FPT Industries was formed in July 1939 as Fireproof Tanks Ltd (commonly known as FPT) as a subsidiary of

Airspeed Ltd Airspeed Limited was established in 1931 to build aeroplanes in York, England, by A. H. Tiltman and Nevil Shute, Nevil Shute Norway (the aeronautical engineer and novelist, who used his forenames as his pen-name). The other directors were A. E ...

at Portsmouth Airport in response to an Air Ministry requirement for the development and manufacture of

self-sealing fuel tank A self-sealing fuel tank (SSFT) is a type of fuel tank, typically used in aircraft fuel tanks or fuel bladders, that prevents them from leaking fuel and igniting after being damaged. Typical self-sealing tanks have layers of rubber and reinfor ...

s for the impending war with

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. The intention of the board of directors was to commence work on the manufacture of self-sealing fuel tanks for aircraft entering service with the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

, the highest priority being the Fairey Battle single engined

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft that utilizes air-to-ground weaponry to drop bombs, launch aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploy air-launched cruise missiles. There are two major classifications of bomber: strategic and tactical. Strateg ...

which, although obsolete, was regarded as a front line bomber by the Royal Air Force. The early tanks were of welded

aluminium Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

structure, with the sealing material applied as a composite layer on the outside. A major problem with welded aluminium tanks is weld decay and

metal fatigue In materials science, fatigue is the initiation and propagation of cracks in a material due to cyclic loading. Once a fatigue crack has initiated, it grows a small amount with each loading cycle, typically producing striation (fatigue), striati ...

in the seams due to

vibration Vibration () is a mechanical phenomenon whereby oscillations occur about an equilibrium point. Vibration may be deterministic if the oscillations can be characterised precisely (e.g. the periodic motion of a pendulum), or random if the os ...

in service. In response to this, the company started to develop flexible fuel bladders in the early 1940s. One of the earliest examples of this was a composite flexible fuel bladder with self-sealing coatings for the

Supermarine Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and other Allies of World War II, Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. It was the only British fighter produced conti ...

MkIX.

Post-war

During the war years and into the emerging

jet age The Jet Age is a period in the history of aviation defined by the advent of aircraft powered by jet turbine engines and the social and cultural changes fostered by commercial jet travel. Jet airliners were able to fly higher, faster, and farth ...

, Fireproof Tanks Ltd developed new technologies in

rubber Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Types of polyisoprene ...

formulation, moulding, and sheet production in order to remain a leader in other specialist markets such as the creation of hovercraft skirts. Working with Saunders Roe at

Cowes Cowes () is an England, English port, seaport town and civil parish on the Isle of Wight. Cowes is located on the west bank of the estuary of the River Medina, facing the smaller town of East Cowes on the east bank. The two towns are linked b ...

on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

, the company became so important to the hovercraft industry that the now renamed FPT Industries was bought by the

British Hovercraft Corporation British Hovercraft Corporation (BHC) was a British hovercraft manufacturer that designed and produced multiple types of vehicles for both commercial and civil purposes. Created with the intention of producing viable commercial hovercraft in March ...

in 1966.

Rationalisation of the aircraft industry

The British Hovercraft Corporation was bought out by Westland Helicopters of

Yeovil Yeovil () is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Somerset, England. It is close to Somerset's southern border with Dorset, west of London, south of Bristol, west of Sherborne and east of Taunton. The population of the bui ...

and a period of stability came as Westlands developed cutting edge

composite material A composite or composite material (also composition material) is a material which is produced from two or more constituent materials. These constituent materials have notably dissimilar chemical or physical properties and are merged to create a ...

manufacture as part of its approach to advanced

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

design and hovercraft construction. This paid dividends with advances in rotor blade design such as

BERP rotor The BERP rotor blade design was developed under the ''British Experimental Rotor Programme''. The initial BERP rotor blades were developed in the late 1970s to mid-1980s as a joint venture programme between Westland Helicopters and the Royal Ai ...

s, later seen on the

Westland Lynx The Westland Lynx is a British multi-purpose twin-engined military helicopter designed and built by Westland Helicopters at its factory in Yeovil. Originally intended as a utility craft for both civil and naval usage, military interest led to t ...

and EH101 helicopters.

Post-1990 and the GKN buyout

In the 1990s, Westland Group was purchased by GKN Plc, which restructured the businesses before selling its shares in Westland Helicopters to

Agusta Agusta was an Italian helicopter manufacturer. It was based in Samarate, Northern Italy. The company was founded by Count Giovanni Agusta in 1923, who flew his first aeroplane in 1907. The MV Agusta motorcycle manufacturer began as an offshoot ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. Finding the advanced composite business that Westlands had developed attractive, GKN retained the other Westland companies and renamed them GKN Aerospace. During this time, FPT Industries diversified again by developing advanced materials for helicopter emergency flotation systems (EFS) and now manufactures EFS equipment for many large commercial and military helicopter types. GKN Aerospace Portsmouth, as the business is now known, still manufactures self-sealing fuel tanks, and other fuel systems as well as helicopter EFS. GKN Aerospace Portsmouth, together with Portsmouth Aviation and Hants & Sussex Aviation, are now all that remain of the once large aircraft manufacturing base at Portsmouth Airport which built aircraft such as the

Airspeed Oxford The Airspeed AS.10 Oxford is a twin-engine monoplane aircraft developed and manufactured by Airspeed Ltd, Airspeed. It saw widespread use for training Commonwealth of Nations, British Commonwealth aircrews in navigation, radio-operating, bombin ...

, the Horsa glider and components for the Hawker Siddeley Trident.

References

External links

* {{usurped,
GKN page on FPT
} Aerospace engineering organizations