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FPT Industries was formed in July 1939 as Fireproof Tanks Ltd (commonly known as FPT) as a subsidiary of
Airspeed Ltd Airspeed Limited was established in 1931 to build aeroplanes in York, England, by A. H. Tiltman and Nevil Shute Norway (the aeronautical engineer and novelist, who used his forenames as his pen-name). The other directors were A. E. Hewitt, ...
at Portsmouth Airport in response to an Air Ministry requirement for the development and manufacture of
self-sealing fuel tank A self-sealing fuel tank is a type of fuel tank, typically used in aircraft fuel tanks or fuel bladders, that prevents them from leaking fuel and igniting after being damaged. Typical self-sealing tanks have multiple layers of rubber and reinfo ...
s for the impending war with
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. The intention of the board of directors was to commence work on the manufacture of self-sealing fuel tanks for aircraft entering service with the
Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...
, the highest priority being the
Fairey Battle The Fairey Battle is a British single-engine light bomber that was designed and manufactured by the Fairey Aviation Company. It was developed during the mid-1930s for the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a monoplane successor to the Hawker Hart and ...
single engined
bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped from an air ...
which, although obsolete, was regarded as a front line bomber by the Royal Air Force. The early tanks were of welded
aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. I ...
structure with the sealing material applied as a composite layer on the outside. A major problem with welded aluminium tanks is weld decay and
metal fatigue In materials science, fatigue is the initiation and propagation of cracks in a material due to cyclic loading. Once a fatigue crack has initiated, it grows a small amount with each loading cycle, typically producing striations on some parts o ...
in the seams due to
vibration Vibration is a mechanical phenomenon whereby oscillations occur about an equilibrium point. The word comes from Latin ''vibrationem'' ("shaking, brandishing"). The oscillations may be periodic, such as the motion of a pendulum—or random, su ...
in service. In response to this, the company started to develop flexible fuel bladders in the early 1940s. One of the earliest examples of this was a composite flexible fuel bladder with self-sealing coatings for the Supermarine Spitfire MkIX.


Post-war

During the war years and into the emerging
jet age The Jet Age is a period in the history of aviation defined by the advent of aircraft powered by jet turbine engines, and by the social change this brought about. Jet airliners were able to fly much higher, faster, and farther than older pisto ...
, Fireproof Tanks Ltd developed new technologies in
rubber Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, an ...
formulation, moulding and sheet production in order to remain a leader in other specialist markets such as the creation of hovercraft skirts. Working with
Saunders Roe Saunders-Roe Limited, also known as Saro, was a British aero- and marine-engineering company based at Columbine Works, East Cowes, Isle of Wight. History The name was adopted in 1929 after Alliott Verdon Roe (see Avro) and John Lord took a ...
at Cowes on the
Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the List of islands of England#Largest islands, largest and List of islands of England#Mo ...
, the company became so important to the hovercraft industry that the now renamed FPT Industries was bought by the British Hovercraft Corporation in 1966.


Rationalisation of the aircraft industry

The British Hovercraft Corporation was bought out by
Westland Helicopters Westland Helicopters was a British aircraft manufacturer. Originally Westland Aircraft, the company focused on helicopters after the Second World War. It was amalgamated with several other British firms in 1960 and 1961. In 2000, it merged ...
of
Yeovil Yeovil ( ) is a town and civil parish in the district of South Somerset, England. The population of Yeovil at the last census (2011) was 45,784. More recent estimates show a population of 48,564. It is close to Somerset's southern border with ...
and a period of stability came as Westlands developed cutting edge
composite material A composite material (also called a composition material or shortened to composite, which is the common name) is a material which is produced from two or more constituent materials. These constituent materials have notably dissimilar chemical or ...
manufacture as part of its approach to advanced
helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...
design and hovercraft construction. This paid dividends with advances in rotor blade design such as
BERP rotor The BERP rotor blade design was developed under the ''British Experimental Rotor Programme''. The initial BERP rotor blades were developed in the late 1970s to mid-1980s as a joint venture programme between Westland Aircraft, Westland Helicopters ...
s, later seen on the
Westland Lynx The Westland Lynx is a British multi-purpose twin-engined military helicopter designed and built by Westland Helicopters at its factory in Yeovil. Originally intended as a utility craft for both civil and naval usage, military interest led t ...
and
EH101 The AgustaWestland AW101 is a medium-lift helicopter in military and civil use. First flown in 1987, it was developed by a joint venture between Westland Helicopters in the United Kingdom and Agusta in Italy in response to national requirement ...
helicopters.


Post-1990 and the GKN buyout

In the 1990s, Westland Group was purchased by GKN Plc which restructured the businesses before selling its shares in Westland Helicopters to Agusta of
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
. Finding the advanced composite business that Westlands had developed attractive, GKN retained the other Westland companies and renamed them GKN Aerospace. During this time, FPT Industries diversified again by developing advanced materials for helicopter emergency flotation systems (EFS) and now manufactures EFS equipment for many large commercial and military helicopter types. GKN Aerospace Portsmouth, as the business is now known, still manufactures self-sealing fuel tanks, and other fuel systems as well as helicopter EFS. GKN Aerospace Portsmouth, together with Portsmouth Aviation and Hants & Sussex Aviation, are now all that remain of the once large aircraft manufacturing base at Portsmouth Airport which built aircraft such as the
Airspeed Oxford The Airspeed AS.10 Oxford is a twin-engine monoplane aircraft developed and manufactured by Airspeed. It saw widespread use for training British Commonwealth aircrews in navigation, radio-operating, bombing and gunnery roles throughout the Seco ...
, the
Horsa glider The Airspeed AS.51 Horsa was a British troop-carrying glider used during the Second World War. It was developed and manufactured by Airspeed Limited, alongside various subcontractors; the type was named after Horsa, the legendary 5th-century c ...
and components for the
Hawker Siddeley Trident The Hawker Siddeley HS-121 Trident (originally the de Havilland DH.121 and briefly the Airco DH.121) is a British airliner produced by Hawker Siddeley. In 1957, de Havilland proposed its DH.121 trijet design to a British European Airways (BEA ...
.


References

{{Reflist


External links


GKN page on FPT
Aerospace engineering organizations