical, like the original Rapier. In 1985 development started on a new tracker that replaced the original optical system with a new IR thermal imager system to improve its abilities, especially at night. This version was known as "Rapier Darkfire" for this reason. Trials of the new system started in 1987, and were deployed operationally in 1990 as "Field Standard B2" (FSB2),

5508-556: The London– Bahrain and Paris– Rio de Janeiro routes. In 1963, BAC acquired the previously autonomous guided weapons divisions of English Electric and Bristol to form a new subsidiary, British Aircraft Corporation (Guided Weapons). The company enjoyed some success, including development of the Rapier , Sea Skua and Sea Wolf missiles . BAC eventually expanded this division to include electronics and space systems and, in 1966, started what

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5616-556: The Netherlands), all of whom wished to replace their current aircraft with a common design, subsequently described as the Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MRCA). On 26 March 1969, Panavia Aircraft GmbH was formed by BAC, MBB , Fiat and Fokker . In May, a "project definition phase" was commenced, concluding in early 1970. Two aircraft designs resulted: the single-seat Panavia 100 and the twin-seat Panavia 200. The RAF favoured

5724-509: The PT.428 missile produced the Sightline concept, which would be much less expensive than the original radar-guided version. The next year, Mauler was downgraded on its way to being cancelled, leaving both the US and British Army with no modern short-range anti-aircraft systems. The General Staff and Air Staff responded by issuing the combined GASR.3132 requirement for a clear-weather daytime SAM for both

5832-555: The RAF. For most of its history, BAC was the subject of rumour and speculation that it was to merge with Hawker Siddeley Aviation (HSA). On 21 November 1966, Fred Mulley , the Minister of Aviation , announced in the House of Commons that: ...the government had come to the conclusion that the national interest would best be served by a merger of the airframe interests of BAC and Hawker Siddeley into

5940-403: The RAF. The AFVG was to be jointly developed by BAC and Dassault Aviation , while the proposed M45G turbofan engine to power the aircraft was to also be jointly developed by SNECMA and Bristol Siddeley. However, during June 1967, the French government announced its withdrawal from the AFVG effort ostensibly on the grounds of cost. During May 1966, BAC and Breguet formally created SEPECAT ,

6048-624: The Rapier Pilot Battery was formed jointly by No 63 Squadron RAF Regiment and 9 (Plassey) Light Air Defence Battery Royal Artillery. Comprehensive trials ended in 1973 and the first Rapier unit in British service, No. 63 Squadron, deployed to its operational station in Germany in mid-1974. In the 1980s, a new training simulator system was constructed in Stevenage . This consisted of a 10-metre (33 ft) radius hemispherical dome whose inside surface

6156-450: The Rapier system. In 1965, some Australian staff at Woomera began to develop a simulator system understand and tune the manual guidance system. This consisted of a joystick from the Rapier optical tracker which caused the projected image of the missile to move about. Models of the missile and various target aircraft were constructed and filmed using stop motion techniques to make a selection of films of various target attack sequences across

6264-463: The UK, had made flying at medium or high altitudes anywhere near the front line near suicidal. In response, air forces began introducing aircraft and weapons meant to be used at low altitudes, in nap-of-the-earth flying that used landforms to block the view of the aircraft from the radar systems on the missiles. By the late 1950s, the British Army considered this threat considerable as new aircraft like

6372-986: The United States ( Boeing ), Montreal and Toronto in Canada ( Bombardier , Pratt & Whitney Canada ), Toulouse and Bordeaux in France ( Airbus , Dassault , ATR ), Seville in Spain and Hamburg in Germany ( Airbus ), the North-West of England and Bristol in Britain ( Airbus and AgustaWestland ), Komsomolsk-on-Amur and Irkutsk in Russia ( Sukhoi , Beriev ), Kyiv and Kharkiv in Ukraine ( Antonov ), Nagoya in Japan ( Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Aerospace and Kawasaki Heavy Industries Aerospace ), as well as São José dos Campos in Brazil where Embraer

6480-622: The VC10 and the Hawker Siddeley Trident . In the first half of the following year, BAC submitted its proposals for the production of two separate double-decker versions of the VC10, which was commonly referred to as the Super VC10 ; however, it was quickly recognised that the British government would be required substantial support for the initiative to succeed, involving "several tens of millions of pounds ". According to aviation author Derek Wood,

6588-583: The VC10 remained the Vickers VC10 . Instead the company applied its name to marketing initiatives, the VC10 advertising carried the name "Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Limited, a member company of the British Aircraft Corporation". The first model to bear the BAC name was the BAC One-Eleven (BAC 1–11), a Hunting Aircraft study, in 1961. Given the numerous government contract cancellations during

