Howard Theophilus Wright was born on 14 November 1867 in Dudley, Staffordshire, the eldest son (and second child) of Joseph Wright and Grace Elizabeth Wright (née Tinsley), following sister Maude (1865) and before sister Isabella (1870) and brothers Walter Stanford (1872) and Warwick Joseph (born 19 October 1876 in King's Norton, Worcestershire).

In 1862 Joseph Wright founded a business with his future father-in-law, Thomas Tinsley, as chain and anchor makers at the Neptune Foundry, Tipton, which rapidly extended, until under the title of Joseph Wright and Co. it became one of the largest chain and anchor works in England. He later became far more interested in steam technology, and started a profitable sideline in pre-heaters for steam engines. He retired from his foundry business in 1887 but retained his steam technology business, now renamed the Patent Heater and Condenser Company. This business flourished for a while, building some huge feed-water heaters and water softeners.

Howard Wright served an apprenticeship in his father’s works. In about 1890 he became manager of the Patent Heater and Condenser Company, where he was joined by younger brother Walter, and then in early 1893 was made a partner in the company. Following Joseph’s death in October that same year, Howard became sole partner of the business, with youngest brother Warwick joining the company a few years later.

The boiler company was sold to Hiram Maxim in 1889. Maxim was at that time keenly interested in the manufacture of a light-weight boiler and steam engine for the enormous flying-machine in which he eventually made a tethered flight in 1894, and Howard Wright joined Maxim and assisted him with his whirling arm and rotary flying-machine experiments. These were later produced commercially as a fairground attraction, in which the aeroplane cars were fitted with control surfaces which could be operated by the passengers.

Warwick had joined the Vickers Maxim company, but soon became involved with the motor industry. By 1903, motor cars were becoming consumer products. It was C.S. Rolls who started the first motor dealership in London, importing Belgian Minervas, and soon after this, Warwick Wright opened a Minerva dealership and also became associated with the French Darracq brand. This seems to have brought him into contact with J.T.C. Moore-Brabazon, who worked as an apprentice at Darracq in Paris in 1904.

In November 1904, Howard Wright’s association with Maxim ended when Howard bought back his own goodwill upon liquidation of Maxim’s company. On 31 July, 1905, the various businesses of the Wright brothers were brought under the control of one company - Howard T. Wright Brothers Ltd. The company was registered with an office at Belgravia Chambers, 72 Victoria Street, London, S.W.1, and an authorized capital of £10,000. Howard Wright and James Nicholson, an engineer, were joint managing directors, Warwick was appointed manager, and Walter secretary, Henry Claude Walker being elected chairman. In November 1905, Moore-Brabazon was elected a director. However, the company was short-lived, a resolution for voluntary liquidation being passed in October 1907.

In the meantime, Warwick Wright himself was becoming very well known. He was in the Aero Club, and in 1905 he joined up with Brabazon and Rolls in ordering a balloon, "Venus" from the Short Brothers who were operating from railway arches in Battersea. That was delivered in May 1906. In September he drove a Minerva in the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy - won by Rolls in a Rolls-Royce. On 28 November 1906, a new concern named Warwick Wright Ltd had been established, with an office at 110 High Street, Marylebone, N.W.1., and a capital of £26,000, to act as motor car agents and manufacturers. The brothers again held predominant interests in the company and Moore-Brabazon was appointed its vice-chairman. He also linked up with A. Huntley Walker in the formation of a U.K. Darracq company, initially registered as Warwick Wright and Huntley Walker Limited, later trading as Huntley Walker and Company and finally the Times System Automobile Company Limited. A short-lived venture, the company went bankrupt in 1907. But aviation still interested Warwick, and in 1908 went with Moore-Brabazon to Chalons in France to learn to fly in a Voisin biplane.

As early as 1907, Howard Wright was advertising that ‘any kind of machine could be built to inventor's specifications', and early that year Italian inventor Federico Capone, having reached out to the defunct Maxim company, contacted Howard, asking whether a special twin-rotor helicopter could be made for him. Construction was started in November that year in a shed at the Marylebone premises, and completed at a workshop occupying railway arch No.80, one of the large arches in Battersea under the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway. The helicopter was dispatched to Italy before the end of the year and became Britain’s first heavier-than-air aircraft export.

Howard Wright was also a specialist in the mechanical side of electric lighting and assisted in the installation of the first electric lighting station in London, and throughout 1907 and 1908 he was primarily concerned with the mechanical aspects of electricity generating installations rather than aviation. It was while engaged in this work that he met W.O. Manning, an electrical engineer employed by Callender’s Cable and Construction Co Ltd, who shared Howards aeronautical interests. As a result, Manning started work for Howard Wright in December 1908.

