Misplaced Pages

#7992

75-518: Hatfield Aerodrome ( IATA : HTF , ICAO : EGTH ) was a private airfield and aircraft factory located in the English town of Hatfield in Hertfordshire from 1930 until its closure and redevelopment in the 1990s. Geoffrey de Havilland , pioneering aircraft designer and founder of the de Havilland Aircraft Company purchased some farmland close to Hatfield as his existing site at Stag Lane , Edgware

150-468: A Bofors gun on the airfield commanded by Sgt 'Mont' Chapman, crashing a few kilometres away near East End Green: the crew survived and were captured by local farmworkers. A hard runway was laid in 1947. Expansion of the facilities was called for by rapid development of military and civil jet aircraft such as the Vampire and Comet . The factory was enlarged and a new flight test hangar and control tower

225-549: A public limited company (plc), under the name "British Aerospace Public Limited Company", on 2 January 1981. BAe was privatised in two main phases, the first in February 1981, involving 51.6% shares of the company, during which the public sale was 3.5 times subscribed and at the end of the first day's trading, share prices were 14% above the original offer price. The second phase occurred in May 1985, in which 48.4% shares were sold; this sale

300-552: A 20% share in the venture, the move effectively reversed a decision made ten years prior in which the UK government had withdrawn its support for the Airbus consortium. Airbus' first aircraft, the A300 , had been received with little initial demand, but orders for the airliner had picked up in the late 1970s. By 1979, the consortium had 256 orders for A300, and Airbus had launched its second airliner,

375-514: A De Havilland flag – which took off from the grass at the side of the runway. The airfield closed but was later used as a film set for Saving Private Ryan and the television series Band of Brothers . Arlington Securities, then the property division of BAE Systems, began the redevelopment of the main airfield site in the late 1990s. Only the Grade II* listed 1950s flight test hangar and administration buildings were retained: all other buildings,

450-529: A flying school building which also housed flying control. Later, an experimental block was added to the north of the factory. Production of aircraft moved from Stag Lane and during this time principally consisted of a range of small biplanes such as the Moth family, DH.84 Dragon , DH.86 Express and DH.89 Dragon Rapide . During the Second World War , de Havilland was most noted for its Mosquito fighter bomber,

525-528: A major review. Losses in our commercial aerospace division increased dramatically with the recession in the airline industry." In mid-1992, BAe wrote off £1 billion of assets, largely as part of redundancies and restructuring of its regional aircraft division. This was the largest asset write-off in UK corporate history. General Electric Company (GEC), later to sell its defence interests to BAe, came close to acquiring BAe at this time. BAe cut 47% of its workforce (60,000 out of 127,000), 40,000 of which were from

600-609: A merger had been reportedly agreed between British Aerospace Chairman Richard Evans and DASA CEO Jürgen Schrempp in December 1998. However, when the British General Electric Company (GEC) put its defence electronics business Marconi Electronic Systems (MES) up for sale on 22 December 1998, BAe's management opted to abandon the DASA merger in favour of purchasing its British rival. During 2004, Evans stated that his fear

675-482: A naval systems joint venture, BAeSEMA , with the Sema Group . BAe acquired Sema's 50% share in 1998. That year also saw BAe begin to experience major difficulties. BAe saw its share price fall below 100p for the first time. On 9 September 1991, the company issued a profits warning and later that week "bungled" the launch of a £432 million rights issue . On 25 September 1991 BAe directors led by CEO Richard Evans ousted

750-550: A new airport is built, replacing the old one, leaving the city's new "major" airport (or the only remaining airport) code to no longer correspond with the city's name. The original airport in Nashville, Tennessee, was built in 1936 as part of the Works Progress Administration and called Berry Field with the designation, BNA. A new facility known as Nashville International Airport was built in 1987 but still uses BNA. This

825-495: A quiet and economic turbofan -powered compact airliner that could replace the previous generation of turboprop -powered feeder aircraft. In 1982, the first completed aircraft made its first flight. Upon its launch into service the following year, it was hailed as being "the world's quietest jetliner". In 1993, an upgraded model of the BAe 146, referred to as the Avro RJ series, superseded

