Originally a flying school operator the company took on maintenance work in 1938.
During the Second World War, Scottish Aviation was involved in aircraft fitting for the war effort. This included maintenance and conversion of the Consolidated Liberator bomber.
The factory building of Scottish Aviation, which still exists today, was formerly the "Palace of Engineering" at the 1938 Empire Exhibition in Bellahouston Park, Glasgow. The building was dismantled from its Glasgow site and re-erected at the companies site in Prestwich.
Post war it built robust military STOL utility aircraft such as the Pioneer and larger Twin Pioneer. Much later the company built some Jetstreamturboprop transport and navigational training aircraft following the collapse of the Handley Page Aircraft Company (which designed the type). It built Bulldog trainers after the demise of their original manufacturer, Beagle Aircraft Limited. Scottish Aviation merged with the British Aircraft Corporation, Hawker Siddeley Aviation, and Hawker Siddeley Dynamics to form British Aerospace in 1977. Much of the former Scottish Aviation assets now belong to Spirit AeroSystems.
Fordson E27N Major fitted with Scottish Aviation Cab (reputedly made from left over spitfire parts !!)
In the 1950s the company looked to diversify from aircraft manufacturing work which was in decline, following the end of WWII, so looked for business ideas that could use the existing manufacturing capacity. One sector they tried was the manufacture of cabs for tractors. Early cabs were a light steel frame with thin sheet steel cladding or canvas sides. Tractor manufacturers did not offer cabs as standard, and a number of firms started to offer them as a accessory, for self fitting or dealer fitments. By the early 1970s this market declined as cabs became standard fitments by tractor manufacturers due to Health and safety rules introducing the requirement for roll-over protection on all new tractors. Some manufactures supplied them to the tractor makers, but other smaller ones lost there market share.
Aircraft[]
(first flight in brackets)
Scottish Aviation Pioneer (5 November 1947)
Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer (25 June 1955)
Scottish Aviation Bulldog
Scottish Aviation Jetstream
Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer
Scottish Aviation Jetstream T1
Privately owned Scottish Aviation Bulldog, formerly of the Botswana Air Force and in their colours, at an English rally in 2005.
Between 1964 and 1966 Scottish Aviation designed a small battery-electric car, the Scottish Aviation Scamp, of which twelve pre-production examples were built.[3]
Note: Not all this templates links have a relevance to Tractor Wiki but it is linked from some articles on Tractor Wiki as some featured companies had Aviation connections.
_with_Scottish_Aviation_cab_at_Lincoln_rally_2012_-_IMG_6915.jpg){kind=link}
