Beginners Guide
What's In and Whats Out
An Explanation of the Data Tables
Conventions
Abbreviations
What Can You Expect to Find?
My objective is to attempt to catalogue all aircraft designs that have emanated from the United Kingdom, whether design projects that never left the drawing board, one off prototypes or mass production types. Basically an impossible task, but hopefully this will provide a place where readers can improve on your authors works and expand our knowledge.
The site is divided into two parts, Projects and Production, as its name suggests. It is laid out alphabetically by company, accessed by selecting the appropriate initial letter above. The term "company" is used for convenience and can mean anything from the might of BAE Systems to John Smith producing a design in his bedroom office. It is the "family" name by which any design or product is commonly known. Larger companies typically would both create and manufacture their own designs. Smaller companies may design their own product whilst contracting out the manufacturing, or visa versa. For homebuilt aircraft and alot of one-offs, the situation is even less clear, when the type may be known by a name related to neither designer nor manufacturer. The author has used in all cases the most commonly used name to classify as "company". Where company names have changed or products transferred to another company, data is listed only under one heading with suitable cross referencing.
Within each company web-page, a brief history is followed by a list all projects created by that company that this author has managed to ascertain, whether it resulted in production or simply remained on paper. Anything that has received serious design study is considered worthy of inclusion. Only the bare minimum of details are given for each, but, most importantly, references are given where more extensive details may be obtained. These references are far from exhaustive and represent only those this author has seen and verified. Not every available reference will be, nor is intended to be, included. The reference must include details of the aircraft itself, rather than such subjects as service history, flying reports etc. and include 'significant details' of the machine, typically a minimum of basic technical data plus an illustration. As to what constitutes 'significant details' is subjective and rather dependent on the amount of available reference material. The Supermarine Spitfire, for example, will have thousands of books and articles published about it, so only selected ones with the most information are to be included, but those that have barely left a mark on history will have almost every discoverable reference given. For those that this author has not found any published reference giving 'significant details', a reference is given in parentheses showing the source used by the author to indicate the existence of that particular aircraft or project.
When any of these projects resulted in actual hardware, production details of each type are given, along with a brief description of variants, both produced and projected. For companies with minimal production, these details are given on the same web-page as the project details, but for more extensive production, links lead to individual pages for each type produced.
What's In and Whats Out
This site covers only heavier than air machines capable of controlled, repeatable, free flight. ICAO Annex 7 defines Lighter and Heavier than air aircraft thus:
Lighter than air, and therefore excluded from this site: Free Balloon, Captive Balloon and Airship.
Heavier than air, and therefore included (but with exceptions): Glider, Kite, Aeroplane, Rotorcraft and Ornithopter.
Exceptions: kites are excluded as they are not free flying. Two further exceptions are hang gliders and flex-wing type microlights, though the latter may find inclusion at a later date.
As manned or unmanned is not a condition, UAVs are included, however aerial targets are not; currently guided weapons are not, since by definition their flight is not repeatable. They again may find inclusion at a later date.
Satellites do not meet the definition of an aircraft and are not included, though spaceplanes will hopefully be included in the future.
An Explanation of the Data Tables
The layout for the Project Data Table, with an explanation of data presented, is shown below and is common for all entries. For those that have Project or Type Number designations, this is used to order the list, otherwise they are listed approximately chronologically.
| Project No | Type No | Name | Alternative Name(s) | Year | Spec (Requirement) | Status | Qty | Description | References |
- Project No :
- Some companies used a Project Number as well as a Type Number to identify the study phase.
- Type No :
- The main identifying alpha/numeric sequence used by each company to identify its products.
- Name :
- A formal name applied to the project. Unknown represents no record for this project or type number found.
- Alternative Name(s) :
- Italics represents an early name considered but not used. Names in parentheses represent colloquial or nicknames.
- Year :
- Represents the approximate beginning of design studies.
- Spec (Requirement) :
- Appropriate Specification(s) and/or Operational Requirement(s) to which the design was submitted.
- Status :
- Proj : Project Only
Pro(n) : Prototype Only (Not Flown)
Proto : Prototype Only
Prdn : Production
- Qty :
- Number of aircraft produced. Numbers in parentheses represent conversions.
- Description :
- xS = number of seats; xE = number of engines, followed by a brief description.
- References :
- References are normally only given to sources that contain a significant amount of information (at least an illustration and / or physical data). Where very little data has been found for an entry, the reference source used by the author to verify its existence is given in parentheses. References are grouped by type :
1-299 Books and Booklets
300-799 Magazines and Periodicals
800-899 Websites
900-999 Papers, Brochures etc.
