In the late 1950s and early 1960s the Bristol Aeroplane Company studied a number of models as part of a large British inter-company effort funded by the government.

In the UK, as elsewhere in the 1950s, the aero industry had been producing a series of supersonic test aircraft and had extensively studied the problems of sustained high-speed flight.

Soon after, however, studies at the Royal Aircraft Establishment began to favour the gothic delta and design contracts using this planform went to Hawker Siddeley and Bristol in late 1959.

Their designer, Archibald Russell, was influenced by the constructional problems and expense encountered with the Bristol 188 and favoured the lower speed alloy aircraft.

[2][clarification needed] On 29 November 1962 an agreement was jointly signed by the UK Minister for Aviation, Julian Amery and the French ambassador, Geoffrey de Courcel and the Concorde project was underway.