Ferranti
Encyclopedia
Ferranti or Ferranti International plc was a UK electrical engineering
and equipment firm that operated for over a century from 1885 until it went bankrupt in 1993. Known primarily for defence electronics
, the Company was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index
but ceased trading in 1993.
The firm was known for work in the area of power grid systems and defence electronics
. In addition, in 1951 Ferranti began selling the first commercially available computer, the Ferranti Mark 1.
established his first business Ferranti, Thompson and Ince in 1882. The company developed the Ferranti-Thompson Alternator. Ferranti focused on Alternating Current
power distribution early on, and was one of the few experts in this system in the UK. In 1885 Ferranti established a new business, with Francis Ince and Charles Sparks as partners, known as S. Z. de Ferranti.
During the 1880s, electricity meter
s became a key product for Ferranti and the company became an important supplier to many electricity supply companies: this business remained successful until the 1980s when it was transferred into a joint venture with Siemens
and then sold to them.
In 1887 the London Electric Supply Corporation (LESCo) hired Ferranti for the design of their power station
at Deptford
. He designed the building, the generating plant and the distribution system. On its completion in October 1890 it was the first truly modern power station, supplying high-voltage AC power that was then "stepped down" for consumer use on each street: this basic system remains in use today around the world.
Success followed and Ferranti started producing electrical equipment for sale. Soon the company was looking for considerably more room. Prices in the London area were too high, so the company moved to Hollinwood in Oldham
in 1896. Revenues declined however in the early 1900s and the company went into receivership in 1903.
Through the early part of the century power was supplied by small companies, typically as an offshoot of plant set up to provide power to local industry. Each plant supplied a different standard, which made the mass production
of electrical equipment for home users rather difficult. In 1910 Ferranti promoted an effort to standardize the power supply, supplying large numbers of power transformers, an initiative which eventually culminated in the National Grid in 1926.
High voltage power transformers became an important product for Ferranti; some of the largest types weighed over a hundred tons. Ferranti built a new power transformer works at Hollinwood in the late 1940s; however, the orders the company had hoped for did not materialize, and the transformer division closed in 1979, severing the last link Ferranti had with heavy electrical engineering. In the early 1980s, Ferranti Engineering Holdings Limited's business consisted of container handling and tapchanger (transformer part) manufacture, and the purchase and resale of agricultural machinery.
In 1935 Ferranti purchased a mill at Moston
: from here it manufactured many "brown goods" such as televisions, radios, and electric clocks. The company later sold its radio and television interests to EKCO
in 1957. In addition Ferranti Instruments, again based at Moston developed various items for scientific measurements, including one of the first cone and plate viscometers.
, valves, and was, through development of the Identification Friend or Foe
(IFF) system, heavily involved in the early development of radar
in the United Kingdom. In the post-war era this became a large segment of the company, with various branches supplying radar sets, avionics
and other military electronics, both in the UK and the various international offices.
In 1943 Ferranti opened a factory at Crewe Toll
in Edinburgh to manufacture Gyro Gunsight
s for the Spitfire
aircraft. After the war this business (Ferranti Scotland) would grow to employ 8,000 staff in 8 locations, becoming the birth place of the Scottish electronics industry, and a major contributor to company profitability. Later products included solid state ring laser gyros.
From 1949, Ferranti assisted the Canadian Navy develop DATAR
(Digital Automated Tracking and Resolving). DATAR was a pioneering computerized battlefield information system that combined RADAR
and SONAR
information to provide commanders with an "overall view" of a battlefield, allowing them to coordinate attacks on submarines and aircraft.
In the 1950s work focused on the development of airborne radar with the company subsequently supplying radars to most of the UK's fast jet and helicopter fleets: today the Crewe Toll site (now owned by SELEX Galileo
) leads the consortium providing the radar for the Eurofighter Typhoon
.
In the 1960s and 1970s inertial navigation systems became an important product line for the company with systems designed for fast jet (Harrier, Phantom, Tornado), space and land applications. The electro-mechanical inertial navigation systems were constructed at the Silverknowes site in Edinburgh
, in addition to their other military and civil applications were used in the ESA Ariane 4
and first Ariane 5
launches. Ferranti also produced the PADS (Position and Azimuth Determining System). This was an inertial navigation system which could be mounted in a vehicle and was used by the British Army.
With the invention of the laser in the 1960s the company quickly established itself in the electro-optics arena. From the early 1970s it was delivering the Laser Rangefinder and Marked Target Seeker (LRMTS) for the Jaguar and Harrier fleets, and later for Tornado. It supplied the world's first man-portable laser rangefinder/designator (Laser Target Marker, LTM
) to the British Army in 1974, and had notable successes in the US market, establishing Ferranti Electro-optics Inc in Huntington Beach, California
. Its TIALD
Pod (Thermal Imager and Laser Designator) has been in almost constant combat operation on the Tornado
since it was rushed into service during the first Gulf War.
From the 1960s through to the late 1980s the Bristol Ferranti Bloodhound SAM
, for which Ferranti developed radar systems, was a key money earner.
In 1970 Ferranti became involved in the sonar field through its involvement with Plessey in a new series of sonars, for which designed and built the computer subsystems. This work later expanded when it won a contract for the complete Sonar 2050. The work was originally carried out at the Wythenshawe factory and then at Cheadle Heath. Takeovers of other companies gave it expertise in sonar arrays. This business later became Ferranti Thomson Sonar Systems.
The selection of the radar for the EFA (now known as the Eurofighter Typhoon) became a major international issue in the early 1990s. Britain, Italy and Spain supported the Ferranti-led ECR-90, while Germany preferred the MSD2000 (a collaboration between Hughes
, AEG and GEC. An agreement was reached after UK Defence Secretary Tom King
assured his West German counterpart Gerhard Stoltenberg
that the British government would underwrite the project and allow GEC to acquire Ferranti Defence Systems from its troubled parent. Hughes sued GEC for $600 million for its role in the selection of the EFA and alleged that it used Hughes technology in the ECR-90 when it took over Ferranti. It later dropped this allegation and was awarded $23 million, the court judged that the MSD-2000 "had a real or substantial chance of succeeding had GEC not tortuously intervened... and had the companies, which were bound by the Collaboration Agreement, faithfully and diligently performed their continuing obligations thereunder to press and promote the case for MSD-2000."
