Aerospace at Filton: the BAC story

Photo credit: Eduard Marmet

For local residents with any kind of connection with aerospace at Filton, this small Thornbury exhibition will act as a taster for the opening of the new aerospace museum at Filton in Summer 2017.

Filton’s been involved with the aerospace industry since 1910, when the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company was established, and since then the Bristol name has been associated with the design of everything from aeroplanes and aircraft engines to satellites and guided weapons.

Today Filton is the home of facilities for Airbus, Rolls-Royce and GKN and the south west still has the largest cluster of aerospace-related industries in the country.

In summer 2017, the Bristol Aero Collection Trust will be opening a new museum in Filton – Aerospace Bristol – which will celebrate the BAC story.

In the meantime, this much smaller exhibition has been travelling around the area and Thornbury & District  Museum is delighted to be hosting it.  As well as information on everything from the Bristol Box Kite to Concorde, various artefacts, pictures and documents will also be on display- some from the museum’s own collection, others generously lent by local residents and organisations.

You can also don a pair of headphones and hear the real voices of some of the people who worked at BAC – stories that bring to life the experience of being under an aerial bombardment – or test flying different planes – or being one of only two women to work in the wartime engine design office.   It’s lovely to hear these voices captured for all time, especially as several of the speakers are no longer with us.