Putnam - Parnall Aircraft Since 1914.pdf

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ParnaIl

Aircraft

since

1914

_~enneth

E Wlxey

The only surviving ParnaH aeroplane. ParnaH Elf G-AAIN at Old Warden in 1981 after restoration by the Shuttleworth Trust.

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Contents

Introduction

Acknowledgements

Parnal! Works Lineage Chart

Family Business

The Fishponds Connection

George Parnal! and Company

Parnal! Aircraft Limited

Parnal! and Sons Limited - Aircraft Built under

Contract 1914-1918

Avro 504

Short 827

Short Bomber

Hamble Baby

Parnal!

Scoutl

Zepp-Chaser

Parnal! Panther

George Parnal! and Company 1920-1935

Parnall Puffin

Parnall Plover

Parnall Possum

Parnall Pixie Series

Parnall Perch

Autogiros

De Havilland D.H.9A Contracts

Parnall Peto

Parnall Pike

Parnall Imp

Parnall Pipit

Parnall Parasol

Parnall Elf

Parnall Prawn

Parnall

GAI31

Hendy

302/302A

Miles M.l Satyr

Percival Gull Four

Parnall F.5

133

Project

Parnall Aircraft Limited 1935-1939

Parnall Heck

Parnall Type 382 (Heck Mk.III)

100

105

112

118

Kenneth E Wixey 1990.

First published in Great Britain by

Putnam Aeronautical Books, an imprint of

Conway Maritime Press Ltd,

24 Bride Lane, Fleet Street

London EC4Y 8DR

Published and distributed in the United States

of America and Canada by the Naval Institute Press

Annapolis, Maryland 21402

Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 89-64220

ISBN 1-55750-930-1

This edition is authorized for sale only in

the United States and its territories and possessions,

and Canada

applicable laws.

Manufactured in Great Britain

133

137

142

146

160

164

167

175

181

190

193

197

200

203

207

214

220

Appendix A: Individual Aircraft Notes

Appendix B: Dispositions of Certain

Parnall-Built Aircraft on Naval Duty 1918

Bibliography

Index

Introduction

When Great Britain went to war with Germany in August 1914, the

aeroplane was still at a very rudimentary stage in its development. Indeed

even as the hostile nations clashed, there persisted a school of thought

among some military officers that those flimsy contraptions of linen and

spruce, which would admittedly carry a man aloft, would nevertheless be

of little strategic value in the ensuing conflict.

was conceded that

aeroplanes made excellent reconnaissance vehicles from which observation

reports on enemy troop movements could be obtained, but other than that

quite a number of the more short-sighted generals and admirals could

foresee no advantage in the employment of aeroplanes as a key weapon in

contemporary warfare.

Before the First World War the apathy of the majority of British

politic~ans

towards supporting the development of military aviation in the

United Kingdom was hard to understand in view of the rapidly worsening

political situation in Europe. While Germany proceeded with the

construction of her giant Zeppelin airships, together with the less

impressive but numerically superior Military Aviation Service, the British

Government was extremely reluctant to give financial backing to the

country's aviation industry such as it was. Had it not been for the initiative

of private enterprise, Britain would undoubtedly have been in even worse

straits regarding her military aviation requirements when the war started.

As it was, thanks to the more far-sighted military pundits such as Maj

Brooke-Popham, Capt Hugh Trenchard (later a Viscount and Marshal of

the Royal Air Force), Capt (later Rear Admiral Sir) Murray Sueter, Capt

(later Air Chief Marshal Sir) Philip Joubert de la Ferte, and Cmdr Charles

Rumney Samson

RN,

to name but a few, Britain was able to prepare more

readily in the field of air power.

Politically one member of Parliament in particular had the tenacity of

purpose and firm belief in the aeroplane as a military weapon, enough to

continuously warn the British Government of the day that they neglected

the development of British military air power at their peril. That politician

was Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, a keen airman, and

first member of the British Government to pilot his own aeroplane.

Eventually Prime Minister Herbert Asquith requested that the Imperial

Defence Committee put forward proposals for the creation of an efficient

British air force. As a result the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) came into

being on 13 April, 1912. The new Service was at first divided into a

Military Wing and aNaval Wing, but under the auspicious eye of Winston

Churchill, who was already setting up a system of seaplane stations around

Britain's coasts, the Naval Wing developed its own specialist techniques,

and on 1 July, 1914, became the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS).

Meanwhile the seething cauldron of political unrest in Europe finally

spilled over on 28 June, 1914, when the Austrian Archduke Franz

Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were assassinated in the town of Sarajevo in

Serbia. This event had within two months spread its political consequences

across the nations, and inflicted upon the world its first experience of

global conflict.