, Scotland
.
s. Their first effort was the Ferranti Mark 1, completed in 1951, about nine delivered between 1951 and 1957. The Pegasus
introduced in 1956 was their most popular valve
(vacuum tube) system, with 38 units sold. Circa 1956, Ivan Idelson, at Ferranti, originated the Cluff-Foster-Idelson coding of characters on 7-track paper tape for a BSI
committee. This eventually became ASCII
.
In collaboration with the University of Manchester
they built a new version of the famous Mark 1 that replaced valve diode
s with solid state
versions, which allowed the speed to be increased dramatically as well as increasing reliability. Ferranti offered the result commercially as the Mercury
starting in 1957, and eventually sold nineteen in total. Although a small part of Ferranti's empire, the computer division was nevertheless highly visible and operated out of a former steam locomotive factory
in West Gorton.
Work on a completely new design, the Atlas
, started soon after the delivery of the Mercury, aiming to dramatically improve performance. The machine first ran in 1962, and Ferranti eventually built three machines in total. A version of the Atlas modified for the needs of the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory led to the Titan
(or Atlas 2), which was the mainstay of scientific computing in Cambridge for nearly 8 years.
By the early 1960s their mid-size machines were no longer competitive, but efforts to design a replacement were bogged down. Into this void stepped the Canadian division, Ferranti-Packard
, who had used several of the ideas under development in England to very quickly produce the Ferranti-Packard 6000
. By this time Ferranti's management had tired of the market and were looking for someone to buy the entire division. Eventually it was merged into International Computers and Tabulators
(ICT) in 1963, becoming the Large Systems Division of ICL in 1968. After studying several options, ICT selected the FP 6000 as the basis for their ICT 1900 series
line which sold into the 1970s.
The deal setting up ICT excluded Ferranti from the commercial sector of computing, but left the industrial field free. Some of the technology of the FP 6000 was later used in its Ferranti Argus
range of industrial computers which were developed in its Wythenshawe factory. The first of these, simply Argus, was initially developed for military use.
Meanwhile in Bracknell
the Digital Systems Division was developing a range of mainframe computers for naval applications. Early computers using discrete transistors were the Hermes and Poseidon and these were followed by the F1600 in the mid 1960s. Some of these machines remained in active service on naval vessels for many years. The FM1600B was the first of the range to use integrated circuits and was used in many naval and commercial applications. The FM1600D was a single-rack
version of the computer for smaller systems. An airborne version of this was also made and used aboard the RAF Nimrod. The FM1600E was a redesigned and updated version of the FM1600B, and the last in the series was the F2420, an upgraded FM1600E, still in service at sea in 2010.
s and germanium
semiconductors for some time before it became the first European company to produce a silicon
diode
, in 1955. Ferranti Semiconductor Ltd. went on to produce a range of silicon bipolar devices including, in 1977, the Ferranti F100-L, an early 16-bit microprocessor
with 16-bit addressing. An F100-L was carried into space on the amateur radio
satellite
UoSAT-1 (Oscar 9
). Ferranti's ZTX series bipolar transistors gave their name to the inheritor of Ferranti Semiconductor's discrete semiconductor business, Zetex plc.
In the early eighties, Ferranti produced some of the first large uncommitted logic arrays
(ULAs), used in home computers such as the Sinclair ZX81, Sinclair ZX Spectrum
, Acorn Electron
and BBC Microcomputer. The microelectronics business was sold to Plessey
in 1988.
(ISC), a Pennsylvania
based defence contractor. The company subsequently changed its name to Ferranti International plc. and restructured the combined business into the following divisions: Ferranti Computer Systems, Ferranti Defence Systems, Ferranti Dynamics, Ferranti Satcomms, Ferranti Technologies and International Signal & Control.
Unknown to Ferranti, ISC's business primarily consisted of illegal arms sales started at the behest of various US clandestine organizations. On paper the company looked to be extremely profitable on sales of high-priced "above board" items, but in fact these profits were essentially non-existent. With the sale to Ferranti all illegal sales ended immediately, leaving the company with no obvious cash flow.
In 1989 the UK's Serious Fraud Office started criminal investigation regarding alleged massive fraud at ISC. In December 1991 James Guerin, founder of ISC and co-Chairman of the merged company, pleaded guilty before the federal court in Philadelphia
to fraud committed both in the USA and UK. All offences which would have formed part of any UK prosecution were encompassed by the US trial and as such no UK trial proceeded.
, Chadderton
(Gem Mill), Waterhead
(Cairo Mill), Derker
, Wythenshawe
, Cheadle Heath
, West Gorton
, and Poynton
. Eventually it set up branch-plants in Edinburgh
(Silverknowes, Crewe Toll, Gyle, Granton and Robertson Avenue factories), Dalkeith
, Aberdeen
, Dundee
, Bracknell
and Cwmbran
as well as Germany
and the United States
(inc. Ferranti International Controls Corporation
in Sugar Land, Texas) and several British Commonwealth
countries including Canada
, Australia
and Singapore
.
Ferranti Australia was based in Revesby, Sydney NSW. There was also a primarily defence-related branch office in South Australia.
Products manufactured by Ferranti Defence Systems included cockpit displays (moving map, head-down, head-up) video cameras and recorders, gunsight cameras, motion detectors, pilot's night vision goggles, integrated helmets, and pilot's stick controls.
On the Tornado aircraft, Ferranti supplied the radar transmitter, inertial navigation system, LRMTS, TIALD
pod, mission recording equipment, and cockpit displays.
Ferranti Communications: acquired by Thorn
and branded Thorn Communications and Telecontrol Systems (CATS). Later acquired by Tyco International
and renamed Tyco Communications. Still operating under the name TS Technology Services.
