English Electric (EE) was a British industrial manufacturer. Founded in 1918, it initially specialised in industrial electric motors and transformers. Its activities would expand to include railway locomotives and traction equipment, steam turbines, consumer electronics, guided missiles, aircraft and computers.
Although only a handful of aircraft designs were produced under the English Electric name, two would become landmarks in British aeronautical engineering; the Canberra and the Lightning. English Electric Aircraft would become a founding member of the British Aircraft Corporation in 1960 with the other industrial operations acquired by General Electric Company in 1968.
During the 1930s, EE supplied equipment for the electrification of the Southern Railway system, reinforcing its position in the traction market. In 1936, production of diesel locomotives commenced in the former tramworks in Preston. EE took over Vulcan Foundry and Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns, both with substantial railway engineering pedigrees, in 1955.
