page_title: Matthew Slattery
section_title: Business career
hierarchical_section_title: Matthew Slattery / Business career
caption_attribution_description: English: BOAC Bristol Britannia 312 G-AOVP landing at Manchester (Ringway) Airport
context_page_description: Rear-Admiral Sir Matthew Sausse Slattery, KBE, CB, FRAeS was a British naval officer, military aviator and businessman. He was the managing director and chairman of Short Brothers and Harland, chairman of British Overseas Airways Corporation and latterly served as chairman of Hawthorn Leslie and Company. He was also a board member of Bristol Aeroplane Company and The National Bank.
context_section_description: Slattery's business interests directly related to his military work; he was directly involved with aerospace and shipbuilding industries when he retired from active service.
  His first role, and that which he would hold for longest, was as managing director of the Northern Ireland-based Short Brothers and Harland, a role that he took up in 1948. He served solely as managing director until 1952, then additionally took on the role of chairman. Short Brothers and Harland main work was manufacturing aircraft under contract and licence agreements with the Ministry of Supply and other aircraft builders. He was joined at Short Brothers and Harland by the naval aviator Captain Henry St John Fancourt, who served under Slattery as the Deputy Chief Naval Representative, Ministry of Aircraft Production.
  Slattery led Short Brothers and Harland at a time when they developed a number of experimental aircraft designs, though none would see significant production. The Short SC.1 was one of a number of experimental designs produced by Shorts, and is notable for being Britain's first vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft. The SC.1 pre-dated (and aided in the development of) the Hawker Siddeley Harrier.
  He was appointed by Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Harold Macmillan in 1957 to become a special adviser on the transport of Middle East oil, with a brief on advising the Government how to avoid supply and delivery difficulties of the sort which had been encountered during the Suez Crisis.
  Slattery was elected to the board of Bristol, and appointed chairman of Bristol's aircraft manufacturing subsidiary, the Bristol Airplane Company in 1957. Bristol (which had established a 15.25% shareholding in Short Brothers and Harland in 1954) would sign an agreement with Slattery for the production of the Bristol Britannia; at first it was expected that the turboprop airliner would be a sales success and the additional production line would be necessary to meet customer demand. The prolonged and troubled development of the Britannia resulted in the design being quickly overtaken by the Boeing 707, Douglas DC-8 and for British customers in particular, the Vickers VC10. Short Brothers developed the Britannia into the Britannic 1, making use of many Britannia components including the wing and landing gear. The Britannic 1 was developed into the Britannic 3A (entering service as the Shorts Belfast) and had far less in common with the Britannia.
  Just prior to his appointment with BOAC, he had taken up a position as a director of The National Bank, continuing the close association of the Slattery family with the bank. He would return to The National Bank after his period with BOAC.
  Slattery took over as chairman of the state owned carrier BOAC on 29 July 1960, after Gerard d'Erlanger stood down from the role to return to his other business interests. Slattery served as chairman on a full-time basis unlike d'Erlanger, who held the position on a part-time basis. The appointment to BOAC ended Slattery's 12 years with Shorts, he was replaced as chairman by his predecessor as Bristol Aircraft chairman, Cyril Uwins. Slattery also joined the Airworthiness Requirements Board around the time of his appointment with BOAC.
  Slattery retained Basil Smallpeice as managing director, and the duo set about cutting costs at the airline as the deterioration which had begun under d'Erlanger's tenure continued. BOAC would incur significant losses in 1961 and 1962 amidst decreasing passenger loadings, comparatively high maintenance costs and ongoing payments to Vickers for the VC10 orders.
  Basil Smallpeice, concerned about the financial performance of BOAC, the additional competition from Cunard Eagle Airways and the inability to obtain additional Boeing 707 aircraft any other way, began talks in April 1962 to merge BOAC's North Atlantic operations with those of Cunard Eagle. Agreement was reached in early June 1962 on ownership percentages, and the newly formed company, BOAC-Cunard, began operations later that month. The new airline would operate all the transatlanti
caption: Bristol Britannia - Slattery oversaw their production as Bristol Aircraft chairman and then their operation as BOAC chairman
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