Ferranti Computer Systems: the Belgian subsidiary lives on as Ferranti Computer Systems
and is now part of the Nijkerk Holding. The remainder was acquired out of administration by SYSECA, the IT arm of Thomson-CSF and renamed Ferranti-SYSECA Ltd, later the Ferranti was dropped and when Thomson changed its name to Thales, SYSECA became Thales Information Systems. Thales Information Systems later sold its German interest to Consinto Gmbh. The department dealing with airport systems was bought by Datel in around 1995 and continued to trade under the name Ferranti Airport Systems until it was bought by Ultra Electronics
. Other parts of Ferranti Computer Systems were acquired out of administration by GEC-Marconi, when GEC-Marconi sold on its defence related businesses to BAE Systems
many of these former Ferranti entities became part of the BAE/Finmeccanica
joint venture called Alenia Marconi Systems
. The JV has now been dissolved and the former Ferranti entities are now part of BAE Systems Integrated System Technologies
(Insyte).
Ferranti Defence Systems: acquired by GEC-Marconi out of administration and re-named GEC Ferranti, later changing to GEC Marconi Avionics (GMAv). This business was acquired in 2000 by BAE Systems
(BAE Systems Avionics). Part of this business, including the heritage Ferranti operation, was acquired by Finmeccanica in 2007 and re-named SELEX Galileo
.
Ferranti Dynamics: acquired by GEC-Marconi in 1992
Ferranti Instrumentation: dissolved. Some assets acquired by GEC-Marconi and Ravenfield Designs
Ferranti Satcomms: acquired out of administration by Matra Marconi Space
in 1994
Ferranti Technologies: was bought out by management and continues in Oldham
specialising in avionics, defence electronics, and electronic power systems. It was acquired by Elbit Systems
in 2007.
Ferranti Air Systems: acquired by Datel then turned into an independent company. Later bought by Ultra Electronics
Ferranti Thomson Sonar Systems: 50% share acquired by GEC-Marconi. Now owned by Thales and renamed Thales Underwater Systems
.
Ferranti Helicopters:acquired by British Caledonian Airways in April 1979 to become British Caledonian Helicopters which was in turn acquired by Bristow Helicopters
in 1987
Ferranti Subsea Systems: Management buyout in the early 90's, renamed FSSL. Kværner
bought more shares in 1994 and then turned to Kværner FSSL. Kværner is now known as Aker Solutions
Ferranti Computer Systems Service Department: This was acquired by the third party maintenance company ServiceTec. The regional Service Centres were rebranded as ServiceTec and all of the service engineers and management were taken on. The support of the Argus computers dominated activities although new (non-Argus) business was added to the regional centres. The repair centre at Cairo Mill also became part of the ServiceTec group, ultimately as a separate entity.
Ferranti Semiconductors: became Zetex Semiconductors
after a management buyout in 1989. In 2008 it was acquired by Diodes Inc.
Ferranti Photonics Ltd.: independent, liquidated after bankruptcy in 2005
, the Ferranti Edinburgh Recreation Club (FERC), the Ferranti Mountaineering Club and the Ferranti Ten-pin Bowling League are still in existence. While these organisations no longer have any formal ties with the companies which subsumed the Ferranti companies which operated in Edinburgh, they still operate under the old names.
Ferranti Thistle F.C. was formed in 1943 and joined the Scottish Football League
in 1974. Due to strict sponsorship rules it changed its name to Meadowbank Thistle F.C., and later to Livingston F.C.
.
Denis Ferranti Meters Limited is still owned by a direct descendant of Sebastian de Ferranti but is not directly related to the major Ferranti corporation. The company has over 200 employees that manufacture BT's public phones, oil pumps for large industrial vehicles, electric motors for motorbility solutions, electronics, and small MOD equipment.
Electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...
and equipment firm that operated for over a century from 1885 until it went bankrupt in 1993. Known primarily for defence electronics
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
, the Company was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index
FTSE 100 Index
The FTSE 100 Index, also called FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the footsie , is a share index of the 100 most highly capitalised UK companies listed on the London Stock Exchange....
but ceased trading in 1993.
The firm was known for work in the area of power grid systems and defence electronics
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
. In addition, in 1951 Ferranti began selling the first commercially available computer, the Ferranti Mark 1.
Beginnings
Sebastian Ziani de FerrantiSebastian Ziani de Ferranti
Sebastian Pietro Innocenzo Adhemar Ziani de Ferranti was an electrical engineer and inventor.-Personal life:...
established his first business Ferranti, Thompson and Ince in 1882. The company developed the Ferranti-Thompson Alternator. Ferranti focused on Alternating Current
Alternating current
In alternating current the movement of electric charge periodically reverses direction. In direct current , the flow of electric charge is only in one direction....
power distribution early on, and was one of the few experts in this system in the UK. In 1885 Ferranti established a new business, with Francis Ince and Charles Sparks as partners, known as S. Z. de Ferranti.
During the 1880s, electricity meter
Electricity meter
An electricity meter or energy meter is a device that measures the amount of electric energy consumed by a residence, business, or an electrically powered device....
s became a key product for Ferranti and the company became an important supplier to many electricity supply companies: this business remained successful until the 1980s when it was transferred into a joint venture with Siemens
Siemens
Siemens may refer toSiemens, a German family name carried by generations of telecommunications industrialists, including:* Werner von Siemens , inventor, founder of Siemens AG...
and then sold to them.
In 1887 the London Electric Supply Corporation (LESCo) hired Ferranti for the design of their power station
Power station
A power station is an industrial facility for the generation of electric energy....
at Deptford
Deptford
Deptford is a district of south London, England, located on the south bank of the River Thames. It is named after a ford of the River Ravensbourne, and from the mid 16th century to the late 19th was home to Deptford Dockyard, the first of the Royal Navy Dockyards.Deptford and the docks are...
. He designed the building, the generating plant and the distribution system. On its completion in October 1890 it was the first truly modern power station, supplying high-voltage AC power that was then "stepped down" for consumer use on each street: this basic system remains in use today around the world.
Success followed and Ferranti started producing electrical equipment for sale. Soon the company was looking for considerably more room. Prices in the London area were too high, so the company moved to Hollinwood in Oldham
Oldham
Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amid the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers Irk and Medlock, south-southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of the city of Manchester...
in 1896. Revenues declined however in the early 1900s and the company went into receivership in 1903.
