Grace's Guide To British Industrial History

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Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 166,994 pages of information and 246,689 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.

Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 147,919 pages of information and 233,587 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.

Nieuport and General Aircraft Co

From Graces Guide
1910.
July 1910.
1911. Ref AA below
1914. Ref AA below
1919.
1919.
1919.

British Nieuport and General Aircraft Co of Cricklewood was the UK manufacturing arm of the French Nieuport company.

The Nieuport & General Aircraft Company Ltd was a British aircraft manufacturer, established during the First World War to build French Nieuport aircraft under license

In November 1916, Samuel Waring, head of the furniture manufacturer Waring and Gillow, established the Nieuport & General Aircraft Company at Cricklewood, London to build the French Nieuport 11 fighter under license. It built 50 Nieuport 17bis fighters before production changed to the more capable Sopwith Camel, building 400 Camels, with 100 Sopwith Snipes being delivered postwar.

1916 The Burbidge Report into the activities of the Royal Aircraft Factory, and the subsequent decisions by the Air Board, led to the construction of aircraft at Farnborough being stopped, and the Factory's design teams being broken up.

Major S. Heckstall-Smith left the Royal Aircraft Factory and joined Nieuport as General manager; he recruited other staff from the Factory including Mr Hall (presumably) who was assistant manager, and Mr. Folland who became chief designer.

1917 Nieuport & General took advantage of the situation at the Royal Aircraft Factory to hire Henry Folland, the designer of the S.E.5 fighter, as chief designer. Folland designed a number of aircraft, with the Nieuport Nighthawk fighter being ordered into production in August 1918, but the failure of the engine chosen to power it together with the end of the First World War, lead to production being ended and the Nighthawk not entering service.

Nieuport & General was closed down in August 1920, together with another aircraft company owned by Waring, the Alliance Aeroplane Co. Another of Waring's aircraft companies, British Aerial Transport Co, seems to have continued for a few years. Folland was hired by the Gloster Aircraft Company, continuing development of the Nighthawk.


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