Cunliffe-Owen Aircraft
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Cunliffe-Owen Aircraft was a British aircraft manufacturer of the World War II era. They were primarily a repair and overhaul shop, but also a construction shop for other companies' designs, notably the Supermarine Seafire.
[edit] History
The company was formed in Eastleigh (outside Southampton) by Hugo Cunliffe-Owen to produce the Burnelli UB-14 lifting fuselage design under license as the Cunliffe-Owen OA-1. One example was assembled in 1938, but the project was abandoned due to the start of the war. During the war the company was primarily involved in repair and overhaul work for Supermarine, whose test facilities were located on the same airfield. In 1940 they were selected to be one of the factories producing the Hawker Tornado, but that project was cancelled in 1941. In 1943 they won a contract to produce the Seafire, continuing production until 1946.
After the war they produced their first, and only, indigenous design, the Cunliffe-Owen Concordia, a 19-seat feederliner design. The Concordia project was abandoned in 1947 and the two prototypes were scrapped. Given the low use of the factory during this period, they sublet portions of the plant to the Cierva Autogiro Company starting in 1946. Cunliffe-Owen was later dissolved and its factory sold to the Ford automobile company, forcing Cierva to move to another location on the field.
The original Cunliffe-Owen factory area still exists, as Ford's main production facility for the Transit van, although it has been separated from the airfield by the construction of the M27 motorway, which reached this area in 1983.
[edit] References
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