Rapid growth
The business was bought out of receivership and renamed Ferranti Limited in 1905.Through the early part of the century power was supplied by small companies, typically as an offshoot of plant set up to provide power to local industry. Each plant supplied a different standard, which made the mass production
Mass production
Mass production is the production of large amounts of standardized products, including and especially on assembly lines...
of electrical equipment for home users rather difficult. In 1910 Ferranti promoted an effort to standardize the power supply, supplying large numbers of power transformers, an initiative which eventually culminated in the National Grid in 1926.
High voltage power transformers became an important product for Ferranti; some of the largest types weighed over a hundred tons. Ferranti built a new power transformer works at Hollinwood in the late 1940s; however, the orders the company had hoped for did not materialize, and the transformer division closed in 1979, severing the last link Ferranti had with heavy electrical engineering. In the early 1980s, Ferranti Engineering Holdings Limited's business consisted of container handling and tapchanger (transformer part) manufacture, and the purchase and resale of agricultural machinery.
In 1935 Ferranti purchased a mill at Moston
Moston, Greater Manchester
Moston is a district of Manchester, in North West England, approximately 3 miles north east of the city centre. Historically a part of Lancashire, Moston is a predominantly residential area, with a population of about 12,500 and covering approximately .-History:The name Moston may derive...
: from here it manufactured many "brown goods" such as televisions, radios, and electric clocks. The company later sold its radio and television interests to EKCO
EKCO
EKCO from Eric Kirkham Cole Limited was a British electronics company producing radio and television sets from 1924.Expanding into plastic production for its own use, Ekco Plastics produced both radio cases and later domestic plastic products; the plastics company became Lin Pac Mouldings...
in 1957. In addition Ferranti Instruments, again based at Moston developed various items for scientific measurements, including one of the first cone and plate viscometers.
Defence electronics
During World War II, Ferranti became a major supplier of electronics, fuzesFuse (explosives)
In an explosive, pyrotechnic device or military munition, a fuse is the part of the device that initiates function. In common usage, the word fuse is used indiscriminately...
, valves, and was, through development of the Identification Friend or Foe
Identification friend or foe
In telecommunications, identification, friend or foe is an identification system designed for command and control. It is a system that enables military and national interrogation systems to identify aircraft, vehicles, or forces as friendly and to determine their bearing and range from the...
(IFF) system, heavily involved in the early development of radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
in the United Kingdom. In the post-war era this became a large segment of the company, with various branches supplying radar sets, 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...
and other military electronics, both in the UK and the various international offices.
In 1943 Ferranti opened a factory at Crewe Toll
Crewe Toll
Crewe Toll is an area in Edinburgh, the Scottish capital.The Western General Hospital is in the vicinity. Another hospital, the Northern General, was also in the area but this is now the site of a Morrisons supermarket. Edinburgh's Telford College was at Crewe Toll, but has moved to a site at...
in Edinburgh to manufacture Gyro Gunsight
Gyro gunsight
A gyro gunsight is a modification of the non-magnifying reflector sight in which target lead and bullet drop are allowed for automatically, the sight incorporating a gyroscopic mechanism that computes the necessary deflections required to ensure a hit on the target...
s for the Spitfire
Supermarine Spitfire
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries throughout the Second World War. The Spitfire continued to be used as a front line fighter and in secondary roles into the 1950s...
aircraft. After the war this business (Ferranti Scotland) would grow to employ 8,000 staff in 8 locations, becoming the birth place of the Scottish electronics industry, and a major contributor to company profitability. Later products included solid state ring laser gyros.
From 1949, Ferranti assisted the Canadian Navy develop DATAR
DATAR
DATAR, short for Digital Automated Tracking and Resolving, was a pioneering computerized battlefield information system.Development on DATAR was started by the Canadian Navy in partnership with Ferranti Canada in 1949. DATAR combined data from various ships providing commanders with an "overall...
(Digital Automated Tracking and Resolving). DATAR was a pioneering computerized battlefield information system that combined RADAR
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
and SONAR
Sonar
Sonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect other vessels...
information to provide commanders with an "overall view" of a battlefield, allowing them to coordinate attacks on submarines and aircraft.
In the 1950s work focused on the development of airborne radar with the company subsequently supplying radars to most of the UK's fast jet and helicopter fleets: today the Crewe Toll site (now owned by SELEX Galileo
SELEX Galileo
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....
) leads the consortium providing the radar for the Eurofighter Typhoon
Eurofighter Typhoon
The Eurofighter Typhoon is a twin-engine, canard-delta wing, multirole combat aircraft, designed and built by a consortium of three companies: EADS, Alenia Aeronautica and BAE Systems; working through a holding company, Eurofighter GmbH, which was formed in 1986...
.
In the 1960s and 1970s inertial navigation systems became an important product line for the company with systems designed for fast jet (Harrier, Phantom, Tornado), space and land applications. The electro-mechanical inertial navigation systems were constructed at the Silverknowes site in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, in addition to their other military and civil applications were used in the ESA Ariane 4
Ariane 4
Ariane 4 was an expendable launch system, designed by the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales and manufactured and marketed by its subsidiary Arianespace. Ariane 4 was justly known as the ‘workhorse’ of the Ariane family. Since its first flight on 15 June 1988 until the last, on 15 February 2003, it...
and first Ariane 5
Ariane 5
Ariane 5 is, as a part of Ariane rocket family, an expendable launch system used to deliver payloads into geostationary transfer orbit or low Earth orbit . Ariane 5 rockets are manufactured under the authority of the European Space Agency and the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales...
launches. Ferranti also produced the PADS (Position and Azimuth Determining System). This was an inertial navigation system which could be mounted in a vehicle and was used by the British Army.
With the invention of the laser in the 1960s the company quickly established itself in the electro-optics arena. From the early 1970s it was delivering the Laser Rangefinder and Marked Target Seeker (LRMTS) for the Jaguar and Harrier fleets, and later for Tornado. It supplied the world's first man-portable laser rangefinder/designator (Laser Target Marker, LTM
LTM
LTM Recordings is an independent record label founded in Britain in 1983, and best known for high quality, well-packaged reissues of artists and music from 1978 to the present day, as well as modern classical and avant garde composition...
) to the British Army in 1974, and had notable successes in the US market, establishing Ferranti Electro-optics Inc in Huntington Beach, California
Huntington Beach, California
Huntington Beach is a seaside city in Orange County in Southern California. According to the 2010 census, the city population was 189,992; making it the largest beach city in Orange County in terms of population...
