- George Parnall & Co
Aircraft manufacturers
Location:
- Yate, South Gloucestershire
History:
- After the First World War Parnall & Sons Ltd, which had manufactured aircraft for the Admiralty during the war, determined to refocus on its original shopfitting business. In 1921 this prompted George Geach Parnall, one of the company's managers, to leave Parnall & Sons Ltd to form George Parnall & Co as an aircraft designer and manufacturer. He took with him a handful of his former employees, including the designer Harold Bolas. The new company was initially based at the Coliseum Works, a former ice-skating rink, in Park Row, Bristol, but in 1925 moved to Yate aerodrome, Gloucestershire. The company went on to create 18 different aircraft. Bolas left the firm in 1929 and was succeeded as the firm's designer by H V Clark. In 1935 the company took over both Hendy Aircraft Co and the engineering company Nash & Thompson Ltd, which manufactured gun turrets for bombers, and a new company was formed to continue the business styled Parnall Aircraft Ltd. The founder George Parnall died in 1936.
Principal and significant aircraft manufactured:
- Plover (1923); Pixie I (1923); Peto (1925); Perch (1926); Pike (1927); Pipit (1928); Imp (1928); Elf (1929); Hendy 302 (1929); Prawn (1930); Parasol (1930); Heck (1936).
Records:
Brochures and marketing materials 1923-25.
CID: