British Aircraft Company Low Volume Production
Including Lowe, Lowe-Wylde and Kronfeld
For a description of the format and data included in Production Tables, see here.
This page covers Company aircraft with low production volumes and/or registration/serial allocations. For higher volume production, see the individual type Production Details.
Type Description and Production Data
| Lowe HL(M).9 Marlburian | Lowe-Wylde Columbus | B.A.C.I | B.A.C.IX | Kronfeld Flying Trainer | Kronfeld Monoplane |
Lowe HL(M).9 Marlburian
Two seat monoplane. The fuselage, seating pilot and passenger side by side, was of rectangular section, tapering off to a horizontal knife edge at the stern. It was built up of four spruce longerons, with spruce struts and cross members, braced with steel wire. The front three bays were covered with three-ply wood. The cowling and side panels were of aluminium, hinged for access to the engine. At the point of attachment of the undercarriage struts the lower longerons were built into a girder section so as to provide greater strength locally. The main planes had raked tips with rounded corners, and were of fairly thin section, although the camber is considerable. The spars were of solid spruce, and alternate ribs were of box sections to serve as compression struts, there being four bays of internal bracing. The other ribs were of I-section, with spruce flanges and poplar webs. The wing bracing was in the form of plain steel wire, with four anti-lift wires, eight lift wires, and one external drag wire to each wing. The lift wires were attached to the lower longeron, giving a somewhat flat angle to the wires. The top, or anti-lift, wires were secured to two cabanes in the form of inverted Vees. The ailerons featured channel section spruce leading edges, with streamline steel tube trailing edge. The tail plane, which was set at a negative incidence of one degree, had box spars of spruce, the front spar being braced by tubes to the lower longerons, while the rear spar was braced by wires to top and bottom fins The engine was mounted on a steel capping plate in the nose of the fuselage, while the shaft is supported on a transverse channel steel bearer designed to take the thrust. One 60 h.p. Gnome powerplant, driving an 8 ft. 4 ins. diameter "Integral" propeller.
| Specification | |||||||||
| Span | Length | Height | Wing Area | Empty Wt | Max AUW | Cruise Speed | Maximum Speed | Endurance | Service Ceiling |
| 28 ft 6 in | 17 ft | 84 ft | 107 sq ft | 450 lb | 85 mph/ 74 kn | 100 mph/ 87 kn | 3 hrs | ||
| 8.69 m | 5.18 m | 25.6 m | 9.94 m2 | 204 kg | 137 kph | 161 kph | |||
Production Details
| C/n | Initial Registration |
Notes |
| 1 aircraft built by Thomas Harold Lowe. First flew circa April 1921. | ||
| HL(M).9 | G-EBEX | To T. Harold Lowe, t/a Northern Aerial Transport Co. Registered November 1922. |
| Total Production 1 | ||
Lowe-Wylde Columbus
Single-seat primary glider with a very simple structure of a four bay braced open framework fuselage, ending in a simple rectangular fin, and rudder attached to the stern post. The constant chord wings were wire braced to a king post and braced to the base of the fuselage ply covered spruce struts. The triangular, strut braced tailplane was mounted directly on top of the fuselage longeron and featured rectangular elevators. A rectangular rudder was attached to the stern post. All control surfaces were a cropped rectangle in form.
Production Details
| C/n | Initial Registration |
Notes |
| 1 aircraft built by members of the Kent Gliding Club. First flew 23 February 1930. | ||
| none | BGA.101 | To Kent G.C. Impressed in December 1942 as NF746. |
| Total Production 1 | ||
B.A.C.I
As Lowe Columbus.