. Its TIALD
TIALD
TIALD, the Thermal Imaging Airborne Laser Designator pod, is manufactured by SELEX Galileo and was the UK's primary laser designator for laser-guided bombs....
Pod (Thermal Imager and Laser Designator) has been in almost constant combat operation on the Tornado
Panavia Tornado
The Panavia Tornado is a family of twin-engine, variable-sweep wing combat aircraft, which was jointly developed and manufactured by the United Kingdom, West Germany and Italy...
since it was rushed into service during the first Gulf War.
From the 1960s through to the late 1980s the Bristol Ferranti Bloodhound SAM
Bloodhound SAM
The Bristol Bloodhound is a British surface-to-air missile developed during the 1950s as the UK's main air defence weapon, and was in large-scale service with the Royal Air Force and the forces of four other countries. The Bloodhound Mk. I entered service in December 1958 and the last Mk...
, for which Ferranti developed radar systems, was a key money earner.
In 1970 Ferranti became involved in the sonar field through its involvement with Plessey in a new series of sonars, for which designed and built the computer subsystems. This work later expanded when it won a contract for the complete Sonar 2050. The work was originally carried out at the Wythenshawe factory and then at Cheadle Heath. Takeovers of other companies gave it expertise in sonar arrays. This business later became Ferranti Thomson Sonar Systems.
The selection of the radar for the EFA (now known as the Eurofighter Typhoon) became a major international issue in the early 1990s. Britain, Italy and Spain supported the Ferranti-led ECR-90, while Germany preferred the MSD2000 (a collaboration between Hughes
Hughes Aircraft
Hughes Aircraft Company was a major American aerospace and defense contractor founded in 1932 by Howard Hughes in Culver City, California as a division of Hughes Tool Company...
, AEG and GEC. An agreement was reached after UK Defence Secretary Tom King
Tom King, Baron King of Bridgwater
Thomas Jeremy King, Baron King of Bridgwater, CH, PC , is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he served in the Cabinet from 1983–92, and was the Member of Parliament for the constituency of Bridgwater in Somerset from 1970-2001...
assured his West German counterpart Gerhard Stoltenberg
Gerhard Stoltenberg
Gerhard Stoltenberg was a German politician and minister in the cabinets of Ludwig Erhard, Kurt Georg Kiesinger and Helmut Kohl. He served as minister-president of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein from 1971 to 1982 and as such as President of the Bundesrat in 1977/78.-Life:Stoltenberg was...
that the British government would underwrite the project and allow GEC to acquire Ferranti Defence Systems from its troubled parent. Hughes sued GEC for $600 million for its role in the selection of the EFA and alleged that it used Hughes technology in the ECR-90 when it took over Ferranti. It later dropped this allegation and was awarded $23 million, the court judged that the MSD-2000 "had a real or substantial chance of succeeding had GEC not tortuously intervened... and had the companies, which were bound by the Collaboration Agreement, faithfully and diligently performed their continuing obligations thereunder to press and promote the case for MSD-2000."
Industrial electronics
In the late 1980s there were a number of sections of the company involved in non-military areas. These included microwave communications equipment (Ferranti Communications), and petrol (gas) station pumps (Ferranti Autocourt). Both of these departments were based at DalkeithDalkeith
Dalkeith is a town in Midlothian, Scotland, lying on the River North Esk. It was granted a burgh of barony in 1401 and a burgh of regality in 1540...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
Computers
In the late 1940s Ferranti joined with various university-based research groups to develop computerComputer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
s. Their first effort was the Ferranti Mark 1, completed in 1951, about nine delivered between 1951 and 1957. The Pegasus
Pegasus (computer)
Pegasus was an early thermionic valve computer built by Ferranti, Ltd of Great Britain.The Pegasus 1 was first delivered in 1956 and the Pegasus 2 was delivered in 1959...
introduced in 1956 was their most popular valve
Vacuum tube
In electronics, a vacuum tube, electron tube , or thermionic valve , reduced to simply "tube" or "valve" in everyday parlance, is a device that relies on the flow of electric current through a vacuum...
(vacuum tube) system, with 38 units sold. Circa 1956, Ivan Idelson, at Ferranti, originated the Cluff-Foster-Idelson coding of characters on 7-track paper tape for a BSI
BSI Group
BSI Group, also known in its home market as the British Standards Institution , is a multinational business services provider whose principal activity is the production of standards and the supply of standards-related services.- History :...
committee. This eventually became ASCII
ASCII
The American Standard Code for Information Interchange is a character-encoding scheme based on the ordering of the English alphabet. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, and other devices that use text...
.
In collaboration with the University of Manchester
University of Manchester
The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...
they built a new version of the famous Mark 1 that replaced valve diode
Diode
In electronics, a diode is a type of two-terminal electronic component with a nonlinear current–voltage characteristic. A semiconductor diode, the most common type today, is a crystalline piece of semiconductor material connected to two electrical terminals...
s with solid state
Solid state (electronics)
Solid-state electronics are those circuits or devices built entirely from solid materials and in which the electrons, or other charge carriers, are confined entirely within the solid material...
versions, which allowed the speed to be increased dramatically as well as increasing reliability. Ferranti offered the result commercially as the Mercury
Ferranti Mercury
The Mercury was an early 1950s commercial computer built by Ferranti. It was the successor to the Ferranti Mark 1, adding a floating point unit for improved performance, and increased reliability by replacing the Williams tube memory with core memory and using more solid state components...
starting in 1957, and eventually sold nineteen in total. Although a small part of Ferranti's empire, the computer division was nevertheless highly visible and operated out of a former steam locomotive factory
Gorton locomotive works
Gorton Locomotive Works, known locally as Gorton Tank was located in Openshaw near Manchester, England and was completed in 1848 by the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway.- History :...
in West Gorton.
Work on a completely new design, the Atlas
Atlas Computer (Manchester)
The Atlas Computer was a joint development between the University of Manchester, Ferranti, and Plessey. The first Atlas, installed at Manchester University and officially commissioned in 1962, was one of the world's first supercomputers, considered to be the most powerful computer in the world at...
