Miles

History

Frederick George Miles was born on 22 March 1903 in Worthing Sussex, the oldest of four sons of Frederick Gaston Miles, a laundry proprietor of the Star Model Laundry, Portslade-by-Sea, and his wife Esther (née Wicks). He initially went to a private infant’s school in Worthing, then St. Nicholas Church School in Portslade from ages 7 to 11. This was followed by East Hove Secondary School, where, after a somewhat patchy education, he left in 1916.

His first employment was as a mechanic-projectionist at a local cinema, then a similar role at the larger Queens cinema in Hove. In partnership with another young man, he next owned a very run-down cinema, the Majestic, in Kemptown. With the end of WWI and the return of his father from the war, business resumed at the laundry and Miles drove laundry vans during the day as well as continuing with the cinema venture of an evening.

Miles’s uncle having acquired a war surplus Ford ambulance, Miles set about converting it and hired it out with himself as driver. As a sideline, with a friend he rebuilt old motorcycles in his father’s stables, renting them out at a few shillings an hour. He also started a small team wiring house and opened an electrical shop in Boundary Road, Hove. To follow this, they decided to build a sports three wheeler. By this time Miles had met ex-RAF pilot Frederick Wallis, who helped out on the car, but also sparked Miles’ interest in aviation. Sometime in 1922 he took a 5-shilling joyride, leading to the decision to scrap the car and build an aeroplane instead.

Along with his brother Dennis and a few friends, Miles designed, then built a small biplane called the Gnat, utilising the ash and spruce from the three-wheeler project to provide longerons and ribs. Unfortunately, the project was never finished.

Wallis introduced Miles to local pilot Cecil Pashley, who he persuaded to become a partner in a proposed aviation business, and the Gnat Aero and Motor Company was formed in April 1925, with financing provided by Miles’ father. Pashley owned an Avro 504K, G-EATU, which was flown to Sussex and then dismantled and taken to Miles’ workshop (still in the laundry stables) for complete overhaul.

Miles leased a field and near derelict barn at Shoreham that had once been home to the Sussex County Aero Club, the Avro was moved there, and a flying school and joyriding business named the Southern Light ‘Plane Club was formed in August 1925 by F.G. Miles, Pashley and Wallis, with Captain F.J. Drover RN as Honorary Secretary, to act as the operating company for the Gnat Aero and Motor Company. At the liquidation of Grahame-White’s effects on 16 February 1926, a GW.15 Boxkite and a GWE.6 Bantam were acquired, and in May two Central Centaur F4s were obtained for the sum of £30 each.

Pashley taught Miles to fly the formers Avro 504K G-EATU, first flying solo in the Avro on 19 May 1926, gaining his RAeC Aviator’s Certificate (No 8003) on 15 June 1926, flying a Central Centaur (probably G-EALL). The company moved into new premises, Shoreham Aerodrome, in June 1926, where Miles, Pashley and Wallis formed the Southern Aero Club.

On 16 May 1927, the Gnat Aero Company was formally incorporated as the Gnat Aero Company, Ltd., with a share capital of £1,500. The first directors were F.G. Miles, C.L. Pashley and Mile’s father, F. Gaston Miles. That same year, Avro closed their premises at Hamble and Miles purchased a number of airframes. One of these, Avro Baby G-EAUM, was modified by Miles by replacing its 35 h.p Green with a 60 h.p Cirrus, his first endeavour at design, though for the most part all changes were more empirical than analytical.

With the Gnat Aero Company expanding into aircraft repairs and production, the company was renamed Southern Aircraft Ltd in 1929, with Miles as Managing Director and Pashley, along with Lionel Edward Richard Bellairs (b. 31 Oct 1905 St George Hanover Square, London - d. 1 Jan 1971 Torquay, Devon), a Southern Aero Club member and director of the new company, wanted a single seat aerobatic aeroplane of his own. Starting with one of the Avro Babys the he had purchased from Hamble, Miles produced the Hornet Baby, though little but metal fittings from the Baby was eventually used. Renamed the Southern Martlet, this became Miles first production aircraft, first flying on 10 July 1929.

