British Aircraft Company
Encyclopedia
The British Aircraft Company was a British aircraft manufacturer based in Maidstone
. It was founded by C H Lowe-Wylde and produced gliders and light aircraft during the 1930s.
"A" gliding certificate, on 30 March 1930, flying a primary glider
of his own design, built in five weeks by members of the Kent Gliding Club and named "Columbus". The glider was first flown at Detling
on 23 February 1930.
Lowe-Wylde set up the British Aircraft Company in mid-1930, with works in an old brewery at Lower Stone Street, Maidstone
. The first true B.A.C. aircraft was another primary, the B.A.C. I, again used by the Kent Gliding Club.
The B.A.C. II was also a primary, but instead of an open girder-type frame, it had a box spar fuselage. This first flew at Lenham
on 21 September 1930 and about fifteen were sold, including one in Jamaica
. Lowe-Wylde would deliver the gliders personally and demonstrate them at the club's site (and if necessary take the pieces home for repair the same day).
The B.A.C. III consisted of the wings and tail from the B.A.C. II combined with a fuselage enclosing the pilot. First flying at Lenham on 12 October 1930, two went to the Glasgow and Accrington gliding clubs, while three further clubs had their B.A.C. II primaries delivered along with alternative B.A.C. III fuselages, so they could be flown in either configuration.
B.A.C. Ltd was registered as a Limited Company on 4 March 1931; directors were C H Lowe-Wylde, K Barcham Green and Mrs Sheila M Green. Around this time Lowe-Wylde was developing the principle of launching gliders by towing them using a powerful car. Giving demonstrations around the country, his Bentley
, driven by Mrs Green, was able to launch him to a height of 300ft, thus making hill sites and bungy-launch teams unnecessary. A public demonstration of this on the Brooklands
Race Track's Finishing Straight on 9 April 1931 was filmed by British Pathe and almost ended in disaster when Lowe-Wylde clipped the port wing as he made an impressive landing under a footbridge! A school of auto-towed instruction was started at West Malling
. The Sopwith Dove G-EBKY (now with the Shuttleworth Collection
) was also used for aero-towing.
An improved version of the B.A.C. III appearing in April 1931 was the B.A.C. IV with longer, tapered wings. One was sold to Mr C M C Turner of the Channel Gliding Club. For an intended channel crossing. it was towed to 10,000ft by Sqn Ldr Probyn in his Westland Widgeon G-EBRQ on 18 June 1931, but this was not high enough for the planned flight.
The B.A.C. V was simply a B.A.C. III equipped with a pair of wheels for auto-towing. One was built for the Border Gliding Club, while the Preston & District club converted their B.A.C. III for towing off the beach at Middleton Sands, Heysham
. However this aircraft crashed there fatally on 15 May 1932.
When the B.A.C. IV was fitted with wheels, it was known as the B.A.C. VI. One was soared by Wolf Hirth
at Balsdean
on 1 April 1931 for 2hrs 13min.
The Taunton & West Somerset Gliding Club was presented with a B.A.C. VI by their president, Lt. Col. Hamilton Gault, M.P., which was first demonstrated for the club by Mr Lowe-Wylde on 9 July 1931.
On 12 April 1931 the first two-seat B.A.C. VII flew, still using the 40ft 10in span wings of the B.A.C. IV and VI, but with a new fuselage and an aircraft-type twin-wheel undercarriage for aero- or auto-towing.
A B.A.C. VII sponsored by novelist Barbara Cartland
was intended to compete for the Daily Mail
cross-channel competition prize, but in trials, flown by Edward Mole and towed by DH.60 Moth G-AAPA of National Flying Services, the combination was unable to get above 6,000ft, insufficient height for a crossing, so instead a towed flight was made from Maidstone
to Reading
on 20 June 1931. (Robert Kronfeld
made a successful channel crossing the same day.)
The RAF Pageant held at Hendon
on 25 June 1932 included a display by three B.A.C. VII gliders.
At the British Gliding Association
meeting at Huish/Pewsey Hill, G E Collins – the BGA instructor, made the first thermal-soaring flights in the UK, with a cross-country flight of 6 miles in a B.A.C. VII on 3 July 1933.
Some B.A.C. VIIs were sold as kits, including one built in Palestine
, and a replica was built by Michael Maufe in the 1980s, using the wings from a Drone.
