| Fate | Acquired by GEC |
|---|---|
| Successor | BAC GEC ICL |
| Founded | 1918 |
| Defunct | 1968 |
| Headquarters | Lancashire headquartered at Strand, London |
| Subsidiaries | Napier & Son (1942–) The Marconi Company (1948–) Vulcan Foundry (1955–) Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns (1955–) English Electric Aviation (1958–) English Electric Leo Marconi (1964–) |
English Electric[1] (EE) was a British industrial manufacturer. Founded in 1918, it initially specialised in industrial electric motors and transformers. Its activities would expand to include railway locomotives and traction equipment, steam turbines, consumer electronics, guided missiles, aircraft and computers.
Although only a handful of aircraft designs were produced under the English Electric name, two would become landmarks in British aeronautical engineering; the Canberra and the Lightning. English Electric Aircraft would become a founding member of the British Aircraft Corporation in 1960 with the other industrial operations acquired by GEC in 1968.
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In 1917 Dick, Kerr & Co., a partnership of Glaswegian merchants W. B. Dick and John Kerr, acquired the United Electric Car Company, a tram manufacturer of Preston, Lancashire. In 1918, The English Electric Company, Limited (EE) was formed. In 1918 and 1919, EE took over Dick, Kerr & Co., Willans & Robinson of Rugby and the Phoenix Dynamo Manufacturing Company of Bradford. It also bought the Stafford works of Siemens Bros, Dynamo Works Ltd. In 1930, the manufacture of electrical equipment was moved to Bradford; tram, bus body and rolling stock production staying at Preston. That same year, the man most associated with EE, George Nelson, became managing director.
From 1912–1918, United Electric and English Electric supplied 2nd and 3rd generation tramcars for Hong Kong Tramways.
In 1923 EE supplied electric locomotives for the New Zealand Railways for use between Arthurs Pass and Otira, in the Southern Alps. In 1927 EE delivered 20 electric motor cars for the Warsaw’s Warszawska Kolej Dojazdowa. During the 1930s, EE supplied equipment for the electrification of the Southern Railway system, reinforcing its position in the traction market, and continued to provide traction motors to them for many years. In 1936, production of diesel locomotives commenced in the former tramworks in Preston. Between late 1930s and 1950s EE supplied electric multiple units for the electrified network in and around Wellington, New Zealand. EE took over Vulcan Foundry and Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns, both with substantial railway engineering pedigrees, in 1955.
Both Dick, Kerr & Co. and the Phoenix Dynamo Manufacturing Company built aircraft in the First World War, including flying boats designed by the Seaplane Experimental Station at Felixstowe, 62 Short Type 184 and 6 Short Bombers designed by Short Brothers. Aircraft manufacture under the EE name began in Bradford in 1922 with the English Electric Wren but lasted only until 1926 after the last English Electric Kingston flying boat was built.
With War in Europe looming, EE was instructed by the Air Ministry to construct a "shadow factory" at Samlesbury Aerodrome in Lancashire to build Handley Page Hampden bombers. Starting with Flight Shed Number 1, the first Hampden built by EE made its maiden flight on 22 February 1940 and, by 1942, 770 Hampdens had been delivered – more than half of all the Hampdens produced. In 1940, a second factory was built on the site and the runway was extended to allow for construction of the Handley Page Halifax four-engined heavy bomber to begin. By 1945, five main hangars and three runways had been built at the site, which was also home to No. 9 Group RAF. By the end of the war, over 2,000 Halifaxes had been built and flown from Samlesbury.
In 1942, EE took over Napier & Son, an aero-engine manufacturer. Along with the shadow factory, this helped to re-establish the company's aeronautical engineering division. Post-war, EE invested heavily in this sector, moving design and experimental facilities to the former RAF Warton near Preston in 1947. This investment lead to major successes with the Lightning and Canberra, the latter serving in a multitude of roles from 1951 until mid-2006 with the Royal Air Force.
At the end of the war, EE started production under licence of the second British jet fighter, the de Havilland Vampire, with 1,300 plus built at Samlesbury. Their own design work took off after the Second World War under W. E. W. Petter, formerly of Westland Aircraft. Although EE produced only two aircraft designs before their activities became part of BAC, the design team put forward suggestions for many Air Ministry projects.
The aircraft division was formed into the subsidiary English Electric Aviation Ltd. in 1958, becoming a founding constituent of the new British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) in 1960; EE having a 40% stake in the latter company. The guided weapons division was added to BAC in 1963.
The Industrial Electronics Division was established at Stafford. One of the products produced at this branch was the Igniscope, a revolutionary design of ignition tester for petrol engines. This was invented by Napiers and supplied as Type UED for military use during World War 2. After the war, it was marketed commercially as type ZWA.[2]
In 1946, EE took over the Marconi Company, a foray into the domestic consumer electronic market. EE tried to take over one of the other major British electrical companies, the General Electric Company (GEC), in 1960 and, in 1963, EE and J. Lyons and Co. formed a jointly-owned company – English Electric LEO Company – to manufacture the LEO Computer developed by Lyons. EE took over Lyons' half-stake in 1964 and merged it with Marconi's computer interests to form English Electric Leo Marconi (EELM). The latter was merged with Elliott Automation and International Computers and Tabulators (ICT) to form International Computers Limited (ICL) in 1967.[3] In 1968, GEC, recently merged with Associated Electrical Industries (AEI) merged with EE; the former being the dominant parter, the English Electric name was then lost.
Several industrial diesel and electric locomotive types were also built for UK and export use.
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| 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Short Brothers and Harland Ltd. | Short Brothers Ltd. | Short Brothers plc[7] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Handley Page | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| F. G. Miles | Beagle Aircraft[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Auster | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Scottish Aviation[2] | British Aerospace (BAe) | BAE Systems | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Blackburn | Hawker Siddeley Aviation Hawker Siddeley Dynamics |
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| Avro | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| de Havilland | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Folland | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hawker Siddeley[3] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Vickers-Armstrongs | British Aircraft Corporation (BAC)[5] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| English Electric[4] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bristol | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hunting | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The General Electric Company (GEC) | The Marconi Company | GEC-Marconi/Marconi Electronic Systems | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The English Electric Company[6] | Marconi plc | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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