BAE Systems Military Air & Information (MAI, formerly Military Air Solutions (MAS)) is a business unit of British defence company

BAE Systems BAE Systems plc (BAE) is a British multinational arms, security, and aerospace company based in London, England. It is the largest defence contractor in Europe, and ranked the seventh-largest in the world based on applicable 2021 revenues. ...

responsible for the design, development, manufacture and support of fixed wing military aircraft. MAI customers include 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) and ...

Royal Saudi Air Force The Royal Saudi Air Force ( ar, ‎الْقُوَّاتُ الْجَوِّيَّةُ الْمَلَكِيَّةْ ٱلسُّعُوْدِيَّة, Al-Quwwat Al-Jawiyah Al-Malakiyah as-Su’udiyah) (RSAF) is the aviation branch of the Saudi Arabia ...

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

and

Indian Air Force The Indian Air Force (IAF) is the air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. Its complement of personnel and aircraft assets ranks third amongst the air forces of the world. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial w ...

History

MAI was formed on 1 January 2011 through a merger of the Air Systems and CS&S Military Air Solutions & Support (MASS) business units. The unit through its products and operating bases encompasses nearly a hundred years of industrial history. MAI direct ancestors include the

English Electric Company N.º UIC: 9094 110 1449-3 (Takargo Rail) The English Electric Company Limited (EE) was a British industrial manufacturer formed after the Armistice of 11 November 1918, armistice of World War I by amalgamating five businesses which, during th ...

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 ...

British Aircraft Corporation The British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) was a British aircraft manufacturer formed from the government-pressured merger of English Electric Aviation Ltd., Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft), the Bristol Aeroplane Company and Hunting Aircraft in 1 ...

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 ...

Blackburn Aircraft Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, east of Preston and north- ...

Hawker Siddeley Hawker Siddeley was a group of British manufacturing companies engaged in aircraft production. Hawker Siddeley combined the legacies of several British aircraft manufacturers, emerging through a series of mergers and acquisitions as one of onl ...

and the

Bristol Aeroplane Company The Bristol Aeroplane Company, originally the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company, was both one of the first and one of the most important British aviation companies, designing and manufacturing both airframes and aircraft engines. Notable a ...

. Some of the products that have been produced by MAI's predecessors include the

Avro Vulcan The Avro Vulcan (later Hawker Siddeley Vulcan from July 1963) is a jet-powered, tailless, delta-wing, high-altitude, strategic bomber, which was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF) from 1956 until 1984. Aircraft manufacturer A.V. Roe and ...

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 ...

Hawker Hunter The Hawker Hunter is a transonic British jet-powered fighter aircraft that was developed by Hawker Aircraft for the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was designed to take advantage of the newly developed Rolls-R ...

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 ...

Blackburn Buccaneer The Blackburn Buccaneer is a British carrier-capable attack aircraft designed in the 1950s for the Royal Navy (RN). Designed and initially produced by Blackburn Aircraft at Brough, it was later officially known as the Hawker Siddeley Buccanee ...

and the ill-fated

TSR-2 The British Aircraft Corporation TSR-2 is a cancelled Cold War strike and reconnaissance aircraft developed by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC), for the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The TSR-2 was designed ...

. In recognition a Lightning fighter and Canberra bomber serve as gate guardians at MAI's Samlesbury site where both were manufactured.

Sites

Warton Aerodrome Warton Aerodrome is located in Warton village on the Fylde in Lancashire, England. The aerodrome is west of Preston, Lancashire, UK. Today the airfield is a major assembly and testing facility of BAE Systems Military Air & Information. It ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

- Warton is the headquarters of MAI and home to the central assembly facility for the

Eurofighter Typhoon The Eurofighter Typhoon is a European multinational twin-engine, canard delta wing, multirole fighter. The Typhoon was designed originally as an air-superiority fighter and is manufactured by a consortium of Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo ...

and

Hawk Hawks are bird of prey, birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. They are widely distributed and are found on all continents except Antarctica. * The subfamily Accipitrinae includes goshawks, sparrowhawks, sharp-shinned hawks and others. Th ...

configuration and to the upgrades for Harrier and the

Panavia Tornado The Panavia Tornado is a family of twin-engine, variable-sweep wing multirole combat aircraft, jointly developed and manufactured by Italy, the United Kingdom and West Germany. There are three primary Tornado variants: the Tornado IDS (inter ...

. The divisions major testing facilities and commercial offices are based there. *

Samlesbury Aerodrome Samlesbury Aerodrome is a disused airfield at Balderstone near Samlesbury and Blackburn in Ribble Valley district of Lancashire. The aerodrome is owned by defence company BAE Systems which uses the site for the manufactured of several differe ...

- Samlesbury, situated between Blackburn and

Preston Preston is a place name, surname and given name that may refer to: Places England *Preston, Lancashire, an urban settlement **The City of Preston, Lancashire, a borough and non-metropolitan district which contains the settlement **County Boro ...

