¹ I should like to thank Dr. D. H. Aldcroft for his many helpful comments on this paper and the University of Leicester Research Board for a grant toward expenses.

² See the Government survey on the private ownership of aeroplanes P.R.O. Cab. 14, Appendix, Air Committee: Minutes, Memoranda etc., 1912–1914.

³ In 1925, 14 moths were built; in 1926, 34; in 1927, 117; in 1928, 336. On the development of the Moth see Broughton, Terence, The Story of the British Light Aeroplane (1936), Chap. 6.Google Scholar

⁴ Handley, Frederick Page, “The Influence of Military Aviation on Civil Air Transport,” Journal of the Institute of Transport (May 1953), 110Google Scholar; Engineering (March 4, 1921), 263.

⁵ For a summary of the problems facing internal aid line operations see Aldcroft, D. H., “Britain's Internal Airways,” Business History, VI (1963).Google Scholar

⁶ For accounts of the early air transport companies see: Higham, Robin, Britain's Imperial Air Routes 1918–1939 (London, 1960)Google Scholar; Birkhead, E., The Beginnings of British Civil Air Transport 1919–1924 (Unpublished M.A. thesis University of Leicester, 1959)Google Scholar, “Daimler Airway,” Journal of Transport History (November 1958), and “The Failure of British Air Transport Companies,” ibid. (May 1960); Dyos, H. J. and Aldcroft, D. H., British Transport; An Economic Survey from the Seventeenth Century to the Twentieth (1969), Chap. 13.Google Scholar

⁷ Civil Air Transport Subsidies Committee, Report on Government Financial Assistance to Civil Air Transport Companies (Hambling Report), Cmd. 1811 (1923).Google Scholar

⁸ For a registry of all the aircraft owned by the leading transport companies see Higham, Britain's Imperial Air Routes, Appendix 1.

⁹ Quoted Jewkes, J., Sawers, S. and Stillerman, R., Sources of Invention (London, 1958), 231.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Hansard, April 11, 1911, C217.

¹¹ Hansard, February 27, 1912, C1171.

¹² London Times, January 8, 1914.

¹³ Synopsis of the British Air Effort during the War, Cmd. 100 (1919), 3.

¹⁴ Hansard, March 9, 1922, 1462.

¹⁵ Postan, M. M., British War Production (London, 1952), 5.Google Scholar

¹⁶ London Times, March 26, 1920, December 11, 1920.

¹⁷ London Times, June 22, 1922.

¹⁸ Fourth Census of Production, 1930, Final Report, Pt. II, p. 361.

¹⁹ An assessment of Lancaster as an air warfare theorist can be found in Higham, Robin, The Military Intellectuals in Britain: 1918–1939 (New Brunswick, N.J., 1966), 126–132.Google Scholar

²⁰ The BE2c was unable to compete in the trials as it was a government project.

²¹ London Times, November 27, 1912.

²² London Times, January 8, 1914.

²³ P.R.O. Cab. 14, Air Committee, November 12, 1912.

²⁴ Final Report of the Committee on the Administration and Command of the Royal Flying Corps, Cd. 8194 (1916), 7.

²⁵ Final Report of Committee on Administration and Command of Royal Flying Corps, 5, 8.

²⁶ Wilson, C. H. and Reader, W. J., Men and Machines (London, 1958), 106.Google Scholar

²⁷ Jones, H. A., War in the Air, VI (1951), 48.Google Scholar

²⁸ Air Board Minutes 117th Meeting, July 25, 1917, p. 3.

²⁹ ibid., p. 8.

³⁰ Jones, War in the Air, VI, 55. It should be pointed out that Jones was writing in the 1930's and was expressing the view of the aircraft manufacturers who did not want government competition in aircraft production. Consequently, his judgements where the government was involved often seem harsh.

³¹ Sayers, R. S., “The Springs of Technical Progress in Britain,” Economic Journal, 35 (June 1950)Google Scholar; Fairey, C. R., Journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society (1932), 6.Google Scholar

³² Sir Frederick Handley Page, L.S.E. Seminar Paper, 165, (1955).