F.G. Miles’ youngest brother, George Herbert Miles, had been born on 28 July 1911 at Portslade. After leaving Hove College, on 24 February 1930 George joined Southern Aircraft Ltd at Shoreham for sum of 15 shillings per week, to manage the fast-developing aircraft works, flying school and joyride business. On 20 March 1931 he gained his RAeC Aviators Certificate, No. 9759, flying a de Havilland Moth at the Southern Aero Club.

In June 1930, The Hon Inigo Freeman-Thomas (b. 25 July 1898 – d. 19 March 1979, Viscount Ratendone from February 1931), and his wife Maxine, came to Shoreham to learn to fly. Maxine Frances Mary Forbes-Robertson was born on 22 September 1901, the daughter of Johnston Forbes-Robertson and May Gertrude Dermot, better known by her stage name of Gertrude Elliott, both actors. A privileged but grounded upbringing ensured that Maxine, or "Blossom" as she was known in her family, was able to develop her intellectual, sporting and artistic abilities to the full despite allegedly losing an eye at an early age. She was no stranger to the theatre and appeared on the London stage with members of her family on occasion. Maxine spent her early years with her sisters Jean, Chloe and Diana at Hartsbourne Manor, the home of her aunt Maxine Elliott, an American actress and businesswoman. A wing of the manor was used exclusively by her parents, the Forbes-Robertsons' main family home being located at 22 Bedford Square in the heart of London's Bloomsbury district.

On 8 October 1924, Blossom married Inigo Freeman-Thomas. Her aunt Maxine Elliott gave Freeman-Thomas a $500,000 dowry on announcement of her marriage, and the couple lived for a time in Miss Elliot's Regents Park home.

Inigo Freeman-Thomas was appointed a director of Southern Aircraft in August 1930, and chairman in February 1931; meanwhile Blossom gained her RAeC Aviators Certificate, No. 9585, on 19 October 1930, flying an Avro 504K.

In 1931, Basil Henderson, who also had offices at Shoreham, designed the Falcon Four, a twin engine, low-wing 4-seater for Blossom, intended for flight to India October that year to visit to her father-in-law, Lord Willingdon. Flight [7] indicated that the aircraft was to be built by Southern Aircraft, but Amos [3] considers this unlikely. The project was to come to nothing: Miles had an affair with Maxine and, to remove himself from the difficult situation, in August 1931 he emigrated to South Africa. However, his time in South Africa was short; about to be prosecuted for dangerous flying (he had flown over the local flying club with the aircraft’s wheels running along the corrugated iron roof!), he hastily returned to England, arriving in Southampton on 24 September 1931 aboard the SS Windsor Castle.

Miles and Blossom purchased a caravan and set up home in a farmer’s field near Sevenoaks. Blossom was a very talented woman; they rented a small room over a shop to use as a drawing office, and together designed a single-seat biplane in 1932, the M.1 Satyr, which was built for them by George Parnall and Co of Yate, Gloucestershire, for whom Miles had done some flight testing in 1929 and again after his return from South Africa. Freeman-Thomas, by now Viscount Ratendone, named Miles as co-defendant with Maxine in an undefended suit and was granted a decree nisi in April 1932, and on 6 August that year she and Miles were married at Holburn Registry Office. Blossom and F.G. were to have two children, Jeremy born in 1933 and Mary Susannah born in 1939.

In November 1928, the owners of the Reading Motor Exchange, Jack Phillips and Charles Owen Powis (b. 29 September 1904 in Russell, Manitoba, Canada), purchased over 100 acres of farmland at Woodley, near Reading, for use as an airfield. They established the firm of Phillips and Powis Aircraft (Reading) Ltd., and the Phillips and Powis School of Flying which started to provide flying lessons in early 1929, quickly going on to build a hangar and other facilities, then an impressive residential club house. In 1932, most likely on 25 August, F.G. Miles met Charles Powis, and discussed the idea of a cheap, but modern light monoplane. Miles and Blossom had probably already begun the design, which materialised as the Miles M.2 Hawk, to be built by Phillips and Powis at Woodley. Miles and Blossom moved to Reading, where they set up a drawing office in part of the Phillips and Powis hanger, trading under the name of the Miles Aircraft Company. The Hawk sold well and Miles joined the company as technical director and chief designer in October 1932.

