The Society of British Aerospace Companies, formerly Society of British Aircraft Constructors, known as SBAC, was the UK's national trade association representing companies supplying civil air transport, aerospace defence, homeland security and space. As of October 2009 SBAC merged with the

Defence Manufacturers Association ADS Group Limited, informally known as ADS, is the trade organisation representing the aerospace, defence, security and space industries in the United Kingdom. It has more than 1,000 member companies across its sectors, including some of the UK' ...

and the

Association of Police and Public Security Suppliers Association may refer to: *Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal *Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry *Voluntary associatio ...

to form the ADS Group. The SBAC organises the

Farnborough Airshow The Farnborough Airshow, officially the Farnborough International Airshow, is a trade exhibition for the aerospace and defence industries, where civilian and military aircraft are demonstrated to potential customers and investors. Since its fir ...

Representation

With its regional partners, SBAC represents over 2,600 companies, assisting them in developing new business globally, facilitating innovation and competitiveness and providing regulatory services in technical standards and accreditation. Inside the organisation is the

British Aviation Group British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

and the

UK Space Agency The United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA) is an executive agency of the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the United Kingdom's civil space programme. It was established on 1 April 2010 to replace the British National Space Centre ...

History

Formation

On 29 March 1915 a number of British

aircraft manufacturer An aerospace manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of designing, building, testing, selling, and maintaining aircraft, aircraft parts, missiles, rockets, or spacecraft. Aerospace is a high technology indust ...

s and industrialists met to arrange a standards body and production pooling system known as the Society of British Aircraft Constructors. Notable among the aircraft participants were

Herbert Austin Herbert Austin, 1st Baron Austin (8 November 186623 May 1941) was an English automobile designer and builder who founded the Austin Motor Company. For the majority of his career he was known as Sir Herbert Austin, and the Northfield bypass ...

Frederick Handley Page Sir Frederick Handley Page, CBE, FRAeS (15 November 1885 – 21 April 1962) was an English industrialist who was a pioneer in the aircraft industry and became known as the father of the heavy bomber. His company Handley Page Limited was ...

, H.V. Roe of

Avro AVRO, short for Algemene Vereniging Radio Omroep ("General Association of Radio Broadcasting"), was a Dutch public broadcasting association operating within the framework of the Nederlandse Publieke Omroep system. It was the first public broad ...

, and E.B. Parker of

Short Brothers Short Brothers plc, usually referred to as Shorts or Short, is an aerospace company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Shorts was founded in 1908 in London, and was the first company in the world to make production aeroplanes. It was particu ...

. The group agreed to share their designs among a variety of 3rd party factories in order to be able to quickly produce new designs on demand. These factories joined ones being run by the government directly. In total over 40 companies joined the group when it officially formed on 23 March 1916.

Aircraft inspection

In the post-war era the group expanded to include almost every aircraft company and those related to it—engine manufacturers, metal alloy companies, etc. Since this period they have often been referred to by

acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

, SBAC. They were also instrumental in approaching

Lloyd's of London Lloyd's of London, generally known simply as Lloyd's, is an insurance and reinsurance market located in London, England. Unlike most of its competitors in the industry, it is not an insurance company; rather, Lloyd's is a corporate body gov ...

to start the inspection and insurance of aircraft, which led to increased commercial aviation.

Trade and Air shows

In 1932 the group hosted a one-day air show and

trade fair A trade fair, also known as trade show, trade exhibition, or trade exposition, is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest products and services, meet with industry partners and c ...

at the Hendon airfield in London on 19 June, the day after the annual

RAF Hendon Hendon is an urban area in the Borough of Barnet, North-West London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has been part of Grea ...

display. Similar one-day events were held for the next three years, but 1935 was the last Hendon RAF display. The SBAC show moved to

de Havilland The de Havilland Aircraft Company Limited () was a British aviation manufacturer established in late 1920 by Geoffrey de Havilland at Stag Lane Aerodrome Edgware on the outskirts of north London. Operations were later moved to Hatfield in H ...

's Hatfield airfield in 1936 and 1937; the latter was both the first two-day SBAC show and the last before World War II. Immediately after the War it was held at

Radlett Radlett is a village in Hertfordshire, England, between Elstree and St Albans on Watling Street, with a population of 8,042. It is in the council district of Hertsmere in the south of the county, and is covered by two wards; Aldenham East and ...

