AIRCRAFT MERGER

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28471, 28 December 1957, Page 9

AIRCRAFT MERGER

British Firms 9 Decision

(Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, December 27. Britain’s two biggest aircraft firms—the Hawker Siddeley Group and the Bristol Aeroplana Company—are preparing to merge, the “Daily Mail” reported today. Together the firms employ more than 150,000 workers in Britain and Canada, the newspaper said. Thfey had presented a memorandum on the project to the Cabinet on Christmas Eve giving plans for a giant £250,000.000 consortium. This would give Britain an aircraft firm capable of matching the top companies in the United States and an aero-engine group big enough to rank with Rolls-Royce among the world's leaders, the “Daily Mail” said. The memorandum, according to the newspaper, said both organisations were prepared to form a company forthwith to build and finance the new British European Airways 600 m.p.h. short range jet airliner project. Later, it was understood, the firms would go further and pool aircraft research, design and production resources and form a close alliance between their two engine firms, Armstrong Siddeley Motors and Bristol Engines.