The de Havilland Aircraft Company was a British aviation manufacturer founded in 1920 when Airco of which Geoffrey de Havilland had been chief designer was sold to BSA by the owner George Holt Thomas. De Havilland then set up a company under his name in September of that year at Stag Lane Aerodrome in Edgware near London. The company later moved to Hatfield in Hertfordshire. De Havilland Aircraft Company was responsible for producing the first passenger jet and other innovative aircraft.