, the home of

Handley Page Handley Page Limited was a British aerospace manufacturer. Founded by Frederick Handley Page (later Sir Frederick) in 1909, it was the United Kingdom's first publicly traded aircraft manufacturing company. It went into voluntary liquidation a ...

on 12–13 September, and early September became the regular date. In 1947 the show was again at Radlett with three flying days. In 1948 the meeting was moved to the

Royal Aircraft Establishment The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), bef ...

at Farnborough and was six days long with three flying days, setting the pattern for the future. The Farnborough shows were held annually as trade fairs for British manufacturers and with two public days, the Saturday and Sunday, throughout the 1950s. Crowds were large: on the last day, the Sunday of the 1954 show some 160,000 people attended. In 1962 the British-only rule was slightly relaxed by allowing the participation of foreign aircraft with British engines. 1962 was also the last of the annual shows, the next being held in 1964 and thenceforth biennially; in 1968 European manufacturers were invited. In 1974 the show accepted international participation and from 1978 it became known as the ''Farnborough International''. Since 1964 the Farnborough has alternated with the

Paris Air Show The Paris Air Show (french: Salon international de l'aéronautique et de l'espace de Paris-Le Bourget, Salon du Bourget) is a trade fair and air show held in odd years at Paris–Le Bourget Airport in north Paris, France. Organized by the French ...

Name change

The name changed from "Society of British Aircraft Constructors" to "Society of British Aerospace Companies" in 1964.

Affiliated organisations

SBAC Scotland was formed in 2005.

SBAC aircraft designations

After WWII the SBAC introduced a designation system for British aircraft consisting of a two letter manufacturer code followed by a sequence number, with designations allocated as follows:-

Blackburn Aircraft

* Blackburn Y.A.1 The Blackburn B-48 Firecrest to Air Ministry Specification S.28/43. * Blackburn Y.A.2 Design study only. * Blackburn Y.A.3 Design study only. * Blackburn Y.A.4 B-55 project for a

Rolls-Royce Dart The Rolls-Royce RB.53 Dart is a turboprop engine designed and manufactured by Rolls-Royce Limited. First run in 1946, it powered the Vickers Viscount on its maiden flight in 1948. A flight on July 29 of that year, which carried 14 paying passe ...

powered 24-seat commercial aircraft. * Blackburn Y.A.5 Blackburn B-54 anti-submarine two-seater to Specification GR.17/45 with Napier Double Nomad. * Blackburn Y.A.6 B-62 project for a Blackburn Firecrest with Armstrong Siddeley Python engine. * Blackburn Y.A.7 Two-seater Y.A.5 with

Rolls-Royce Griffon The Rolls-Royce Griffon is a British 37- litre (2,240 cu in) capacity, 60-degree V-12, liquid-cooled aero engine designed and built by Rolls-Royce Limited. In keeping with company convention, the Griffon was named after a bird of pre ...

56. * Blackburn Y.A.8 Three-seater Y.A.5 with RR Griffon 56. * Blackburn Y.A.9 The 1947 B-75 feeder-liner with two

Blackburn Cirrus Major The Blackburn Cirrus Major is a British, inline-four aircraft engine that was developed in the late 1930s. Design and development The Blackburn Cirrus Major started life as a continued evolution of the original Cirrus and Hermes series of air ...

s or

Blackburn Cirrus Bombardier The Blackburn Cirrus Bombardier was a British four-cylinder inline aircraft engine, developed and built by the Blackburn Aircraft company in the mid-1950s. The engine featured fuel injection. Variants ;Cirrus Bombardier 203 :Military version, ...

s. * Blackburn Y.B.1 Blackburn B-54 - the Y.A.8 with

Armstrong Siddeley Double Mamba The Armstrong Siddeley Double Mamba is a turboprop engine design developed in the late 1940s of around . It was used mostly on the Fairey Gannet anti-submarine aircraft developed for the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy. Design and developmen ...

