Chilton

History

Hon. Andrew William Henry Dalrymple (b. 10 May 1914 in St George Hanover Square, London – d. 25 December 1945 in Newbury, Berkshire), the son of Sir John Dalrymple 12th Earl of Stair and Alexander Reginald Ward (b. 27 February 1915 in St George Hanover Square, London - d. 13 May 1987 in Mary Newbury Berks), son of Sir Hon. John Ward, whose father was the 1st Earl of Dudley, both attended the de Havilland Technical School. While there, they designed a low wing cantilever monoplane, something of a freelance exercise and was carried out at Hatfield during 1935 and early 36 under the watchful eye of Marcus Langley (Chief Design Instructor 1932-39).

On leaving de Havilland, Ward and Dalrymple formed Chilton Aircraft, and then persuaded their wood-working instructor at de Havilland, Fred Luscombe to come and work for them. Fred commenced work at Chilton Lodge on 18th May 1936 and the aircraft was constructed in wooden building specially erected for the purpose in the grounds of Chilton Lodge, the stately home of Wards parents in Chilton Foliate, Berkshire. The prototype was completed towards the end of March 1937 and it was taken to Whitney Aerodrome in Oxfordshire for its flight trials. The Chilton made its first flight on the 16th April 1937 in the hands of Ranald Porteous, who had been a fellow student at de Havilland.

The choice of engine for the D.W.1 was very limited; the Carden-Ford was selected as being the most suitable, but this had a very poor power to weight ratio. Carden Aero Engines was formed in 1935 by Sir John V. Carden Bt. Sadly Sir John was killed in an airliner crash in December 1935, the company then being taken over by Carden-Baynes Aircraft Ltd. In 1937 it was acquired by Chilton Aircraft, to produce engines for its own needs.

The unsatisfactory nature of the Carden-Ford led to the D.W.1A, powered by the French 44 h.p. Train engine, the increase in power was just what was required to get the most from the highly efficient airframe. The only changes to the airframe were metal engine bearers, a separate oil tank, and an increase in the area of the fin and rudder to balance the longer nose.

Following the outbreak of war in 1939, Chilton Aircraft continued in business, the works going over to the manufacture of small machined metal parts and such components as could be made in a small area under sub contract from larger firms. From two men and a boy in 1938, by 1945 around 250 people were employed working in shifts around the clock. In 1941 Ward joined the Air Transport Auxiliary, leaving Dalrymple to run the business.

Towards the end of the war the authorities authorised a certain percentage of man hours towards post-war product development calculated to assist post-war UK exports. During 1944 Chilton designed the Chilton Cavalier, a single seat 15 metre span sailplane for production after the cessation of hostilities. However these plans were shelved when they were approached by Dudley Hiscox, the noted sailplane pilot, who asked them to build an Olympia Meise sailplane. The Chilton Olympia was in fact a complete re-design of the German Meise but it preserved the same external aerodynamic shape. It also had a beefed-up main spar and joint fitting to meet the up-gust case that the ARB proposed to introduce.

The fuselage was started but early in 1945 the wings were sub-contracted to Elliotts of Newbury However on completion of the wings, Elliotts refused to sell Chilton the wing jigs that were required for production of the Olympia. However after the death of Andrew Dalrymple, an agreement was reached whereby Elliotts purchased from Chilton Aircraft production rights to the redesigned Olympia and all work in hand.

Other development work at Chilton during 1944 was devoted to a low wing side by side two seater, the Chilton Challenger, with Cirrus Minor engine or optional Gipsy Major. No firm decision had been taken as to whether it should have a tail-wheel or tricycle undercarriage, it got a far as a mock-up of the cabin and centre section. However the tragic death of Andrew Dalrymple on Christmas day 1945, when a Fieseler Fi.156 Storch broke up in mid-air, marked the end of powered aircraft manufacture at Chilton.

In 1946 Chilton commenced the production of an electric shaver, the Chilton BUK and by 1949 the decision had been made to concentrate on the production of electrical goods, whilst maintaining the customer base for machined parts. In 1949 Mr. C.A.F. "Jim" Fuller-Shapcott was employed to set up the sales organisation for the company under the banner of Chilton Electric Products Ltd., Chilton Aircraft were still the manufacturing element. The electric shavers, hair clippers, shaver sockets, circuit breakers, rechargeable torches and spin dryers (the first spin dryers in the U.K.) proved very successful and by the mid 50's the buildings in the grounds of Chilton Lodge had become totally inadequate, so a new factory was built in nearby Hungerford. The sub contract side of the business remained for a short time under the Chilton Aircraft banner, but eventually became Chilton Engineering Ltd. The company continued as Chilton Electric Products Ltd until approximately 1964 when it became Ottermill Chilton, later going through a further change of ownership in the early seventies when it was taken over by the Westinghouse Corporation. During the mid-eighties Westinghouse transferred all manufacturing to Ireland, the factory in Hungerford being closed down in November 1985 and demolished.

However, this is not the end of the story. During 1980 Don Giffin from Canada obtained permission to build a Chilton from Mr. Ward and commenced construction, using an incomplete set of drawings with the missing details hastily drawn up by Roy Nerou. Over a 20 year period, Roy re-draughted the original drawings, creating new ones to cover those that had gone missing, and these were made available for homebuilt construction. The first new Chilton built to these drawings was built by Tim Harrison and flew in July 1997. To date (2024), some 80 sets of drawings have been sold.

Company References

1. https://www.hungerfordvirtualmuseum.co.uk/?view=article&id=478&catid=8
2. http://www.chilton-aircraft.co.uk/index.html - no longer active, but see https://www.hungerfordvirtualmuseum.co.uk/images/phocagallery/HHA_Archives/20070531%20Chilton%20Aircraft%20-%20Roy%20Nerou.pdf
3. https://www.hungerfordvirtualmuseum.co.uk/images/phocagallery/HHA_Archives/19860206%20Chilton%20Aircraft.pdf

Project Data

* Chilton production only. For homebuilt aircraft, see individual production page.

Chilton production only. For homebuilt aircraft, see individual production page.