FOR OUR meeting on Thursday, May 10, speaker Chris Bigg gave an illustrated talk titled; Wings over Filton.

The show looked at the manufacture of aeroplanes from 1910, when Sir George White owner of Bristol Tramways, established the British Colonial Aeroplane Company in the maintenance sheds of Bristol Tramways.

A small airfield was set up in 1911, near the top of Filton Hill. The company grew rapidly during the First World War building thousands of Bristol Fighters and other aircraft.

In 1915 the RFC established a base at Filton. Inter-war years seen a lot of Aero-engine production, and from 1929 RAF 501 Squadron was based there; this squadron was first equipped with Hawker Hurricanes.

In 1939 there was a belief that German bombers had insufficient range to reach Filton, however on the 25th September 1940 German aircraft raided Filton, causing extensive damage to the aircraft factories, and caused a heavy loss of life when air-raid shelters were hit.

Before D-Day US-manufactured aircraft were assembled at Filton, with the assembly’s imported via Avonmouth.

Aircraft produced at Filton during the war included the Blenheim, Beaufort, Beaufighter and Brigand. Filton was upgraded to a concrete runway during 1942.

After the Second World War the concrete runway was extended westwards for the huge Brabazon airliner operation. This extension required demolition of Charlton hamlet.

Time moved on and by 1977 Airbus was dominant on the site. The runway closed in 2012 and the land that made up Filton Airfield was sold by BAE for around £120 million.

A few Second World War aircraft hangars survived, these are now used by Bristol Aerospace Museum that opened in 2017, alongside the new hangar for Concorde 216.

At the end of the show Mr Kelsey gave a vote of thanks to the speaker. Also a Donation was made to the RAFA Wings Appeal fund.