 Miles Gemini of the 1940s | |
| Industry | Aviation |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1930s (as Phillips & Powis Aircraft) |
| Defunct | 1947 |
| Fate | aviation interests taken on by Handley Page |
| Successor | F.G.Miles Ltd /Handley Page Reading Ltd / Western Manufacturing Ltd |
| Headquarters | Woodley,Berkshire,UK |
Key people | Fred, Blossom[1] & George Miles[2] Test pilots includedThomas Rose and Ken Waller. |
| Products | Aircraft, photocopiers, book binding equipment, fasteners (self locking nuts), actuators |
Miles was the name used for aircraft and associated businesses of British engineerFrederick George Miles, who, with his wife – aviator and draughtswomanMaxine "Blossom" Miles (née Forbes-Robertson) – and his brotherGeorge Herbert Miles, designed numerous light civil and military aircraft and a range of curious prototypes, primarily between 1943 and 1947.
A company was founded in 1928 by Charles Powis and Jack Phillips asPhillips & Powis Aircraft (Reading) Ltd. In 1929 they openedWoodley Aerodrome, near the town ofReading, Berkshire.[3]
In 1936,Rolls-Royce bought into the company. Although aircraft were produced under the Miles name, it was not until 1943 that the firm becameMiles Aircraft Limited when Rolls-Royce's interests were bought out.
The company needed to increase production of the Miles Messenger and to do so it took over[when?] a former linen mill inBanbridge, County Down, Northern Ireland for the production of components of the aircraft. A hangar atRAF Long Kesh was used for assembly of the aircraft and flight testing was carried out at the airfield. The company moved toNewtownards following the end of the war in 1946.
The company opened the Miles Aeronautical Technical School in 1943 under the directorship ofMaxine (Blossom) Miles[4] The school had a "Headmaster", Walter Evans.[5]
In 1947, the company entered receivership following bankruptcy proceedings instigated byTitanine Ltd., in theChancery Division of theHigh Court. Titanine supplied Miles with aviation coatings used in the production of the Miles Gemini aircraft.[6] Mr. Justice Wynn-Parry adjourned the petition of Titanine Ltd., for the winding up of Miles Aircraft Ltd., until 19 January 1948, on the grounds that the company had shownprima facie reasons for not yet having formulated a reorganization scheme. The petitioners, creditors for £5,837, were supported by other creditors for £62,000 and opposed by creditors for £200,000. An affidavit put into court showed that subject to audit, a loss of £630,000 had been incurred on 31 October 1947, but that a rescue plan could not be drawn up until the audit was completed. The principal trade creditors were:Blackburn Aircraft Ltd., De La Rue Extrusions Ltd.,Smiths Aircraft Instruments Ltd. and theSperry Gyroscope Co. Ltd. Mr. F. G. Miles announced the payment of the 4% per cent preference dividends out of his own resources of £8,600. After Miles Aircraft had been taken over by financiers in 1947, the design and manufacture of aircraft was ended by the new Board. At this time the company had some £5 million worth of business in hand, including substantial orders for the Messenger and the Gemini.
In 1948 an application by theBoard of Trade for the appointment of an inspector to investigate the affairs of Miles Aircraft Ltd. was granted by Mr. Justice Roxburgh. The B.O.T. case was that when a prospectus was issued in March, 1947 (before the accounts for 1946 were published), the directors should reasonably have been expected to know that all was not well with the company, and when, in August, 1947, a dividend of 7% per cent and a bonus of 24% were recommended, they should reasonably have been expected to know that a big loss was being suffered by the company.[7][8][9]
Charges were brought againstSir William Malcolm Mount and F. G. Miles. There were 24 charges regarding publication of a Miles Aircraft Ltd prospectus with "false and reckless statements". The trial began on 10 May 1950 at theOld Bailey.[10] After 17 days of sitting, the jury stopped the case against Miles and Sir William, and they were discharged. They had appeared on charges of inducing people to acquire shares in the company by making a misleading forecast and dishonestly concealing a material fact in a prospectus. According toFlight, "Twenty of the original 24 counts were thrown out before the defence was reached. The prosecution alleged that the defendants gave a misleading forecast that for 1947 the profit covering the production of aircraft would have been £75,000, whereas there was a substantial loss. It was alleged that they recklessly made the misleading statement that the company had orders on hand which were sufficient to ensure production for the following two years, and that they dishonestly concealed the fact that a profit for the manufacture of aircraft in 1947 was unlikely." Both men said that they believed every word of the prospectus was true. After the acquittal, an application for costs for £20,000 was disallowed.[11]
The aviation assets were purchased byHandley Page as Handley Page Reading Ltd. Handley Page produced the Miles-designed M.60 Marathon as theH.P.R.1 Marathon. The Miles Aeronautical Technical School was taken over by theReading Technical College. Other products in which Miles had interests included photocopiers; this business became Copycat Ltd, which was acquired by theNashua Corporation in 1963. The Philidas locking nut unit became an independent company.[12] The bookbinding machinery and actuator production were taken over by a specifically formed company, the Western Manufacturing Estate Ltd, the name "Western" referring to its location on the Woodley aerodrome.[13] This company later merged with the Adamant Engineering Company Ltd. to form the Adwest Group. Miles also manufacturedballpoint pens designed byLászló Bíró through an associated company, the Miles Martin Pen Co. Ltd.