F. G. Miles decided to compete in the 1935 King’s Cup Air Race and the job of producing a suitable aircraft fell to Blossom, who had just eight weeks to produce an aeroplane. With neither the time or the facilities to create something from scratch, she took a Miles Hawk, shortened the fuselage, improved the streamlining, reduced the wingspan by 5 ft, reduced the height of the undercarriage, moved the legs outwards and away from the propeller slipstream and, finally, installed extra tanks to enable the 140 hp Gypsy Major engine to complete the 953-mile course with only a single re-fuelling stop.

In 1935 the original Phillips and Powis company had become a public company, Phillips and Powis Aircraft Ltd., and by December that year Miles was envisioning a new high-performance trainer to match the performance of the RAF’s upcoming fighters. As the intended powerplant was to be the Rolls-Royce Kestrel, he approached that company for assistance, and Rolls-Royce Limited become a major shareholder on 6 April 1936. That same year, Miles and Blossom moved into ‘Land’s End House’, Beggars Hill Road, Twyford, an Art Deco style house designed for them by architect Guy Morgan.

With F.G. Miles having joined Phillips and Powis, George Miles had been left in charge of Southern Aircraft, but in May 1936 he finally re-joined his brother at Woodley as a test pilot and manager of the engine section, having wound up Southern Aircraft and the Southern Aero Club at Shoreham. Phillips and Powis had obtained a licence agreement for American Menasco engines, and George’s first job was to fly a Hawk Trainer fitted with a Menasco Pirate for long periods on full throttle to test the engines’ reliability. In the end, no Menasco engines were to be built by Phillips and Powis.

1936 also saw Phillips and Powis’ first RAF order, with the first of many contracts for the M.14 Magister, a derivative of the M.2 Hawk, being awarded on 4 November 1936. Miles’ vision of a high-performance trainer resulted in the M.9 Kestrel which first flew on 5 June 1937, and his faith was rewarded with an order for 500 of the improved M.9B Master on 11 June 1938. Following the outbreak of war, in 1940 Phillips and Powis were instructed to build a ‘shadow factory’ at South Marsden, near Swindon, Wiltshire, and it was near that a great deal of Master production took place. This factory eventually turned to Spitfire modifications, before being turned over to Vickers-Supermarine in April 1943. On 10 July 1937, primarily for personal reasons, Charles Powis tendered his resignation, and Miles, along with Lt. Colonel Ormonde Darby, Rolls-Royce’s representative on the board, were made joint Managing Directors in his place.

1938 saw George Miles’ first design for the company, the Monarch, which first flew in February that year, and around November 1938, he was appointed manager of the Repair and Service Department. In June 1939 George married Corinne M Mackenzie.

Meanwhile, as well as her design duties, Blossom served as one of five commissioners of the Civil Air Guard which was established in July 1938 to encourage and subsidise pilot training. Formed around civilian flying clubs, subsidised tuition was offered in exchange for an 'honourable undertaking' that in times of emergency, members would serve in the Royal Air Force Reserve.

Rolls-Royce eventually lost interest in the company, and F.G. Miles bought financial control of the company on 12 March 1941, via a loan of £60,000 from the Amalgamated Roadstone Corporation, whose chairman, W.H. Gatty Saunt, joined the board, alongside F.G Miles, Blossom and George Miles.

Within the new company, Blossom, as well as being a designer and draughtswoman, was looking after the social and welfare issues faced by the rapidly expanding company. With the coming of World War II, Blossom anticipated the need for women in the aircraft workforce in positions other than secretaries and typists. Women trained by her in the company’s Experimental Department’s Liverpool Road drawing office became known as “Blossom’s Babies.” In 1942, Blossom was a guest speaker at the Women’s Engineering Society's Annual Dinner, held at the Forum Club, speaking on Women in the Drawing Office, based on her personal experiences working on aircraft engineering and training up other women in the field during World War Two.

With aircraft development becoming more specialized during WWII, Blossom left the direct design work to others. She expanded company benefits to include newsletters, amateur dramatics with the Aerodrome Players and other morale-building efforts.

