Private flying immediately before and in the years following WWII

[BroomstickPilot]

Hi Guys,

I wonder if someone can confirm or correct my understanding of what happened to private flying between 1939 and about 1960.

To the best of my knowledge, when war became inevitable in 1939 private flying in the UK was banned and all privately owned and club aircraft became commandeered by the RAF.

During the war years there was thus no private flying. When the war ended, few of the commandeered aircraft were returned to their original owners, many of them having been used as training or liaison aircraft which were either written off by military student pilots or else destroyed by enemy action. I don't know whether any compensation was paid to the original owners of these aircraft, but rather think not.

In the years after the war, private and club flying gradually resumed mostly using government surplus Tiger Moths and Miles Magisters which could then be purchased from the government packed in crates almost for buttons.

In 1946 the Auster Company gradually went back into production producing the J1 Autocrat and later the J1N Autocrat which then began to find their way into the flying clubs.

These three types formed the backbone of private and club flying until the early sixties when the perishing of the casein glues used in their construction forced them to be either scrapped or completely rebuilt. Most clubs, however, scrapped these aircraft and re-equipped with Piper Pa22 Colts or Cessna 150s.

Can anybody please add to this or improve its accuracy?

Regards,

BP.