The presentation of Production Data for Military and Civil aircraft differs.
The layout for a typical Production Data Table for a military aircraft, with an explanation of data presented, is shown here, though columns vary with each aircraft according to applicability. Data is given for manufacturer, contract (where known) and delivery date, along with serial batches and c/ns (if applicable). No service details are given.
The data is sorted firstly by individual contract, where known, otherwise approximately in chronological groups. Within those groups, sorting is by aircraft serial. Conversions to a different Type or Mark are included, either in the primary table or separately.
Aircraft types that are predominantly military but have some individual aircraft that carried civil registrations (e.g., A.W. Siskin) use the military format.
Aircraft that are supplied to other nations, or refurbished for export, have details given in a separate table, listed in alphabetic order by country.
Military aircraft converted for civil use have details of their new civil registrations and initial owners/operators given.
The layout for a typical Production Data Table for civil aircraft, with an explanation of data presented, is shown here, though again columns vary with each aircraft according to applicability. Unlike the military tables, each entry is for a single aircraft and the data is sorted by aircraft c/n. Typically, for any individual aircraft, details are only given of the initial registered owner, with further registrations given if known. An exception to this is where an aircraft is first registered to the manufacturer for flight test before delivery. In this case the intended customers registration is given, with the manufacturers registration given in the notes.
Additionally, a change in aircraft Type, Mark etc. is identified with the registration and owner applicable at that time (other changes of ownership etc. before this are ignored). Terms such as "eventually to.." are used to indicate there were other registered owners between those indicated. Aircraft supplied to the customer through an agency include the term "via (agency)", with any registration applied solely by that agency indicated.
Aircraft types that are predominantly civil but have some individual aircraft delivered for military use (e.g., Avro 748) are all included in a single table using the civil format, with military aircraft additionally included in a separate table and cross referenced.
In all tables, figures for conversion quantities are given in parentheses while figures for aircraft not built, for whatever reason, are shown in red.
The author recognises that terms such as "registration", "serial number", "tail number" etc. have produced many a heated debate. For simple consistency, this site will use the term "registration" when referring to civil aircraft and "serial number" for military. Likewise, manufacturers have used a variety of terms for their own allocated numbers but again for consistency the term C/n (Constructors number) will be used throughout. When the company's actual terminology is known, this will be added as a footnote.
Production Data tables for military aircraft contain some or all of the following columns, as applicable.
| Serial Range | C/n | Type | Batch Qty |
Conv. | Canc'd | Notes |
- Serial Range :
- The range of serial numbers applicable to a particular batch of aircraft.
- C/n :
- The construction number (or equivalent) applied to the aircraft.
- Type :
- Identity of different Type Numbers, Marks etc.
- Conv. :
- Quantity of aircraft produced as conversions within the batch. Figures for conversions are given in parentheses.
- Canc'd :
- This is something of a 'catch all', and refers to the quantity of aircraft not produced within the batch for whatever reason.
- Notes :
- Somewhat self-explanatory!
Production Data tables for civil aircraft contain at least the following columns.
| C/n | Initial Registration |
Notes |
- C/n :
- The construction number (or equivalent) applied to the aircraft.
- Initial Registration :
- The civil registration applicable to the aircraft associated with its first registered owner; this does not include temporary registrations or 'B' Conditions markings used by manufacturers or distributers prior to delivery.
- Notes :
- Primarily, details of ownership, conversions of type etc. Only the initial owner details are given, plus any subsequent change in registration without further elaboration. If the aircraft had been first registered for a relatively short period to the manufacturer, and differently from the subsequent customer, this is included as a note such as "(Initially to XXX as G-YYYY)". Similarly, if the aircraft was sold via a distributer, this is included as a note such as "via XXX Ltd (as G-XXXX)".
Superscripts in parentheses (1) refer to note numbers on that page.
Numbers in [square brackets] lead to a reference source.
| AAC | Army Air Corps |
| C/n | Constructors number |
| FAA | Fleet Air Arm |
| IAF | Indian Air Force |
| Ntu | Not taken up |
| Qty | Quantity |
| RAF | Royal Air Force |
| RAAF | Royal Australian Air Force |
| RCAF | Royal Canadian Air Force |
| RFC | Royal Flying Corps |
| RIAF | Royal Indian Air Force |
| RN | Royal Navy |
| RNAS | Royal Naval Air Servicce |
| RPV | Remotely Piloted Vehicle |
| RRAF | Royal Rhodesian Air Force |
| SAAF | South African Air Force |
| Spec | Specification |
| UAV | Unmanned (or Uninhabited) Aerial Vehicle |