From Horsepower To Jets

Having been sold by BAE Systems, the old airfield at Filton is slowly disappearing beneath housing and other developments, but Aerospace Bristol serves as a powerful reminder of this site’s illustrious past.

- James Page

As you’d expect, the emphasis is on aircraft, but there’s also a nod towards its motoring heritage.

Occupying one of the former hangars in the north-east corner of the airfield, the museum opened in October 2017 and is adjacent to the section used for the Bristol Aeroplane Company Motor Sports Club’s October 1945 sprint – only the second motorsport event to take place after WW2. The first had been at Naish Hill that August.

The Bristol Tramways and Carriage Co had built a group of sheds in Filton in 1908, and two years later its MD, Sir George White, leased a couple of them when he founded the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company. The other major local employer at that time was Shield’s Laundry – its large building on the opposite side of the A38 would become the home of Bristol Cars in 1951.