Lewis Johnman

The road to concorde: Franco-British relations and the supersonic project

In November 1962 the British and French governments signed an irreversible agreement to build together the Western worlds first civil supersonic aeroplane: Concorde. This article explores the background to the agreement, looking in particular at why Britain and France co-operated with each other rather than with the United States or West Germany, the other possible partners. The central argument is that the agreement was driven not by technological convergence in the aircraft industry but by a weakening of Britains position in 1961 caused by American unwillingness to partner Britain in the supersonic adventure and Britains decision to apply for membership of the Common Market. The French government was then able to exploit that weakness in order to acquire technological expertise particularly in the field of aircraft engine construction.

Subsidy and Treasury: the Trade Facilities Act and the UK Shipbuilding Industry in the 1920s

This article analyses the impact of government policy towards British unemployment in the post First World War period. It attempts to do this through the prism of the Trades Facilities Act and the impact on British shipbuilding. The treasury, however, were opposed given other priorities and the effect of the scheme remains, at best, contentious.

The rationalization Of warship building in the United Kingdom, 1945-2000

After the Second World War the Admiralty and shipbuilding industry agreed that the largest possible capacity for warship building should be maintained. This proved impossible as the Royal Navy struggled to evoke a strategy in the nuclear era and the price of increasingly complex vessels rose remorselessly. As the shipbuilding industry wilted in the 1960s in the face of international competition a process of natural selection was followed by increasing political intervention in the industry. Nationalisation in the 1970s aimed to preserve capacity and employment, policy aims which were reversed by privatisation in the 1980s and which, ultimately resulted in an oligopoly in the warship building sector.

The Norwegian market for British Shipbuilding, 1945–1967

Abstract The British Shipbuilding industry experienced a process of both competitive and comparative decline during the period 1945 to 1967 — when the world market for ships was at its most vibrant. The present article seeks to analyse this decline through an examination of the loss of the industrys most important export market — Norway. It is argued that issues such as price, failure to meet delivery dates and to offer competitive credit terms, were all factors in British shipbuildings loss of market share in Norway. Ultimately British shipbuilders retained a production oriented strategy in a market which was being revolutionised in both structural and technological terms. The failure to adopt a marketing oriented strategy, therefore, underpinned the failure of the British shipbuilding industry in the Norwegian market and would also account for its failure in the domestic market.