BAE Systems Avionics was the avionics

Avionics

Avionics are electronic systems used on aircraft, artificial satellites and spacecraft.Avionic systems include communications, navigation, the display and management of multiple systems and the hundreds of systems that are fitted to aircraft to meet individual roles...

 unit of BAE Systems

BAE Systems

BAE Systems plc is a British multinational defence, security and aerospace company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, that has global interests, particularly in North America through its subsidiary BAE Systems Inc. BAE is among the world's largest military contractors; in 2009 it was the...

 until 2005, at which time it was transferred to SELEX Sensors and Airborne Systems S.p.A

SELEX Sensors and Airborne Systems

SELEX Galileo is a major defence electronics company that specialises in surveillance, protection, tracking, targeting, navigation and control, and imaging systems. It is owned by the Italian company Finmeccanica....

 (initially 75% Finmeccanica

Finmeccanica

Finmeccanica S.p.A. is an Italian conglomerate. Finmeccanica is the second largest industrial group and the largest of the hi-tech industrial groups based in Italy. It works in the fields of defence, aerospace, security, automation, transport and energy...

 and 25% BAE Systems, but since March 2007 fully owned by Finmeccanica) and was renamed SELEX Sensors and Airborne Systems Limited. The business was headquartered in Basildon

Basildon

Basildon is a town located in the Basildon District of the county of Essex, England.It lies east of Central London and south of the county town of Chelmsford...

, Essex

Essex

Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

History

BAE Systems Avionics has a rich heritage which dates back to 1909 when the Elliot and Marconi

Marconi Company

The Marconi Company Ltd. was founded by Guglielmo Marconi in 1897 as The Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company...

 companies began to fit aircraft with systems (beginning with embryonic air to ground communications). By 1913 Elliot's avionics product lines advanced to gyroscope

Gyroscope

A gyroscope is a device for measuring or maintaining orientation, based on the principles of angular momentum. In essence, a mechanical gyroscope is a spinning wheel or disk whose axle is free to take any orientation...

s, weapon sights and altimeter

Altimeter

An altimeter is an instrument used to measure the altitude of an object above a fixed level. The measurement of altitude is called altimetry, which is related to the term bathymetry, the measurement of depth underwater.-Pressure altimeter:...

s.

Timeline

• 1804 - William Elliott establishes a company manufacturing scientific and surveying instruments.
• 1853 - Company renamed Elliott Brothers Ltd
  Elliott Brothers (computer company)
  -Elliott Brothers Ltd:Elliott Brothers Ltd was an early computer company of the 1950s–60s in the United Kingdom, tracing its descent from a firm of instrument makers founded by William Elliott in London around 1804. The research laboratories were based at Borehamwood, originally set up in...
  
  .
• 1897 - Guglielmo Marconi
  Guglielmo Marconi
  Guglielmo Marconi was an Italian inventor, known as the father of long distance radio transmission and for his development of Marconi's law and a radio telegraph system. Marconi is often credited as the inventor of radio, and indeed he shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand...
  
   founds his company.
• 1909 - Elliott Brothers and Marconi companies both begin to fit avionics to early aircraft.
• 1946 - Marconi is acquired by English Electric
  English Electric
  English Electric was a British industrial manufacturer. Founded in 1918, it initially specialised in industrial electric motors and transformers...
  
  .
• 1967 - English Electric and Elliott Automation
  Elliott Brothers (computer company)
  -Elliott Brothers Ltd:Elliott Brothers Ltd was an early computer company of the 1950s–60s in the United Kingdom, tracing its descent from a firm of instrument makers founded by William Elliott in London around 1804. The research laboratories were based at Borehamwood, originally set up in...
  
   merge.
• 1968 - The new English Electric group is acquired by GEC.
• 1969 - GEC renames avionics business Marconi-Elliott Avionics Systems Limited, part of the company's defence arm, GEC-Marconi.
• 1978 - Renamed Marconi Avionics Limited.
• 1984 - Renamed GEC Avionics Limited.
• 1990 - Take-over of Ferranti creating GEC Ferranti
• 1998 - Renamed Marconi Avionics, part of the renamed defence arm, Marconi Electronic Systems
  Marconi Electronic Systems
  Marconi Electronic Systems , or GEC-Marconi as it was until 1998, was the defence arm of The General Electric Company . It was demerged from GEC and acquired by British Aerospace on November 30, 1999 to form BAE Systems...
  
   (MES).
• 1999 - MES merged with British Aerospace
  British Aerospace
  British Aerospace plc was a UK aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer. Its head office was in the Warwick House in the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Farnborough, Hampshire...
  
  to form BAE Systems. Avionics business becomes BAE Systems Avionics.
• 2005 - BAE Systems Avionics merged with Galileo Avionica to form SELEX Sensors and Airborne Systems.

Sources

• The Changing World of Avionics, G.M. Barling. GEC Review, Vol. 6 1990
• Elliott early history