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