BRISTOL AEROPLANE COMPANY - THE ARCHIVE PHOTOGRAPHS SERIES

Travelling along the A38 trunk road through Filton near Bristol, one cannot fail to see, and be impressed by, the British Aerospace and Rolls-Royce factories. Also impressive is the fact that this is the site where the British & Colonial Aeroplane Company was founded in 1910 by Sir George White, Bt. A tramways pioneer and businessman with energy, vision and compassion, he had an eagle eye for business opportunities not seen by his contemporaries - and he was a Bristolian. With members of his family he launched a decade of explosive development, turning an omnibus depot into what was to become the world's largest single aircraft and aero-engine manufacturing unit.

Renamed the Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1920, it continued to operate almost as a family- run business, even after it became a public limited liability company fifteen years later. By 1960 when the Bristol Aeroplane Company became part of British Aircraft Corporation, some 15,750 aircraft of eighty five different designs and 116,000 aero-engines had been built by the Company. Today it is divided between Airbus UK and Rolls-Royce.

This album of photographs portrays some of the employees and factories as well as the aeroplanes and engines which, for some seventy years, carried the proud name 'Bristol' around the world.