In 1960, Bill Strang was appointed a director and Chief Engineer (Filton Division) of the Bristol Aeroplane Co. Ltd. In the same year, Strang, together with (Sir) Archibald Russell and Mick Wilde, became involved in discussions with representatives from Sud Aviation, the French aerospace company based in Toulouse, France.. The French had been studying a smaller aircraft carrying 60–70 passengers over a range of 1900 nautical miles , whereas the British team envisaged a much longer transatlantic-range aircraft carrying 130 passengers, so there were substantial differences.