, started soon after the delivery of the Mercury, aiming to dramatically improve performance. The machine first ran in 1962, and Ferranti eventually built three machines in total. A version of the Atlas modified for the needs of the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory led to the Titan
Titan (computer)
Titan was the prototype of the Atlas 2 computer developed by Ferranti and the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory in Cambridge, England...
(or Atlas 2), which was the mainstay of scientific computing in Cambridge for nearly 8 years.
By the early 1960s their mid-size machines were no longer competitive, but efforts to design a replacement were bogged down. Into this void stepped the Canadian division, Ferranti-Packard
Ferranti-Packard
Ferranti-Packard Ltd. was the Canadian division of Ferranti's global manufacturing empire, formed by the 1958 merger of Ferranti Electric and Packard Electric...
, who had used several of the ideas under development in England to very quickly produce the Ferranti-Packard 6000
Ferranti-Packard 6000
The FP-6000 was a second generation mainframe computer developed and built by Ferranti-Packard in the early 1960s. It is particularly notable for supporting multitasking, being one of the first commercial machines to do so...
. By this time Ferranti's management had tired of the market and were looking for someone to buy the entire division. Eventually it was merged into International Computers and Tabulators
International Computers and Tabulators
International Computers and Tabulators or ICT was formed in 1959 by a merger of the British Tabulating Machine Company and Powers-Samas. In 1963 it also added the business computer divisions of Ferranti...
(ICT) in 1963, becoming the Large Systems Division of ICL in 1968. After studying several options, ICT selected the FP 6000 as the basis for their ICT 1900 series
ICT 1900 series
ICT 1900 was the name given to a series of mainframe computers released by International Computers and Tabulators and later International Computers Limited during the 1960s and '70s...
line which sold into the 1970s.
The deal setting up ICT excluded Ferranti from the commercial sector of computing, but left the industrial field free. Some of the technology of the FP 6000 was later used in its Ferranti Argus
Ferranti Argus
Ferranti's Argus computers were a line of industrial control computers offered from the 1960s into the 1980s. They were widely used in a variety of roles in Europe, particularly in the UK where they continue to serve as monitoring and control systems for nuclear reactors.-Original series:The...
range of industrial computers which were developed in its Wythenshawe factory. The first of these, simply Argus, was initially developed for military use.
Meanwhile in Bracknell
Bracknell
Bracknell is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Bracknell Forest in Berkshire, England. It lies to the south-east of Reading, southwest of Windsor and west of central London...
the Digital Systems Division was developing a range of mainframe computers for naval applications. Early computers using discrete transistors were the Hermes and Poseidon and these were followed by the F1600 in the mid 1960s. Some of these machines remained in active service on naval vessels for many years. The FM1600B was the first of the range to use integrated circuits and was used in many naval and commercial applications. The FM1600D was a single-rack
19-inch rack
A 19-inch rack is a standardized frame or enclosure for mounting multiple equipment modules. Each module has a front panel that is wide, including edges or ears that protrude on each side which allow the module to be fastened to the rack frame with screws.-Overview and history:Equipment designed...
version of the computer for smaller systems. An airborne version of this was also made and used aboard the RAF Nimrod. The FM1600E was a redesigned and updated version of the FM1600B, and the last in the series was the F2420, an upgraded FM1600E, still in service at sea in 2010.
Semiconductors
Ferranti had been involved in the production of electronic devices including radio valves, cathode ray tubeCathode ray tube
The cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen used to view images. It has a means to accelerate and deflect the electron beam onto the fluorescent screen to create the images. The image may represent electrical waveforms , pictures , radar targets and...
s and germanium
Germanium
Germanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ge and atomic number 32. It is a lustrous, hard, grayish-white metalloid in the carbon group, chemically similar to its group neighbors tin and silicon. The isolated element is a semiconductor, with an appearance most similar to elemental silicon....
semiconductors for some time before it became the first European company to produce a silicon
Silicon
Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. A tetravalent metalloid, it is less reactive than its chemical analog carbon, the nonmetal directly above it in the periodic table, but more reactive than germanium, the metalloid directly below it in the table...
diode
Diode
In electronics, a diode is a type of two-terminal electronic component with a nonlinear current–voltage characteristic. A semiconductor diode, the most common type today, is a crystalline piece of semiconductor material connected to two electrical terminals...
, in 1955. Ferranti Semiconductor Ltd. went on to produce a range of silicon bipolar devices including, in 1977, the Ferranti F100-L, an early 16-bit microprocessor
Microprocessor
A microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit on a single integrated circuit, or at most a few integrated circuits. It is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and...
with 16-bit addressing. An F100-L was carried into space on the amateur radio
Amateur radio
Amateur radio is the use of designated radio frequency spectrum for purposes of private recreation, non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, and emergency communication...
satellite
Satellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
UoSAT-1 (Oscar 9
OSCAR
OSCAR is an acronym for Orbiting Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio. OSCAR series satellites use amateur radio frequencies to facilitate communication between amateur radio stations. These satellites can be used for free by licensed amateur radio operators for voice and data communications...
). Ferranti's ZTX series bipolar transistors gave their name to the inheritor of Ferranti Semiconductor's discrete semiconductor business, Zetex plc.
In the early eighties, Ferranti produced some of the first large uncommitted logic arrays
Gate array
A gate array or uncommitted logic array is an approach to the design and manufacture of application-specific integrated circuits...
(ULAs), used in home computers such as the Sinclair ZX81, Sinclair ZX Spectrum
ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...
, Acorn Electron
Acorn Electron
The Acorn Electron is a budget version of the BBC Micro educational/home computer made by Acorn Computers Ltd. It has 32 kilobytes of RAM, and its ROM includes BBC BASIC along with its operating system....
and BBC Microcomputer. The microelectronics business was sold to Plessey
Plessey
The Plessey Company plc was a British-based international electronics, defence and telecommunications company. It originated in 1917, growing and diversifying into electronics. It expanded after the second world war by acquisition of companies and formed overseas companies...
in 1988.
Acquisition of International Signal & Control
In 1987 Ferranti purchased International Signal and ControlInternational Signal and Control
International Signal and Control was a U.S. defense contractor based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania that was involved in the manufacture of electronic missile subassemblies, navigation components, fuses, power supplies for proximity fuzes, and grenade technology.By the 1980s, ISC's business primarily...
