- Cunliffe-Owen Aircraft Ltd
Aircraft manufacturers
Location:
Eastleigh, Southampton, Hampshire
History:
- BAO Ltd was formed as a private company based at Southampton Airport, Hampshire, in 1937 by Sir Hugo Cunliffe-Owen, chairman of British American Tobacco Co, to manufacture the American twin-engined Burnelli aircraft in Britain under license. The company was renamed Cunliffe-Owen Aircraft Ltd in 1938. The company's works at Eastleigh, near Southampton airport, built as a shadow factory in the run up to the Second World War, were opened in 1939. The company built a modified version of Vincent Burnelli's UB-14 under license as the OA-1 in 1939. During the war the company fulfilled government contracts, building or repairing over 6,000 aircraft, including the production of 554 Supermarine Seafires. The firm specialised in repairing US aircraft and also designed modifications to American lend-lease aircraft for Royal Air Force use. After the war the company designed and built a passenger aircraft, Concordia, but no commercial orders were received and the project was abandoned and the two prototypes scrapped. From 1946 parts of the Eastleigh factory were sublet to Cierva Autogiro Co and Cunliffe-Owen Aircraft Ltd manufactured Cierva's designs, including the Air Horse prototypes. With the downturn in the aviation market after the war and the death of its chairman, Sir Hugo Cunliffe-Owen, Cunliffe-Owen Aircraft Ltd was dissolved in 1948.
Principal and significant aircraft manufactured:
- OA-1 (1939); Concordia (1947).
Records:
Study of Ocean Airways transatlantic passenger and freight air service c.1946.
CID: