ABSTRACT
In April 1936 Lord Swinton, the Secretary of State for Air, called a meeting to discuss how Britain's motor manufacturers might assist in expanding output in the aircraft industry. The leading Coventry and other Midlands-based motor manufacturers accepted the invitation to use their fast-growing experience in modern production methods to expand their operations into aero-engine production becoming, in the process, the principal supplier of Bristol aero-engines. The new factories were government financed and equipped, while the motor manufacturers were paid a fee for their services as managing agents. The expansion of Coventry's motor and aircraft industries between the wars was accompanied by an upsurge in population growth, particularly from the late 1920s. The Second World War brought considerable change to the various stakeholders in Coventry's motor-vehicle industry. Under the pressure of government orders and regulations, management focused increasingly upon technical, organisational and financial aspects of volume production, while labour benefited from favourable employment opportunities and greater collective strength and authority.