The B.A.C. VIII was a two-seat flying boat glider using B.A.C. VII wings and tail. Nicknamed the "Bat-Boat" after similar craft described in a short story by Rudyard Kipling
, it was tested in August 1931 by being towed behind a speed-boat on the River Medway
at Rochester. On 7 December that year it was demonstrated from the Welsh Harp
reservoir at Hendon
.
The last of Lowe-Wylde's glider designs was the B.A.C. IX, a lightweight sailplane designed for possible home building. One only was built, first flown at Balsdean on 4 Oct 1931. The Kent Gliding Club were hoping to acquire it in 1933, but nothing more is known.
In 1932 the prototype Percival Gull
, G-ABUR, was built in the B.A.C. works at Maidstone.
engine driving a pusher propellor. The first two were demonstrated at London Air Park on 27 November 1932.
On 13 May 1933 Lowe-Wylde was killed in an accident while flying a Planette at Maidstone Airport
. Robert Kronfeld
took over the company and started modifying the surviving Planettes to produce a more practical single-seat light aeroplane known as the B.A.C. Drone.
The firm moved to a new factory at London Air Park
(Hanworth
), and became the British Aircraft Company (1935) Ltd. The Drone went into quantity production in 1935.
On 21 May 1936 the company was renamed as Kronfeld Ltd.
The Drone was also built under licence at Issy les Moulineaux in France by the Societe Francaise des Avions Nouvelles (SFAN), and at Ghent
in Belgium by the Societe Gantoise des Avions sans Moteur.
Maidstone
Maidstone is the county town of Kent, England, south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town linking Maidstone to Rochester and the Thames Estuary. Historically, the river was a source and route for much of the town's trade. Maidstone was the centre of the agricultural...
. It was founded by C H Lowe-Wylde and produced gliders and light aircraft during the 1930s.
Glider production
Charles H Lowe-Wylde was the first person in Britain to earn the F.A.I.Fédération Aéronautique Internationale
The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale is the world governing body for air sports and aeronautics and astronautics world records. Its head office is in Lausanne, Switzerland. This includes man-carrying aerospace vehicles from balloons to spacecraft, and unmanned aerial vehicles...
"A" gliding certificate, on 30 March 1930, flying a primary glider
Primary glider
Primary gliders are a category of aircraft that enjoyed worldwide popularity during the 1920s and 1930s as people strove for simple and inexpensive ways to learn to fly....
of his own design, built in five weeks by members of the Kent Gliding Club and named "Columbus". The glider was first flown at Detling
RAF Detling
RAF Detling was a station of the Royal Naval Air Service in World War I and the Royal Air Force in World War II. Situated 600 feet above sea level, it is located near Detling, a village about three miles north-east of Maidstone, in Kent....
on 23 February 1930.
Lowe-Wylde set up the British Aircraft Company in mid-1930, with works in an old brewery at Lower Stone Street, Maidstone
Maidstone
Maidstone is the county town of Kent, England, south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town linking Maidstone to Rochester and the Thames Estuary. Historically, the river was a source and route for much of the town's trade. Maidstone was the centre of the agricultural...
. The first true B.A.C. aircraft was another primary, the B.A.C. I, again used by the Kent Gliding Club.
The B.A.C. II was also a primary, but instead of an open girder-type frame, it had a box spar fuselage. This first flew at Lenham
Lenham
Lenham is a market village in Kent situated on the southern edge of the North Downs, halfway between Maidstone and Ashford. The picturesque square in the village has two public houses , a couple of restaurants, and a tea-room....
on 21 September 1930 and about fifteen were sold, including one in Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
. Lowe-Wylde would deliver the gliders personally and demonstrate them at the club's site (and if necessary take the pieces home for repair the same day).
The B.A.C. III consisted of the wings and tail from the B.A.C. II combined with a fuselage enclosing the pilot. First flying at Lenham on 12 October 1930, two went to the Glasgow and Accrington gliding clubs, while three further clubs had their B.A.C. II primaries delivered along with alternative B.A.C. III fuselages, so they could be flown in either configuration.
B.A.C. Ltd was registered as a Limited Company on 4 March 1931; directors were C H Lowe-Wylde, K Barcham Green and Mrs Sheila M Green. Around this time Lowe-Wylde was developing the principle of launching gliders by towing them using a powerful car. Giving demonstrations around the country, his Bentley
Bentley
Bentley Motors Limited is a British manufacturer of automobiles founded on 18 January 1919 by Walter Owen Bentley known as W.O. Bentley or just "W O". Bentley had been previously known for his range of rotary aero-engines in World War I, the most famous being the Bentley BR1 as used in later...
