- Armstrong Siddeley Motors Ltd
- Coventry, West Midlands
- In 1919 Siddeley-Deasy Motor Car Co was bought out by its supplier Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd of Newcastle upon Tyne. The engine and automotive businesses of both companies were spun off as Armstrong Siddeley Motors Ltd and the aircraft interests as Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Co. Armstrong Siddeley Motors Ltd was based at Parkside works, Coventry, and John Siddeley became chair of the new company. A few years later in 1927, when Vickers Ltd and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd merged to form Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd, Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Co and Armstrong Siddeley Motors Ltd was bought out by John Siddeley and did not join the new grouping. Armstrong Siddeley Motors Ltd manufactured luxury cars, aircraft engines, and later, aircraft. In 1928 it bought Crossley Motors Ltd’s shares in Avro and partnered with Walter Gordon Wilson, inventor of the pre-selector gearbox, to create Improved Gears Ltd. During the 1920s and 1930s Armstrong Siddeley produced a range of radial aero engines named for big cats. In 1929 S M Viale joined the company and designed the Lynx and Cheetah engines. The company began work on its first gas turbine engine in 1939, based on Alan Arnold Griffith’s design pioneered at Royal Aircraft Establishment. Known as the ASX for ‘Armstrong Siddeley eXperimental’, it was later adapted to drive a propeller as ASP. Thereafter, Armstrong Siddeley AS turbine engines were named for snakes. Armstrong Siddeley later took over Metrovick’s Sapphire design which became one of the most successful second-generation jet engines. In 1935 John Siddeley's interests were purchased for £2 million by Tommy Sopwith, owner of Hawker Aircraft, to form – along with the Gloster Aircraft Co and Air Training Services – Hawker Siddeley. Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft and Armstrong Siddeley Motors became subsidiaries of Hawker Siddeley, with Sopwith himself becoming the new chairman of Armstrong Siddeley Motors. In 1958 Armstrong Siddeley was merged with the aircraft engine business of Bristol Aeroplane Co (Bristol Aero Engines) to form Bristol Siddeley as part of an ongoing rationalisation of the British aircraft and aircraft engine manufacturers under government influence.
Piston engines: Jaguar (1922); Jaguar I 300hp (1923); Jaguar II 385hp (1923); Jaguar III 385hp (1923); Jaguar IIIA 380hp (1923); Jaguar IV 385hp (1925); Jaguar IVA 420hp (n.d.); Jaguar IV 400/410hp (n.d.); Jaguar IVC 400hp (1928); Jaguar IV(S) 365hp (1925); Jaguar V (1928); Jaguar VI (1927); Jaguar VIC 470hp (1927); Jaguar VI(S) (1928); Jaguar VID (1928); Jaguar VIIA 400hp (1929); Jaguar VIII 40 hp (1928); Ounce 45hp (n.d.); Lynx I 150hp (1920); Lynx II 184hp (1920); Lynx III 200hp (1924); Lynx IV 180hp (1929); Lynx IVG 150hp (n.d.); Lynx IV (MOD) 190hp (1929); Lynx IV(S) (1928); Lynx IV 210hp (1930); Lynx IVA 188hp (1930); Lynx IVC 208/225hp (1929); Genet I 65hp (1926); Genet II 80hp (1930); Genet IIA 80hp (1930); Mongoose I 135hp (1926); Mongoose II 155hp (1930); Mongoose III (1929); Mongoose IIIA (1929); Mongoose IIIC (1929); Leopard I 700hp (1927); Leopard II 700hp (1927); Leopard III 800hp (n.d.); Leopard IIIA 800hp (n.d.); Genet Major I 105hp (1929); Genet Major IA 145hp (1936); Civet I (n.d.); Genet Major III (n.d.); Genet Major IV (n.d.); Jaguar Major I (n.d.); Panther II (PF) (1929); Panther HA (GF) (1930); Panther III 560hp (1931); Panther IIIA 502hp (1931); Panther VI 560hp (1930); Panther VIA 560hp (1932); Panther VII 565hp (1934); Panther IXA 580/565hp (n.d.); Panther X 700hp (1934); Panther XI 600hp (1936); Lynx V (1930); Cheetah V 270hp (1935); Cheetah VA 285hp (1935); Cheetah VI 307hp (1935); Cheetah VIA (1936); Cheetah IX 310hp (1937); Cheetah X 360hp (1938); Cheetah XI 415hp (n.d.); Cheetah XII (n.d.); Cheetah XV 420hp (n.d.); Cheetah XVII 385hp (1948); Cheetah XVIII 385hp (n.d.); Cheetah XVIII 385hp (n.d.); Cheetah XIX (n.d.); Cheetah 25 385hp (n.d.); Cheetah 26 385hp (n.d.); Cheetah 27 385hp (1948); Hyena 618hp (1933); Deerhound I 1115hp (1935-38); Deerhound III (1940); Serval I 326/340hp (1931); Serval III (1932); Serval IIIB 310hp (1932); Serval IV 310hp (n.d.); Serval V 340hp (1933); Tiger I 570hp (1932); Tiger III 610hp (n.d.); Tiger IV 720hp (1934); Tiger VI 760hp (1936); Tiger VIC (n.d.); Tiger VIII 860hp (1936); Tiger IX 810hp (1936); Tiger IXC 805hp (1938); Tiger X (n.d.).