, is home to the production facilities for the Typhoon front fuselage and BAE's F-35 Lightning II manufacturing operations. It was previously also responsible for some sections of the

T-45 Goshawk The McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) T-45 Goshawk is a highly modified version of the British BAE Systems Hawk land-based training jet aircraft. Manufactured by McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) and British Aerospace (now BAE Systems), the T-45 i ...

airframe. Sections for Airbus are also subcontracted to the site. The site unlike many other MAI sites does not have an operational runway. The runway closed in the 1980s. * Brough Aerodrome, Yorkshire - Brough near to

Hull Hull may refer to: Structures * Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship * Submarine hull Mathematics * Affine hull, in affi ...

was home to Hawk production and assembly. The airfield was closed during the 1990s but flying from the Brough runway (to deliver Hawks for final configuration at Warton) temporarily resumed in 2008. Brough was later downsized to producing Hawk component parts. * Woodford Aerodrome, Greater Manchester - Woodford near Manchester was home to the ill-fated

Nimrod MRA4 The BAE Systems Nimrod MRA4 was a planned maritime patrol and attack aircraft intended to replace the Hawker Siddeley Nimrod MR2. The rebuilt aircraft would have extended the operating life of the Nimrod fleet by several decades and signific ...

programme. It closed in 2011. *

Chadderton Chadderton is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, on the River Irk and Rochdale Canal. It is located in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Oldham, south of Rochdale and north-east of Manchester. Hi ...

, Greater Manchester - Chadderton near Manchester is a former manufacturing facility (Historically as

) but the site continued as a major office centre for the company until it closed in 2012. * Preston, Lancashire - Several of the unit's central functional offices are located in Strand Road area of the city as well as the Apprentice training centre. * Yeovil, Somerset * Humberside Airport, Lincolnshire - The companies Aircraft Maintenance Training Centre is located at the airport. The firm also has a major presence on many RAF stations; notably RAF Coningsby and

RAF Marham RAF Marham is a Royal Air Force station and military airbase near the village of Marham in the English county of Norfolk, East Anglia. It is home to No. 138 Expeditionary Air Wing (138 EAW) and, as such, is one of the RAF's "Main Operating ...

Products

Aircraft

- BAE Systems has a 33% share in

Eurofighter GmbH Eurofighter Jagdflugzeug GmbH (''English: Eurofighter fighter aircraft GmbH'') is a multinational company that coordinates the design, production and upgrade of the Eurofighter Typhoon, this includes incorporating the jet engines designed and ...

along with Alenia and

EADS Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft throughout the world. The company has three divisions: '' ...

's Spanish and German divisions. MAI is responsible for the production of all RAF and Saudi aircraft as well as designing and producing all front fuselages for the programme. *

- MAI predecessor British Aerospace manufactured all RAF and Saudi aircraft and MAI continues to offer support to these air forces. * Panavia Tornado ADV - MAI predecessor British Aerospace manufactured all RAF and Saudi aircraft and MAI continues to offer support to these air forces. * BAE Systems Harrier II - Originally developed and manufactured at Dunsfold and Kingston the business unit today provides support and upgrades to the aircraft. *

BAE Systems Hawk The BAE Systems Hawk is a British single-engine, jet-powered advanced trainer aircraft. It was first flown at Dunsfold, Surrey, in 1974 as the Hawker Siddeley Hawk, and subsequently produced by its successor companies, British Aerospace and B ...

- The Hawk trainer is manufactured at Brough and has been produced for numerous armed forces around the globe including the RAF, RAAF, RCAF and South African Air Force. * BAE Systems Nimrod MRA4 - Maritime reconnaissance aircraft *

- A naval development of the Hawk aircraft manufactured with Boeing for the

Aircraft projects

* BAE Replica *

Flapless Air Vehicle Integrated Industrial Research Flapless Air Vehicle Integrated Industrial Research is a research project at Cranfield University with collaboration from nine other universities and BAE Systems. Funding totaling $9.85 million USD comes from BAE Systems and Engineering and P ...

* Tempest

UAVs and drones

* Advanced Systems and Future Capability (AS&FC) ** BAE Systems Ampersand **

BAE Systems Corax The Corax, also known as Raven (''Corax'' being Latin for common raven, raven), is a prototype unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for the British Armed Forces being developed by BAE Systems Military Air & Information. Its first test flight was in 20 ...

BAE Systems Demon The Demon is an experimental unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developed and manufactured by British defence conglomerate BAE Systems. It has been referred to as being the world's first "flapless" aircraft. The Demon was developed as a demonstra ...

** BAE Systems GA22 ** BAE Systems HERTI **

BAE Systems Mantis The BAE Systems Mantis Unmanned Autonomous System Advanced Concept Technology Demonstrator is a British demonstrator programme for Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) technology. The Mantis is a twin-engine, turboprop-powered UCAV with a wingsp ...

BAE Systems Phoenix The BAE Systems Phoenix (originally GEC-Marconi Phoenix) was an all-weather, day or night, real-time surveillance Unmanned Air Vehicle. It had a twin-boom UAV with a surveillance pod, from which the imagery was data linked to a ground contr ...

BAE Systems Silver Fox The Sensintel Silver Fox UAV is an Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that can conduct autonomous aerial surveillance imaging. The Silver Fox UAV is designed to provide low cost aerial surveillance imaging and carry sensor payload packages weighing ...

** BAE Systems Skylynx II ** BAE Systems Taranis ** BAE Systems/Dassault Telemos

References

External links

Military Air & Information web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:BAE Systems Military Air and Information BAE Systems subsidiaries and divisions British companies established in 2007 Companies based in Lancashire