Prior to Rolls Royce divesting its interest in Phillips and Powis, F.G. Miles had concerned himself mainly with technical matters but, with the business now in the hands of the Miles family, F.G. had to turn his attention to administration and George took over the duties of Technical Director and Chief Designer. George took responsibility for the Experimental Department at Liverpool Road, Reading. There, he was responsible for the design of five types featuring ‘LR’ (for Liverpool Road) designations (LR-1 through LR-4, plus the post-war LR-6). Along with these, George was also responsible for the Martinet and Monitor, along with Miles post-war transports. His last design with Miles Aircraft was the M.74 Messenger Minor of 1947.

The company was renamed Miles Aircraft Limited 5 October 1943. The same year, the Miles Aeronautical Technical School opened under Blossom’s directorship. The school prepared young men and women for careers in aviation.

In late 1943 Miles were contracted to set up a factory in Bambridge, Co. Down, Northern Ireland, where initially they built Monoplane Air Tails for air launched torpedoes. The same year a contract was placed with Miles for M.38 Messengers, the majority to be built in Bambridge. Unfortunately, the cramped nature of the factory, an ex linen mill, meant the aircraft had to be transported to RAF Long Kesh for final assembly.

Also in 1943, F.G. Miles was shown a prototype ballpoint pen made by László József Bíró (29 September 1899 – 24 October 1985) by Buenos Aires based chartered accountant Harry G. Martin, and offered to produce them for the Royal Air Force. The ministry was concerned that it would distract from aircraft production but Miles eventually persuaded government officials to let him use 17 unskilled women to produce the Biro pen, which was the world's first commercially successful ballpoint pen. In 1945, Miles and Martin formed The Miles-Martin Pen Co Ltd. with F.G. Miles and Martin each putting up £5,000 capital, with F.G. Miles appointed Chairman of the new company. At the end of the war, the Reading biro factory which would employ 700 people, became the Miles Martin Pen Company and the Biro was sold to the general public. After Miles’ collapse, Martin was to eventually take control of the company and to change its name to the Biro Pen Co.

From 1943, George Miles was given overall design responsibility for a supersonic aircraft (the M.52) powered by the then secret Whittle jet engine. The government contract and the programme were cancelled in 1946. Data from this project was shared with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA – later to become NASA), also at work on supersonic aircraft designs during this period.

On 30 April 1946, Miles Aircraft (Northern Ireland) was formed at Newtownards airport, then owned by Lord Londonderry (Charles Stewart Henry Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 7th Marquess of Londonderry, KG, MVO, PC, PC (Ire) b.13 May 1878 – d.10 February 1949), with Messenger construction transferred there from Banbridge. Lord Londonderry became Chairman of the new company, while Charles Powis, of the original Phillips and Powis, returned to the company as Managing Director.

Problems with the return to civil production eventually led to the collapse of Miles Aircraft. In late 1947, the company entered receivership following bankruptcy proceedings instigated by Titanine Ltd., in the Chancery Division of the High Court. There were many reasons for the financial problems, not all of them of the company's making and questions remain about the behaviour of the Ministry of Aircraft Production, the company's bank and certain of its financial advisors. After Miles Aircraft had been taken over by financiers in 1947, the design and manufacture of aircraft was ended by the new Board, though at this time the company had some £5 million worth of business in hand, including substantial orders for the Messenger and the Gemini.

The aviation assets were purchased by Handley Page as Handley Page Reading Ltd, who went on to produce the Miles-designed M.60 Marathon as the H.P.R.1 Marathon. The Miles Aeronautical Technical School was taken over by the Reading Technical College. Miles’ photocopier business became Copycat Ltd, which was acquired by the Nashua Corporation in 1963. The Philidas locking nut unit became an independent company. The bookbinding machinery and actuator production were taken over by a specifically formed company, the Western Manufacturing Estate Ltd, the name "Western" referring to its location on the Woodley aerodrome. This company later merged with the Adamant Engineering Company Ltd. to form the Adwest Group.

On 21 March 1950, following an investigation by the Board of Trade, Miles and Sir William Malcolm Mount, Bt. (former financial executive of the company) were formally committed for trial at Marylebone Magistrates' Court, the Old Bailey on summonses under the Prevention of Fraud (Investment) Act 1939. Bail of £500 was set in each case. The charges arose from alleged concealment of facts and misleading statements made in a share prospectus concerning the manufacture of Aerovan, Merchantman and other aircraft. Both men were later acquitted.