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6696-474: The Woomera sky. The system was completed in 1968. In initial testing, tracking was seen to be a serious problem, and the British Army was concerned the system would be beyond the capabilities of the average gunner. Some problems were solved by adjusting the joystick's mechanical feedback to more closely match the missile's difficulty responding to various inputs. Many of the remaining issues were subsequently solved via

6804-506: The aerospace suppliers. On 26 November 2018, United Technologies announced the completion of its Rockwell Collins acquisition, renaming systems supplier UTC Aerospace Systems as Collins Aerospace , for $ 23 billion of sales in 2017 and 70,000 employees, and $ 39.0 billion of sales in 2017 combined with engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney . Before the 1980s/1990s, aircraft and aeroengine manufacturers were vertically integrated . Then Douglas aircraft outsourced large aerostructures and

6912-762: The control system in the firing unit again required setup time to connect the two pieces of equipment. The system had not yet been fully developed when the Iranian Shah fell from power in 1978. The vehicles were later purchased by the British Army as part of a Fixed-price Develop and Supply contract. The first production Tracked Rapier was accepted on time and to cost at Wellington Barracks in early 1981, and entered service with 11 (Sphinx) Air Defence Battery , of 22 Air Defence Regiment, Royal Artillery in 1983 in Napier Barracks near Dortmund . After initially entering service at Towed FSB1 standard, with planar array radar and

7020-469: The development of PT.428, BAC had also considered a lightweight version of the system which mounted six of the PT.428 missiles on a trailer that could be towed by a pickup version of the Land Rover . An early warning radar would be mounted on a framework above the roof of the truck, and initial tracking would be manual using a pair of binoculars mounted on a gimbal system in the truck bed. A small antenna on

7128-423: The development of a massively improved weapon known as " Red Queen ". This used a large 42 mm (1.7 in) round in a rotary cannon arrangement for high rates of fire. In spite of some progress, in 1959, the General Staff concluded that guns were no longer useful against modern aircraft. For their immediate needs they purchased the new Bofors 40/L70, and for the longer term began a new missile development for

7236-493: The earlier upgrades retroactively becoming FSB1. This system was also known as "Rapier 90". Cooling for the imager was provided by bottles of compressed gas. FSB2 also introduced a number of improvements that greatly improved Rapier capabilities. First and foremost was the Tactical Control Console that allowed four Rapier launchers to be controlled from a central location. The launchers themselves were upgraded to carry six missiles instead of four, improving battery capacity. Finally,

7344-414: The electronic equipment in the launcher was not changed significantly from the towed version. However, a completely redesigned armoured launcher with the capability of loading eight missiles was produced, mounted via anti-vibration mounts to the flatbed of the vehicle. The armoured cab was provided with pan-climatic heating/cooling and NBC protection. The optical tracker was placed inside the armoured cab of

7452-405: The enlarged double-decker, which was to be equipped with the proposed Rolls-Royce RB178 turbofan engine, would have had good commercial prospects, yet financing for the programme was not forthcoming and the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) has ultimately opted to procure the rival Boeing 747 instead. In 1967, the British, French and German governments agreed to start development of

7560-503: The fast reaction time and high manoeuvrability of the Rapier made it more effective than either of these weapons, replacing most of them by 1977. Rapier was later selected by the RAF Regiment to replace their Bofors guns and Tigercat missiles. It also saw international sales. In October 2021, it was replaced as one of the UK's primary air-defence weapons by Sky Sabre . The introduction of medium-range surface-to-air missiles, or surface-to-air guided weapons (SAGW) as they are known in

7668-404: The first public showing at the 1977 Paris Air Show as a static display unit. The initial proposal for the system was to simply mount the towed launcher, including its petrol generator set but minus its running gear, on the flatbed of the M548 carrier. When this was shown to Mr. G.R. Jefferson, the GW Managing Director, he was not very impressed. Aware of the amount of money available, he required

7776-447: The form of a two-wheeled launcher carrying four missiles, an optical tracker unit, a generator, and a trailer of reserve missiles. The launcher consists of a vertical cylindrical unit carrying two missiles on each side, the surveillance radar dish and " Identification Friend or Foe " (IFF) system under a radome on top, the guidance computer and radar electronics at the bottom, and a prominent parabolic antenna for sending guidance commands to

