词条 | BAE Systems |
释义 | BAE Systems British company major British manufacturer of aircraft, missiles, avionics, and other aerospace and defense products. It was formed in 1999 from the merger of British Aerospace PLC (BAe) with Marconi Electronic Systems, formerly part of General Electric Company PLC. BAe, in turn, dates to the merger in 1977 of British Aircraft Corporation, Hawker Siddeley Aviation, and two other firms. Headquarters are in London. BAE Systems participates in the manufacture of passenger jetliners through a 20 percent stake in the European consortium Airbus Industrie. It develops and builds fighter aircraft in joint ventures with several European and American aerospace companies, and versions of its vertical/short-takeoff-and-landing (V/STOL) Harrier jet fighter are manufactured in partnership with Boeing Company. Its Hawk jet trainers have been supplied to the British Royal Air Force and widely exported. Activities of BAE Systems nonaerospace business units include the development and construction of surface warships and submarines for the British Royal Navy and the manufacture of a variety of weapons systems and munitions. In 2000 the company employed some 100,000 people directly and in joint ventures and was the largest exporter in the United Kingdom. Through its antecedent company BAe, BAE Systems carries the heritage of some 20 British aerospace firms. In early 1960 British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) was created through the amalgamation of Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd. with English Electric Company and Bristol Aeroplane Company; shortly afterward BAC acquired a controlling interest in Hunting Aircraft Ltd. The origin of Vickers-Armstrongs lies with Vickers (Aviation) Ltd., founded in 1928, and Supermarine Aviation Works Ltd., founded in 1913. English Electric was created in 1918 through the amalgamation of five companies, of which three had experience building aircraft as early as 1911. Bristol Aeroplane was founded in 1910 as the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company. In the 1950s and early '60s a second group of British aircraft companies underwent a series of mergers that resulted in the Hawker Siddeley Group. As with BAC, the forerunners of Hawker Siddeley were manufacturers with long histories—among them Armstrong Whitworth (dating to 1921), A.V. Roe and Company, or Avro (1910), Folland Aircraft Ltd. (1935, as British Marine Aircraft Ltd.), Gloster Aircraft Company (1915, as Aircraft Manufacturing Co.), Hawker Aircraft (1920), and Blackburn Aircraft (1914). During that consolidation period, Hawker Siddeley also acquired a controlling interest in the holdings company that owned De Havilland Aircraft Company (formed in 1920). In 1963 Hawker Siddeley was organized into two divisions—Hawker Siddeley Aviation, in charge of aircraft production, and Hawker Siddeley Dynamics, which had responsibility for missiles and rockets. ![]() ![]() In the 1960s and early '70s BAC and Hawker Siddeley each developed and manufactured a wide range of significant aircraft. BAC built the four-engine Vickers-Armstrongs VC10 jetliner and the twin-engine BAC One-Eleven and, in partnership with Aerospatiale of France (see EADS (European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company)), produced the Concorde supersonic transport. The company was also responsible for building the English Electric P 1 Lightning jet fighter, in service in the 1960s and early '70s. In 1969 BAC joined several other European aircraft and engine manufacturers to develop a multirole combat aircraft; the result was the Panavia Tornado, which entered service in 1980. Hawker Siddeley made the HS 125 business jet and the HS 121 Trident jetliner. Its military jet aircraft included the Vulcan bomber and the V/STOL Harrier fighter, which was licensed in the United States by McDonnell Douglas (later acquired by Boeing) for production for the Marine Corps. Unprofitable financial situations for both BAC and Hawker Siddeley led to their nationalization in 1976. A year later BAC, Hawker Siddeley Aviation, Hawker Siddeley Dynamics, and Scottish Aviation (formed in 1935) were taken into public ownership as British Aerospace. In 1979 BAe joined the Airbus Industrie consortium with a 20 percent share. The company moved toward privatization in 1981 when the British government sold 51.57 percent of its stake to the public. Four years later it sold its remaining shares but kept a special share valued at £1 to ensure that the company would stay under British control. Foreign shareholding was originally limited to 15 percent but later raised to 29.5 percent. ![]() |
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