Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft

Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Company
Industry	Aviation
Fate	Merged with Gloster Aircraft Company & Hawker Aircraft
Successor	Hawker Siddeley
Founded	1912 (as Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth (Aerial Department))
Defunct	1961
Headquarters	Gosforth, Parkside, Whitley, Baginton, Bitteswell

Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Company, or Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft, was a British aircraft manufacturer.

History

Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft was established as the Aerial Department of the Sir W. G Armstrong Whitworth & Company engineering group in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1912, and from c. 1914 to 1917 employed the Dutch aircraft designer Frederick Koolhoven (hence the "F.K." models).

The last of 100 Gloster Meteor NF.14 night fighters built at AWAs factories for the Royal Air Force demonstrating at the 1954 Farnborough Air Show

In 1920, Armstrong Whitworth acquired the engine and automobile manufacturer Siddeley-Deasy. The engine and automotive businesses of both companies were spun off as Armstrong Siddeley and the aircraft interests as the Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Company. When Vickers and Armstrong Whitworth merged in 1927 to form Vickers-Armstrongs, Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft and Armstrong Siddeley were bought out by J. D. Siddeley and did not join the new grouping. This left two aircraft companies with Armstrong in the name - Vickers-Armstrongs (usually known as just "Vickers") and "Armstrong-Whitworth".

In 1935, J. D. Siddeley retired and Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft was purchased by Hawker Aircraft, the new group becoming Hawker Siddeley Aircraft. The component companies of Hawker Siddeley co-operated, but operated as individual entities.

During the 1950s Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft built many Gloster Meteor, Hawker Seahawk and Hawker Hunter jet fighters at their Bitteswell and Baginton factories for delivery to the Royal Air Force, the Royal Navy and the Royal Belgian Air Force.

The company was eventually merged with another Hawker Siddeley company, Gloster Aircraft Company, to form Whitworth Gloster Aircraft in 1961. In 1963 Hawker Siddeley dropped the names of the component companies from its products, the last Armstrong Whitworth product, the Argosy, becoming the Hawker Siddeley Argosy.

Products

Aircraft

Date of first flight in parenthesis.

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Armstrong Whitworth Aerial Department

Armstrong Whitworth F.K.1 (1914) – "Sissit"
Armstrong Whitworth F.K.3 (1915)
Armstrong Whitworth F.K.6 (1916) – Escort fighter triplane
Armstrong Whitworth F.K.8 (1916) – "Big Ack" (1,200 built)
Armstrong Whitworth F.K.9 (1916)
Armstrong Whitworth F.K.10 (1917) – "Quadriplane" (8 built)
Armstrong Whitworth Armadillo
Armstrong Whitworth Ara (1919)
Armstrong Whitworth Tadpole
Armstrong Whitworth Siskin (1919)

Armstrong-Siddeley Aircraft

Armstrong-Siddeley Siniai (1921) – Bomber (1 built)^[1]

Armstrong-Whitworth Aircraft

Armstrong Whitworth Awana (1923)
Armstrong Whitworth Wolf (1923)
Armstrong Whitworth Atlas (1925)
Armstrong Whitworth Ajax (1925)
Armstrong Whitworth A.W.14 Starling
Armstrong Whitworth Ape (1926)
Armstrong Whitworth Argosy (1926)
Armstrong Whitworth A.W.16
Armstrong Whitworth A.W.17 Aries (1930)
Armstrong Whitworth A.W.15 Atalanta (1932)
Armstrong Whitworth A.W.19 (1934)
Armstrong Whitworth A.W.23 (1935)
Armstrong Whitworth A.W.29 (1936) - competing design for Specification P.27/32 for a day bomber
Armstrong Whitworth A.W.35 Scimitar (1935)
Armstrong Whitworth A.W.38 Whitley (1936)
Armstrong Whitworth A.W.27 Ensign (1938)
Armstrong Whitworth A.W.41 Albemarle (1940)
Armstrong Whitworth A.W.52 (1947) – flying wing, prototype only
Privately owned Gloster Meteor NF11 in 2005. Built by Armstrong Whitworth in 1952 at their Baginton (Coventry) factory.
Armstrong Whitworth Apollo (1949)
Armstrong Whitworth Argosy (AW.650 / 660) (1959)
Armstrong Whitworth AW.681 – proposed STOL military transport aircraft design
Armstrong Whitworth AW.169 – proposed design for Operational Requirement F.155 high altitude supersonic interceptor
Armstrong Whitworth AW.171 – supersonic VTOL flying wing
Hawker Sea Hawk – produced as part of Hawker Siddeley Aircraft
Armstrong Whitworth Meteor NF.11 – redesign of the Gloster Meteor produced as part of Hawker Siddeley Aircraft

Airships

R25r airship
R29 – airship
R33 – airship

Missiles

Sea Slug missile

References

↑ "The Armstrong-Siddeley Sinaia" FLIGHT page 605, 8 September 1921

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Armstrong Whitworth aircraft.

Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft

Manufacturer designations

F.K.1
F.K.2
F.K.3
F.K.4/F.M.4
F.K.5
F.K.6
F.K.7
F.K.8
F.K.9
F.K.10
F.K.12
F.K.13
A.W.14
A.W.15
A.W.16
A.W.17
A.W.18
A.W.19
A.W.20
A.W.21
A.W.22
A.W.23
A.W.24
A.W.25
A.W.26
A.W.27
A.W.28
A.W.29
A.W.30
A.W.31
A.W.32
A.W.33
A.W.34
A.W.35
A.W.36
A.W.37
A.W.38
A.W.39
A.W.40
A.W.41
A.W.43
A.W.44
A.W.45
A.W.48
A.W.49
A.W.50
A.W.51
A.W.52
A.W.53
A.W.54
A.W.55
A.W.56
A.W.57
A.W.58
A.W.59
A.W.168
A.W.169
A.W.171
A.W.650
A.W.660
A.W.670
A.W.680
A.W.681
A.W.690

By role

Airships	25r R29 R33

Experimental	Ape A.W.52 A.W.171

Fighters	F.K.9/F.K.10 A.W.16 Ara Armadillo Scimitar Siskin Starling

Bombers	A.W.19 A.W.23 A.W.29 Siniai Whitley

Transports	Albemarle Argosy (AW.660) Awana

Airliners	Argosy (1920s) Atalanta Ensign Apollo

Army Co-Op	Atlas/Ajax/Aries

Reconnaissance	Tadpole Wolf

General Purpose	F.K.3 F.K.8

Aerospace industry in the United Kingdom

Companies

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Defunct	ADC Aircraft AJEP Abbott-Baynes Sailplanes ABC Motors Air Navigation and Engineering Company Airco The Airscrew Company Airship Industries Airspeed Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Arrow Aircraft Auster Austin Motor Company Aviation Traders Avro Beagle Aircraft William Beardmore and Company Blackburn Aircraft Boulton & Paul Boulton Paul Aircraft Bristol Aeroplane Company British Aerial Transport British Aerospace British Aircraft Company British Aircraft Corporation British Aircraft Manufacturing BTR Aerospace Central Aircraft Company Chilton Aircraft Chrislea Aircraft Clayton & Shuttleworth Comper Aircraft Company Cunliffe-Owen Aircraft Dart Aircraft de Havilland de Havilland Aeronautical Technical School de Havilland Propellers Desoutter Aircraft Company Dowty Group Dowty Rotol Dunlop Standard Aerospace E. D. Abbott Edgar Percival Aircraft Elliotts of Newbury English Electric Fairey Aviation Company Fane Aircraft Company Ferranti Folland Aircraft Foster, Wikner Aircraft Garland Aircraft Company General Aircraft General Electric Company Gloster Aircraft Company Grahame-White Handley Page Hawker Aircraft Hawker Siddeley Heston Aircraft Company Hewlett & Blondeau Hordern-Richmond Hunting Aircraft Lakes Flying Company Luton Aircraft M. B. Arpin & Co. Marconi Company Marconi Electronic Systems Martinsyde Matra Marconi Space Miles Aircraft Moss Brothers Aircraft D. Napier & Son Nash & Thomson National Aircraft Factory No. 2 Nieuport & General Aircraft Norman Thompson Flight Company Parnall Parnall & Sons Port Victoria Marine Experimental Aircraft Depot Lang Propellers Reid and Sigrist Rollason Aircraft and Engines Royal Aircraft Establishment Saunders-Roe Scottish Aviation Seaplane Experimental Station SELEX Galileo SELEX Sistemi Integrati Siddeley-Deasy Sopwith Aviation Company Spartan Aircraft Supermarine Vickers Vickers-Armstrongs Westland Aircraft Westland Helicopters J. Samuel White

Government and
regulatory bodies

Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft

History

Products

Aircraft

Airships

Missiles

See also

References

External links