| Company type | aircraft design and manufacture |
|---|---|
| Founded | Early 1937 |
| Defunct | 1946 |
| Fate | Ceased operations in 1946 |
| Headquarters | Leverton, near Hungerford, Berkshire |
Key people | Hon. Andrew Dalrymple and A.R. Ward |
Chilton Aircraft Ltd was a British aircraft design and manufacturing company of the late 1930s and 1940s.
The company was founded in early 1937 by two formerde Havilland Technical School students andOld Etonians, the Hon. Andrew Dalrymple (born 1914), the son ofSir John Dalrymple, and Alexander Reginald Ward (born 1915), the son of Hon. SirJohn Ward, whose father was the 1st Earl of Dudley. It established a small factory on theChilton Lodge estate atLeverton, nearHungerford inBerkshire, from which location the firm's name was derived.[1]
The founders designed a small, low-powered, but fast, sporting monoplane, designated the Chilton D.W.1. The aircraft had a clean aerodynamic design, which required split flaps to lower the landing speed. TheCarden Ford 32 h.p. engine gave it a declared top speed of 112 mph, but during racing, 129 mph was eventually reached.[2]
Four aircraft were built between early 1937 and July 1939, the last having a 45 h.p. Train 4T engine, being designated the D.W.1A. A further development, the Chilton D.W.2, was commenced, but had not been completed at the outbreak of World War II. The four aircraft were stored during the war and the jigs, spares and half-completed D.W.2 were taken over by the College of Aeronautical Engineering atRedhill Aerodrome.[3]
All four D.W.1s flew post-war, taking part in many air races, but after accidents, only two survived in airworthy condition in 2005. From the mid-1980s, three examples have been commenced by amateur builders, one of which first flew in 1987. These aircraft are powered by aLycoming O-145 engine.[4]
The firm had been planning to make a smallglider called the Chilton Cavalier, after the war. However, a glider pilot, Dudley Hiscox, brought the drawings of a better glider, theDFS Olympia Meise, to Chilton and so a prototype was built in a converted chicken house on the Chilton estate. The German drawings were not detailed and so new drawings were made in which the Meise was altered for cheaper production. Aircraft consultants, called 'A and EP', checked the stresses for British airworthiness conditions and consequently the spar and joint fittings were strengthened. The maiden flight was made on 11 August 1946. At that time the firm had a long order list for Chilton Olympians.
The building of the wings for the prototype had been sub-contracted toElliotts of Newbury. On completion of the prototype's wings, Elliotts refused to sell the wing jigs to Chilton. Andrew Dalrymple was killed in a crash of aFi Storch on 25 December 1945 near Hungerford, and this event soon ended aircraft production. After the death of Dalrymple an agreement was reached to sell production rights and all the work in hand on the redesigned Olympia to Elliotts, who went on to build 150EoN Olympia. The Chilton prototype was eventually declared un-airworthy in 1970 and destroyed.[5]
Plans for the Chilton Olympia were imported into Australia. Three were constructed, and two were still flying in 2015.
VH-GDQ "Columbus": written off.
VH-GFW "Yellow Witch": homebuilt by Arthur Douglas Hardinge, Bendigo, owned by K. Nolan, Melbourne.
VH-GLY: built 1959, refurbished by Mike Valentine.