Undeterred, on 4 December 1948, F.G. and Blossom Miles started a new company, F.G. Miles Ltd, at Redhill, and in 1952 moved back to Shoreham. Instead of aircraft production, the company initially found themselves specialising in research and pioneering engineering. One of its first products was a new wing for the Kendall Crabpot glider, designed by Hugh Kendall, made of Durestos, a phenolic/asbestos fibre material stabilised with paper honeycomb, resulting in the M.76. Next was the M.77 Sparrowjet, a jet powered conversion of their earlier Miles Sparrowhawk.

Meanwhile, George Miles had moved to Airspeed, and in 1949 became chief designer from a retiring Arthur Hagg. There he was responsible for the two-seat trainer version of the de Havilland Vampire, and led production, design and development of the Ambassador. In 1953 he left Airspeed and returned to Shoreham, where he re-joined his brother as chief designer.

The first new design undertaken by the Miles brothers at Shoreham was the M.100 Student, aimed at all through jet training for future RAF pilots. Though promising, it was never to go into production. In 1955 George recognised the possibilities of high aspect ratio wings, particularly those being pioneered by Hurel-Bubois in France. To provide comparative data as quickly and cheaply as possible, it was decided to fit an H-D designed wing to an Aerovan, resulting in the HDM.105. Following successful trials, the company H.D et M (Aviation) Ltd. was formed between F.G. Miles and Societé de Construction des Avions Hurel-Dubois to explore derivatives of the HDM.105. Unfortunately, the resulting HDM.106 Caravan was never produced was never produced due to shortage of funds, but did eventually lead to the Short S.C.7 Skyvan.

F.G. Miles widened his business interests, including Miles Marine and Structural Plastics, established in 1956 which took over the rapidly expanding work of the plastics division; Miles Electronics, primarily concerned with electronic flight simulators, was formed in 1961. Miles Electronics merged with the Link Division of Singer-General Precision Inc of USA, who acquired a majority share in Miles Electronics in 1969, forming Link-Miles. Eventually, Singer bought Link-Miles from F. G. Miles; Miles Hivolt, with interests in electronic equipment, design services, and provision of equipment connected with nuclear power.

Miles put forward proposals to the Transport Aircraft Requirements Group in the form of their M.114 single and M.115 twin engine designs. The designs were received favourably, but the Group considered they could only be achieved by strengthening Miles’ resources through an association with BEAGLE. At that point, negotiations were already underway for Miles to undertake sub-contract work for BEAGLE, and they were duly awarded design and construction of the B.206 mock-up, followed shortly by the B.206X prototype. Following this, on 18 October 1960, George Miles was appointed Technical Director to the Coordinating Board of the BEAGLE Group.

Despite attempting to remain independent, on 25 November 1960, F.G. Miles Ltd became part of the BEAGLE Group. F.G. Miles Ltd was renamed Miles Engineering and a new company named F.G. Miles Ltd was formed which acquired the aviation assets of Miles Engineering. The new F.G. Miles Ltd was then acquired by the BEAGLE Group, where F.G. Miles became the deputy chairman. In February 1961 F.G. Miles Ltd was formally renamed Beagle-Miles.

However, neither F.G. nor George Miles fared well at Beagle, considering little effort being made to pursue legacy Miles’ designs. While both were talented designers, their managerial skills were far less so, at their clashes with senior Beagle management eventually proved untenable. F.G. finally left Beagle in September 1962, though he remained on the payroll for another eight months until the dismissal of his brother George in May 1963. Both F.G. and George returned to Miles Engineering, continuing his work developing new products. In 1975, Hunting Associated Industries acquired a controlling interest in Miles Engineering, and all its subsidiaries. The company was renamed Hunting Hivolt and Jeremy Miles, the son of F. G. Miles, became a non-executive director on the board.

During the early sixties, F.G. Miles and Blossom set up home in Cudlow House, Rustington, some 12 miles from Shoreham airport; this had been home of the Llewelyn Davies family, who inspired J. M. Barrie to write the Peter Pan story. The family later moved to Ashurst Steyning.

Frederick George Miles died on 15 August 1976 in Ashurst Steyning, Sussex; Maxine ‘Blossom’ Miles died 6 April 1984, also in Ashurst Steyning, and George Herbert Miles died in August 1987 in Richmond Upon Thames.

Company References

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