Brabazon Committee

The Brabazon Committee was a committee formed on 23 December 1942 under John Moore-Brabazon, 1st Baron Brabazon of Tara to investigate the future needs of the British Empire's civilian airliner market. The study was an attempt at defining in broad overview; the impact of projected advances in aviation technology and to forecast the global needs of the post war British Empire (in South Asia, Africa, the Near and Far East) and Commonwealth (Australia, Canada, New Zealand) in the area of air transport, for passengers, mail, and cargo.

The study both recognized and accepted that the British Empire and Commonwealth as both a political and economic entity would have a vital need for aviation systems (principally aircraft) to facilitate its continued existence and self-reliance in the post-war world. For military and commercial reasons, the empire simply could not continue to exist if did not understand the needs, and develop the industrial infrastructure to provide, the aviation systems and sub-systems necessary to supply and maintain a global air transport service.

In 1942 during World War II, the United States and the United Kingdom agreed to split responsibility for building multi-engine aircraft types for British use: the US would concentrate on transport aircraft while the UK would concentrate on their heavy bombers. It was soon recognized that as a result of that decision the United Kingdom was to be left at the close of the war with little experience in the design, manufacture and final assembly of transport aircraft, and no infrastructure or trained personnel for the doing of same. Yet, the massive infrastructure created in the US would allow them to produce civilian aircraft based upon military transport designs; and crucially these would have to be purchased by the UK, Empire and Commonwealth to meet their post-war civilian transport aviation needs.

A committee began meeting in February 1943 under the leadership of Lord Brabazon in order to investigate the future needs of the British civilian airliner market. They studied a number of designs and technical considerations, meeting several times over the next two years to further clarify the needs of different market segments. The final report called for the construction of four general designs studied by the committee and members of the state-owned airlines British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and later British European Airways (BEA).

...
Wikipedia