turboprop engine. * Blackburn Y.B.2 The

Handley Page HP.88 The Handley Page HP.88 was a British research aircraft, built in the early 1950s for Handley Page to test the aerodynamics of the Victor crescent wing design, and was intended to be a scaled-down version of that aircraft. Development The sin ...

research aircraft with

Supermarine Attacker The Supermarine Attacker is a British single-seat naval jet fighter designed and produced by aircraft manufacturer Supermarine for the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm (FAA). The type has the distinction of being the first jet fighter to enter oper ...

fuselage and

Handley Page Victor The Handley Page Victor is a British jet-powered strategic bomber developed and produced by Handley Page during the Cold War. It was the third and final '' V bomber'' to be operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF), the other two being the Avro ...

scale model crescent wing. * Blackburn Y.B.3 The B-103 Blackburn Buccaneer, to Specification NA.39, low-level strike aircraft.

Gloster

* Gloster G.A.1 Gloster E.1/44 "Gloster Ace" fighter (1948). * Gloster G.A.2 A developed Gloster Ace. * Gloster G.A.3 intended pre-production for GA.4 * Gloster G.A.4 production ordered but not built * Gloster G.A.5

Gloster Javelin The Gloster Javelin is a twin-engined T-tailed delta-wing subsonic night and all-weather interceptor aircraft that served with Britain's Royal Air Force from the mid-1950s until the late 1960s. The last aircraft design to bear the Gloster name ...

interceptor fighter.

English Electric

* English Electric E.A.1

English Electric Canberra The English Electric Canberra is a British first-generation, jet-powered medium bomber. It was developed by English Electric during the mid- to late 1940s in response to a 1944 Air Ministry requirement for a successor to the wartime de Havil ...

B Mk.1. *

English Electric E.A.2 The English Electric Canberra is a British first-generation, jet-powered medium bomber. It was developed by English Electric during the mid- to late 1940s in response to a 1944 Air Ministry requirement for a successor to the wartime de Havilla ...

English Electric Canberra PR Mk.3. * English Electric E.A.3 English Electric Canberra B Mk.2. *

English Electric E.A.4 The English Electric Canberra is a British first-generation, jet-powered medium bomber. It was developed by English Electric during the mid- to late 1940s in response to a 1944 Air Ministry requirement for a successor to the wartime de Havilla ...

English Electric Canberra.

Saunders-Roe

(confirmation required) * Saunders-Roe SR.A.1 S.44 flying boat fighter. * Saunders-Roe SR.N.1 Hovercraft. * Saunders-Roe SR.N.2 Hovercraft. * Saunders-Roe SR.N.3 Hovercraft. * Saunders-Roe SR.N.4 Hovercraft. *

Saunders-Roe SR.N.5 The Saunders-Roe SR.N5 (or ''Warden'' class) was a medium-sized hovercraft which first flew in 1964. It has the distinction of being the first production-built hovercraft in the world. A total of 14 SR.N5s were constructed. While Saunders-Roe ...

Hovercraft. *

Saunders-Roe SR.N.6 The Saunders-Roe (later British Hovercraft Corporation) SR.N6 hovercraft (also known as the ''Winchester'' class) was essentially a larger version of the earlier SR.N5 series. It incorporated several features that resulted in the type becoming ...

Hovercraft.

Shorts

* Shorts S.A.1

Short Sturgeon The Short Sturgeon was a planned British carrier-borne reconnaissance bomber whose development began during Second World War with the S.6/43 requirement for a high-performance torpedo bomber, which was later refined into the S.11/43 requireme ...

PR Mk.1 carrier-borne torpedo bomber/reconnaissance aircraft. * Shorts S.A.2 Shorts S.39 Sturgeon TT Mk.2 target tug to Specification Q.1/46. * Shorts S.A.3 Short S.41 (1946) naval fighter project to Specification N7/46. * Shorts S.A.4 Short Sperrin four engined jet bomber to Specification B.14/46. * Shorts S.A.5 Short S.43. * Shorts S.A.6

Short Sealand The Short SA.6 Sealand was a light, commercial amphibious aircraft designed and produced by Short Brothers. It was sized to accommodate between five and seven passengers as well as to suit the general overseas market in territories with suitable ...

