April 1940
First Beaufighter prototypes delivered to RAF.
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25 September 1940
Major daylight bombing raid on BAC, accelerating the dispersal programme.
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Other UK and world events this year:
First successful flight by single-rotor helicopter. Start of British Strategic Air Offensive against Germany. Evacuation of Dunkirk. Battle of Britain.
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June 1942
Coastal Beaufighter drops tricolour in a roof-top level daylight flight over occupied Paris. Read more of this in the obituary of Group Captain Ken Gatward.
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Other UK and world events this year:
Brabazon Committee formed to plan postwar aircraft production in UK.
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1943
Roy Fedden leaves company. Bristol Aeroplane Welfare Association formed. |
4 April 1943
Torpedo-armed coastal version of Beaufighter makes its first successful action against German ships. |
Other UK and world events this year:
First jet combat aeroplane. First long-range missile. |
1944
Raoul Hafner joins BAC to lead development of helicopters, a new division later being formed which moves to Weston-super-Mare in 1955. |
Other UK and world events this year:
Rolls-Royce Derwent engine begins flight trials in a Gloster Meteor testbed. |
30 July 1945
First tenant moves into Bristol pre-fab at Shirehampton. Over 11,000 homes completed in first three years of production, the majority built at Weston-super-Mare.
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2 December 1945
Maiden flight of Freighter transporter, a valuable 'bread-and-butter' earner in the post-war period which had a passenger variant called the Wayfarer. |
Other UK and world events this year:
VE Day. Atomic bomb dropped. VJ Day. Gloster Meteor sets new world speed record. |
1946
BAC car division based on BMW technology begins production as part of war reparations agreement. |
Other UK and world events this year:
PanAm starts scheduled New York-London service.
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1947
British Messier set up as a BAC subsidiary specialising in undercarriage research, marketing and production. |
27 July 1947
Maiden flight of Sycamore, the first all-British designed and built helicopter. |
Other UK and world events this year:
International Civil Aviation Organisation established. |
1948
Theseus becomes world's first turboprop engine to pass type test. Stanley Hooker joins company, going on to become director of Bristol Aero Engines Ltd and responsible for the development of Olympus. UK's first permanent pre-fabricated aluminium school erected at Lockleaze, Bristol, one of over 450 schools built by the company. |
14 July 1948
Silver City begins first car ferry service using Freighter. |
Other UK and world events this year:
Berlin airlift. |
1949
Guided Weapons Department formed. |
4 September
Maiden flight of the Brabazon, the world's biggest airliner, a commercial white elephant but a major technological achievement. |
Other UK and world events this year:
Maiden flight of Comet. NATO formed. |
