In the third part of our look at the British aviation industry during Elizabeth II’s reign, we focus on the decade between 1972 and 1982, when the UK looked to Europe as a way of sustaining its aerospace sector
The following decade was one of rebalancing and specialisation for the industry, with fewer solely British programmes, but several positive collaborations. Importantly, such programmes offered greater protection from cancellation than single-nation ones, which took the British industry in a different direction to countries like France and Sweden.
The Airbus A300 first flew on 28 October 1972, and orders soon came in. It was followed by a short-fuselage, long-range version, the A310, in 1978, the year the first British customer stepped forward — Laker Airways bought 10 A300s. Airbus was determined to maintain its technological lead and introduced innovations such as composite materials, trialled in the early 1980s on secondary structures and extended thereafter to main structures. The British government bought back into Airbus in 1979, confirming wing design, engineering and manufacturing at Filton and Broughton. The same year, the conglomerate announced the development of a narrow-body jet, the A320.
Meanwhile, the str…
