DubTrub Is quite right. The name was adopted when the Ministry of Aircraft Production insisted that the A.O.P. version of the Taylorcraft Plus D should have a 'proper' name rather than just a letter designation. Lance Wykes and his fellow directors at Taylorcraft Aeroplanes (England) Ltd initially settled on ‘Icarus’, until someone pointed out that the son of Daedalus had made but one flight, and that fatal. The contemporary popularity of names of winds (Hurricane, Whirlwind) provided the final inspiration, and a Roman word for a warm, dry south-westerly was chosen: Auster.