George Harris Handasyde was born on 30 March 1877 in Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland, the son of George H Handasyde and Colina Mackenzie Handasyde (née Shiell). Educated at Edinburgh Royal High School, his early vocational training included marine engineering experience with the firm of Ramage and Ferguson. After two-and-a-half years at sea as a marine engineer, his interest was diverted to the internal combustion engine and it is said that he owned the third motorcar ever seen in Britain - a three-wheeler Benz. He became manager of the Edinburgh Autocar Company but could not have stayed long as by the turn of the century he was in London. After seven months in charge of the garage of the London General Omnibus Company, he joined the firm of Friswells and then went on to the Mass Cars concern. Handasyde was a remarkably capable and practical mechanic and his background experience enabled him to coax the best out of the temperamental engines of the time.

Handasyde had tried to interest Helmut Paul Martin (b. April 1883 – d. September 1968), of carburettor manufacturers Trier and Martin, in a new type of carburettor which he had designed. The design was novel in that it atomised the fuel by passing primary air through a tube in the centre of the concentric fuel jet, the level of the fuel in the jet being controlled by a float chamber in the usual way. It seems, however, that Martin was not particularly impressed by the carburettor but was deeply interested in Handasyde's talk about the work of Lillienthal, the Wright Brothers and the early French aviation pioneers. From meeting a mutual interest in aviation developed a partnership to design and build aircraft was born, trading as "Martin and Handasyde, Aeroplane Manufacturers and Aeronautical Engineers" with Handasyde as the designer and Martin was the business and financial manager.

The company was formed in 1908 and their No.1 monoplane was built in 1908–1909 and succeeded in lifting off the ground before being wrecked in a gale. They went on to build a succession of largely monoplane designs although it was a biplane, the S.1 of 1914 that turned Martin-Handasyde into a successful aircraft manufacturer.

In 1915 they renamed the company Martinsyde Ltd, and it became Britain's third largest aircraft manufacturer during World War One, with flight sheds at Brooklands and a large factory in nearby Woking. For his work during WWI, Handasyde was appointed and Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) on 30 March 1920. Handasyde resigned from Martinsyde in autumn 1920 and, facing heavy debt in the post war period, Martinsyde, Ltd. was closed down.

Handasyde went on to form the Handasyde Aircraft Company with Hamilton Fulton, previously General Manager at Martinsyde. Two of the draughtsmen he took on became well known, Sydney Camm and Freddie Raynham. Handasyde, Raynham and Camm together designed a successful glider for the Itford glider competition in 1922 in which Raynham set a British record of 113 min, though this was only good enough for second place. In 1921 Handasyde had begun to design a ten passenger commercial aircraft, intended for mail services in Australia. In the end this evolved into a smaller 6 passenger aircraft, but the company went into liquidation before any could be delivered. The 1923 Lympne motor glider competition was a natural outcome from the Itford event, and Handasyde produced a monoplane for it, which made its first flight on 9 September 1923, piloted by Raynham.

The Handasyde Company failed in 1923, and his whereabouts over the next few years appear to be unknown. In March 1927 he was employed as an aircraft superintendent at Saunders factory in Cowes, following which Marcel Desoutter employed Handasyde in 1928 to redesign the Koolhoven FK.41 to conform to British airworthy requirements. The result, originally known as the Desoutter Dolphin, eventually became known as the Desoutter I, and this was followed in 1930 by the improved Desoutter II.

In March 1933, Handasyde was appointed General Manager of the British Klemm Company, formed to produce an aircraft based on the German Klemm L.25. The company was restructured in 1935 as the British Aircraft Manufacturing Co (BAMCo), with Handasyde as one of the directors. There he designed the Eagle and Double Eagle

British Marine Aircraft Limited was formed in February 1936 to produce Sikorsky S-42-A flying boats under licence in the UK. The British Aircraft Manufacturing Co had provided support for BMA, and as such Handasyde was appointed to the board.

Meanwhile the British Aircraft Manufacturing Co was by now financially in dire straits; an offer by General Aircraft to take over BAMCo in December 1937 was accepted, but the Receiver was appointed in February 1938. Eventually the assets of British Aircraft were acquired by General Aircraft to provide for that company’s expansion, but no further work on the BAMCo’s product line was undertaken.

In 1939 Handasyde retired to Scotland and died in 1958.

1. The Martinsyde File, Ray Sanger (Air Britain Publications, 1999)