Classic British Flight Sim

Molyned wrote: Well, it's not really a Beagle, having started off life as an Auster A.O.P.6. Having bought a load of them back, they stripped them completely down, rebuilt them and added extra bits

Hi Dave

Is that why some are listed as Beagle Austers??

Yes Garry, here's the story - in 1960, Sir Peter Masefield (ex Bristol Aircraft) and Pressed Steel Co got together and approached both Auster Aircraft & Miles Aircraft with an offer and as a result British Executive & General Aircrat Ltd( BEAGLE) was formed. The Reasby factory became Beagle-Auster and Shoreham became Beagle-Miles.
Beagle-Auster, as a stop-gap, bought a number of Auster AOP-6's AND T-7's at military surplus sales (!). the plan being to get a C.A.A. certification with minimum cost. Having added a larger fin/rudder and a few other parts, they first made the Auster Tugmasters and after a lot of further additions , the Terriers were launched. Unfortunately because of the extra added weight, the Terrier had an inferior performance compared with the AOP-6. Also, more hours were spent per aircraft, stripping and rebuilding than they'd taken to build in the first place ! they lost a lot of money (gleaned from a book by A.V. Hitchman -a director of both the original Auster and Beagle companies).
To keep everything tidy, I've called it an Auster rather than a Beagle-Auster.
HTH
Cheers
Dave M

Cheers Dave

I was always a bit puzzelled as it almost looked clear when Auster had left off and Beagle had started but the double 'interim' name puzelled me as it sort od say's both yet at the same time say's neither one nor t'other.

ATB