In 1948, F.G. Miles founded F. G. Miles Limited, which continued to produce aircraft under the Miles brand. The company was based on two sites,Redhill Aerodrome andShoreham Aerodrome. In 1961, the aviation interests were purchased (along withAuster Aircraft Limited) by British Executive and General Aviation Limited (Beagle Aircraft), initially as Beagle-Miles Ltd, with George Herbert Miles as Chief Designer and Technical Director.[14]
The company adopted a group structure with subsidiary companies as follows:Meridian Airmaps Ltd (whose collection of aerial photographs forms part of theEnglish Heritage Archive[15]), Miles Development Products Ltd, Miles Electronics Ltd, Miles Marine & Structural Plastics Ltd and Jet Tanks Ltd. The group was initially based at Redhill, but moved to Shoreham in 1953.[16][17]
Miles Electronics was involved in the manufacture of flight simulators; this division merged with the UK arm of theLink Trainer flight simulator company and was later acquired by theSinger Corporation. In 1975Hunting Associated Industries acquired a controlling interest in F. G. Miles Engineering and all its subsidiaries. The company was renamed Hunting Hivolt and Jeremy Miles, the son of Fred Miles (who founded the firm), became a non-executive director on the board.[18] Other companies included Miles HiVolt Ltd and Miles-Dufon Ltd (this company went into administration on 15 April 1980).
Design work between F. G. Miles Ltd and the French company,Hurel-Dubois, resulted in theHDM.105 – a standardMiles Aerovan fitted with an Hurel-Dubois high-aspect-ratio wing. This work led to theHurel-Dubois HD.34 and theShort Skyvan series of aircraft.
The company's earlier aircraft include theHawk Trainer and its military variant, theMagister, as well as theMessenger and theGemini. During the Second World War, it produced theMaster advanced trainer, as well as theMartinet andMonitortarget tugs.
The aircraft designed by Miles were often technologically and aerodynamically advanced for their time; theM.20 emergency production fighter prototype outperformed contemporaryHawker Hurricanes, despite having fixed landing gear. TheX Minor was a flying testbed for blended wing-fuselage designs, although the large commercial transport intended to be produced from this research never entered production. The giganticMiles X Airliner was to seat 55 and have eight engines buried in the wings, driving four sets of contra-rotating props and achieve a range of 3,450 miles.[19]
The Miles Libellula (named afterdragonflies) were experimentaltandem-wing designs. A fighter prototypeM.35, designed to give the pilot a better landing view, and to fit on aircraft carriers without a need for folding wings, was funded and built by the company (with wood) in only six weeks but was rejected by theMinistry of Aircraft Production. A bomber version was designed, and then a prototype ordered for a "high speed bomber" requirement, but that prototype was never built. Instead, the company built a 5/8th scale versionM.39B which was sold to the government for research and testing; it was scrapped after being damaged and the bomber procurement had been cancelled. Tandem-wing designs, with a wing at both ends of an aircraft, reduce centre of gravity problems due to fuel or ammunition usage.
TheMiles M.52 was a turbojet-powered supersonic research aircraft project that was cancelled before completion.
The following table lists the company number, name, year of first flight and number produced of all Miles aircraft.
