Dr Illitout

Why the sudden increase in the multiple letters before/after a manufactureres name?.
I have this theory that for every one that says AAAuster, somebody else says"AGGGHAuster!.
I have no experience of flying/working on an AAAAuster or a MMMMiles aircraft, so were they perfect?. I don't know.
I CAN guarantee one thing though nobody will say AAATP or 111146!!!!

Aileron Roll

Why Not !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hairyplane

H Doc,

I guess that you are a new subscriber.

Its just a bit of fun really and started with my 'MMMmmmiles' - a really nice header (?) that describes these rare and desirable British machines.

THe 'Ahhhhhh Austerrrrrrrr' thread followed on as a bit of a p@ss-take of my thread.

And sooooooooooo on........

The headers are also intriguing enough to catch ones attention sufficiently to open the thread for a peeeeeeeeeeeeeek.

'Nuff said?

HP

Dr Illitout

Thanks Hairy
I was just curious that's all!!. I know "Uncle Roger" in Flight international was always going on about Ahh deHavilland, I thought you might be related!.
Sorry but the Auster has never done it for me (A bit small) but I do agree with With the Miles bit!.
In fact in my hangar,Standing next to my Seafury under the wing of my Vulcan, being polished by Kylie Minogue is a Miles Messenger( Gloss red )!!!!!
Got to go now reality beckons!!!!

treadigraph

Ah dear old Uncle Roger!

Ahhhh de Havilland...

Mmmmmm Miles...

And perhaps... Phwoaaaaaaarrrrr Percival! (Well Gulls anyway...)

Then there's Americana! Your stutter for ten... Bbbbbbrilliant Beech... (is that non-PC? CP edit if neccessary!)

(PS: I like Austers, my first ever flight was in one: but what does Aiglet mean?)

wub

Aiglet
(n.) A tag of a lace or of the points, braids, or cords formerly used in dress. They were sometimes formed into small images. Hence, "aglet baby" (Shak.), an aglet image.
(n.) A round white staylace.

What that has to do with aeroplanes beats mmmmeee

Aerohack

Interesting question, Treadders, and one which — in many years of researching, writing and reading about Austers — I have never seen answered or even thought to ask. If the dictionary definition as quoted by Wub is the only one, it is bizarre indeed, and the only Auster name that doesn't make at least some sense in an aeronautical/role context. Since Auster has a Roman root, I wonder of Aiglet might, too? My classical education, such as it was, is too far back for me to recall. Or maybe it's 'Eaglet' in Leicestershire dialect!

BTW: not forgotten your Stampe, presently buried under heaps of stuff in the loft.

treadigraph

Hi Aerohack, welcome back! How was Singapore?

Haven't forgotten the video either, it's on my desk again... I shall nip upstairs to the postroom now and dispatch it!

Aiglet does sound Latin doesn't it? Or from the French...

Aerohack

Hot and humid, but the Tiger Beer was cold, and I even managed to watch the Portsmouth-vs-Liverpool Cup Tie in a thoroughly disreputable-looking sports bar, where I would guess I was the only Pompey supporter among the Southeast Asia branch of the Anfield Kop.

Bit of a shock returning home, though. 26C+ on departure from Changi at 2355, -5C when I got back to my car at LHR at 0545 next morning. There was me in my tropical gear (having flown out straight from work at the airshow), no de-icer of course, scraping ice off the windows with the back of my comb!

Ex Oggie

"MmmmmMiles" was of course used by Miles Aircraft as their 'buzzword' in the 1930's ads for the aircraft.

DubTrub

Auster was I think a military designation, and like a lot of English military aircraft (Tempest, Typhoon, Hurricane, Tornado etc) , it was named after a wind.

Auster is a Roman word for a light breeze.

I dissent, however, in the use of the term "light"...since when was an Auster "light"?

Aiglet I believe is an aviary term (bird) as in "Harrier, Hunter, Gnat, Arrow, Swallow" etc.

But I'm not sure.

DT

Archimedes

For some odd reason, ISTR that it (aiglet) is also a botanical definition for a catkin.

Is it French?

It's easy to assume that the French for an eaglet must be an aiglet, but the dictionary has it as an aiglon.

However, there is a place in the Pyrenees (I think) called 'Rocher d'Aiglet'. I can't imagine that anyone would really name somewhere 'Rock of obscure part of a shoe'....

Edited to add: A quick search of a couple of databases reveals that it is the Old French for an Eaglet - at least according to Webster's Dictionary 1913 edition.

Heliport

Aiglet is also the botanical term for catkin.
Still some way from flying.

Aerohack

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.

LowNSlow

Aiglet
(n.) A tag of a lace or of the points, braids, or cords formerly used in dress. They were sometimes formed into small images. Hence, "aglet baby" (Shak.), an aglet image.
(n.) A round white staylace.
(n.) Same as Aglet.
(n) Metal tag on lace or as adornment.
Botany, catkin

Metal tag on lace - steel tube airframe covered in Irish linen? Mmmm dubious connection there then
.

Aglet
The word aglet is first recorded in English in the fifteenth century. It is a borrowing of a Middle French word that literally means 'a little needle', ultimately from Latin acus 'a needle'

A needle threading it's way through the cloth of the sky as an aerobatic sequence is performed?

Arrgghh I'm off for a pint

PS As Hairyplane said, I started the Ahhhhh Austerrrr thread as a tongue in cheek partner to his MMMMMMMMiles thread

Aerohack

'Needle threading its way through the cloth of the sky' might have come from the pen of Aiglet artiste par excellence and self-proclaimed 'Scotland's' Greatest Poet' the late Ranald Porteus himself, but is doesn't make it as an explanation for the name. As originally built, the J/1B Aiglet was intended as an agricultural aircraft, not an aerbatic mount, and was virtually identical to the later J/1N Alpha. The Aiglet Trainer, which came along a year later and was based on the J/5 airframe, was the aerobat, but by then the name was already in use. A pint seems to be the best solution, and one that RP would certainly have approved!

LowNSlow

Aerohack If it was intended to be an agplane, the definition of Aiglet as a catkin makes more sense

Ooops, time for another pint

Groundgripper

I think Archimedes' old french for eaglet (as confirmed by my 1920 edition of Webster's dictionary) is the most likely - ties up with the Rochers d'Aiglet as well - as it's the nearest you can get to Auster Eaglet while maintaining the Auster tradition of having all its types names beginning with an A.