The UK Aviation Heritage

[MReyn24050]

Yozzer wrote at Post # 1051 of What Cockpit V:- "The prospective A-Z was a good reminder of the nations once fine Aviation Heritage, and a sad reflection of what is has become:"
The following is a list of Companies that built this heritage, this does not include the amalgamated companies such as BAC or BAe.There are I am certain other Companies missing from the list that designed and built aircraft.
Avro
Armstrong Whitworth
Auster
Airspeed
Aviation Traders
Bristol
Blackburn
Boulton Paul
Beagle
Britten-Norman
Chrislea Aircraft Co Ltd
Comper Aircraft Co Ltd
Cunliffe Owen
De Havilland
Edgley Aircraft Co Ltd
English Electric
Fairey
Folland
Gloster
Grahame-White Aviation Co. Ltd
Handley Page
Hawker
Hunting
Luton
Martinsyde Ltd
Miles
Parnall
Percival
Rollason
Royal Aircraft Factory
Saunders Roe
Scottish Aviation
Shorts
Slingsby
Sopwith
Supermarine
Vickers
Westland
List amended to include the points raised by bral, Kieron Kirk and treadigraph for which I am most grateful. Any other omissions please advise.

[Kieron Kirk]

Ouch!
Must mention Scottish Aviation.

Kieron.

ps.I wonder how many other small companies also designed and built a/c.
pps.I am not Scottish despite my surname!
ppps.Cunliffe Owen-----------------------------------------Help!

[treadigraph]

Rollason
Slingsby

Well, OK, perhaps they built French, Belgian and German powered designs but Slingsby certainly designed some nice gliders...

[Kitbag]

OK, but as well as the airframe designers/manufacturers don't forget all the companies building engines, hydraulic components, electrics/avionics, propellors, tyres, brakes, undercarriages etc and I might mention all those expensive precision fasteners as well.

[MReyn24050]

Agreed, will try to list them
Mel

[Opssys]

On the Glider front Elliotts of Newbury (EoN)
I suppose Wallis should be included and possibly Cierva (the 1970's one)

[Malcolm G O Payne]

In the back of my mind Elliots built a powered aircraft called the Eon, but didn't proceed with production. Or maybe my memory is wandering.

[wz662]

OK they are now better known as suppliers of parts rather than aircraft manufacturers but ML and Martin Baker should be on the list.
ML built the 'Utility' also known as the Durex delta (hardly a classic aircraft but it did fly - just) and one of its subsiduary comapnies, R Malcolm Ltd bulit the Rotabuggy flying Jeep, another not altogether successful flying machine.

[treadigraph]

Malcolm I'm pretty certain it was the EoN Newbury G-AKBC. G-INFO lists it as a glider, but I am sure it was a fixed gear, four seat single engined light aircraft. British Civil Aircraft Vol II not to hand at the moment, so can't check!

Edited to say: no it was indeed the Newbury Eon, BCA Vol III has a pic which says so on the side! Built by EoN though but listed under Newbury. First flew in '47, destroyed after a pilotless takeoff at Eastleigh in '50.

[Cypherus]

Proud part owner of Oly 2b BGA 545, I rebuilt from matchwood after our 'What no Hurricane....Hurricane' tore it to shreds, full service history too back to day one, now there is a first..or maybe not..:)

[kevmusic]

From the First World War - Robey-Peters, Frederick Sage & Co. Ltd. and Siddeley (of Siskin fame) :)

[henry crun]

Caution, thread drift.

Cypherus: I have fond memories of flying a RAFGSA Olly 2A, are there any of them still flying ?

[Captain Airclues]

One more for the list;

The Chilton Aircraft Company, Chilton Foliate, nr Hungerford.

www.nerou.pfanet.co.uk/

Airclues

[wz662]

Three more for the list

BA (British aircraft?) for their Swallow and Eagle
Beardmore and their Inflexible
Hillson and their Praga.

Should the Taylorcraft-Auster be there?

[Cypherus]

Henry, 545 was rather an oddity, one of the few earmarked in 1936 for the olympic gliding competitions that never happened, it was placed in storage untill well after WWII in kit form before finally being put together in 1947, from that point it's history is noted in the logs and makes fine reading, I came across it when it was put up for sale a few weeks before our local blow and as a syndicate parted with money for it, but never actually got to fly it before it was wrecked along with a large number of other gliders at the field.

This one ended up at the bottom of a large pile of wrecked trailers almost totally crushed, general concensus as it was not insured was to 'burn the thing' and buy something else, anyway not knowing any better at the time I stubbournly refused to allow this and set about with two other syndicate members the year long process of rebuilding it back to flight.

First problem we came across though is that there are no plans available for this model and the ply it was originally constructed from is no longer made, an odd type with two thin outer skins and a thick almost balsa like inner core, this was the only compromise we were forced to make in using modern plys, everything that was left had to be meticulously pieced together to make a template for a new part, the end result was a delight to fly from the first, and I spent many hours scratching around the area in conditions most gliders would have landed out in as it was soon found it could out climb and out turn even the most modern hot ships as long as you stayed below 32 knots.

Will have to check with the syndicate members to see when she was last flown though but as far as I am aware unless they crashed it of late it's still airworthy, not certain how many are still in similar condition, at the time we located at least three others worldwide as far afield as Austrailia with a German club of sorts dedicated to it, not a suprise really as this was supposed to have been the standard type for the games, Piggots former competition EoN 401 was also at the field around that time too having been cut down rather crudley from 18mts to 15 mts, thats still flying also.

[muggins]

Beardmore?