, driven by Mrs Green, was able to launch him to a height of 300ft, thus making hill sites and bungy-launch teams unnecessary. A public demonstration of this on the Brooklands
Brooklands
Brooklands was a motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England. It opened in 1907, and was the world's first purpose-built motorsport venue, as well as one of Britain's first airfields...
Race Track's Finishing Straight on 9 April 1931 was filmed by British Pathe and almost ended in disaster when Lowe-Wylde clipped the port wing as he made an impressive landing under a footbridge! A school of auto-towed instruction was started at West Malling
RAF West Malling
RAF West Malling was a Royal Air Force station near West Malling in Kent, England.Originally used as a landing area during the first World War, the site opened as a private landing ground and in 1930, then known as Kingshill, home to the Maidstone School of Flying, before being renamed West Malling...
. The Sopwith Dove G-EBKY (now with the Shuttleworth Collection
Shuttleworth Collection
The Shuttleworth Collection is an aeronautical and automotive museum located at the Old Warden airfield in Bedfordshire, England. It is one of the most prestigious in the world due to the variety of old and well-preserved aircraft.- History :...
) was also used for aero-towing.
An improved version of the B.A.C. III appearing in April 1931 was the B.A.C. IV with longer, tapered wings. One was sold to Mr C M C Turner of the Channel Gliding Club. For an intended channel crossing. it was towed to 10,000ft by Sqn Ldr Probyn in his Westland Widgeon G-EBRQ on 18 June 1931, but this was not high enough for the planned flight.
The B.A.C. V was simply a B.A.C. III equipped with a pair of wheels for auto-towing. One was built for the Border Gliding Club, while the Preston & District club converted their B.A.C. III for towing off the beach at Middleton Sands, Heysham
Heysham
Heysham is a large coastal village near Lancaster in the county of Lancashire, England. Overlooking Morecambe Bay, it is a ferry port with services to the Isle of Man and Ireland. Heysham is the site of two nuclear power stations which are landmarks visible from hills in the surrounding area...
. However this aircraft crashed there fatally on 15 May 1932.
When the B.A.C. IV was fitted with wheels, it was known as the B.A.C. VI. One was soared by Wolf Hirth
Wolf Hirth
Wolfram Kurt Erhard Hirth was a German gliding pioneer and sailplane designer. He was a co-founder of Schempp-Hirth, still a renowned glider manufacturer....
at Balsdean
Balsdean
Balsdean is a deserted hamlet in a remote downland valley east of Brighton, East Sussex, England, on record since about 1100. It was formerly a chapelry of the parish of Rottingdean, and its territory touched that of the mother parish only at a single point...
on 1 April 1931 for 2hrs 13min.
The Taunton & West Somerset Gliding Club was presented with a B.A.C. VI by their president, Lt. Col. Hamilton Gault, M.P., which was first demonstrated for the club by Mr Lowe-Wylde on 9 July 1931.
On 12 April 1931 the first two-seat B.A.C. VII flew, still using the 40ft 10in span wings of the B.A.C. IV and VI, but with a new fuselage and an aircraft-type twin-wheel undercarriage for aero- or auto-towing.
A B.A.C. VII sponsored by novelist Barbara Cartland
Barbara Cartland
Dame Barbara Hamilton Cartland, DBE, CStJ , was an English author, one of the most prolific authors of the 20th century...
was intended to compete for the Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
cross-channel competition prize, but in trials, flown by Edward Mole and towed by DH.60 Moth G-AAPA of National Flying Services, the combination was unable to get above 6,000ft, insufficient height for a crossing, so instead a towed flight was made from Maidstone
Maidstone
Maidstone is the county town of Kent, England, south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town linking Maidstone to Rochester and the Thames Estuary. Historically, the river was a source and route for much of the town's trade. Maidstone was the centre of the agricultural...
to Reading
Reading, Berkshire
Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....
on 20 June 1931. (Robert Kronfeld
Robert Kronfeld
Squadron Leader Robert Kronfeld, AFC, was an Austrian-born gliding champion and sailplane designer of the 1920s and 30s. He became a British subject and an RAF test pilot...
made a successful channel crossing the same day.)
