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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 0348.PDF
222 1I) Major Hereward de Havilland, D.S.O. (joint managing director), (2) J. Liddell (joint managing director). (3) A. Townsley (director). (4) P. E. Gordon-Marshall (director). (5) W. F. Shaylor (director). (6) G. H. Miles (chief designer). (7) G. B. S. Errington, O.B.E. (chief test pilot). FERRY TO AMBASSADOR . . . fighter-bombers, Seafire conversions and Mosquito 35s.In 1945 the new drawing-offices, research laboratories and technical block were at last ready for habitation. The designteam, which had moved to Christchurch from Cobham in Sep- tember, 1944, settled in and was slowly built up to deal withthe development of a modern civil airliner. The first hand- made Ambassador prototype flew in July, 1947, while the second—also the work of the experimental department—was well under way. This second prototype was pressurized and was struc-tually planned to take four turboprop units. The decision by B.E.A. to purchase piston-engined Ambassadors, however,caused the turboprop project to be dropped^ for the time being, and the second prototype flew with Centaurus engines in August,1948. The many changes and developments envisaged in the eventual production aircraft necessitated a third prototype—which was, in fact, to be made on the production lines and to be fitted with the new Centaurus 661 engines. This aircraftflew in May, 1950, and the first production aircraft for B.E.A. took the air last month. While the greatest attention was naturally focussed on theAmbassador, Airspeed had, soon after the war, realized that there would be a considerable demand for aircraft in the smallerpassenger-carrying class and that new types would not be avail- able in time to meet this demand. Hence the development of theConsul—a civil version of the Oxford. With, as was expected, the indifferent transport facilities of the immediate post-warperiod and the rapid increase .of charter work, the Consul, which could be produced quickly and cheaply, proved immenselypopular and some two hundred were sold to operators at home and abroad. This very considerable production was handled bythe Portsmouth factory which, since the war, and apart from Ambassador detail production, has been working at full pressureon the manufacture of Vampire fuselages and other sub-con- tract work for de Havfllands. Adaptation of the Vampire fortraining duties is a recent Airspeed accomplishment of particu- lar merit. Since Airspeed's formation in 1931, there have, of course,been many changes, though fourteen of the original York mem- bers of the firm still remain. Of the early management, Mr.N. S. Norway resigned before the war to devote bis time to writing and has become famous, under the nom de plume NevilShute (his first names), as a novelist. Mr. A. Hessell Tiltman resigned in 1942 and is now a director of the Tfltman-LangleyLaboratories. Capt. T. E. Laing, first on the list of those who helped to finance the company at York, was works manager atChristchurch at the time of his death, in a car accident, three years ago. Mr. A. E. Ellison, one of the initial design team atYork and responsible, as assistant chief designer, for most of the general work on the Ambassador, left the firm two yearsago to take up an appointment with the English Electric Com- pany. Of later Airspeed personalities, Mr. A. E. Hagg—to whom all the credit for the conception and initial development of theAmbassador must go~-retired from the board of the company in 1949. The present Airspeed board and management list isgiven on this page. In recent years there has been an even closer liaison betweenthe Airspeed and de Havilland companies, culminating eventually in their complete financial union. Though now very much a com-pany in the de Havilland group, the firm continues to retain independence of action in all matters except those of majorpolicy. Airspeed, in fact, and through all the vicissitudes of its career, has remained—Airspeed. PERSONALIA Directors.—W. E. Nixon(chairman), F. T. Hearle, F. E. N. St. Barbe (deHavilland directors); H. de Havilland,D.S.O., J. Liddell,Airspeed (joint managing directors); A. Townsley,P. E. Gordon-Marshall, W. F. Shaylor. Management.—G. H.Miles (chief designer), H. V. Clarke (chief engineer),G. B. S. Errington, O.B.E. (chief test pilot), H. W.Denny (works manager, Portsmouth), F. J. Jupp(works manager, Christ - church), J. Johnston (chiefdraughtsman), J. F. Foss (chief aerodynamicist),R. A. H. Johnson (chief structures engineer), W. W.Warner (service manager), H. A. Taylor (public rela-tions and technical sales). Old-timers personnel whomere at the York factory and are still with the firm).— F. G. Cutter (personnelmanager), C. Wright (wood- work sub-foreman), R. W.Jones (senior inspector), G. H. Cherry (aircraft in-spector), W. Taylor (plan- ning engineer), R. M. Renton(aircraft inspector), J. E. Collins (foreman fitter), R.Durkin (machine-shop fore- man), G. Wrigley (aircraftinspector), W. Gee (wood- work inspector), T. A.Wilkinson (wood-detail in- spector), R. Watson (outsidetechnical .representative), S. Morris (aircraft inspector),G. Elliott (rate-fixer). The three last-named are at theChristchurch factory, near Bournemouth; the others areat Portsmouth. — AND PRODUCTION War Production Oxfords.—At Portsmouth, 4,411; Christchurch, 550 ; Hat- field, 1,515 ; by Standard Motor Co., Ltd., and Percival Air- craft, Ltd., 2,275. Total, 8,751. Rebuilt by daughter firms, 2,576. Horsas.—At Christchurch, 695; sub-contracted, and assembled by R.A.F., 2,960. Total, 3,655. Post-war Production Consols, 138; Consul ambu- lances, 23; Oxford conversions, sundry, 46. Total, 207. " Pre-Oxford " Production (Aircraft produced between 1932 and 1937) Ferry, 4 ; Courier, 16 ; Envoy I,18 ; Envoy II, 12 j Envoy III, 13.
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