SECTION 10

#1732855519008

900-551: A total of 173 Avro RJ aircraft was delivered between 1993 and 2003. BAe developed several advanced models of the Harrier family. In 1978, the Royal Navy received the first BAe Sea Harrier of an initial order for 24. The Sea Harrier was declared operational three years later, being initially embarked on both the first Invincible class aircraft carrier HMS Invincible , and the older HMS Hermes . Following their decisive role in

975-499: Is GSN and its IATA code is SPN, and some coincide with IATA codes of non-U.S. airports. Canada's unusual codes—which bear little to no similarity with any conventional abbreviation to the city's name—such as YUL in Montréal , and YYZ in Toronto , originated from the two-letter codes used to identify weather reporting stations in the 1930s. The letters preceding the two-letter code follow

1050-600: Is available. However, many railway administrations have their own list of codes for their stations, such as the list of Amtrak station codes . Airport codes arose out of the convenience that the practice brought pilots for location identification in the 1930s. Initially, pilots in the United States used the two-letter code from the National Weather Service (NWS) for identifying cities. This system became unmanageable for cities and towns without an NWS identifier, and

1125-468: Is different from the name in English, yet the airport code represents only the English name. Examples include: Due to scarcity of codes, some airports are given codes with letters not found in their names: The use of 'X' as a filler letter is a practice to create three-letter identifiers when more straightforward options were unavailable: Some airports in the United States retained their NWS ( National Weather Service ) codes and simply appended an X at

1200-513: Is in conjunction to rules aimed to avoid confusion that seem to apply in the United States, which state that "the first and second letters or second and third letters of an identifier may not be duplicated with less than 200 nautical miles separation." Thus, Washington, D.C. area's three airports all have radically different codes: IAD for Washington–Dulles , DCA for Washington–Reagan (District of Columbia Airport), and BWI for Baltimore (Baltimore–Washington International, formerly BAL). Since HOU

1275-532: Is not followed outside the United States: In addition, since three letter codes starting with Q are widely used in radio communication, cities whose name begins with "Q" also had to find alternate codes, as in the case of: IATA codes should not be confused with the FAA identifiers of U.S. airports. Most FAA identifiers agree with the corresponding IATA codes, but some do not, such as Saipan , whose FAA identifier

1350-416: Is used for William P. Hobby Airport , the new Houston–Intercontinental became IAH. The code BKK was originally assigned to Bangkok–Don Mueang and was later transferred to Suvarnabhumi Airport , while the former adopted DMK. The code ISK was originally assigned to Gandhinagar Airport (Nashik's old airport) and later on transferred to Ozar Airport (Nashik's current airport). Shanghai–Hongqiao retained

1425-473: The A310 , less than 12 months prior to BAe formally joining the consortium. As time went on, it was becoming clear that Airbus was no longer a temporary collaboration to produce a single design as per its original mission statement; it had become a long-term brand for the development of further aircraft. By the late 1980s, work had begun on a pair of new wide-body airliners, the biggest to be produced at this point under

1500-456: The Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act to form British Aerospace in 1978. This resulted in the 146 programme going ahead, which saved many jobs at Hatfield and secured the site as a centre of design and production of commercial aircraft for the next decade. The 146 first flew in 1981 and production of some components, final assembly and flight testing of the first two series of the aircraft

1575-508: The Al-Yamamah arms deal with BAe as prime contractor. The contracts, extended in the 1990s and never fully detailed, involved the supply of Panavia Tornado strike and air defence aircraft, BAe Hawk trainer jets, Rapier missile systems, infrastructure works and naval vessels. The Al Yamamah deals are valued at anything up to £20 billion and still continue to provide a large percentage of BAE Systems' profits. BAe acquired Royal Ordnance ,

SECTION 20

#1732855519008

1650-593: The Blue Streak . Production facilities, test facilities, wind tunnels , water tanks, hangars and an administration building were located on the Manor Road site, on the opposite side of the main runway to the aircraft factories. The de Havilland Aircraft Company was acquired by Hawker Siddeley in 1960 and the de Havilland name ceased to be used in 1963. At Hatfield, the Trident airliner and DH.125 were under development in

