British Hovercraft Corporation

On 1st March 1966 the Westland's and Vickers' hovercraft activities were merged to form the British Hovercraft Corporation (BHC)(shareholdings - Westland Aircraft 65%, Vickers 25%, National Research and Development Corporation 10%).

In October 1970, Westland Aircraft bought out both of the other partners and BHC became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Westland group.

In 1971, BHC acquired Cushioncraft Ltd (of St. Helens) from financially troubled Britten-Norman Ltd., none of the Cushioncraft designed hovercraft was developed further.

In 1981 BHC started a joint BHC, NRDC and Hovertravel development which produced the AP1-88 hovercraft - their first design not built at East Cowes.

As well as developing and manufacturing hovercraft, over the years BHC became increasingly involved with supplying the world-wide Aerospace industry with composite components.

1984 saw the name 'British Hovercraft Corporation' changed to Westland Aerospace as the nature of the business had changed with hovercraft being a very small part.