The Ministry of Aviation was a department of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

government established in 1959. Its responsibilities included the regulation of civil aviation and the supply of military aircraft, which it took on from the

Ministry of Supply The Ministry of Supply (MoS) was a department of the UK government formed in 1939 to co-ordinate the supply of equipment to all three British armed forces, headed by the Minister of Supply. A separate ministry, however, was responsible for aircr ...

. In 1967, the Ministry of Aviation merged into the

Ministry of Technology The Ministry of Technology was a department of the government of the United Kingdom, sometimes abbreviated as "MinTech". The Ministry of Technology was established by the incoming government of Harold Wilson in October 1964 as part of Wilson's am ...

which took on the supply of military aircraft, while regulatory responsibilities were switched to the

Board of Trade The Board of Trade is a British government body concerned with commerce and industry, currently within the Department for International Trade. Its full title is The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of ...

Ministers of Aviation

* 14 October 1959:

Duncan Sandys Edwin Duncan Sandys, Baron Duncan-Sandys (; 24 January 1908 – 26 November 1987), was a British politician and minister in successive Conservative governments in the 1950s and 1960s. He was a son-in-law of Winston Churchill and played a key ro ...

David Butler and Gareth Butler, ''Twentieth Century British Political Facts 1900-2000'', Macmillan 2000, p. 27.Butler and Butler, p. 58. * 27 July 1960:

Peter Thorneycroft George Edward Peter Thorneycroft, Baron Thorneycroft, (26 July 1909 – 4 June 1994) was a British Conservative Party politician. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1957 and 1958. Early life Born in Dunston, Staffordshire, Thorn ...

* 16 July 1962:

Julian Amery Harold Julian Amery, Baron Amery of Lustleigh, (27 March 1919 – 3 September 1996) was a British Conservative Party politician, who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for 39 of the 42 years between 1950 and 1992. He was appointed to the Pr ...

* 18 October 1964:

Roy Jenkins Roy Harris Jenkins, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead, (11 November 1920 – 5 January 2003) was a British politician who served as President of the European Commission from 1977 to 1981. At various times a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Lab ...

Butler and Butler, p. 30. * 23 December 1965:

Frederick Mulley Frederick William Mulley, Baron Mulley, PC (3 July 1918 – 15 March 1995) was a British Labour politician, barrister-at-law and economist. Early life Mulley attended Warwick School between 1929 and 1936. He served in the Worcestershire Regim ...

* 7 January 1967 – 15 February 1967:

John Stonehouse John Thomson Stonehouse (28 July 192514 April 1988) was a British Labour and Co-operative Party politician and cabinet minister under Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Stonehouse is remembered for his unsuccessful attempt at faking his own death in ...

Parliamentary Secretaries

* 22 October 1959:

Geoffrey Rippon Aubrey Geoffrey Frederick Rippon, Baron Rippon of Hexham, PC, QC (28 May 1924 – 28 January 1997) was a British Conservative Party politician. He is most known for drafting the European Communities Act 1972 which took the United Kingdom into ...

* 9 October 1961: Christopher Woodhouse * 16 July 1962:

Basil de Ferranti Basil Reginald Vincent Ziani de Ferranti (2 July 1930 – 24 September 1988) was a British businessman and a Conservative Party politician. He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, and was the grandson of the electrical engineer a ...

* 3 December 1962:

Neil Marten Sir Harry Neil Marten PC (3 December 1916 – 22 December 1985) was a British Conservative Party politician. Born in Lambeth, Marten was educated at Rossall School. During World War II he was parachuted into France as part of Operation Jedburg ...

* 20 October 1964:

* 6 April 1966 – 7 January 1967: Julian Snow

Permanent Secretaries

* 1959: Sir William StrathButler and Butler, p. 301. * 1960:

Henry Hardman Sir Henry Hardman, KCB (15 December 1905 – 17 January 2001) was an English civil servant and, briefly, an academic economist. Early life Hardman was born in December 1905, the son of Harry Hardman of Old Trafford, Manchester, and Bertha Cook ...

(knighted in 1962)''

Flight International ''Flight International'' is a monthly magazine focused on aerospace. Published in the United Kingdom and founded in 1909 as "A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport", it is the world's oldes ...

'', no. 2756, vol. 81, 4 January 1962
p. 2
* 1963: Sir Richard Way * 1966: Sir Richard Clarke * 1966–7: Sir Ronald Melville

References

1959 establishments in the United Kingdom

Aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot air ...

Aviation history of the United Kingdom United Kingdom, Aviation 1967 disestablishments in the United Kingdom {{UK-gov-stub