Reid and Sigrist

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Reid and Sigrist was a British engineering company based at Desford, Leicestershire, England. They were an instrument manufacturer in the interwar era, specialising in aircraft applications mainly producing aircraft parts and instruments but later became a Camera manufacturer. During the second world war it was also involved in aircraft maintenance.

History

Fred Sigrist was a Managing Director of Hawker Aircraft and the company was set up to supply parts for Hawker aircraft.

Aircraft instruments

The company main product was aircraft instruments with the most notable being a Turn & Slip indicator

Aircraft production

R.S.3 Desford

In 1937 the company formed an aviation division at the New Malden, Surrey factory site.[1] The first product was a twin-engined advanced trainer, the R.S.1 "Snargasher" (1939) which was eventually relegated to company "hack" used primarily at the factory and Desford aerodrome.

Cameras

After the Second World War the company were requested by the British government to produce the Reid camera based on the Leica patents and drawings which had been seized by the Allies. The first camera went on general sale in 1951 and the company produced cameras until 1964.

  • Reid III based on the Leica III series with production of about 1600 cameras from 1951.
  • Reid I a simplified version and a similar to the Leica E on sale from 1958 with a production run of about 500 mainly to the British military.
  • Reid II was a proposed model announced in 1959, a Reid III without the slower speeds. It did not enter production.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Reid and Sigrist aircraft.

Notes

  1. ↑ Gunston 1993, p. 250.

Bibliography

  • Gunston, Bill. Back to the Drawing Board: Aircraft That Flew, but Never Took Off. London: Zenith Imprint, 1996. ISBN 0-7603-0316-9.
  • Gunston, Bill. (1993). World Encyclopedia of Aircraft Manufacturers: From the Pioneers to the Present Day. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-939-5. 
  • Jackson, A.J. (1974). British Civil Aircraft since 1919 Volume 3. London: Putnam. ISBN 0-370-10014-X. 
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