Chilton Aircraft

Chilton Aircraft

Former type	aircraft design and manufacture
Fate	ceased operations in 1946
Founded	early 1937
Defunct	1946
Headquarters	Leverton near Hungerford, Berkshire
Key people	Hon. Andrew Dalrymple and A.R. Ward

Chilton Aircraft Ltd was a British aircraft design and manufacturing company of the late 1930s and 1940s.

Foundation

The company was founded in early 1937 by two ex de Havilland Technical School students and Old Etonians, the Hon. Andrew Dalrymple, (b1914) the son of Sir John Dalrymple 12th Earl of Stair, and Alexander Reginald Ward, (b1915) the son of Sir Hon. John Ward, whose father was the 1st Earl of Dudley. It established a small factory on the Chilton Lodge estate at Leverton, near Hungerford in Berkshire, from which location the firm's name was derived.^[1]

The Chilton D.W.1

The Chilton D.W.1A at Netheravon Airfield, Wiltshire, in April 1968

The founders designed a very small, low-powered, but fast, sporting monoplane, designated the Chilton D.W.1. The aircraft had a very clean aerodynamic design, which required split flaps to lower the landing speed. The Carden Ford 32 h.p. gave it a declared top speed of 112 mph, but during racing, 129 mph was eventually reached.^[2]

Four aircraft were built between early 1937 and July 1939, the last having a 45 h.p. Train 4T engine, being designated the D.W.1A. A further development, the Chilton D.W.2 was commenced, but had not been completed at the outbreak of World War II. The four aircraft were stored during the war and the jigs, spares and the half-completed D.W.2 were taken over by the College of Aeronautical Engineering at Redhill Aerodrome.^[3]

Postwar developments

All four D.W.1s flew post war, taking part in many air races, but after accidents, only two survived in airworthy condition in 2005. From the mid 1980s, three examples have been commenced by amateur builders, one of which first flew in 1987. These aircraft are powered by a Lycoming O-145 engine.^[4]

The firm had been planning to make a small glider called the Chilton Cavalier, after the war. However a glider pilot called Dudley Hiscox brought the drawings of a better glider, DFS Olympia Meise, to Chilton and so a prototype was built in a converted chicken house on the Chilton estate. The German drawings were not detailed and so new drawings were made in which the Meise was altered for cheaper production. Aircraft consultants, called 'A and EP' checked the stresses for British airworthiness conditions and so the spar and joint fittings were strengthened. The maiden flight was made on 11 August 1946. At that time the firm had a long order list for more Chilton Olympians. The plans were sent to Australia where three more Chilton Olympias were built.

The building of the wings for the prototype had been sub-contracted to Elliotts of Newbury. On completion of the prototype's wings Elliotts refused to sell the wing jigs to Chilton. Andrew Dalrymple, was killed in a crash of a Fi Storch on 25 December 1945 near Hungerford. This event soon ended aircraft production. After the death of Dalrymple an agreement was reached to sell production rights and all the work in hand on the redesigned Olympia to Elliotts. The Chilton prototype was eventually declared un-airworthy in 1970 and destroyed.

Aircraft

• Chilton D.W.1 light monoplane
• Chilton Cavalier glider (not built)
• Chilton Olympia glider - later EoN Olympia

References

Notes

1. ^ Jackson, 1973, p. 279
2. ^ Jackson, 1973, p.279
3. ^ Jackson, 1973, p. 279-280
4. ^ Simpson, 2001, p. 150

Bibliography

• A.J., Jackson (1973). British Civil Aircraft since 1919 - Volume 1. Putnam & Company Ltd. ISBN 0-370-10006-9. 
• Simpson, Rod (2001). Airlife's World Aircraft. Airlife Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1-84037-115-3. 

• Detailed history of the Olympia

External links

• http://www.chilton-aircraft.co.uk/