Bristol Aerospace
 |
|
| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Aerospace |
| Founded | 1930 |
| Founder | Jim MacDonald Grant MacDonald Edwin MacDonald |
| Headquarters | Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada |
| Products | Aircraft Repair and Overhaul, Floats, Rockets |
|
Number of employees
|
630 |
| Parent | Magellan Aerospace |
| Website | www |
Bristol Aerospace is a Canadian aerospace firm located in Winnipeg, Manitoba and is an operating division of Magellan Aerospace. Today it is the only remaining and surviving subsidiary of Bristol Aeroplane Company.
Bristol Aerospace began in 1930 as the MacDonald Brothers Aircraft Company. Brothers Jim and Grant MacDonald moved to Winnipeg from Nova Scotia in 1904 to start a sheet metal business. Brother Edwin joined them later and by the late 1920s air travel had become an important means of transportation with Winnipeg becoming a hub for travel to the booming west. The MacDonalds formed MacDonald Brothers Aircraft Company in 1930, producing seaplane floats under licence from EDO Corporation of New York City. The company produced floats into the early 1980s.
During World War II the factory built training aircraft and by war's end had grown to 4,500 employees. At the end of the war, MacDonald Bros. became an important repair and overhaul centre for the Royal Canadian Air Force. Their location at the center of the country lowered the average travel cost for aircraft to the factories, as well as providing aviation jobs in the Canadian west. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s the company performed depot level inspection and repair for many of Canada's fighter aircraft.
In 1954, MacDonald Brothers Aircraft was purchased by the British Bristol Aeroplane Company, becoming their Canadian division. The company was an important supplier of accessories for jet engines, building the exhaust pipes for the Avro CF-100 Canuck and later becoming the primary maintenance depot for the aircraft. During the 1950s and 60s Bristol built on their experience in precision sheet metal work to become a major supplier of hot section components for various engine manufacturers.
In the second half of the 1950s Bristol was selected to build several test rocket airframes for CARDE's ongoing research into high-power solid fuel propellants. After initial research completed in the early 1960s, Bristol started selling a "lightened" version of the test vehicle as the Black Brant for sounding rocket use and opened the Rockwood Propellant Plant in 1962. The plant is located 25 minutes north of the city in the community of Stony Mountain, Manitoba. As a result of this work, Bristol entered into a partnership with Aerojet General and became Bristol Aerojet the same year. This experience was later applied in the early 1970s to a new 2.75" (70 mm) motor for use in US-standard rocket launchers, leading to the CRV7, which has since become the standard NATO 2.75" rocket.
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Wikipedia