British Aircraft Company

The British Aircraft Company was a British aircraft manufacturer based in Maidstone. It was founded by C H Lowe-Wylde and produced gliders and light aircraft during the 1930s.

B.A.C. Ltd was registered as a Limited Company on 4 March 1931; directors were C H Lowe-Wylde, K Barcham Green and Mrs Sheila M Green. Around this time Lowe-Wylde was developing the principle of launching gliders by towing them using a powerful car. Giving demonstrations around the country, his Bentley, driven by Mrs Green, was able to launch him to a height of 300ft, thus making hill sites and bungy-launch teams unnecessary. A public demonstration of this on the Brooklands Race Track's Finishing Straight on 9 April 1931 was filmed by British Pathe and almost ended in disaster when Lowe-Wylde clipped the port wing as he made an impressive landing under a footbridge! A school of auto-towed instruction was started at West Malling. The Sopwith Dove G-EBKY (now with the Shuttleworth Collection) was also used for aero-towing.

Charles H Lowe-Wylde was the first person in Britain to earn the F.A.I. "A" gliding certificate, on 30 March 1930, flying a primary glider of his own design, built in five weeks by members of the Kent Gliding Club and named "Columbus". The glider was first flown at Detling on 23 February 1930. Lowe-Wylde set up the British Aircraft Company in mid-1930, with works in an old brewery at Lower Stone Street, Maidstone.

The first true B.A.C. aircraft was another primary, the B.A.C. I, again used by the Kent Gliding Club.

The B.A.C. II was also a primary, but instead of an open girder-type frame, it had a box spar fuselage. This first flew at Lenham on 21 September 1930 and about fifteen were sold, including one in Jamaica. Lowe-Wylde would deliver the gliders personally and demonstrate them at the club's site (and if necessary take the pieces home for repair the same day).

The B.A.C. III consisted of the wings and tail from the B.A.C. II combined with a fuselage enclosing the pilot. First flying at Lenham on 12 October 1930, two went to the Glasgow and Accrington gliding clubs, while three further clubs had their B.A.C. II primaries delivered along with alternative B.A.C. III fuselages, so they could be flown in either configuration.

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