Beardmore

History

William Beardmore and Co., Ltd, the Scottish engineering and shipbuilding conglomerate, decided to move into aviation in November 1913. The plan was that airships were to be built at the Dalmuir works and aero-engines at the Arrol-Johnston works at Heathfield. For aircraft, Beardmore acquired the UK rights for machines from D.F.W. (Deutsche Flugzeug-Werke, or German Aircraft Works) of Lindenthal. D.F.W. had set up business at Brooklands in November 1913, headed up by Technical Director E.C. Kny who brought over a D.F.W. B2 and an Arrow biplane from Germany. The Arrow was to have been the subject of a licence agreement between D.F.W. and Beardmore and Kny intended a purpose built factory for this in Richmond, Surrey.

The outbreak of war ended the Beardmore-D.F.W. alliance and any thoughts of a new factory, but not before one new, but German, design was begun at Brooklands. This was an aircraft intended for the Daily Mail ‘Seaplane Circuit of Britain’ Race of 1914, but the war also caused this to be cancelled. The factory at Richmond never materialized, but in 1914 an airfield was built at Dalmuir and the first order received from the Admiralty for 24 B.E.2c’s. The Admiralty representative overseeing production was Lieutenant G.T. Richards R.N.V.R, and he was allowed to resign his commission to head up Beardmore’s design office when it was created in January 1916. Several prototypes were produced but only the Sopwith Pup derived W.B.III went into production.

With the wholesale cancellation of military contracts at the end of the war, production at Dalmuir effectively ceased. Richards produced several designs between 1919 and 1920, but none went beyond the drawing board and in May 1920 the Aircraft Department was closed down.

In 1923 the Air Ministry gave a contract to Beardmore for the design and construction of an experimental aircraft to evaluate the all metal concepts of Adolf Karl Rohrbach. Consequently the Aircraft Department was reopened on 1 January 1924 under chief designer W.S. Shackleton. To set up the licence agreement between Beardmore and Rohrbach, a separate componay, the Light Metal Aircraft Company, of Dalmuir, was formed with, amongst others, Adolph Rohrbach and Alan E.L. Chorlton, Beardmores' Aircraft Manager, as directors. It would be several years before this giant aircraft, the Inflexible, would first fly and in the meantime Shackleton produced an aircraft at the opposite end of the scale, the diminutive ‘Wee-Bee’, intended for the forthcoming light aeroplane trials at Lympne that September, ending the competition well ahead of its nearest rival, winning the Air Ministry first prize of £2,000.

Two more aircraft were to fly before the Inflexible, the first another Rohrbach based design, the Inverness. This was followed by the W.B.XXVI, the prototype of a fighter built especially for Latvia. Only one prototype was built. When it was delivered to Latvia it was found to handle very well, but to be very much underpowered. In Latvia it flew a total of three times before it was rejected and returned to the manufacturer. In early 1926, Beardmore appointed Squadron-Leader Rollo de Haga Haig as "outside" manager in connection with their aviation and aero engine departments and on Shackletons departure in the latter part of 1927, he took over as chief designer. However, by now the writing was on the wall for Beardmore, and the Aircraft Department finally closed in February 1929.

In September of that same year, Sir William Beardmore, Bt (he was created a Baronet, of Flichity in the County of Inverness, in 1914), was forced to resign from his own company. Born in Deptford, London, on 16 October 1856 and raised to the peerage as Baron Invernairn, of Strathnairn in the County of Inverness, in the 1921 New Year Honours, Beardmore died at his home in Strathnairn, Inverness-shire of heart failure on 9 April 1936.

Company References

1. Beardmore Aviation, 1913-1930, Charles E Mac Kay (A. MacKay, 2012)
2. Clydesdale Aviation Volume 1 - The Great War, Charles E Mac Kay (A. MacKay, 2018)
3. Clydesdale Aviation Volume 2 - Between The Wars, Charles E Mac Kay (A. MacKay, 2020)

Project Notes

1. The W.B.III was a modified Sopwith Pup, the designation 'S.B.' signifying Sopwith-Beardmore.
   The suffix D denoted 'Dropping' undercarriage, while the subscript 'F' denoted folding. According to Bruce et.al [13], the F subscript was little used, if at all, and all aircraft so built were converted to 'D'.
2. Phillip Jarrett [303] refers to a Beardmore design for a two seat fighter/advanced trainer that predates the XXVI and could possibly be the XXV.

Project References