On the outbreak of this first world war, Britain possessed few British-

built military aeroplanes, the majority in service being of French origin.

This state of affairs was soon rectified when British aeroplane

manufacturers began producing an increasing number of their own

products. Indeed, Great Britain became a major producer of military

aeroplanes, and during four years of war her aircraft industry grew in

proportion until, by the time of the Armistice in November 1918, it was

employing 350,000 men and women.

During the four years of war from 1914 to 1918, this growing body of

aircraft workers between them produced 55,000 aeroplanes of all types for

military service. This rapid expansion of the aviation industry was due not

only to the more prominent manufacturers such as the Royal Aircraft

Factory (RAF) at Farnborough, A V Roe

Co Ltd (Avro), the British

Colonial Aeroplane Co Ltd (later Bristol Aeroplane Co Ltd), Aircraft

Manufacturing Co Ltd (Airco and later de Havilland Aircraft Co Ltd),

Sopwith Aviation Co Ltd, Short Brothers, and Vickers (Aviation) Ltd, but

also to the numerous smaller firms throughout Britain which undertook

sub-contract work on behalf of aeroplane manufacturers and government

departments to produce aeroplanes and their many components.

The majority of these early military aircraft were constructed mainly

from wood, so it was not surprising when companies renowned for their

expertise and skill in cabinet-making, woodworking and joinery, were

called upon to consider the construction of wooden aeroplanes and parts.

A number of these sub-contractors became so successful at aeroplane

manufacture that it was not long before they had continuous production

lines of complete new aeroplanes awaiting delivery to the squadrons. The

significance of the effect some of the contractors were having by their

inroads into the aircraft industry was soon made apparent. For example,

Samuel Waring (later Lord Waring) of the Waring and Gillow partnership

was responsible for founding the British Nieuport

General Aircraft Co

Ltd at Cricklewood, an event which followed an agreement with the

French Nieuport concern to construct that company's aeroplanes in Great

Britain. At Cheltenham, the high-class woodworking firm of H H Martyn

Co Ltd, became part of a new venture when it helped form the

Gloucestershire Aircraft Co Ltd (later Gloster Aircraft).

This company eventually acquired the design rights of the aforemen-

tioned British Nieuport

General Aircraft, when that concern was forced

to close down in 1920, an arrangement which also included the services of

H P Folland, British Nieuport

General's design engineer who would

become chief designer to the Gloster Aircraft company.

Meanwhile an equally well-known company in the West Country,

recognised for its woodworking skills, was Parnall

Sons Ltd of Bristol.

This firm, which specialised in shopfitting and allied equipment, was

requested by the Admiralty to undertake the manufacture and

reconditioning of naval aeroplanes. The contracts covered types designed

by Avro, Sopwith, Fairey Aviation and Short Brothers, and before the end

of the war, two designs created by Parnall's themselves after

encouragement from the Admiralty. This progressive development in the

company's history was to result in a lengthy association which Parnall's

enjoyed with the Admiralty, Air Ministry and the British aircraft industry.

This relationship induced the production of a series of naval aeroplanes,

albeit mostly prototypes and experimental machines for the Air Ministry,

as well as a number of civil types, including Parnall's own designs and

those built under contract for other aeroplane manufacturers. The earlier

types of aircraft originated in Bristol both with Parnall

Sons Ltd, and

with George Parnall's own company after its formation at the Coliseum

works in Park Row, Bristol. However, the majority of aeroplanes

produced by George Parnall

Co were designed and built at Yate in

Gloucestershire, after the company moved there in the mid-1920s.

Parnall

Sons Ltd of Fishponds, Bristol (until recently a member of the

Avery Group, but now part of GEC), still flourish as manufacturers of

high-class shopfittings and other components.

This firm owes its origins to Parnall's nineteenth-century family

business, a concern from which were to evolve two entirely separate

companies bearing the names of Parnall. Both establishments would

accomplish much to further the cause of British aviation over three

decades from 1915 until 1945. Indeed Parnall

Sons of Fishponds

continued producing aircraft components well into the 1960s for both the

civil and military market.

should, perhaps, be explained that George Parnall sold his Yate

aircraft works in 1935, but the concern which took it over still retained the

name of Parnall in its title when it became Parnall Aircraft Ltd, and this

company's part in the history of Parnall's is fully described in the main

text.

The primary aim of this book is to firmly establish the name of Parnall

in its richly deserved niche in the annals of British aeronautical

achievements.

is intended also as a tribute to a comparatively small, but

nevertheless, proud pair of family businesses which, through their largely

unsung efforts, managed to uphold that hallmark of quality one expects

from British companies steeped in traditions of craftsmanship.

The first section of the book relates to the historical background and

environment surrounding Parnall

Sons at Bristol, from the firm's early

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