- Airspeed Ltd
- Portsmouth, Hampshire
- Airspeed Ltd was founded in York in 1931 by British aircraft designers Alfred Tiltman and Neville Shute Norway. The company's first aircraft, the AS1 Tern, was created to gain publicity and attract capital by setting gliding records, but only two were built. It produced the Ferry in 1932 and Courier in 1933. In 1933 the company relocated to a new factory at Portsmouth airport. In 1934 the company was reformed as Airspeed (1934) Ltd and made public issue of its shares in association with Tyneside shipbuilder Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson Ltd. Various aircraft designs followed including the Envoy, Viceroy and the successful Oxford (of which over 8,500 were produced). In 1940 Swan Hunter's shares - a controlling interest - were bought by The de Havilland Aircraft Co Ltd. The company continued to make its own aircraft and also managed the Ministry of Aircraft Production factory at Christchurch, Hampshire. The company name reverted to Airspeed Ltd in 1944. De Havilland bought out the preference shares in 1948 and Airspeed Ltd merged fully with The de Havilland Aircraft Co Ltd in 1951, leading to the formation of de Havilland's Airspeed Division.
- AS1 Tern (1931); AS4 Ferry (1932); AS5 Courier (1933); AS6 Envoy (1934); AS8 Viceroy (1934); AS10 Oxford (1937); AS30 Queen Wasp (1937); AS39 Fleet Shadower (1940); AS45 Cambridge (1941); AS51 Horsa I / AS58 Horsa II (1941); AS65 Consul (1946); AS57 Ambassador (1947).
- T Dalton, Airspeed: the company and its aeroplanes (1982); H A Taylor and D H Middleton, Airspeed aircraft since 1931, 2nd edition (1991); J F Hamlin, The Oxford, Consul and Envoy file (2001).
Various records 1931-51.
Articles of association 1934 [196A/1/1]; special resolutions 1935-36 [196A/1/2-3]; file incl chairman's reports and balance sheets 1943-48 [11A/L/1/1]; ledgers, advice and release notes (4) 1933-38 [196A/1/6-9]; policy and production diary 1942-43 [11A/L/1/1]; AS35-39 aircraft tenders to Air Ministry 1937 [2790A/7-11]; promotional leaflets 1933-37 [2790A/2-6]; factory layout report 1942 [LSC]; staff Home Guard unit orders book 1943-44 [196A/2]; staff magazines: Airspeed Gazette 1936-37, Airspeed Newsletter 1948-49 [LSC]; staff dinner menu card 1938 [LSC]; photographs of factory staff and aircraft 1930s-40s [LSC,11A/L/1/2]; other miscellaneous records 1930s-40s [196/A]; papers of company historian Donald Middleton 1910-79, incl company registration letters and prospectus 1931, war diary 1940-44, internal memoranda 1941-49, brochures, descriptions, drawings, reports and handbooks re particular aircraft 1931-49, photographs of aircraft, premises and staff 1935-49, Schlesinger African Air Race programme and crash report 1936, technical departments organisational tree 1948, promotional card n.d., Airspeed Gazette 1936-40, Airspeed Aeronautical College syllabus n.d., article by Alfred Tiltman on production layouts c.1944 [Donald Middleton Collection, X/192A].
Management minute book 1939-41; policy committee minute book 1940; register of members 1964-78; annual returns 1965-73; signed accounts 1974-84, 1986-90; design minute book 1938-9; papers re winding up and assignment of patents to de Havilland Aircraft Co 1951 [L001-2416: 4453, 6497, 6498]; papers of A Hessell Tiltman incl. prospectuses and memorandum and articles of association 1917-43 [AC77/26], report on Airspeed AS45 longitudinal stability test flights c.1946-47 [AC97/27/4], advertising brochure for the Airspeed AS67 Ambassador freight aircraft n.d. [AC97/27/5], description of Freight Aircraft Type AS66, 2 Centaurus engines 1947 [AC78/5/4] and drawings of various aircraft incl. Envoy and the projected AS14 [MAC10996-11030].
Bound data and specification sheets, reports, maintenance schedules, marketing brochures, catalogues and manuals re Ambassador and other aircraft 1940s-50s [Trade Literature Collection].
Flight test reports, Airspeed AS57 Ambassador, 1948-52.