Textile machines to aeroplanes

In 1938 Lance Wykes, a local businessman in the textile machinery trade, set up Taylorcraft Aeroplanes (England) Limited at the Britannia Works in Thurmaston, near Leicester, to build the American Taylorcraft lightplane under licence. The design had to be reworked to meet stricter British standards, and the result was the Taylorcraft Plus C. The company spread across Leicestershire: offices in an old house called The Woodlands, fuselages and wings at Syston, sheet metal at the old En-Tout-Cas works in Thurmaston, and final assembly at Rearsby aerodrome.

The flying gunners

War gave the little monoplane a job. The army wanted aircraft from which artillery officers could direct fire, and a trials unit formed at Old Sarum in February 1940. The RAF disliked the idea, but General Alan Brooke backed it, and when imported Stinson Vigilants arrived damaged, the Taylorcraft Auster I was ordered instead. Air Observation Post squadrons, flown by Royal Artillery officers, landed in Algiers in November 1942 and went on through Italy, Normandy, the Low Countries and Burma. Some 1,604 wartime Austers were built, with the workforce peaking at about 1,600.

Named after the south wind

On 7 March 1946 the company dropped the American name and became Auster Aircraft, after the Roman name for the south wind. It stopped licensing from Taylorcraft and moved production to Rearsby. The workforce fell to about 200, but its civilian J/1 Autocrat, derived from the wartime Auster V, became one of the most successful post-war British light aircraft, with more than 400 built and exports to more than 20 countries, from Argentina to Uganda.

From Antarctica to Korea

The military Austers kept working. The AOP.6, of which around 400 were delivered, flew with 1903 Flight in Korea alongside artillery pilots from across the Commonwealth. Two T.7 trainers were modified as the Auster Antarctic for the 1956 Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition. The final military type, the AOP.9, flew on 19 March 1954 and 182 were built. Not everything worked: the low-wing B8 Agricola, built for New Zealand topdressing, lost out to the Fletcher, and only nine were made.

Into Beagle

In 1960 Peter Masefield formed British Executive and General Aviation, Beagle, which took over Auster at Rearsby and Miles at Shoreham with government support. For a time the factory traded as Beagle-Auster, and Beagle’s first products, the Terrier, Airedale and Husky, were developed from Auster designs. The Auster name was dropped in 1962, and in 1968 Beagle sold the remaining Auster spares and jigs to make room for the Pup.

Factories

• Britannia Works · Thurmaston, Leicester — Original works, 1938
• Syston works · Syston, Leicestershire — Wartime fuselage and wing manufacture
• Rearsby aerodrome · Rearsby, Leicestershire — Final assembly and flight test; sole production site after 1946

People

• Lance Wykes · founder — Leicester textile-machinery businessman
• Charles Bazeley · Royal Artillery major — Led the 1940 D Flight trials of air observation post aircraft
• Peter Masefield · founder of Beagle — Formed the group that absorbed Auster in 1960

Records and firsts

• Auster J/1 Autocrat among the most successful post-war British light aircraft, more than 400 built