7884-513: The global aerospace industry and research effort. In Russia , large aerospace companies like Oboronprom and the United Aircraft Corporation (encompassing Mikoyan , Sukhoi , Ilyushin , Tupolev , Yakovlev , and Irkut , which includes Beriev ) are among the major global players in this industry. Important locations of the civil aerospace industry worldwide include Seattle , Wichita, Kansas , Dayton, Ohio and St. Louis in

7992-706: The introduction of the Marconi DN 181 "Blindfire" radar in 1970, the first examples being sold to the Iranian Army in 1973. The British Army did not purchase the Blindfire system until 1979, entering service with Rapier "Field Standard A" (FSA). The RAF Regiment had 27 Squadron operational with Blindfire at RAF Leuchars by 1979, and was in the process of bringing all the RAF Regiment GBAD (Ground Based Air Defence) Squadrons into line. By 1997 more than 350 Blindfire radars had been produced. To ensure accuracy, Blindfire uses

8100-623: The largest industrial bases in 2017 were the United States with $ 408.4 billion (representing 49% of the whole), followed by France with $ 69 billion (8.2%), then China with $ 61.2 billion (7.3%), the United Kingdom with $ 48.8 billion (5.8%), Germany with $ 46.2 billion (5.5%), Russia with $ 27.1 billion (3.2%), Canada with $ 24 billion (2.9%), Japan with $ 21 billion (2.5%), Spain with $ 14 billion (1.7%) and India with $ 11 billion (1.3%). These ten countries represent $ 731 billion or 87.2% of

8208-401: The latter, a decision Solly Zuckerman found rather questionable. The Army officially replaced PT.428 with the similar but slightly less advanced MIM-46 Mauler from the United States . Mauler combined a search radar and nine missiles using either radar or infrared guidance on a single M113-derived vehicle. The concept was similar to PT.428, but larger and with fewer missiles. During

8316-587: The launcher trailer would communicate with the missile to bring it into alignment with the binoculars and then follow semi-active radar homing (SARH) from that point. When PT.428 ended in 1961, BAC began considering less-expensive options based on the same general concept. During this time, Colin Baron and John Twinn at the Royal Aircraft Establishment were developing an optical semi-automatic command to line of sight (SACLOS) system. Using this with

8424-574: The missile in flight over a radio link. This results in a high level of accuracy, therefore a large warhead is not required. Entering service in 1971, it eventually replaced all other anti-aircraft weapons in British Army service; both the Bofors guns used against low-altitude targets and the Thunderbird missile used against longer-range and higher-altitude targets. As the expected air threat moved from medium-altitude strategic missions to low-altitude strikes,

8532-466: The missile's tail. Like the operator's telescope, the TV system has two views: about 11 degrees wide for the initial "capture", and 0.55 degrees for mid-course tracking. The location of the missile relative to the line of sight is measured using a system identical to the "chopper" system used in early infrared homing missiles. The chopper is inside the launcher, rather than on the missile, and feeds an image from

8640-467: The missiles on the front. The search radar, of the pulsed Doppler type, has a range of about 15 kilometres (9 mi). The aerial, located at the top of the launcher, rotates about once a second, looking for moving targets through their Doppler shift . Upon detecting a target, a lamp lights up on the Selector Engagement Zone (SEZ) — a box containing 32 orange lamps arranged in a circle about

8748-429: The operator then searches for the target in elevation. The operator's field of view is selected based on the target's range: "wide" at about 20 degrees or "track" at about 4.8 degrees. When the target is found, the operator switches to "track" and uses a joystick to keep the target centred in the telescope. Once a steady track is established, the missile is fired. The TV camera on the tracker is tuned to track four flares on

8856-498: The optics rotate in azimuth. Using this system means that, unlike a periscope , the operator does not have to move to track the target. The upper section also contains a separate missile tracking system that follows the operator's optics, based on a television camera optimized for the IR band. Upon detection of a target, the optical tracking system is slewed to target the azimuth supplied by the SEZ;

8964-459: The position of the missile. The projected laser imagery was bright enough that it could be tracked by IR imagers and seekers, allowing it to be used with the updated Darkfire versions of the Rapier with their IR cameras, or other IR seeking missiles like the Stinger . This system was sold separately for use with other missile systems under the name British Aerospace Microdome. The original Rapier took

9072-436: The programme was already in the prototype phase and the aircraft had already flown, but political pressure forced development work to cease, leading to the remaining airframes and most supporting equipment and documentation to be destroyed. The TSR-2's last minute termination has been widely viewed as a major blow not only to BAC but the wider British aircraft industry. On 17 May 1965, the British and French governments announced