1725-601: The British Aerospace EAP , ended up being primarily developed by BAe as a private venture; it formed the basis for the multinational Eurofighter Typhoon . In 1986, in conjunction Alenia Aeronautica , CASA and DASA , BAe formed Eurofighter GmbH for the development and production of the Eurofighter. The multinational organisation's head office was established in Hallbergmoos , Bavaria, Germany. The maiden flight of

1800-561: The Canadian transcontinental railroads were built, each station was assigned its own two-letter Morse code : When the Canadian government established airports, it used the existing railway codes for them as well. If the airport had a weather station, authorities added a "Y" to the front of the code, meaning "Yes" to indicate it had a weather station or some other letter to indicate it did not. When international codes were created in cooperation with

1875-631: The Handley Page Jetstream . BAe placed the Jetstream 31 into production after the first flight of the prototype in March 1980. At the same time, production of Hawker Siddeley's HS 125 business jet, Harrier VTOL jet fighter and HS 748 turboprop airliner continued under BAe, as did that of the Trident jet airliner for a short time. Similarly, low-rate production of the BAC One-Eleven jet airliner,

1950-580: The Lockheed Martin X-35 Joint Strike Fighter team. The following year, BAe acquired the UK operations of Siemens Plessey Systems (SPS) from Siemens , while DASA purchased SPS' German assets. In the 1990s, BAe was the largest exporter based in the United Kingdom; a Competition Commission report released in 2005 calculated a ten-year aggregate figure of £45 billion, with defence sales accounting for approximately 80%. In

2025-542: The Principal Anti-Air Missile System (PAAMS) consortium. UKAMS would become a wholly owned subsidiary of BAe Dynamics in 1998. In 1995, Saab Military Aircraft and BAe signed an agreement for the joint development and marketing of the export version of the JAS 39 Gripen . In 1996, BAe and Matra Defense agreed to merge their missile businesses into a joint venture called Matra BAe Dynamics . In 1997, BAe joined

2100-530: The Strikemaster two-seat military jet trainer/attack aircraft, and the iconic Concorde supersonic airliner also continued. On 29 July 1976, less than a year prior to BAe's formation, the contract for production of the first batch of the Panavia Tornado , an advanced nuclear-capable fighter bomber, was signed. It was developed and produced via a multinational company, Panavia Aircraft GmbH , of which BAe

2175-553: The nationalisation and merger of the British Aircraft Corporation , Hawker Siddeley Aviation , Hawker Siddeley Dynamics and Scottish Aviation . On 29 April 1977, the new entity was formed in the United Kingdom as a statutory corporation. Under the provisions of the British Aerospace Act 1980 (c. 26), on 1 January the statutory corporation was transferred to a limited company, which then re-registered as

2250-568: The 1982 Falklands War , several of the lessons learnt from the conflict shaped a new upgrade programme for the fleet authorised in 1984, resulting in the Sea Harrier FRS.2 (later known as FA2 ). The first flight of the prototype took place in September 1988 and a contract was signed for 29 upgraded aircraft in December of that year. The Sea Harrier FA2 was fitted with the Blue Vixen radar, which

2325-462: The 80th anniversary of the opening of the airfield. The trail is around 4 km long and takes around 90 minutes to walk; a shorter version is around 3 km and takes around 60 minutes. There are ten information boards located around the trail. The first board, at the start of the trail, is outside the University of Hertfordshire's de Havilland Campus (the university's origins can be traced back to

Hatfield Aerodrome - Misplaced Pages Continue

2400-626: The Airbus name; these would be launched in the 1990s as the Airbus A330 and the Airbus A340 . During the 1983 Paris Air Show , the launch of the Experimental Aircraft Programme (EAP) to develop and fly an advanced fighter technology demonstrator was announced; at this point, the effort was intended to be a partnership between Britain and several of its European neighbours, including West Germany and Italy. The resulting aircraft,

2475-517: The British armaments manufacturer, for £190 million on 22 April 1987. The German armaments specialist Heckler & Koch was folded into this division after BAe acquired it four years later. In 1988, BAe purchased the Rover Group from the British government of Margaret Thatcher for £150 million. The sale was controversial due to opaque financial arrangements between the government and BAe; however

