Simmonds Spartan

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The Simmonds Spartan is a 1920s British two-seat biplane trainer/tourer aircraft built by Simmonds Aircraft Limited.

History

Not happy with the high cost of manufacturing light aircraft O.E.Simmonds designed and built a wooden two-seat biplane in 1928. To reduce maintenance costs all four wings and ailerons were the same, this allowed on spare wing to be used in any position. Powered by a Cirrus Major III the prototype G-EBUY first flew in time to enter the King's Cup Air Race of 1928. The aircraft was flown to the Berlin Aero Show on the 24 October 1928, a non-stop flight of 7 hours and 10 minutes.

Production began at Weston, Hampshire with the final assembly and test flying at Hamble Aerodrome. 49 aircraft were built, many for export with New Zealand customers buying the most. At home 12 were delivered to the National Flying Services for use as trainers. Three aircraft were operated on floats in Fiji and New Zealand. Although not as famous as other aircraft of the period, one aircraft was ski equipped and was notable for covering more than 45,000 miles over Norwegian mountain ranges. Three aircraft were built as three-seaters with two-passengers in tandem in fron of the pilot these were mainly used for pleasure flying.

Due to the success of the Spartan the company renamed itself Spartan Aircraft Limited and developed the design into the two-seater Spartan Arrow and the three-seater Spartan Three Seater.

Operators

The aircraft was operated by flying clubs and private individuals:

Specifications

References

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft (Part Work 1982-1985). Orbis Publishing.
Jackson, A.J. (1974). British Civil Aircraft since 1919 Volume 3. London: Putnam.

Simmonds Spartan

History

Operators

Specifications

References

External links

See also