During World War II, two British military gliders took their names from the brothers: the Slingsby Hengist and the Airspeed Horsa.

Airspeed Horsa Front

Burning British Airspeed Horsa | Horsa glider

* Aircraft for army co-operation and liaison and gliders were given names associated with mythological or legendary leaders ; e. g. Westland Lysander, Airspeed Horsa, General Aircraft Hamilcar, Slingsby Hengist.

Airspeed Horsa | Horsa gliders near Landing Zone N.

In the First and Second World Wars, the Longbridge car plant switched to production of munitions and military equipment, from ammunition, mines and depth charges to tank suspensions, steel helmets, Jerricans, Hawker Hurricanes, Fairey Battle fighters and Airspeed Horsa gliders, with the mammoth Avro Lancaster bomber coming into production towards the end of WWII.

Notable DFS-produced aircraft include the DFS 230 transport glider ( 1600 + produced ), the German counterpart to the British Airspeed Horsa glider, and the DFS 194 forerunner of the famous Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket fighter.

# REDIRECT Airspeed Horsa

# REDIRECT Airspeed Horsa

The 6th Airborne Division consisted of 7, 220 personnel transported by 42 Douglas C-54 and 752 C-47 Dakota transport aircraft, as well as 420 Airspeed Horsa and General Aircraft Hamilcar gliders.

An 17pdr SP Achilles | Achilles tank destroyer on the east bank of the Rhine moves up to link with airborne forces whose abandoned Airspeed Horsa | Horsa gliders can be seen in the background.

During the following week the aircraft complement was built up to 64 C-47s and similar numbers of Airspeed Horsa and Waco CG-4A gliders.

Two Airspeed Horsa gliders, towed by Handley Page Halifax bombers, each glider carrying two pilots and 15 Royal Engineers of the 9th Field Company, 1st British Airborne Division, took off from RAF Skitten near Wick in Caithness.

Airspeed Horsa glider, of the type used by the airborne troops during the operation.

The squadron took part in the invasion of Normandy in 1944 ; on D-Day it dropped men of the 3rd Parachute Brigade and towed Airspeed Horsa gliders.

In late 1943 Wroughton became an assembly point for many of the Airspeed Horsa gliders that during the following June played a key part in the D-Day invasion of France.

Around this time the War Office and Air Ministry began to draw up specifications for several types of military gliders to be used by the unit, which would eventually take the form of the General Aircraft Hotspur, General Aircraft Hamilcar, Airspeed Horsa and the Slingsby Hengist.

After a period they would then go to a Heavy Glider Conversion Unit for a six week course so they were qualified for the Airspeed Horsa.

After a short conversion to Airspeed Horsa, General Aircraft Hotspur and Waco Hadrians, he was posted to India and then on to Burma where he flew Dakotas dropping supplies to front-line troops.

Riflemen of the Royal Ulster Rifles, 6th Airlanding Brigade, aboard a jeep and trailer, driving off Landing Zone ' N ' past a crashed Airspeed Horsa glider on the evening of 6 June

BEA Airspeed Ambassador (" Elizabethan " class ) in bare metal finish livery incorporating a burgundy Aircraft livery # Cheatline | cheatline, a white roof and centre vertical stabilizer | fin at Manchesterin July 1953.

Aviation Traders ATL-98 Carvair | Aviation Traders Carvair and the tail of an Airspeed Ambassador in 1965

The Allied glider force had been rebuilt after Normandy until by 16 September it numbered 2, 160 CG-4A Waco gliders, 916 Airspeed Horsas ( 812 RAF and 104 US Army ) and 64 General Aircraft Hamilcars.

The Niagara's compact size and excellent performance led to it being used on the Air Ministry's S. 23 / 27 extremely long-endurance prototypes, the General Aircraft GAL. 38 and Airspeed AS. 39 Fleet Shadowers.

Immediately after the war, training bomber crews ceased on 1 July 1945 with No. 3 Glider Training School moving in shortly from RAF Exeter with General Aircraft Hotspurs, Tiger Moths, Airspeed Oxfords and Miles Master II's.

In June, 1940, formal announcement was made that the de Havilland Aircraft Co., Ltd., had completed negotiations for the purchase from Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson, Ltd., of that firm's holding of Airspeed ordinary shares.

sv: Airspeed Aircraft

* Measurement of Aircraft Airspeed and Altitude ( NASA Publication 1046 )

On 6 June 1944, with its headquarters at RAF Barton Hall, Preston, Lancashire, it comprised two sector stations, RAF Honiley and RAF Woodvale, eight Operational Training Units, three Tactical Exercise Units, the AI Conversion Unit, the Fighter Leaders ' School, No. 2 Aircraft Delivery Flight, No. 58 Repair and Salvage Unit, three other support / supply units, and the 9 Group Communications Flight flying Hawker Hurricanes and Airspeed Oxfords from Samlesbury Aerodrome.

Waco CG-4A gliders began to arrive to supplement the Airspeed Horsas which had been in storage for some months.

During World War II, like the North British Locomotive Company, both Cowlairs and St. Rollox joined in the war effort producing, among other things, Airspeed Horsa gliders for the D Day airborne assault.

During World War II, like the North British Locomotive Company at Atlas and Hyde Park, both Cowlairs railway works and St. Rollox joined in the war effort, among other things, producing Airspeed Horsa gliders for the D Day airborne assault.

* September 29 – A London, Scottish & Provincial Airways Airspeed Courier crashes at Tiverton Bottom, Shoreham, Kent, in the United Kingdom, killing all four people on board.

* February 6 – The British European Airways Airspeed Ambassador G-ALZU Lord Burghley, operating as Flight 609, crashes on its third attempt to take off from a slush-covered runway at Munich-Riem Airport in West Germany, killing 23, including eight Manchester United footballers.

Due to a control failure an Airspeed Ambassador freight aircraft, G-AMAD, deviated from the runway on landing at Heathrow and struck G-ARPI and its neighbouring sister aircraft, G-ARPT, while they were parked unoccupied near Terminal 1, resulting in six fatalities from the freighter's eight occupants.

* July 3 – A BKS Air Transport Airspeed Ambassador carrying eight racehorses belonging to businessman William Hill crashes while landing at London Heathrow Airport in England.

Airspeed Oxfords were often to be seen landing and taking off from its runways, until the airfield reverted to USAAF control in October.

The airfield also had Relief Landing Grounds at RAF Bridleway Gate and RAF Bratton with additional satellite landing grounds at RAF Hinstock, RAF Hodnet and RAF Weston Park. It primarily prepared pilots for operational squadrons, with the main aircraft being the Airspeed Oxford.

< center > A Short Stirling of No. 295 Squadron RAF, taking off from RAF Harwell towing an Airspeed Horsa glider, 17 September 1944.

* September 22 – Sir Alan Cobham sets out in an Airspeed Courier in a failed attempt to fly non-stop from England to India.

* On 29 September 1934, Airspeed Courier G-ACSY of London, Scottish & Provincial Airways Ltd crashed at Tiverton Bottom, killing all four people on board.