Wright now started taking commissions. Previously, he had undertaken the task to install an engine in Moore-Brabazon’s Short-built biplane glider, the necessary alterations for which were made at Brooklands during May 1908, but the end product again was not a success. He built a second helicopter for Federico Capone and two aircraft for his near neighbour under the railway arches, Horatio Barber. In 1909 he built a pusher biplane for wealthy aviation enthusiast Malcolm H. Seton-Karr.

Growth of aviation work necessitated further premises and arches Nos.79 and 82 were rented later, thereby hemming in the Short Brothers, who had numbers 81 and 75. The ground used for testing conventional aircraft was Brooklands, where Shed No.9 was in use throughout 1911. In addition to aircraft of the company’s own design, others were produced bearing their owner’s or designer’s name, notably the Poynter, Cooke, Lascelles and Scottish Aeroplane Syndicate monoplanes. Apart from responsibility for the actual construction, Howard Wright was no doubt involved with some design aspects of these, and probably bore most of the design responsibility.

Between 1907 and 1911, some 35 machines were built and Wright’s was probably the first aircraft factory in England to run at a profit, but no new aircraft were made after June 1911, although he continued to advertise his work at least until the end of November.

In August, Warwick sold part of his shareholding in Warwick Wright Ltd to the Belgian firm of SA l’Auto Metallurgique, based at Marchienne-au-Pont, and in the following month a special resolution was passed changing the company’s name to Metallurgique Ltd. Howard and Walter Wright retained their shareholdings until December, when Howard sold his aircraft interests to the Coventry Ordnance Works. Howard Wright and Manning both moved to the new enterprise, where they designed a biplane for the 1912 War Office competition. This was built at the old works in Battersea.

Howard Wrights time at C.O.W. was short, however, leaving in autumn 1912. He became a director of Hart Aeroplanes and Waterplanes Ltd, but relinquished this position before the end of 1912, when he joined J. Samuel White & Co Ltd, of Cowes, as chief aircraft designer and general manager. During his time there he learned to fly with the T.O.M. Sopwith School at Brooklands, gaining his Royal Aero Club Certificate, No. 331, on 15 October 1912, flying a Farman Biplane. Howard left Whites in 1917 to become technical advisor to the Air Ministry for the assembly of United States-built Handley Page 0/400 bombers. This work was to be done at converted cotton mills at Hollinwood and Shaw on the outskirts of Manchester.

During the 1920s, Howard became an aviation and general engineering consultant using, for a period, offices adjoining Warwick Wright’s car showrooms in New Bond Street, London, but this venture proved financially unsuccessful.

Howard Wright died in retirement on 12 December 1944 at Pagham, near Bognor Regis, Sussex.

Meanwhile, though he closed down the Warwick Wright business, Warwick maintained his involvement in Metallurgique car sales, the Vanden Plas coach builders, and the Darracq business. In 1916 he joined the RNAS, commissioned as a Lieutenant on 5 June 1916. He was promoted to Lieutenant Commander on 30 June 1917 and Squadron Commander on 6 October 1917. With the formation of the Royal Air Force in April 1918, became a Captain (temporary Major) in the Royal Air Force Technical Branch, then Lt.-Colonel (Tech.) on 1 May 1918.

In 1923 he restarted Warwick Wright Ltd, selling generally up-market brands. Clearly his business was closely associated with Sunbeam-Talbot-Darracq, known as STD Motors, and that would be his undoing in 1935. His Vanden Plas business was important too, since many larger cars were purchased as chassis, and coach-built bodies were then added to the purchaser's specification. By this time, Warwick Wright was also handling the American Stutz brand.

In 1935, STD motors collapsed. Warwick Wright Ltd was taken over by Rootes. Warwick Wright became personally bankrupt. Very little was heard of him during the next 4 years, but then, following the outbreak of WW2, in September 1939 he re-enlisted in the RNVR.

Warwick Joseph Wright died in April 1945 in Westminster, London.

Biography References

1. English Electric Aircraft and their Predecessors, Stephen Ransom and Robert Fairclough (Putnam, 1987)
2. The Wight Aircraft, Michael H. Goodall (Gentry Books, 1973)
3. The History of Black Country Aviation, Alec Brew (Alan Sutton, 1993)
4. Howard and Warwick Wright - the Other Wright Brothers
5. Ancestry.com