| Company number | Name | Year | Produced | Type of aircraft |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southern Martlet | 1929 | 6 | ||
| Metal Martlet | 1930 | 1 | ||
| Falcon Four | 1931 | Light cabin twin. TwoCirrus Hermes engines in overwing pusher configuration.[20] | ||
| M.1 | Satyr | 1932 | 1 | |
| M.2 | Hawk | 1933 | 55 | two-seat light monoplane |
| M.2F-T | Hawk Major | 1934 | 64 | Hawk successor withde Havilland Gipsy Major engine |
| M.2E,L,U | Hawk Speed Six | 1934 | 3 | racing version of Hawk Major withde Havilland Gipsy Six engine |
| M.2W,X,Y | Hawk Trainer | 25 | two-seat touring and racing monoplane | |
| M.3A | Falcon Major | 1934 | 19 | |
| M.3B | Falcon Six | 1935 | 17 | |
| M.3E | Gillette Falcon | 1944 | 1 modified M.3B | research for the supersonic M.52 |
| M.4 | Merlin | 1935 | 4 | |
| M.5 | Sparrowhawk | 1935 | 5 | |
| M.6 | Hawcon | 1935 | 1 | |
| M.7 | Nighthawk | 1935 | 6 | |
| M.8 | Peregrine | 1936 | 2 | |
| M.9 | Kestrel | 1937 | 1 | |
| M.9A | Master I | 1939 | 900 | advanced trainer |
| M.11 | Whitney Straight | 1936 | 50 | |
| M.11C | M.11C | 1 | ||
| M.12 | Mohawk | 1937 | 1 | |
| M.13 | Hobby | 1937 | 1 | |
| M.14 | Magister | 1937 | 1,293 | basic military trainer |
| M.14 | Hawk Trainer III | 1937 | 52 | Magister for civil and export sales |
| M.15 | M.15 | 1939 | 2 | Air Ministry Specification T.1/37 |
| M.16 | Mentor | 1938 | 45 | three-seat training and communications monoplane |
| M.17 | Monarch | 1938 | 11 | |
| M.18 | M.18 | 1938 | 3 | |
| M.19 | Master II | 1939 | 1,699 | advanced trainer |
| M.20 | M20/2 | 1940 | 2 | prototype low-cost fighter |
| M.22A | design only | designed to F.18/40 specification for a turret-equipped night-fighter | ||
| M.24 | Master Fighter | 1940 | 26 | emergency conversion of trainer design to fighter, retrospectively numbered M.24[21] |
| M.25 | Martinet | 1943 | 1,724 | target tug |
| M.26 | "X" | 0 | planned 55-seat trans-Atlantic airliner | |
| M.27 | Master III | 1940 | 602 | |
| M.28 | Mercury | 1941 | 6 | training or communications |
| M.30 | X Minor | 1942 | 1 | small-scale prototype forMiles X airline design |
| M.33 | Monitor | 1944 | 22 | twin-engined target tug |
| M.35 | M.35 Libellula | 1942 | 1 | tandem-wing design fighter |
| M.37 | Martinet Trainer | 1946 | 2 | two-seat trainer |
| M.38 | Messenger | 1942 | 80 | liaison and private owner aircraft |
| M.39B | M.39B Libellula | 1943 | 1 | scale aircraft of tandem-wing M.39 fast bomber design |
| M.42 and M.43 | not built | designs tendered for an "Army Direct Support Aircraft" (i.e. a ground attack aircraft). Both tandem wing, one with twin Merlin, other with single Griffon engine.[22] | ||
| M.44 | not built | another design for the ground attack specification, conventional design with twin Merlins[23] | ||
| M.48 | Messenger 3 | 1945 | 1 | Messenger development |
| M.52 | M.52 | 0 | supersonic research aircraft design | |
| M.50 | Queen Martinet | 1944 | 65 | unmanned target drone version of Martinet |
| M.57 | Aerovan | 1945 | 48 | STOL transport |
| M.60 | Marathon I | 1945 | 42 | civil airliner design – would becomeHandley Page Marathon |
| M.63B | not built | Tandem wing jet mailplane[24] | ||
| M.64 | L.R.5 | 1945 | 1 | Single engined two seat light aircraft |
| M.65 | Gemini | 1945 | 170 | private small aircraft |
| M.68 | Boxcar | 1947 | 1 | transport with detachable cargo container |
| M.69 | Marathon II | 1949 | 1 | Mamba turboprop powered project |
| M.71 | Merchantman | 1947 | 1 | 4-engined development of Aerovan layout |
| M.75 | Aries | 1951 | 2 | development of Gemini with more powerful engines |
| M.76 | M.76 | 1953 | 1 | development of 2-seat glider for the British Gliding Association |
| M.77 | Sparrowjet | 1953 | 1 | conversion of M.5 Sparrowhawk |
| M.100 | Student | 1957 | 1 | single engined two seat jet trainer |
| M.105 | H.D.M.105 | 1957 | 1 | Aerovan conversion withHurel Dubois wing |
The Miles Aircraft Collection was established in 1993 for anyone interested in Miles aircraft and related subjects and aims to encourage the preservation of all surviving examples worldwide (ideally in flying condition or otherwise in museums and collections open to the public).
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