1957 Defence White Paper

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The 1957 White Paper on Defence was a British white paper setting forth the future as seen of the British military. It had profound effects on all aspects of the defence industry but probably the most affected was the British aircraft industry. Duncan Sandys, the recently appointed Minister of Defence produced the paper.

The decisions were influenced by two major factors: the finances of the country and the coming of the missile age. Where before combat in the air would have been between aircraft; high flying bombers carrying nuclear weapons and fast interceptor fighter aircraft trying to stop them, now the guided missile, particularly the surface-to-air missile threatened all aircraft. The emergent space age showed that missiles could also deliver those nuclear weapons anywhere in the world.

1 Main aspects of paper

[edit] Main aspects of paper

[edit] Aircraft industry reorganization

The paper stated that the aircraft industry should re-organise; several smaller companies becoming a few larger ones. It was made clear that new contracts would only be given to such merged firms, including the only new aircraft project, what would become the TSR-2.

Under pressure, in 1960 English Electric, Bristol Aeroplane Company and Vickers-Armstrong merged to form the British Aircraft Corporation, or BAC. Hunting Aircraft soon joined the BAC group. In the same year, de Havilland, Blackburn Aircraft and Folland merged into Hawker-Siddeley, which had already consisted of Armstrong Whitworth, Avro, Gloster and Hawker since 1935. Westland Aircraft took over all the helicopter manufacturers, including Saunders-Roe, Fairey Aviation and Bristol's helicopter work. Saunders-Roe's hovercraft work was spun off and merged with Vickers Supermarine as the British Hovercraft Corporation.

Very few companies were left independent after this wave of mergers, leaving only Handley Page as a major independant, along with the smaller companies like Auster, Boulton Paul, Miles Aircraft, Scottish Aviation and Short Brothers. Most of these disappeared by 1970s, leaving only Scottish Aviation to merge into British Aerospace in 1977, and Shorts, which was purchased by Bombardier in 1989.

Engine companies were likewise "encouraged" to merge. In 1959 Armstrong Siddeley and Bristol's engine division merged to become Bristol Siddeley, but were shortly purchased by Rolls-Royce in 1966, leaving RR as the only major British aircraft engine manufacturer.

[edit] Reduction in manned aircraft projects

With the development of missiles, those roles that missiles could cover meant that certain aircraft in development could be cancelled.

These included the next generation of supersonic interceptor for high flying bombers, the F.155 and the interim aircraft that would have covered it until introduction in 1963, namely the Saunders-Roe SR.53, Saunders-Roe SR.177. The Avro 730 supersonic light bomber was also cancelled, as was the Blue Rosette nuclear weapon to arm it. Oddly the Blue Envoy surface-to-air missile was also cancelled, although it would be more in keeping with the spirit of the paper. The English Electric P.1 (which would become the Lightning) was spared only because it was so far advanced to bother cancelling.