Spartan Aircraft Limited
TypeLimited company
IndustryAircraft manufacturing
PredecessorSimmonds Aircraft
FoundedWoolston, Hampshire, UK 1930 (1930)
FounderOliver Simmonds
FateMerged with Saunders Roe, 1935
ProductsCivil aircraft

Spartan Aircraft Limited was a British aircraft manufacturer from 1930 to 1935. It was formed by reinvestment in Simmonds Aircraft which had suffered financially.

History

In 1928 Oliver Simmonds designed and built a prototype aircraft, the Simmonds Spartan, in a factory at Woolston, Hampshire.[1] The design was a success with over 50 aircraft built.[2] Following financial difficulties and investment from Whitehall Securities Corporation Ltd[3] Simmonds Aircraft Limited changed name in 1930 to Spartan Aircraft Limited.

The first aircraft from the renamed company was the Spartan Arrow a two-seat biplane of which 15 were built.[4] The next design was a three-seat open-cockpit biplane the Spartan Three Seater. The company ceased to build aircraft in 1935.

In January 1931 Flight magazine revealed that Whitehall Securities had acquired a substantial holding in Saunders Roe Ltd. and arising out of this investment Spartan was effectively merged into Saunders Roe. Spartan Aircraft's final product was the Spartan Cruiser a three-engined light airliner developed from the Saro-Percival Mailplane.

Aircraft

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "Simmonds-Spartan Production". Archived from the original on 9 April 2008. Retrieved 11 April 2008.
  2. ↑ Flight 1929
  3. ↑ A Pearson Group company
  4. ↑ Jackson, 1974, p. 180

References

  • The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft (Part Work 1982–1985). Orbis Publishing.
  • Jackson, A.J. (1974). British Civil Aircraft since 1919 Volume 3. London: Putnam. ISBN 0-370-10014-X.
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