BAE Systems, Airbus, Rolls-Royce, MBDA and GKN still have a presence at the Filton site where the Bristol Aeroplane Company was located.

[2][1] Additionally, key personnel for the new business were recruited from the Bristol Tramway Company, including the chief engineer and works manager, George Challenger.

Accordingly, a single example was purchased and shipped to England to be shown at the Aero Show at Olympia in March 1910, and construction of five more begun at the company's Filton works.

[1] Drawings were prepared by George Challenger for an aircraft based on a successful design by Henri Farman whose dimensions had been published in the aeronautical press.

[5] The first batch equipped the two training schools, as well as serving as demonstration machines; the aircraft, which gained the nickname of the Boxkite, went on to become a commercial success, a total of 76 being constructed.

[1] Although satisfactory by the standards of the day, the Boxkite was not capable of much further development and work soon was started on two new designs, a small tractor configuration biplane and a monoplane.

At this time, both Challenger and Low left the company to join the newly established aircraft division of the armament firm Vickers.

During early 1912 a highly secret separate design office, known as the "X-Department", was set up to work on Dennistoun Burney's ideas for naval aircraft.

The company expanded rapidly, establishing a second factory at the Brislington tramway works; the firm employed a total of 200 people by the outbreak of the First World War.

However, pressure from the pilots of the RFC and Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) led to orders being placed for a new aircraft manufactured by Bristol, known as the Scout.

[1] The first project that was worked on by Barnwell after his return, the Bristol T.T.A., was designed in response to a War Office requirement for a two-seat fighter intended to conduct home defence operations against Zeppelin raids.

It was considered that its relatively high landing speed of 50 mph made it unsuitable for use under the field conditions of the Western Front, and the type's active service was limited to the Near East.

For £15,000 Bristol got the Cosmos design team, headed by Roy Fedden, along with a small number of completed engines and tooling.

By this time, the company had a payroll of 4,200, mostly in the engine factory, and was well positioned to take advantage of the huge re-armament ordered by the British Government in May of that year.

By the time war broke out in 1939, the Bristol works at Filton were the largest single aircraft manufacturing unit in the world, with a floor area of nearly 25 hectares (2,691,000 square feet).

[1] In 1940, shadow factories were set up at Weston-super-Mare for the production of Beaufighters, and underground at Hawthorn, near Corsham, Wiltshire, for engine manufacture.

[11][12] In 1960, Sir George White was instrumental in preventing the car division being lost during the wider company's merger with BAC.

[13] Pre-fabricated buildings, marine craft and plastic and composite materials were also amongst the company's early post-war activities; these side-ventures were independently sold off.

Bristol was involved in the post-war renaissance of British civilian aircraft, which was largely inspired by the Brabazon Committee report of 1943–5.

This project was deemed to be a step in the wrong direction, gaining little interest from military or civilian operators, resulting in the Brabazon being ultimately cancelled in 1953.

However, sales of the Britannia were poor and only 82 were built, primarily due to its protracted development; having been ordered by BOAC on 28 July 1949 and first flown on 16 August 1952, it did not enter service until 1 February 1957.

Bristol de Mexico S.A. obtained a license to manufacture Alfred Herbert Ltd machine tools in 1963 and commenced assembling their centre lathes in 1963.

They also commenced building their own design of small engine lathes for the Mexican Government to be installed in training schools throughout Mexico.

A small number of records from the early history of this company are held within the papers of Sir George White at Bristol Archives (Ref.

With the post-war rapid contraction of military orders, Cosmos Engineering went bankrupt and the Air Ministry let it be known that it would be a good idea if the Bristol Aeroplane Company purchased it.

[21] Pursuing the idea of a civil tandem rotor helicopter, Hafner and his team developed a much larger design, the Type 194.

When the competing Westland Westminster was cancelled, the management of the combined company allowed development of the Type 194 to continue, but it too failed to find a market.

[23][24] The Helicopter Division started out at the main Bristol Aeroplane Company site in Filton, but from 1955 it was moved to the Oldmixon factory in Weston-Super-Mare, which had built Blenheims during the War.

The latter meant that the turret could be turned with sufficient offset that the gunner could fire along the side of the rudder and engage targets directly astern.

[29] The Type B.1 was fitted to Bristol Blenheim and Beaufort, and to the Avro Anson and Fairey Battle (with two Browning machine guns) when they were used as gunnery trainers.