British Aerospace: 10 Years In Space

EE 26 December 1987 BRITISH AEROSPACE: 10 YEARS IN SPACE When we speak of British Aerospace, we normally think of Concorde and the company"s other work in aircraft production and engineering. But, in the first 10 years of its existence, this industrial giant has also become world renowned for its work in space engineering and electronics. British Aerospace was born on 29 April, 1977, by the amalgama- tion of British Aircraft Corpor- ation, Hawker Siddeley Dynamics, and Scottish Avia- tion, companies whose antecedents can be traced back to the dawn of powered aviation in the first decade of this century. Lord Beswick was its first Chair- man. He was succeeded in March 1980 by Sir Austin Pearce. This was the final year in which BAe operated as a na- tionalized corporation. On 1 January, 1981, the business was vested in British Aerospace PLC. In 1983, Sir Raymond Lygo was appointed Managing Director of BAe, and in 1985, the year that BAe was fully privatized, he was appointed its Chi...