Roy Fedden was one of the leading British aircraft engine designers from the 1920s to the 1940s, he was however handicapped by ending up working for the Bristol Aeroplane Company which was run by relatives of the founder who had all inherited the company and knew little if anything about the business, either engines in particular or business in general really. Lord Brabazon apparently dismissively referred to them as 'the Cousins' and they seem to have been resistant to general common sense or government pressure when it cam to running the company. Fedden only came to work for Bristol though when Cosmos Engineering, the company he was working for, ran into financial trouble after the Great War and the Air Ministry, being convinced of the quality of the Cosmos designs, "made it be known" that they would be rather happy if the company were purchased by Bristol. Which is a nice way of saying they told them that if they really wanted to stay on their good side, as their main customer, it might be a rather nice idea to buy them, so in 1920 they acquired the company for the grand total of £15,000 which included all their assets, engine designs, Fedden and his design team. Which looking back on things was a bit of a steal.
Now earlier on Fedden had apparently been offered a senior design position by Rolls-Royce but he turned them down and a popular what if seems to be if he had taken them up on their offer, Rolls-Royce however managed to do exceedingly well by themselves with their Merlin engine and after the war so that doesn't really interest me as much. What I'm looking for is some likely candidates to buy Cosmos Engineering and what some of the knock-on effects might be if Fedden is backed by a more supportive company. So who was there out there that the Air Ministry might of turned to as a white knight?