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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 1258.PDF
7 MAY 1954 FLIGHT (Advertisement) 3 who will be using our aircraft on passenger services. The cause of the trouble has since been satisfactorily analysed; the remedies to be adopted have been determined; and every effort is being made to recover the time lost. Our confidence in Britannia as an outstandingly fine aircraft is extensively shared and promising negotiations are in progress with many of the lead ing airlines. In order to match their estimated re quirements with sufficient numbers at the right time we have made arrangements with Short Brothers & Harland Ltd. of Belfast for them to prepare capacity at their Belfast Works so as to supplement the pro gramme already arranged at Filton. You will appreciate that the combined programmes of both factories not only make a big demand upon our resources but represent—together with similar plans on the part of our competitors in this country —a direct attack upon the civil aviation markets of the world, the outcome of which is of great signifi cance both to the export effort and to the technical reputation of the British aircraft industry. Neither the real risks nor the possible rewards of such a policy should be underestimated. From the foregoing paragraphs it will be apparent that our Aircraft Division, which has been greatly strengthened and expanded during the past few years, has a big manufacturing programme ahead of it. In addition, other projects still in the early stages, as well as our guided weapons programmes, give promise of interesting and important tasks ahead. AERO ENGINES In our Engine Division the enthusiasm and deter mination of the engineering team have been hand somely rewarded by the progress which has been made with the Bristol Olympus "two-spool" turbo jet, which is maintaining its lead as the most powerful turbo-jet engine yet flying. After securing the world's altitude record in an English Electric Canberra last summer, the Olympus was publicly displayed at the S.B.A.C. Flying Display as the accepted power plant for the Avro Vulcan Delta Bomber. Further applications of this outstandingly fine engine will be made known in due course. During last year we went ahead well with prepara tions for Olympus production. Deliveries from the production line start shortly, overlapping the com pletion of contracts for the Rolls-Royce Avon en gines which have occupied much of our capacity for the past two years. In this connection it is perhaps fitting to refer to the friendly collaboration which has existed between the engine constructors who have worked so closely together both in the Avon Group and more generally. It would be hard to find another branch of industry in which the keenest rivalry in the designing and selling stages is accom panied by such a high degree of mutual help in the execution of engineering and manufacturing pro grammes. This unusually well developed relationship between competitors is both valuable to the Defence effort of the country and significant of the way in which the technicians in an industry can, if they are given the encouragement, blend competition and co operation to great effect. Last year output from our Engine Division in cluded further deliveries of Hercules and Centaurus engines, some thousands of which continue in use throughout the world. The civil version of the Cen taurus has been performing with conspicuous success in the Elizabethan fleet operated by British Euro pean Airways, and Hercules have continued to play their part with many different operators. It is likely that, on a modest scale, there will be a continuing demand for our piston engines and, of course, for their spares and overhaul for some years to come. The Proteus turbo-prop—an engine to which, as we mentioned to Stockholders last year, we are looking for important new successes in the transport field—is, like the Olympus, just coming into produc tion after a long and thorough programme of de velopment and testing. Among the new engine projects to which public reference has already been made we have in the de sign stage a lightweight axial turbo-jet known as the Bristol Orpheus, which we believe will have an im portant place as the power unit of several new air craft—light fighters, trainers and others; it has attracted much interest both at home and overseas. Other new projects being tackled during the year, including an extensive programme of ramjet de velopment, hold out the prospect of a high level of production in the future. MOTOR CARS Bristol cars have had another successful year. The demand for the Type 403 saloon has been well sus tained and our latest model, the Type 404 2-seater coupe has been well received at Motor Shows both at home and abroad. A variant of the 404 with a special Italian sports body was recently announced by the Arnolt Corporation who are marketing this model in the United States. We are continuing our policy of a steady development programme to main tain the high standard of technical excellence already achieved by this comparatively new Division of the Company. During the past year our 2-litre engines fitted to Frazer-Nash, Cooper and Kieft cars have had many notable racing successes throughout the world and in our own Bristol Type 450 achieved six international Class E records. ALUMINIUM BUILDINGS The comparatively high price of aluminium con tinues to restrict the development of this business but during the year we completed a wide variety of contracts, chiefly primary schools for local autho rities, and in spite of keen competition, we continued to secure valuable orders both in the United King dom and overseas. The Australian market, in which our sales of aluminium buildings for schools, hos pitals and other Government purposes have amounted to close on £4m. during the past three years, has now very greatly reduced, partly on ac count of increased availability of local building re sources and partly by reason of the high import duties now charged on our products. Vigorous efforts are being made to open up other markets at home and abroad and our designs are being modified to meet changing requirements, including the develop ment of multi-storey schools for the United King dom building programme, and simpler and cheaper structures for certain overseas markets. ROTOL LTD AND BRITISH MESSIER LTD These two associated companies traded profitably and