9180-579: The project effectively undermined British loyalty to the EEC which, at this point, the British government was interested in joining. On 2 December 1970, Frederick Corfield , the Minister for Aviation Supply, announced in the House of Commons that there would be no official backing from the government for the Three-Eleven programme. During the early 1960s, the Saudi Arabian government announced its intention to launch

9288-429: The prospect of the parent companies selling their shares less likely. In December 1967, Tony Benn , the Minister of Technology, while reiterating his desire to see a merged BAC and HSA, admitted it would not be possible. Akin to BAC, the Hawker Siddeley Group was expanded by merger, while engine design and manufacturing was concentrated at Rolls-Royce and the newly formed Bristol-Siddeley Engines . Helicopter development

9396-565: The radar equipment and Airwork Services provided servicing and training). Overall spending by the RSAF was over £1 billion GBP. BAC, with the Lightning/Strikemaster contract; British Aerospace , with the Al Yamamah contracts; and most recently BAE Systems , with the order for Typhoon multi-role fighters, have all benefited from large arms contracts with Saudi Arabia. In June 1967,

9504-411: The search radar was updated to use a new planar array radar , although its capabilities remained generally the same as the earlier model. In 1988 tests started on an improved warhead using a proximity fuze, in order to give Rapier capability against smaller targets that would be difficult to hit directly, notably high-speed remotely piloted vehicles . Serial production of Mk. 1E began in 1989. In 1992

9612-652: The signing of a pair of agreements to cover the two joint projects; one based on the French aircraft company Breguet Aviation Br.121 ECAT ("Tactical Combat Support Trainer") proposal; this would evolve into the SEPECAT Jaguar . The other was the BAC/Dassault AFVG (Anglo-French Variable Geometry), a larger, variable geometry carrier -capable fighter aircraft for the French Navy ( Aéronavale ) as well as fulfilling interceptor, tactical strike and reconnaissance roles for

9720-421: The size of an automobile steering wheel. The radar operator can use switches to blank out returns from other directions, providing jamming resistance. The optical tracker unit comprises a stationary lower section housing the operator controls and a rotating upper section containing the tracking optics. The operator's optical system is a modified telescope containing a Dove prism to prevent the image 'toppling' as

9828-420: The small receiver antennas on the rear of the mid-body fins. The operator simply keeps the telescope's crosshairs on the target using the joystick, and the missile automatically flies into the line of sight. The basic concept is similar to that used by most anti-tank missiles , except that those normally use small wires — rather than a radio link — to send guidance information to the missile. The missile contains

9936-399: The tracking camera which passes through the light from the flares. The chopper generates signals that encode the angle of the missile relative to "up" and the angle out from the centre, or "error off". The simple computer in the base then calculates the control inputs needed to bring the missile into the line of sight and sends them to the missile via the transmitter on the launcher platform, to

10044-528: The truck in an emergency. The system was deliberately designed to fit, when taken apart, as a single load in the Fairey Rotodyne . The system was quite advanced, including automated search and track radars, a separate television camera for target identification, and eighteen missiles in two nine-round boxes. As budget pressures escalated in the early 1960s, the Army was given the choice of picking either PT.428 or their Blue Water nuclear missile. They chose

10152-594: The type were lackluster against conventional subsonic airliners, primarily due to the emergence of wide-body aircraft , such as the Boeing 747 , which made subsonic airliners significantly more efficient. While by March 1969, the consortium had arrangements totalling 74 options from 16 airlines, only two airlines, Air France and the British Overseas Airways Corporation , would proceed with their orders. Scheduled services commenced on 21 January 1976 on both

10260-479: The vehicle, elevating through the roof for operation. The tracker was operated from the right side of the crew cabin, while on the left were the driver and tactical controller who also had a helmet-mounted sight, allowing him to lay the tracker onto a visual target. From moving to firing took only 30 seconds, a tremendous improvement over Towed Rapier, which required at least 15 minutes to unlimber, cable-up and align. A further difference between Towed and Tracked Rapier

10368-459: The whole industry. In 2018, the new commercial aircraft value is projected for $ 270.4 billion while business aircraft will amount for $ 18 billion and civil helicopters for $ 4 billion. In September 2018, PwC ranked aerospace manufacturing attractiveness: the most attractive country was the United States , with $ 240 billion in sales in 2017, due to the sheer size of the industry (#1) and educated workforce (#1), low geopolitical risk (#4, #1

