Masefield’s grand plan

When Bristol Aircraft disappeared into the new British Aircraft Corporation in 1960, its managing director Peter Masefield left with a big idea: a British light aircraft industry to rival the Americans. He persuaded the Pressed Steel Company to back British Executive & General Aviation, trading as Beagle, and took over two old names, Auster at Rearsby in Leicestershire and F.G. Miles at Shoreham. Masefield talked of building between 400 and 1,000 aircraft a year. The Miles brothers thought he was building an organisation out of all proportion to the task.

Interim aeroplanes, real losses

To keep the factories busy, Beagle built updated Austers, the Airedale and the Terrier. They were old designs, slow to sell and expensive to make; the first 25 Airedales cost £511,000 to build and sold for £5,500 each, and Beagle lost almost £500,000 on the type. The intended flagship, the twin-engined B.206, flew on 15 August 1961, but the RAF order shrank from a hoped-for 120 to 20 Bassets, and only 79 were flown. In 1962 the company lost £2.1 million. George Miles resigned in 1963, calling its plans wild and chaotic.

The Pup, the Bulldog and the receiver

The aircraft that might have saved it came late. The B.121 Pup flew from Shoreham on 8 April 1967 and pilots loved it, but each of the first 150 cost about £8,850 to build, more than twice the price. British Motor Corporation inherited Beagle with Pressed Steel, the government bought it in December 1966, and in 1969 put it into receivership. Production stopped at the 152nd Pup with more than 250 on order. The military Bulldog had just won a Swedish order for 58; Scottish Aviation built it at Prestwick instead.

Factories

• Rearsby works · Rearsby, Leicestershire — Former Auster factory
• Shoreham works · Shoreham Airport, Sussex — Former F.G. Miles factory; design office and Pup line

People

• Peter Masefield · founder — Former managing director of Bristol Aircraft
• George Miles · technical director — Resigned July 1963