Gas turbine engines: Adder (1948); ASX (1943); Double Mamba (1949); Mamba (1946); Python (1945); Sapphire (1948); Viper (1951).
Rocket engines: Aplha (n.d.); Beta (n.d.); Beta II (n.d.); Gamma (n.d.); Screamer (1954); Snarler (1950); Spartan (n.d.); Stentor (c.1960).
Ray Cook, Armstrong Siddeley – The Parkside story 1896-1939 (1985); Bill Smith, Armstrong Siddeley Motors: The cars, the company and the people in definitive detail (2005).
West Yorkshire Archive Service - Calderdale
John Crossley & Sons, Halifax mill, installation, production, wages and rent and power accounts 1941-42 [DC:987]; correspondence of Halifax works with Amalgamated Engineering Union 1941-45 [TU:53/40].
General meetings minute book 1930-56 [PA2850]; financial records 1906-60 [PA1074]; financial records, personnel records and title deeds 1765-1980 [PA1128]; registers of apprentices, personal record cards, indentures, etc 1918-75 [PA1397]; apprenticeship indenture, Thomas George Gailey 1947 [PA1280]; papers re joint shop stewards committee (Parkside), largely meeting minutes 1951-71 [PA748/1-17]; title deeds: 1919-59 [PA1060], leases 1896-1920 [PA1150], properties purchased from Hollick & Pratt Ltd and Swift Motor Co 1908-33 [PA1207]; schedules of deeds, leases, etc 1906-34 [PA1343]; product illustrations c.1900-50 [PA1020]; target map and photographs re plants 1940-41 [PA1425]; photographs: aircraft 1937-44 [PA2794], presentations and retirement parties 1967-72 [PA2812].
For Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust records (9,851 items) 20th cent. [PA1716] see online catalogues at Coventry Archives https://www.coventrycollections.org/search/search.aspx (search PA1716) or TNA Discovery at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ (search Armstrong Siddeley + PA1716).
Performance and installation data: Mamba series ASM1 1947, Python Mk II 1950, Python engine Mk III 1951, Adder engine rating ASA1 1951, double mamba ASMD 1 issue 6 1952, double mamba ASMD 1 issue 7 1955, double mamba ASMaD 3 1957, Viper rating ASV8 1957, Viper ASV8 Mk.102 1958, Viper ASV11 1958, Mk II P181 rotorcraft engine 1958 [f historic pamphlets 44-46, 54, 57]; maintenance notes re Tiger VIII 1941 [f historic pamphlets 46]; instructions: Jaguar and Lynx 1928 [G bookcase R], Genet 1930 [G bookcase R], Genet Major MK.IA 1931 [s historic pamphlets 38], Panther X and VI A 1935 [G bookcase R]; Panther radial 1936 [s historic pamphlet 38], Lynx IVc air cooled radial aero engine 1937 [s historic pamphlets13], Lynx IVc 1937 [CH bookcase R], Tiger VIII engines 1939 [CH bookcase R], Tiger IXc 1940 [CH bookcase R]; handbook re operation and maintenance of Cheetah XV n.d. [CH bookcase R]; estimated performance figures re double Mamba engine series 1 and 2 rating ASMD1 1951 [f historic pamphlets 44]; consultant report no.1253 on the sales possibilities of aero engines 1921 [ogi/4/41]; pamphlets re: Siddeley Aero Motors 1926 [f historic pamphlets 51], Siddeley air-cooled engines 1936 [basement pamphlet], Cheetah engines 1946, Cheetah 17, 18 and 27 engines 1948, Siddeley small airscrew turbine 1948, double mamba 1949, double Mamba power group 1949, gas turbines 1951 Sapphire turbojet 1953, auxiliary gas turbines 1959 [5e pamphlet]; company history re Armstrong Siddeley Motors Ltd and Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Ltd 1932 [17 f pamphlet].
Maintenance manuals: diesel engine and spare parts list n.d. [COVRT.2013/44.4], rocket engine n.d. [SH.1972.16.2], Sixteen engine n.d. [COVRT.2009/14]; lubrication charts 1929-31, 1950 [COVRT.2010/13.9-12]; wage slip 1957-58 [COVRT.2013/95.1-4]; photographs of aero-engines under construction, Parkside n.d. [COVRT.2013/22.5-7].
The Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust
For information about records held contact The Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust.
Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum
Cheetah IX engine manual AP1526A vol.1 n.d. [2001/274.1].