The RAF Pageant held at Hendon
Hendon Aerodrome
Hendon Aerodrome was an aerodrome in Hendon, north London, England that, between 1908 and 1968, was an important centre for aviation.It was situated in Colindale, seven miles north west of Charing Cross. It nearly became "the Charing Cross of the UK's international air routes", but for the...
on 25 June 1932 included a display by three B.A.C. VII gliders.
At the British Gliding Association
British Gliding Association
The British Gliding Association is the governing body for gliding in the United Kingdom. Gliding in the United Kingdom operates through 85 gliding clubs which have 2,310 gliders and 9,462 full flying members , though a further 17,000 people have gliding air-experience flights each year.-History:A...
meeting at Huish/Pewsey Hill, G E Collins – the BGA instructor, made the first thermal-soaring flights in the UK, with a cross-country flight of 6 miles in a B.A.C. VII on 3 July 1933.
Some B.A.C. VIIs were sold as kits, including one built in Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
, and a replica was built by Michael Maufe in the 1980s, using the wings from a Drone.
The B.A.C. VIII was a two-seat flying boat glider using B.A.C. VII wings and tail. Nicknamed the "Bat-Boat" after similar craft described in a short story by Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
, it was tested in August 1931 by being towed behind a speed-boat on the River Medway
River Medway
The River Medway, which is almost entirely in Kent, England, flows for from just inside the West Sussex border to the point where it enters the Thames Estuary....
at Rochester. On 7 December that year it was demonstrated from the Welsh Harp
Brent Reservoir
The Brent Reservoir is a reservoir which straddles the boundary between the London boroughs of Brent and Barnet and is owned by British Waterways...
reservoir at Hendon
Hendon
Hendon is a London suburb situated northwest of Charing Cross.-History:Hendon was historically a civil parish in the county of Middlesex. The manor is described in Domesday , but the name, 'Hendun' meaning 'at the highest hill', is earlier...
.
The last of Lowe-Wylde's glider designs was the B.A.C. IX, a lightweight sailplane designed for possible home building. One only was built, first flown at Balsdean on 4 Oct 1931. The Kent Gliding Club were hoping to acquire it in 1933, but nothing more is known.
In 1932 the prototype Percival Gull
Percival Gull
The Percival Gull was a British single-engined monoplane, first flown in 1932. It was successful as a fast company transport, racing aircraft and long-range record breaker. It was developed into the Vega Gull and the Proctor.-Design and development:...
, G-ABUR, was built in the B.A.C. works at Maidstone.
Powered aircraft
In Autumn 1932 the four B.A.C. Planettes appeared; these were conversions of B.A.C. VIIs fitted with a 600cc DouglasDouglas (motorcycles)
Douglas was a British motorcycle manufacturer from 1907–1957 based in Kingswood, Bristol, owned by the Douglas family, and especially known for its horizontally opposed twin cylinder engined bikes and as manufacturers of speedway machines...
engine driving a pusher propellor. The first two were demonstrated at London Air Park on 27 November 1932.
On 13 May 1933 Lowe-Wylde was killed in an accident while flying a Planette at Maidstone Airport
RAF West Malling
RAF West Malling was a Royal Air Force station near West Malling in Kent, England.Originally used as a landing area during the first World War, the site opened as a private landing ground and in 1930, then known as Kingshill, home to the Maidstone School of Flying, before being renamed West Malling...
. Robert Kronfeld
Robert Kronfeld
Squadron Leader Robert Kronfeld, AFC, was an Austrian-born gliding champion and sailplane designer of the 1920s and 30s. He became a British subject and an RAF test pilot...
took over the company and started modifying the surviving Planettes to produce a more practical single-seat light aeroplane known as the B.A.C. Drone.
The firm moved to a new factory at London Air Park
London Air Park
London Air Park, also known as Hanworth Air Park, was a grass airfield, operational 1917-1919 and 1929-1947. It was situated on the southeastern edge of Feltham, now part of the London Borough of Hounslow...
(Hanworth
Hanworth
Hanworth lies to the south east of Feltham in the London Borough of Hounslow. The name is thought to come from the Anglo Saxon words “haen” and “worth”, meaning “small homestead”....
), and became the British Aircraft Company (1935) Ltd. The Drone went into quantity production in 1935.
On 21 May 1936 the company was renamed as Kronfeld Ltd.
The Drone was also built under licence at Issy les Moulineaux in France by the Societe Francaise des Avions Nouvelles (SFAN), and at Ghent
Ghent
Ghent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys and in the Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of...
in Belgium by the Societe Gantoise des Avions sans Moteur.