10476-500: Was bankrupt , Airbus, Boeing or Bombardier declined to take the 728JET /928JET large regional jet program as mainline and regional aircraft manufacturers were split and Airbus was digesting its ill-fated Fokker acquisition a decade earlier. On September 4, 2017, United Technologies acquired Rockwell Collins in cash and stock for $ 23 billion, $ 30 billion including Rockwell Collins' net debt, for $ 500+ million of synergies expected by year four. The Oct. 16, 2017 announcement of

10584-432: Was able to detect helicopters hovering or travelling at low altitude and in areas of high clutter by detecting the movement of the helicopter's rotor blades. Initial engagement is similar to the original Rapier, but the target was illuminated and automatically tracked by a high power YAG:Nd laser. After the missile was launched the laser alternately illuminated the target and missile to determine their locations, and guidance

10692-474: Was carved off by Sir George White, whose family had founded the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company in 1910 (later the Bristol Aeroplane Company ). BAC's head office was on the top floors of the 100 Pall Mall building in the City of Westminster , London. The majority of BAC's aircraft designs had been inherited from the individual companies that formed it. BAC did not apply its new identity retrospectively, hence

10800-516: Was given to Westland Helicopters . During 1966, Rolls-Royce acquired Bristol Aeroplane from BAC, integrating the firm into its Bristol Siddeley aero-engine business, but declared it had no interest in the BAC shareholding. Despite this, Rolls-Royce still had not disposed of its BAC shareholding when the business was declared to be bankrupt during 1971. The 20% share was eventually acquired from receivership by Vickers and GEC , which had acquired English Electric during 1968. On 29 April 1977, BAC,

10908-473: Was initially investigating supersonic and hypersonic flight problems, became interested in the application of such a vehicle for space-related activities, leading to the BAC Mustard , a reusable launch system that comprised several near-identical winged vehicles. In the most detailed design, Mustard was to have weighed roughly 420 tonnes prior to launch, and been capable of delivering a three tonne payload to

11016-415: Was involved in uncrewed spacecraft, principally satellites Aircraft manufacturer The aircraft industry is the industry supporting aviation by building aircraft and manufacturing aircraft parts for their maintenance . This includes aircraft and parts used for civil aviation and military aviation . Most production is done pursuant to type certificates and Defense Standards issued by

11124-442: Was sent to the missile as normal (see laser guidance ). Laserfire thus represented a fairly major upgrade to the original optical system, allowing semi-automatic engagements, and greatly reducing operator skill and training requirements. On the downside, Laserfire no longer has the optical system of the original, which served an important second duty by allowing the aircraft to be visually identified at long range. Additionally, while

11232-416: Was similar to Rapier in basic concept, but based on older technologies and thus somewhat larger and heavier while offering less range and much slower speeds. Tigercat was introduced into service with No 48 Squadron RAF Regiment in 1968, giving the RAF Regiment the UK's first effective fully air portable low-level SAM system and valuable experience in operating systems of this type. In 1972 a trials unit known as

11340-509: Was that the Tracked Rapier launcher had eight (protected) missile rails compared with four in the towed system, enhancing firepower and reducing re-supply requirements. It was also air-portable, ready to deploy on landing, in C-130 aircraft. There was no room for Blindfire on a single RCM748 vehicle, so this was instead towed or was to be carried on a separate modified M548/RCM748. Feeding data to

11448-803: Was the contract for a new large supersonic strike aircraft, which would become the BAC TSR-2 . Accordingly, during 1960, BAC was created as a jointly-owned corporation by Vickers, English Electric and Bristol. Internally, the business had two divisions – the Aircraft Division under Sir George Edwards and the Guided Weapons Division under Viscount Caldecote . The aircraft operations of the three parents were now subsidiaries of BAC; "Bristol Aircraft Ltd", "English Electric Aviation Ltd" (with Viscount Caldecote as general manager) and "Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd" (under Sir George Edwards). BAC also had

11556-485: Was to become a fruitful relationship with Hughes Aircraft . Hughes awarded major contracts to BAC, including sub-systems for Intelsat satellites. BAC had inherited the aerospace activities of several companies via its formation, and research into various space-related ventures continued at the new entity. One of BAC's research teams, headed by engineer Tom Smith , Chief of the Aerospace Department at BAC, that

11664-403: Was used as a movie screen onto which terrain images were projected. A copper vapor laser projected images of targets and the missiles in-flight on top of the background imagery, while a smaller helium-neon laser simulated the Rapier's tracking flare. A complete Rapier targeting unit was placed in the center of the dome, and its guidance signals were captured and sent to the simulator to update

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