effectively, and their resources were fully em ployed in meeting their rising programmes. Their scale of operations is now extensive and one or other of their products is used on practically every type of aircraft in production in this country. Their Boards have steadfastly pursued a conservative policy as a result of which the value of the net assets considerably exceeds the nominal value of the share capital and advances. BRISTOL AEROPLANE COMPANY OF CANADA LTD Our Canadian Company and its two operating subsidiaries had a successful year's trading and our interests in Canada continue to expand. In Mon treal, Bristol Aero Engines Ltd.'s new plant, to the construction of which I referred last year, came into operation in the second half of the year and has attracted much favourable comment. Bristol Freighters, already in use with the R.C.A.F. and other Canadian operators, have also gone into ser vice with Trans-Canada Airlines as part of an inter esting campaign for the development of specialised air freight services between principal cities of Eastern Canada. More recently an agreement has been con cluded with the Canadian Government under which a military version of the Bristol Britannia is to be constructed by Canadair Ltd. in collaboration with ourselves for maritime reconnaissance and other pur poses. These are the first fruits of the efforts which we have made over the past five years to develop our Canadian business. It is our confident belief that further benefits will accrue in due course. BRISTOL AEROPLANE COMPANY (AUSTRALIA) PTY LTD Our activities in Australia are as yet on a small scale but during the year we took over from our friends the Overseas Corporation of Australia their share of the capital of Airfiite Ltd. which we have now renamed Bristol Aviation Services Ltd. The leasehold premises at Bankstown Airfield have been equipped for helicopter and aircraft overhaul work and a new factory nearby has been leased and equipped for the overhaul of aero engines. Our guided weapons department has made use of the workshop premises we now occupy at Salisbury and trials of weapons sent out from Bristol have made a promising start at Woomera. EUROPEAN ASSOCIATES In France our associated Company, Societe d'Explpitation et de Constructions Aeronautiques, continues to be actively engaged on aircraft and engine overhauls. In Spain, the Company has participated in the formation of a new Company, Talleres Aeronauticos de Barajas, S.A., which will carry on an aircraft overhaul business at Barajas Airport, Madrid, the primary object being to provide good maintenance in Spain for the increasing number of Bristol aircraft and engines in use in that country. RE-EQUIPMENT AND EXPANSION During the year considerable increases were made to our fixed assets as evidenced by the increase in balance sheet value to which reference has already been made. The major part of this large sum was spent on new machine tools for both manufacturing Divisions, on new and elaborate test plant for ram jets and turbo-jets, and on conversion to turbo-jets of a section of our engine repair factory at Whit church near Bristol. The process of re-equipment has no finality and despite the high level of taxation we have regarded it as having a paramount claim upon our resources. It has continued to be exceedingly difficult to attract both skilled men and design draughtsmen to the Bristol area in sufficient numbers. We have there fore further developed our branch on the North Eastern Trading Estate at Sunderland by occupying a third factory built to meet our requirements, and we have gained considerable benefit from branch drawing offices in the London area which supplement the main offices in Bristol. We are pressing on with the construction of our new Apprentices School in order to increase the annual intake both of trade and engineering appren tices and to raise the quality of their training. En gagement of engineering graduates has been steadily maintained and, in addition, some twenty of our Higher National Certificate engineering apprentices are currently working for their Engineering degrees in Universities. Much of our training programme is still in the experimental stages and it is good that this should be so; we have no doubt that the con tinuous recruitment and training of able men is of vital importance to our future—every bit as import ant indeed as the provision of all the expensive plant and equipment the need for which is unquestioned —and we are emphasising more and more the need for well considered schemes of selection, further training, and promotion believing that some of the best sources of talent are to be found within our own ranks. PROSPECTS AND PROBLEMS It is to be hoped that this review has given Stock holders a comprehensive picture both of the current state of our business and of the future outlook. On the credit side, there is every reason for having con fidence in the technical merits of our products and their suitability to the market over the years ahead, and for having equal confidence in the excellence of our workmanship. We have good justification on these grounds for expecting our turnover to continue at a high level. On the other side—and this is something that applies to the whole of British in dustry and not just to ourselves—we cannot ignore the trend of costs, in which the basic element is the cost of wages and salaries. Despite many warnings there is still a dangerous failure to recognise that we may, by high costs, price ourselves out of the com petitive markets of the world: if we do so the main tenance of a high level of employment will become impossible. There is also a dangerous and widespread failure to understand that a better standard of living depends not on bigger money incomes but on the amount of genuine and intelligent hard work contri buted by each of us to our common purpose, the defence and prosperity of our country. So far as we in this Company are concerned, we shall so far as it lies in our power continue steadily on the course which we have set ourselves—that is the course of increasing our efficiency and of provid ing stable employment in good and improving con ditions on work which we are proud to think is of considerable service to the State. I thank once again the thousands of our staff and workpeople who by their loyalty and hard work help to make possible the achievement of these ends.
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