2550-553: The Chairman Professor Sir Roland Smith in a move described by The Independent as "one of the most spectacular and brutal boardroom coups witnessed in many years." Evans described the troubles as a confluence of events: "our property company [Arlington Securities] was hit with a lousy market. Sales of the Rover Group sank by about a fifth and losses mounted. The government's defence spending volumes underwent

2625-549: The Eurofighter prototype took place in Bavaria on 27 March 1994, flown by DASA chief test pilot Peter Weger. On 30 January 1998, the first production contract for the Eurofighter was signed between Eurofighter GmbH, engine manufacturer Eurojet and the NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Management Agency , the organisation set up to manage the procurement of the aircraft. On 26 September 1985, the UK and Saudi Arabian governments signed

2700-587: The House of Commons Trade and Industry Committee was said to believe that "in spite of a catalogue of complaints, the committee concludes that the sale to BAe may well have been the best solution for the government." In 1991, BAe acquired a 30% interest in Hutchison Telecommunications through a stock swap deal, where Hutchison was given a controlling stake of 65% in BAe's wholly owned subsidiary Microtel Communications Ltd . In August 1991, BAe formed

2775-691: The RAF, which was known as the BAe Harrier II , featured many differences, including avionics fit, armaments and equipment; the wing of the GR5 featured a stainless steel leading edge, giving it different flex characteristics from the AV-8B. In December 1989, the first RAF squadron to be equipped with the Harrier II was declared operational. In 1979, BAe officially joined the multinational aircraft manufacturer Airbus and acquired

2850-627: The Tornado ended in 1998, the final batch being delivered to the Royal Saudi Air Force , that had ordered a total of 96 IDS Tornados. Aviation author Jon Lake noted that "The Trinational Panavia Consortium produced just short of 1,000 Tornados, making it one of the most successful postwar bomber programs". In 1978, BAe relaunched the BAe 146 , a short-haul regional airliner that had been previously worked on by Hawker Siddeley. The company marketed it as

2925-461: The U.S. For example, several airports in Alaska have scheduled commercial service, such as Stebbins and Nanwalek , which use FAA codes instead of ICAO codes. Thus, neither system completely includes all airports with scheduled service. Some airports are identified in colloquial speech by their IATA code. Examples include LAX and JFK . British Aerospace British Aerospace plc ( BAe )

3000-481: The United States, because "Y" was seldom used in the United States, Canada simply used the weather station codes for its airports, changing the "Y" to a "Z" if it conflicted with an airport code already in use. The result is that most major Canadian airport codes start with "Y" followed by two letters in the city's name (for example, YOW for O tta w a , YWG for W innipe g , YYC for C algar y , or YVR for V ancouve r ), whereas other Canadian airports append

3075-440: The airport itself instead of the city it serves, while another code is reserved which refers to the city itself which can be used to search for flights to any of its airports. For instance: Or using a code for the city in one of the major airports and then assigning another code to another airport: When different cities with the same name each have an airport, they need to be assigned different codes. Examples include: Sometimes,

Hatfield Aerodrome - Misplaced Pages Continue

3150-418: The airport's former name, such as Orlando International Airport 's MCO (for Mc C o y Air Force Base), or Chicago's O'Hare International Airport , which is coded ORD for its original name: Or char d Field. In rare cases, the code comes from the airport's unofficial name, such as Kahului Airport 's OGG (for local aviation pioneer Jimmy H ogg ). In large metropolitan areas, airport codes are often named after

3225-424: The cessation of aircraft production at Hatfield from 1993. By then, work at the Manor Road site, which had become part of BAe Dynamics , had wound down and this site was cleared first. Friday 8 April 1994 was Hatfield's last day as an airfield, when a DH Chipmunk – the type that had made the first landing on the new runway – was the last plane to take off from the main runway, followed by a DH Tiger Moth – carrying

3300-491: The code SHA, while the newer Shanghai–Pudong adopted PVG. The opposite was true for Berlin : the airport Berlin–Tegel used the code TXL, while its smaller counterpart Berlin–Schönefeld used SXF; the Berlin Brandenburg Airport has the airport code BER, which is also part of its branding. The airports of Hamburg (HAM) and Hannover (HAJ) are less than 100 nautical miles (190 km) apart and therefore share

