• Aeronautical Syndicate Ltd

The Aeronautical Syndicate Ltd, incorporated in 1909, was one of the world's first aircraft manufacturing companies. The directors and only shareholders were stockbroker Charles Battersby and solicitor Herman Schmettau, who appear to have acted for Horatio Barber, an investor with an interest in aeronautics. Barber had worked with electrical engineers William Manning and Howard Wright to develop a monoplane in a railway-arch workshop in Battersea, London, and became the company's general manager. Barber sold the new company his patents, monoplane and hangar at Durrington Down, near Larkhill, Salisbury Plain. The pilot who tested the firm's early machines was Barber's chauffeur, Bertie Woodrow. The company was best known for its Valkyrie monoplanes. In 1910 the company moved from Larkhill to the flying ground at Hendon, London. Barber later decided to give up his interests in aviation due to increasing costs and in 1912 the company's entire stock was bought by Handley Page Ltd. The company was dissolved by 1916.