(ISC), a Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
based defence contractor. The company subsequently changed its name to Ferranti International plc. and restructured the combined business into the following divisions: Ferranti Computer Systems, Ferranti Defence Systems, Ferranti Dynamics, Ferranti Satcomms, Ferranti Technologies and International Signal & Control.
Unknown to Ferranti, ISC's business primarily consisted of illegal arms sales started at the behest of various US clandestine organizations. On paper the company looked to be extremely profitable on sales of high-priced "above board" items, but in fact these profits were essentially non-existent. With the sale to Ferranti all illegal sales ended immediately, leaving the company with no obvious cash flow.
In 1989 the UK's Serious Fraud Office started criminal investigation regarding alleged massive fraud at ISC. In December 1991 James Guerin, founder of ISC and co-Chairman of the merged company, pleaded guilty before the federal court in Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
to fraud committed both in the USA and UK. All offences which would have formed part of any UK prosecution were encompassed by the US trial and as such no UK trial proceeded.
Collapse
The financial and legal difficulties that resulted forced Ferranti into bankruptcy in December 1993.Operations
The company had factories in Greater Manchester at Hollinwood, MostonMoston, Greater Manchester
Moston is a district of Manchester, in North West England, approximately 3 miles north east of the city centre. Historically a part of Lancashire, Moston is a predominantly residential area, with a population of about 12,500 and covering approximately .-History:The name Moston may derive...
, Chadderton
Chadderton
Chadderton is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England, historically a part of Lancashire...
(Gem Mill), Waterhead
Waterhead, Greater Manchester
Waterhead , is an area of Oldham, and an electoral ward of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England...
(Cairo Mill), Derker
Derker
Derker is an area of Oldham, a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies in north-central Oldham, close to the boundary with Royton.Historically a part of Lancashire, Derker was recorded as a place of residence in 1604 with the name Dirtcar....
, Wythenshawe
Wythenshawe
Wythenshawe is a district in the south of the city of Manchester, England.Formerly part of the administrative county of Cheshire, in 1931 Wythenshawe was transferred to the City of Manchester, which had begun building a massive housing estate there in the 1920s to resolve the problem of its inner...
, Cheadle Heath
Cheadle Heath
Cheadle Heath is a suburban area of Stockport, part of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, in Greater Manchester, England. It is approximately west of Stockport's town centre and southeast of the city of Manchester....
, West Gorton
Gorton
Gorton is an area of the city of Manchester, in North West England. It is located to the southeast of Manchester city centre. Neighbouring areas include Longsight and Levenshulme....
, and Poynton
Poynton
Poynton is a town within the civil parish of Poynton-with-Worth, and the unitary authority area of Cheshire East, England. For ceremonial purposes it is part of the county of Cheshire. Poynton is located at the eastern most fringe of the Cheshire Plain, north of Macclesfield, south of Stockport...
. Eventually it set up branch-plants in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
(Silverknowes, Crewe Toll, Gyle, Granton and Robertson Avenue factories), Dalkeith
Dalkeith
Dalkeith is a town in Midlothian, Scotland, lying on the River North Esk. It was granted a burgh of barony in 1401 and a burgh of regality in 1540...
, Aberdeen
Aberdeen
Aberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 25th most populous city, with an official population estimate of ....
, Dundee
Dundee
Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...
, Bracknell
Bracknell
Bracknell is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Bracknell Forest in Berkshire, England. It lies to the south-east of Reading, southwest of Windsor and west of central London...
and Cwmbran
Cwmbran
Cwmbrân is a new town in Wales. Today forming part of the county borough of Torfaen and lying within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire, Cwmbrân was established in 1949 to provide new employment opportunities in the south eastern portion of the South Wales Coalfield. Cwmbrân means Crow...
as well as Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
(inc. Ferranti International Controls Corporation
in Sugar Land, Texas) and several British Commonwealth
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
countries including Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
.
Ferranti Australia was based in Revesby, Sydney NSW. There was also a primarily defence-related branch office in South Australia.
Products manufactured by Ferranti Defence Systems included cockpit displays (moving map, head-down, head-up) video cameras and recorders, gunsight cameras, motion detectors, pilot's night vision goggles, integrated helmets, and pilot's stick controls.
On the Tornado aircraft, Ferranti supplied the radar transmitter, inertial navigation system, LRMTS, TIALD
TIALD
TIALD, the Thermal Imaging Airborne Laser Designator pod, is manufactured by SELEX Galileo and was the UK's primary laser designator for laser-guided bombs....
pod, mission recording equipment, and cockpit displays.
Current ownership of former Ferranti businesses
Ferranti Autocourt: acquired by Wayne Dresser, renamed to Wayne Autocourt, before Autocourt name droppedFerranti Communications: acquired by Thorn
Thorn EMI
Thorn EMI was a major British company involved in consumer electronics, music, defence and retail. Created in October 1979 when Thorn Electrical Industries merged with EMI, it was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but it demerged again in...
and branded Thorn Communications and Telecontrol Systems (CATS). Later acquired by Tyco International
Tyco International
Tyco International Ltd. is a highly diversified global manufacturing company incorporated in Switzerland, with United States operational headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey...
and renamed Tyco Communications. Still operating under the name TS Technology Services.
Ferranti Computer Systems: the Belgian subsidiary lives on as Ferranti Computer Systems
Ferranti Computer Systems
Ferranti Computer Systems, headquartered in Antwerp , was founded as a subsidiary of Ferranti International plc in 1976 and has been a member of the Nijkerk Group since 1994...
and is now part of the Nijkerk Holding. The remainder was acquired out of administration by SYSECA, the IT arm of Thomson-CSF and renamed Ferranti-SYSECA Ltd, later the Ferranti was dropped and when Thomson changed its name to Thales, SYSECA became Thales Information Systems. Thales Information Systems later sold its German interest to Consinto Gmbh. The department dealing with airport systems was bought by Datel in around 1995 and continued to trade under the name Ferranti Airport Systems until it was bought by Ultra Electronics
Ultra Electronics
Ultra Electronics Holdings is a British company serving the defence, security, transport and energy industries. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.-History:...
