RAPID GROWTH

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 18992, 17 April 1936, Page 13

RAPID GROWTH

AIR FIRMS PROGRESS TEAM-WORK THE SECRET LONDON, Feb. 17. .Most of the big British airplane firms are making such progress at the moment as they have never made before. None is making more progress than the Bristol Aircraft.' Company, whose works are just outside. Bristol. This company is growing so rapidly that soon it will probably be the biggest firm of its kind in the world. Vet nobody associated with this great company will take any credit for its progress. They all say simply: "It's team-work." Until last year the company was a private one, owned by the White family, of Bristol. The present head of the White family, .Sir (George) Stanley While, is head of the firm. "MY FATHER. WAS THE -MAN" When a pressman spoke to Sir Stanley about the enormous growth of the business under his guidance, he disclaimed any credit for it. •It was my father who founded the business in 1910," he said. "He was a far-seeing man who visualised the great future of aviation and established the firm in the very early days. '•Neither he nor I have been flying men in the veal sense of the term. We have simply been heads of the business. I cannot fly a plane. Neither could my father." 'in 1912 his father, less than two years after he had started the little firm, said at a dinner: "The airplane is now acknowledged to be a necessary arm of war, and it behoves our Government to bestir itself if we are not to be left behind in the great race. For, believe me, during the next live years the Powers will call for thousands! if not tens of thousands, of airplanes, and the developments in their use for 'both military and naval purposes will be startling. . . In my opinion the, possession of a strong fleet of airplanes by any country will be. a dominating influence for peace." It was in 1916 that Sir Stanley While look over the control of the firm ( fvorn his prophetically gifted father. In those days the firm was just beginning to work on the famous Bristol Fighter, which did so much to regain for Britain the supremacy of the' air, established by the German Fokkers. "PINE TEAM—AND FINE CAPTAIN" It was under Sir Stanley that the firm began—-with the blessing of all pilots who had flown Bristol machines -to manufacture engines. That was soon after the, war. Within a few years those engines were being used by 'more foreign Powers than any other engine in the world. At one time they were being manufactured under license by every civilised Power in the world. ' A member of the firm said: "The company's chief engineers, are Mr. A. II 1! Fedden and Captain F. S. Barnwell. . , "Sir Stanley White is the captain ol n fine (cam—and a fine captain." Which is how one of the. biggest- aircraft firms in the world succeeds.