Mostly built aicraft under contract, but designed and built the 'inflexible'. Also builders of the R34 airship

[MReyn24050]

Having done some further research I found the following list of Major and Minor Aircraft Manufacturers of Great Britain.This list was produced by Chris Thornburg of the USA and further details can be found on worldairforces.com. It certainly includes a great many more than my original list.
Admiralty Air Department
Aircraft Disposal Co.
Airco: Aircraft Manufacturing Co. Ltd.
Airship Industries Ltd.
Airspeed Ltd.
Alliance Aero Co. Ltd.
Auster Aircraft Ltd.
Austin Motor Co. Ltd.
A.V.Roe and Co.
Armstrong Whitworth
British & Colonial Aeroplane Co. Ltd.
British Aircraft Mfg. Co.
British Aircraft Corp. Ltd.
British Aerospace
Barclay, Curle
Beagle: British Executive & General Aviation Ltd.
Beardmore
Berwick
Birmingham Carriage & Wagon Co.
Blackburn Aeroplane & Motor Co.
Bleriot & Spad Aircraft Works
Boulton Paul Aircraft Ltd.
Bristol Aeroplane Co.
British Aerial Transport Co. Ltd.
British Aircraft Co.
British Army
British Deperdussin Aeroplane Co.
British Wright Co. Ltd.
Britten-Norman
Brush Electrical Engineering Co. Ltd.
Chilton Aircraft Co.
Cierva Autogiro Co.
Comper Aircraft Co. Ltd.
Coventry Ordance Works
Cunliffe-Owen Aircraft
CW Aircraft Ltd.
Daimler Ltd.
De Havilland Aircraft Co.
Denny, William
Desoutter Aircraft Co. Ltd.
Dick, Kerr & Co.
Dunne
Eastbourne Aviation Co.
Edgar Percival Aircraft Ltd.
Edgley Aircraft
English Electric Co.
Eon.Elliots of Newbury
Fairey Aviation Co. Ltd.
Fane Aircraft Co.
Felixstowe
Flanders
Folland Aircraft Ltd.
Fostner Wikner Aircraft Co. Ltd.
Gordon England
General Aircraft Co. Ltd.
Garrett
Gloster Aircraft Co.
Gosport Aircraft Co.
Grahame-White Aviation Co. Ltd.
Handley Page Ltd.
Harris & Sheldon
Hawker Aircraft Ltd.
Hawker Siddeley Group
Hawkesley, A.W.
Henderson Scottish Aviation Factory Ltd.
Hendy Aircraft Co.
Heston Aircraft Co. Ltd.
Hewlet & Blondeau Ltd.
Hills, F.
Hillson: Hills & Son
Hooper & Co.
Joucques Aviation Co.
Kingsburg
Klemm
London Aircraft Production Group
London Aircraft Co. Ltd.
Luton Aircraft Ltd.
March, Jones & Cribb
Marshall & Sons
Martin-Baker Aircraft Ltd.
Martinsyde Ltd.
May, Harden & May
Mann, Egerton & Co.
Metropolitan Waggon Co.
Miles Aircraft Ltd.
Mono Spar Co.
Morgan & Co.
Morris Motors
Napier & Miller
Napier & Son, D.
National Aircraft Factories
Nieuport & General Aircraft Co.
Norman Aeroplane Co.
Norman Thompson Flight Co.
Oakley
Optica
Phillips & Powis Aircraft Ltd.
Parnall Aircraft Ltd.
Pegler & Co. Ltd
Pemberton-Billing Ltd.
Percival Aircraft Co. Ltd.
Phoenix Aircraft Ltd.
Phoenix Dynamo Mfg. Co.
Pobjoy Airmotors & Aircraft Ltd.
Port Victoria
Portholme Aerodrome Ltd.
Portsmouth Aviation Ltd.
Royal Aircraft Factory
Ransome, Sims & Jerffries
Regent Carriage Co. Ltd.
Reid & Sigrist
Robey & Co.
Robinson Aircraft Co. Ltd.
Rootes
Rotorcraft
Ruston, Proctor & Co.
Sage
Scottish Aviation Ltd.
Sanderson & Co., Angus
Saunders-Roe Ltd.
Savages Ltd.
Short Brothers Ltd./Shorts
Siddeley-Deasy Motor Car Co. Ltd.
Slingsby Aviation Ltd.
Sopwith Aviation Co.
Southern Aircraft Ltd.
Spartan Aircraft Ltd.
Standard Motor Co. Ltd.
Sunbeam Motor Car Co.
Supermarine Aviation Works Ltd.
Taylorcraft Aeroplanes (England) Ltd.
Trago Mills Ltd.
UK Caudron
Vickers (Aviation) Ltd.
Vulcan Motor & Engineering Co. Ltd.
Wallis Autogyros Ltd.
Waring & Gillow
Weir, G. & J.
Wells Aviation Co.
Westland Aircraft Ltd.
White, J. Samuel/ Wight
Whitehead Aircraft Co.
Wolseley Motors Ltd.

[Captain Airclues]

So where did it all go wrong then?

[Moose47]

G'day Chaps

Here are a few more for you.

Cheers...Chris

Aviation Traders
British Aerial Transport
T.B. Andre & Co. Ltd

[Kitbag]

This site may be of interest: http://www.britishaircraft.co.uk/company.php

[Double Zero]

You might add the Lock-Spieser canard small cargo aircraft - only one was built but it looked a good idea !

Pallet - loaded, the prototype was destroyed in the 'mysterious' fire at Old Sarum where the Optica was being developed - until a police pilot found out the hard way that 'low stall' does not mean ' no stall'...

The last Optica I saw, in nearly airworthy condition, was stored at Dunsfold until recently.

As John Farley was involved to a degree in the flight testing, it presumably had promise, though I've never heard of his thoughts on the subject.

Apparently much better for the police to flog around in expensive helicopters, throwing taxpayers money into the boiler room...