3375-620: The construction of MI5 's Thames House and MI6 's Vauxhall Cross headquarters has been released, but the Al Yamamah report is still deemed too sensitive. The 2007 documentary film Welcome Aboard Toxic Airlines contained evidence that vital data was withheld from a 1999–2000 Australian Senate Inquiry into the health and flight safety issues relating to oil fumes on the British Aerospace 146 . The film also contains an Australian Senator's speech about money being paid by BAe for silence on

3450-861: The de Havilland Technical School). A leaflet with a map of the route is available at the reception. The following units were stationed at Hatfield: IATA airport code The assignment of these codes is governed by IATA Resolution 763, and it is administered by the IATA's headquarters in Montreal , Canada. The codes are published semi-annually in the IATA Airline Coding Directory. IATA provides codes for airport handling entities, and for certain railway stations. Alphabetical lists of airports sorted by IATA code are available. A list of railway station codes , shared in agreements between airlines and rail lines such as Amtrak , SNCF , and Deutsche Bahn ,

3525-588: The early 1960s, with production of the latter taking place at de Havilland's other factory at Hawarden . Design studies for feederliners that would ultimately lead to the HS.146 took place as well as studies for a pan-European aircraft, the HBN.100 which would eventually become the Airbus A300 . Hatfield once again changed ownership when Hawker Siddeley was merged with the British Aircraft Corporation and Scottish Aviation under

3600-919: The end. Examples include: A lot of minor airfields without scheduled passenger traffic have ICAO codes but not IATA codes, since the four letter codes allow more number of codes, and IATA codes are mainly used for passenger services such as tickets, and ICAO codes by pilots. In the US, such airfields use FAA codes instead of ICAO. There are airports with scheduled service for which there are ICAO codes but not IATA codes, such as Nkhotakota Airport/Tangole Airport in Malawi or Chōfu Airport in Tokyo, Japan. There are also several minor airports in Russia (e.g., Omsukchan Airport ) which lack IATA codes and instead use internal Russian codes for booking. Flights to these airports cannot be booked through

3675-460: The famous 'Wooden wonder'. This was developed privately at Salisbury Hall , outside of Hatfield to avoid being targeted by German bombers. The Hatfield site itself was camouflaged but was bombed on 3 October 1940 by a Junkers Ju 88 . Four bombs hit the '94 shop' building, killing 21, injuring more than 70 and disrupting work on the Mosquito. The Junkers Ju 88 was hit and brought down by the crew of

3750-557: The first three letters of the city in which it is located, for instance: The code may also be a combination of the letters in its name, such as: Sometimes the airport code reflects pronunciation, rather than spelling, namely: For many reasons, some airport codes do not fit the normal scheme described above. Some airports, for example, cross several municipalities or regions, and therefore, use codes derived from some of their letters, resulting in: Other airports—particularly those serving cities with multiple airports—have codes derived from

3825-474: The following format: Most large airports in Canada have codes that begin with the letter "Y", although not all "Y" codes are Canadian (for example, YUM for Yuma, Arizona , and YNT for Yantai , China), and not all Canadian airports start with the letter "Y" (for example, ZBF for Bathurst, New Brunswick ). Many Canadian airports have a code that starts with W, X or Z, but none of these are major airports. When

SECTION 50

#1732855519008

3900-593: The form of " YYZ ", a song by the rock band Rush , which utilizes the Morse code signal as a musical motif. Some airports have started using their IATA codes as brand names , such as Calgary International Airport (YYC) and Vancouver International Airport (YVR). Numerous New Zealand airports use codes that contain the letter Z, to distinguish them from similar airport names in other countries. Examples include HLZ for Hamilton , ZQN for Queenstown , and WSZ for Westport . Predominantly, airport codes are named after

3975-416: The former Prime Minister's son Mark Thatcher may have been involved; he has strongly denied receiving payments or exploiting his mother's connections in his business dealings. The National Audit Office investigated the contracts and has so far never released its conclusions – the only NAO report ever to be withheld. The BBC's Newsnight observed that it is ironic that the once classified report analysing