. Other parts of Ferranti Computer Systems were acquired out of administration by GEC-Marconi, when GEC-Marconi sold on its defence related businesses to 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...
many of these former Ferranti entities became part of the BAE/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...
joint venture called Alenia Marconi Systems
Alenia Marconi Systems
Alenia Marconi Systems was a major European integrated defence electronics company and an equal shares joint venture between BAE Systems and Finmeccanica until its dissolution on May 3, 2005....
. The JV has now been dissolved and the former Ferranti entities are now part of BAE Systems Integrated System Technologies
BAE Systems Integrated System Technologies
BAE Systems Integrated System Technologies was formed on May 3, 2005, by bringing together BAE Systems' interests in C4ISR and the UK operations of AMS following the Eurosystems Transaction....
(Insyte).
Ferranti Defence Systems: acquired by GEC-Marconi out of administration and re-named GEC Ferranti, later changing to GEC Marconi Avionics (GMAv). This business was acquired in 2000 by 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...
(BAE Systems Avionics). Part of this business, including the heritage Ferranti operation, was acquired by Finmeccanica in 2007 and re-named SELEX Galileo
SELEX Galileo
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....
.
Ferranti Dynamics: acquired by GEC-Marconi in 1992
Ferranti Instrumentation: dissolved. Some assets acquired by GEC-Marconi and Ravenfield Designs
Ferranti Satcomms: acquired out of administration by Matra Marconi Space
Matra Marconi Space
Matra Marconi Space was a Franco-British aerospace company.-History:Matra Marconi Space was established in 1990 as a joint venture between the space and telecommunication divisions of the Lagardère Group and the GEC group .The merged company was announced in December 1989 and was owned 51% by...
in 1994
Ferranti Technologies: was bought out by management and continues in Oldham
Oldham
Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amid the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers Irk and Medlock, south-southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of the city of Manchester...
specialising in avionics, defence electronics, and electronic power systems. It was acquired by Elbit Systems
Elbit Systems
Elbit Systems Ltd. is one of the world's largest defense electronics manufacturers and integrators. Established in 1967, and based in Haifa, Israel, Elbit employs 11,000 people worldwide....
in 2007.
Ferranti Air Systems: acquired by Datel then turned into an independent company. Later bought by Ultra Electronics
Ferranti Thomson Sonar Systems: 50% share acquired by GEC-Marconi. Now owned by Thales and renamed Thales Underwater Systems
Thales Underwater Systems
Thales Underwater Systems , formerly known as Thomson Marconi Sonar, is an international defence manufacturer specialising in sonar systems for submarines, surface warships, and aircraft as well as communications masts and systems for submarines. TUS is a subsidiary of Thales Naval, part of the...
.
Ferranti Helicopters:acquired by British Caledonian Airways in April 1979 to become British Caledonian Helicopters which was in turn acquired by Bristow Helicopters
Bristow Helicopters
Bristow Helicopters is a British helicopter airline originally based at Aberdeen Airport, Scotland, part of the Bristow Group based in Houston, Texas, USA....
in 1987
Ferranti Subsea Systems: Management buyout in the early 90's, renamed FSSL. Kværner
Kværner
Kværner was a Norway-based engineering and construction services company in existence between 1853 and 2005 when it was merged with Aker ASA. The Kværner name was used in the subsidiary Aker Kværner until April 3, 2008 when it changed name to Aker Solutions. Kværner re-emerged on 6...
bought more shares in 1994 and then turned to Kværner FSSL. Kværner is now known as Aker Solutions
Ferranti Computer Systems Service Department: This was acquired by the third party maintenance company ServiceTec. The regional Service Centres were rebranded as ServiceTec and all of the service engineers and management were taken on. The support of the Argus computers dominated activities although new (non-Argus) business was added to the regional centres. The repair centre at Cairo Mill also became part of the ServiceTec group, ultimately as a separate entity.
Ferranti Semiconductors: became Zetex Semiconductors
Zetex Semiconductors
Zetex Semiconductors plc is a UK-based manufacturer of discrete semiconductor devices such as diodes and transistors.-Corporate history:Originally a subsidiary of Ferranti Semiconductor, Zetex took its name from Ferranti's ZTX series of bipolar transistors. It was sold to Plessey in 1988, then...
after a management buyout in 1989. In 2008 it was acquired by Diodes Inc.
Ferranti Photonics Ltd.: independent, liquidated after bankruptcy in 2005
Other uses of the Ferranti name
A number of uses of the Ferranti name remain in use. In EdinburghEdinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, the Ferranti Edinburgh Recreation Club (FERC), the Ferranti Mountaineering Club and the Ferranti Ten-pin Bowling League are still in existence. While these organisations no longer have any formal ties with the companies which subsumed the Ferranti companies which operated in Edinburgh, they still operate under the old names.
Ferranti Thistle F.C. was formed in 1943 and joined the Scottish Football League
Scottish Football League
The Scottish Football League is a league of football teams in Scotland, comprising theScottish First Division, Scottish Second Division and Scottish Third Division. From the league's foundation in 1890 until the breakaway Scottish Premier League was formed in 1998, the Scottish Football League...
in 1974. Due to strict sponsorship rules it changed its name to Meadowbank Thistle F.C., and later to Livingston F.C.
Livingston F.C.
Livingston Football Club is a Scottish association football club based in Livingston, West Lothian. The club currently plays in the Scottish Football League First Division.The club was founded in 1943 as Ferranti Thistle, a works team...
.
Denis Ferranti Meters Limited is still owned by a direct descendant of Sebastian de Ferranti but is not directly related to the major Ferranti corporation. The company has over 200 employees that manufacture BT's public phones, oil pumps for large industrial vehicles, electric motors for motorbility solutions, electronics, and small MOD equipment.
Further reading
- Halton, Maurice J., The Impact of Conflict and Political Change on Northern Industrial Towns, 1890 to 1990, MA Dissertation, Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, Manchester Metropolitan University September 2001 MA Dissertation
External links
- Museum of Science and Industry in ManchesterMuseum of Science and Industry in ManchesterThe Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, England, is a large museum devoted to the development of science, technology, and industry with emphasis on the city's achievements in these fields...
- Timeline of Ferranti's History