patrol flying boat. * Shorts S.A.7 Short S.46 (flying boat) commercial Flying Boat Project. * Shorts S.A.8 Short S.47 (flying boat) commercial Flying Boat Project. * Shorts S.A.9 Short S.48 (glider) military glider to Specification X.30/46. * Shorts S.B.1 A scale research glider. * Shorts S.B.2

II amphibian * Shorts S.B.3

based carrier-borne anti-submarine aircraft. * Shorts S.B.4

Short SB.4 Sherpa The Short SB.4 Sherpa was an experimental aircraft designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Short Brothers. Only a single example was ever produced. The Sherpa was developed during the 1950s for the purpose of testing a nove ...

experimental aero-isoclinic wing research aircraft. * Short S.B.5 A swept wing research aircraft for development of the

English Electric Lightning The English Electric Lightning is a British fighter aircraft that served as an interceptor during the 1960s, the 1970s and into the late 1980s. It was capable of a top speed of above Mach 2. The Lightning was designed, developed, and manufa ...

. * Shorts S.B.6

Short Seamew The Short SB.6 Seamew was a British aircraft designed in 1951 by David Keith-Lucas of Short Brothers, Shorts as a lightweight anti-submarine platform to replace the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm, Fleet Air Arm (FAA)'s Grumman Avenger, Grumman Aveng ...

AS Mk.1 single engined carrier-borne anti-submarine aircraft for the

Fleet Air Arm The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy and is responsible for the delivery of naval air power both from land and at sea. The Fleet Air Arm operates the F-35 Lightning II for maritime strike, the AW159 Wil ...

(in-house P.D.4). * Shorts S.B.7

III amphibian. * Shorts S.B.8 design offered for Specification HR.144T for an ultra-light helicopter project. * Shorts S.B.9

TT Mk.3 carrier-borne target-tug aircraft. * Shorts S.C.1 An experimental fixed-wing vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft (in-house P.D.11). * Shorts S.C.2

AS Mk.2 for

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) and ...

Coastal Command RAF Coastal Command was a formation within the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was founded in 1936, when the RAF was restructured into Fighter, Bomber and Coastal Commands and played an important role during the Second World War. Maritime Aviation ...

. * Shorts S.C.3 (in-house P.D.16).. * Shorts S.C.4 Target drone aircraft converted from

B Mk.2 bombers * Shorts S.C.5

Short Belfast The Short Belfast (or Shorts Belfast)Mondey 1981, p. 228. is a heavy lift turboprop freighter that was built by British manufacturer Short Brothers at Belfast. Only 10 aircraft were constructed, all of which entered service with the Royal Air ...

C Mk.1 heavy lift turboprop freighter . * Shorts S.C.6 * Shorts S.C.7 The Short Skyvan transport (in-house P.D.36). * Shorts S.C.8 A development of the

Short SC.1 The Short SC.1 was the first British fixed-wing vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) jet aircraft. It was developed by Short Brothers. It was powered by an arrangement of five Rolls-Royce RB.108 turbojets, four of which were used for vertical ...

(in-house P.D.43). * Shorts S.C.9 A Shorts-built

PR Mk.9 converted with AI.23 radar plus IR installations in nose for Red Top trials. * Shorts S.D.1 - a single Canberra modified to test Short SD.2 * Shorts S.D.2 A licence built Beech Model-1072 target drone. * Shorts S.D.3

Short 330 The Short 330 (also SD3-30) is a small turboprop transport aircraft produced by Short Brothers. It seats up to 30 people and was relatively inexpensive and had low maintenance costs at the time of its introduction in 1976. The 330 was based on ...

developed from the Shorts Skyvan and developed into the

Short 360 The Short 360 (also SD3-60; also Shorts 360)Mondey, David. ''Encyclopedia of the World's Commercial and Private Aircraft''. New York: Crescent Books, 1981. , p. 228. is a commuter aircraft that was built by UK manufacturer Short Brothers during ...

Westland Aircraft

* WA** - Westland Aircraft Type xxx

References

Notes

Bibliography

External links

Society of British Aerospace Companies

UKspace

British Aviation Group

SBAC Scotland
{{Authority control Aircraft manufacturers of the United Kingdom Aviation trade associations Commercial spaceflight Organisations based in the City of Westminster Organizations established in 1915 1915 establishments in the United Kingdom