4050-482: The international air booking systems or have international luggage transferred there, and thus, they are booked instead through the airline or a domestic booking system. Several heliports in Greenland have 3-letter codes used internally which might be IATA codes for airports in faraway countries. There are several airports with scheduled service that have not been assigned ICAO codes that do have IATA codes, especially in

4125-442: The late 1990s, European defence consolidation became a prevailing practice; European governments wished to see the merger of their defence manufacturers into a single entity, a European Aerospace and Defence Company. This ambition led to numerous reports linking various European defence groups – mainly with each other but also with American defence contractors. In July 1998, merger discussions began between BAe and DASA. Terms for such

4200-452: The lucrative defence market of the United States. The newly combined company, which was initially referred to as "New British Aerospace", was officially formed on 30 November 1999; it is named BAE Systems . There have been allegations that the Al Yamamah contracts were a result of bribes ("douceurs") to members of the Saudi royal family and government officials. Some allegations suggested that

4275-612: The name of the airport itself, for instance: This is also true with some cities with a single airport (even if there is more than one airport in the metropolitan area of said city), such as BDL for Hartford, Connecticut 's B ra dl ey International Airport or Baltimore's BWI, for B altimore/ W ashington I nternational Airport ; however, the latter also serves Washington, D.C. , alongside Dulles International Airport (IAD, for I nternational A irport D ulles) and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA, for D istrict of C olumbia A irport). The code also sometimes comes from

4350-416: The one they are located in: Other airport codes are of obscure origin, and each has its own peculiarities: In Asia, codes that do not correspond with their city's names include Niigata 's KIJ , Nanchang 's KHN and Pyongyang 's FNJ . EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg , which serves three countries, has three airport codes: BSL, MLH, EAP. Some cities have a name in their respective language which

4425-455: The original; changes included the replacement of the original Lycoming ALF 502 turbofan engines by higher-thrust LF 507 turbofan engines, which were housed in redesigned nacelles . The Avro RJ series also featured a modernised cockpit with EFIS replacing the analogue ADI, HSI, and engine instrumentation. Production of the Avro RJ ended with the final four aircraft being delivered in late 2003;

4500-482: The regional aircraft division. Evans decided to sell non-core business activities, which included the Rover Group, Arlington Securities, BAe Corporate Jets, BAe Communications and Ballast Nedam . Although the rationale of diversification was sound (to shield the company from cyclical aerospace and defence markets) the struggling company could not afford to continue the position: "We simply could not afford to carry two core businesses, cars and aerospace. At one point Rover

4575-501: The same first and middle letters, indicating that this rule might be followed only in Germany. Many cities retain historical names in their airport codes, even after having undergone an official name/spelling/transliteration change: Some airport codes are based on previous names associated with a present airport, often with a military heritage. These include: Some airports are named for an administrative division or nearby city, rather than

SECTION 60

#1732855519008

4650-497: The station code of Malton, Mississauga , where it is located). YUL is used for Montréal–Trudeau (UL was the ID code for the beacon in the city of Kirkland , now the location of Montréal–Trudeau). While these codes make it difficult for the public to associate them with a particular Canadian city, some codes have become popular in usage despite their cryptic nature, particularly at the largest airports. Toronto's code has entered pop culture in

4725-488: The taxiways and the runway were removed to make way for offices, businesses and homes. Today the flight test hangar survives as a leisure centre, whilst the rest of the site is divided between the University of Hertfordshire , housing and a business park. The Hatfield Aerodrome History Trail was officially opened on 24 November 2010. It forms part of a Heritage Lottery Fund project by the University of Hertfordshire to mark

4800-504: The two-letter code of the radio beacons that were the closest to the actual airport, such as YQX in Gander or YXS in Prince George . Four of the ten provincial capital airports in Canada have ended up with codes beginning with YY, including: Canada's largest airport is YYZ for Toronto Pearson (as YTZ was already allocated to Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport , the airport was given

4875-529: The use of two letters allowed only a few hundred combinations; a three-letter system of airport codes was implemented. This system allowed for 17,576 permutations, assuming all letters can be used in conjunction with each other. Since the U.S. Navy reserved "N" codes, and to prevent confusion with Federal Communications Commission broadcast call signs , which begin with "W" or "K", the airports of certain U.S. cities whose name begins with one of these letters had to adopt "irregular" airport codes: This practice

