English Electric

From Air Cadet Central Wiki

English Electric was a 20th-century British industrial manufacturer, initially of electric motors, and expanding to include railway locomotives and aviation, before becoming part of GEC.

Aircraft

The first forays by English Electric into aircraft production was given up in 1926. The return of English Electric to aircraft building came from the undertaking during the expansion of the RAF prior to the Second World War of "shadow production" of other aircraft manufacturers designs. This started with production of the Handley Page Hampden bomber in 1938. English Electric built nearly 800 aircraft; more than half of the Hampdens produced. They then built Handley Page's heavy bomber the Halifax. At the end of the war they entered production of the second British jet fighter, the de Havilland Vampire with 1,300 plus built at Samlesbury. Their own design work took off post war under W. E. W. Petter, formerly of Westland Aircraft. Although EE had only two aircraft produced before their activities became part of BAC, the design team put forward suggestions for many Air Ministry projects.

• Wren 1923
• Kingston 1924
• Canberra 1949
• English Electric P1A (the Lightning prototype)
• [Lightning] 1954