Editing Brooklands (section)

=== Post-1945 ===
After the war, the circuit was in poor condition and was sold to Vickers-Armstrongs in 1946 for continued use as an aircraft factory. New aircraft types, including the [[Vickers VC.1 Viking|Viking]], [[Vickers Valetta|Valetta]], [[Vickers Varsity|Varsity]], [[Vickers Viscount|Viscount]], [[Vickers Vanguard|Vanguard]], [[BAC One-Eleven|1-11]] and [[Vickers VC10|VC10]], were subsequently, designed, manufactured and delivered from there.

In 1951, construction of a new hard runway required a section of the motor circuit's Byfleet Banking to be removed to allow [[Vickers Valiant]] [[V bomber]]s to be flown out to nearby [[Wisley Airfield]], which offered a longer [[runway]] and less built-up surroundings than Brooklands. That airfield opened as a flight test centre for Vickers in 1944, and was used until 1972, latterly by [[British Aircraft Corporation|BAC]].

After considerable expansion, due to increasing commercial success in the 1950s, the Vickers factory achieved its peak size in the early 1960s, in preparation for the VC10 manufacturing programme, and became the headquarters of the new [[British Aircraft Corporation]] in 1960. Substantial investment in the site at that time saw many new buildings constructed and existing premises modified. First, in the mid-1950s, came a new assembly hall for the Vickers Viscount, known as 'B.1', presumably because it consisted of a number of re-purposed standard war-time B.1-type hangars (together with some T.2 hangars), and was rebuilt as one long double-bay structure parallel to the runway.

By 1962, a large new {{convert|60,378|sqft|0|adj=on}} VC10 flight shed hangar was ready to house the prototype VC10 airliner, and a second, even larger, {{convert|98,989|sqft|0|adj=on}} flight shed was added alongside by 1964. The latter was probably the largest aircraft hangar in Europe at the time and became known locally as "The Cathedral", while the smaller shed was called "The Abbey". The huge factory at Brooklands went on to design and build the [[BAC TSR-2|BAC TSR.2]], [[BAC 1-11|One-Eleven]] and major assemblies for [[Concorde]].

The cancellation of the [[Vickers V-1000|V-1000]] transport in 1955, the Labour government's cancellation of the TSR-2 in 1965, and the disappointing lack of significant orders for VC10s and Concorde, saw the factory contract in the early 1970s. It became part of the newly formed [[British Aerospace]] in 1977, and focused on component manufacture for other aircraft. However, closure was announced on 29 July 1986, finally occurring on Christmas Day 1989. BAE's successor, [[BAE Systems]], retains a logistics centre at Brooklands.

In November 2009, Brooklands was featured in an episode of a BBC TV series ''[[James May's Toy Stories]]''.<ref>{{cite news |last= Talbot |first= Charlotte |date= 2 July 2013 |orig-date= 17 August 2009 |title= James May races to Scalextric world record |work= Surrey Live |url= https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/local-news/james-races-scalextric-world-record-4823100 |access-date= 5 April 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last= Portlock |first= Jonathan |date= 18 August 2009 |title= Thousands at Brooklands to see James May's Scalextric record attempt |work= Sutton & Croydon Guardian |url= https://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/4550055.thousands-at-brooklands-to-see-james-mays-scalextric-record-attempt/ |access-date= 5 April 2023 }}</ref> May undertook the task of recreating the original track using [[Scalextric]].  The show featured May's attempt to lay the plastic track through and around the variety of obstacles that have replaced the original track, including a pond, a four-lane road, several houses, fences, and [[Sony]] and [[Procter & Gamble]] corporate campuses.