4950-399: Was "day one" for the new company, which became the world's second-largest aerospace company after Boeing and the second-largest European arms manufacturer after BAE Systems. The GEC merger to create a solely British company, compared to the prospective Anglo-German company that would have resulted from merging with DASA, was promoted as having superior prospects for further penetration of

5025-413: Was 5.4 times subscribed and the first day closing price was 11% above the initial offer price. The British Government maintained a £1 golden share , which allowed it to veto foreign control of the board or company. British Aerospace inherited a number of live development programmes from its predecessors. Scottish Aviation was working on a project for a 19-seat turboprop airliner, an upgraded version of

5100-658: Was a British aircraft , munitions and defence-systems manufacturer that was formed in 1977. Its head office was at Warwick House in the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Farnborough, Hampshire . It purchased Marconi Electronic Systems , the defence electronics and naval shipbuilding subsidiary of the General Electric Company , in 1999 to form BAE Systems . The company has its origins in the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act 1977 , which called for

5175-478: Was based at Hatfield during the early and mid-1980s. In 1987, a new final assembly hall was built for 146 production to coincide with the introduction of the stretched 146-300 derivative. Further development resulted in the demolition of the 1930s flying club buildings to make way for the Bishop Square office block development, constructed in 1991 and named in honour of Comet designer R.E. Bishop . In 1992, due to severe financial problems, British Aerospace announced

5250-481: Was being encroached upon by expanding housing developments in the London suburbs. Flying commenced in 1930, but the clubhouse buildings and adjacent recreational facilities, fuel pumps and sheds were not completed until 1933. Hatfield's former ICAO code, EGTH, was reallocated to Old Warden Aerodrome in Bedfordshire. In 1934 significant works were undertaken at the site and a large factory and imposing Art Deco administration buildings were constructed together with

5325-468: Was constructed. Additionally, a large design block was constructed alongside the administration buildings. De Havilland had been developing and manufacturing propellers and piston engines in addition to airframes. Post-war, the engine company continued developing jet engines, with testing taking place at Manor Road and production at nearby Leavesden . The propeller company moved into developing rockets , guided missiles and Britain's ballistic missile,

5400-805: Was described as one of the most advanced pulse doppler radar systems in the world. In August 1981, BAe and the American aircraft manufacturer McDonnell Douglas signed a memorandum of understanding regarding the McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II . Under this agreement, BAe was effectively a subcontractor rather than a full partner, receiving 40 per cent of the airframe's work-share in terms of man-hours. Production took place at McDonnell Douglas' facilities in suburban St Louis , Missouri , and manufacturing by BAe at its Kingston and Dunsfold facilities in Surrey , England. The variant procured for

5475-567: Was eating up about £2 billion of our banking capacity." BAe Corporate Jets and Arkansas Aerospace were sold to Raytheon in 1993. In 1994, the Rover Group was sold to BMW and British Aerospace Space Systems was sold to Matra Marconi Space . In 1998, BAe's shareholding of Orange plc was reduced to 5%. The Orange shareholding was a legacy of the 30% stake in Hutchison Telecommunications (UK) Ltd. In 1994, BAeSEMA, Siemens Plessey and GEC-Marconi formed UKAMS Limited as part of

5550-449: Was one of several companies to be heavily involved. On 10 July 1979, the maiden flight of a production Tornado occurred. On 5 and 6 June 1979, the first aircraft were delivered to the RAF and German Air Force respectively. On 25 September 1981, the first Italian Tornado was delivered. The Tornado would be produced in large numbers, the 500th aircraft to be completed was delivered to West Germany on 19 December 1987. Production of

5625-586: Was that an American defence contractor would acquire MES and challenge both British Aerospace and DASA. Schrempp was angered by BAe's reversal, and opted to pursue other partner companies for DASA to merge with. On 11 June 1999, the Spanish aircraft company CASA a memorandum of understanding for such a merger. On 14 October 1999, DASA agreed to merge with Aérospatiale-Matra to create the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS). 10 July 2000

#7992