Production Details
| C/n | Initial Registration |
Notes |
| 1 aircraft built by the British Aircraft Company, Maidstone, Kent. Delivered August 1930. | ||
| 101 | BGA.164 | To Kent G.C. Converted to a secondary with a nacelle fitted by the club ground engineer in September 1933. |
| Total Production 1 | ||
B.A.C.IX
Single seat lightweight sailplane designed for home construction.The fuselage bore a striking resemblance to the Baynes Scud, being square in section and built around four longerons but unusually orientated with one diagonal vertical. The wing was an unbraced cantilever mounted on a pylon behind the pilots head, and of constant chord except for the extreme outboard section. It was built in two sections, consisting of a single simple lattice spar, a few solid formers giving the section profile and a covering of 1/16in. plywood. No diagonal bracing was incorporated as the majority of loads were carried by the ply covering. The wing featued full span ailerons, chiefly for simplicity in that cables and pulleys were obviated. They were operated by a pull and push rod protuding from the fuselage and connected by a universal joint to a lever at their ends. The elevators and rudder were interchangeable, with no fixed fin or tailplane, construction consisting of five spruce formers on a steel tube, with a covering of 1/16in. plywood.
| Specification | |||||
| Span | Length | Height | Wing Area | Empty Wt | Max AUW |
| 35 ft | 18 ft 6 in | 6 ft | 150 sq ft | 210 lb | |
| 10.67 m | 5.64 m | 1.83 m | 13.94 m2 | 95 kg | |
Production Details
| C/n | Initial Registration |
Notes |
| 1 aircraft built by the British Aircraft Company, Maidstone, Kent. First flew 4 October 1931. | ||
| see note 1 | none | |
| Total Production 1 | ||
Kronfeld Flying Trainer
Single-seat primary training monoplane. The fuselage was nothing more than a slender spruce beam, with an exposed pilots seat mounted forward, a simple rectangular fin and rudder reminicent of the B.A.C.II, with the tailplane mounted atop of the fin. A Drone wing and engine was mounted on struts above the fuelage beam, strut braced to the fuselage beam sides. An undercarriage similar to that of Drone was also fitted, along with a 'nosewheel' at the front of the fuselage beam to prevent tip-over. One 30 h.p Carden Ford powerplant.
Production Details
| C/n | Initial Registration |
Notes |
| 1 aircraft built by the Kronfeld Ltd, London Air Park (Hanworth), Middlesex. | ||
| 32 | none | |
| Total Production 1 | ||
Kronfeld Monoplane
Two seat high wing monoplane. Based loosely on the Drone, it featured a similar, but wider, forward fuselage and an all new tapering box-section rear fuselage. The wing, mounted on struts above the fuselage, was an all new design of wider chord, five degrees of sweepback and three degrees of dihedral, braced to the lower fuselage longerons by wide chord 'V' struts. The engine was mounted further back, removing the need for the trailing edge cutout of the Drone. The undercarriage was much improved, with rubber-in-compression shock absorbers. Although intended as a two seater, the low power of the engine meant it was only possible to fly with one occupant, and the rear cockpit was faired over. One 30 h.p Carden Ford powerplant.
Production Details
| C/n | Initial Registration |
Notes |
| 2 aircraft built by the Kronfeld Ltd, London Air Park (Hanworth), Middlesex. First flew 7 May 1937. | ||
| 33 | G-AESG | To A.J. Trickett Aircraft Development Co. Later to Luton Aircraft Ltd. |
| 34 | G-AESH | Completed but not flown. |
| Total Production 2 | ||
Notes
- The following c/ns are unaccounted for: 103, 115, 120, 124, 125, 126, 133, 134, 136. Presumably the BAC.IX was one of these.
Production References
- British Gliders and Sailplanes 1922-1970, Norman Ellison (Adam and Charles Black, 1970)
- British Civil Aircraft since 1919 Volume 3, A.J. Jackson (Putnam, 2nd Ed., 1974)
- British Light Aeroplanes, Arthur W.J.G. Ord-Hume (GMS Enterprises, 2000)
- British Homebuilt Aircraft since 1920, Ken Ellis (Merseyside Aviation Society, 2nd Ed. 1979)
- Air Britain Archive, 2013/3 and 2013/4 (Air-Britain Publications)
Page Revision History
Revised at Version 2.0.0- Improved Type Description and Added Specification details.
- BAC.III to BAC.VI moved to BAC.II page.
- BAC.VIII moved to BAC.VII page.
- HL(M).9 Marlburian added.