³³ Sayers, W. H., “The Production of Aircraft on a War Scale,” The Aeroplane (1925), 492.Google Scholar

³⁴ The ratio between skilled workers and others in the industry was high: 45 per cent skilled: 35 per cent semi-skilled: 20 per cent unskilled. See Sigrist, F., “Some Aspects of the Production Problem in Aircraft,” Journal of Royal Aeronautical Society (1929), 208Google Scholar; North, J. D., “The Metal Construction of Aircraft.” Air Annual of the British Empire (1929), 305.Google Scholar

³⁵ The aviation journalist Harry Harper claimed that the aircraft industry was not financially strong enough for an organized attempt at metal construction in 1920. London Times Trade Supplement, June 26, 1920, 410.

³⁶ “Visit to Napiers Work,” Aeroplane, October 29, 1924, 421–24.

³⁷ Aeroplane, May 14, 1924, 406.

³⁸ Lewis, Peter, British Aircraft 1909–1914 (London, 1966).Google Scholar

³⁹ Saul, S. B., “The Motor Industry in Britain to 1914,” Business History, V (1962), 23.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Wallace, Grahame, Claude Grahame White (London, 1960), 131–2.Google Scholar

⁴¹ The early years of the aircraft industry in the United States also saw the emergence of companies financed by individuals or local resources and attracting little attention from the financial world. Rae, John B., “Financial Problems of the American Aircraft Industry, 1906–1940,” Business History Review, XXXIX (Spring, 1965).Google Scholar

⁴² Vickers started by building airships and then switched to aeroplanes. In the period before 1914 they produced only 26 machines. Scott, J. D., Vickers: A History (1962), 73–75.Google Scholar

⁴³ Jones, War in the Air, VI, 158, appendix XXXIII.

⁴⁴ P.R.O. Air 6, Records of Meetings of the Air Board and Air Council, Air Board, 39th Meeting, January 17, 1917.

⁴⁵ Hornby, W., Factories and Plant (London, 1958), 18.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ SirFedden, Roy, “The First Twenty-Five Years of the Bristol Engine Department,” 7th Barntvell Memorial Lecture, March 1960, 6–12.Google Scholar Copy in Library of Royal Aeronautical Society. By 1926, however, the government had begun to pay the full development costs of engines at Bristol.

⁴⁷ Schlaifer, Robert and Heron, S. D., Development of Aircraft Engines and Fuels (Boston, 1950), 42–44.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ It included Aircraft Manufacturing Company, Air Transport and Travel, Peter Hooker where Gnome and the Rhone engines were made, Airships of Merton, Camden Sheet Metal Company, Vanden Plas, May, Harden and May, and the Integral Propeller Company.

⁴⁹ British Industries Review (June 1919), 14.

⁵⁰ Air Council, Precis, No. 419 (July 1919).

⁵¹ Handley Page, A.G.M., Report in the Aeroplane, July 5, 1922, 12.

⁵² Information from Short Brothers and Harland.

⁵³ A trade association founded in 1916.

⁵⁴ Aeroplane, June 30, 1920, 1244 passim.

⁵⁵ Air Council Precis, Vol. VI, No. 479.

⁵⁶ London Times, June 21, 1922.

⁵⁷ An interesting account of Airco history and the birth of de Havilland's can be found in Sharp, C. Martin, D.H.: An Outline of de Havilland History (London, 1960).Google Scholar

⁵⁸ See Report of the American Aviation Mission, Cmd. 384, 1919, esp. p. 7.

⁵⁹ Report of the Civil Aerial Transport Committee with Appendices, Cd. 9218, 1918.

⁶⁰ History of the Ministry of Munitions, 1914–18, II, Ft. I, Supplement, p. 26.

⁶¹ The stock taken over was enormous: 10,000 machines; 30,000 engines; 1,000 tons of ball bearings; 350,000 sparking plugs; and 100,000 magnetos. Marquessof Londonderry, , Wings of Destiny (1943), 15.Google Scholar

⁶² Aeroplane, June 21, 1939, 793.

⁶³ Committee of Enquiry into Civil Aviation, Cmd. 5885 (1938), 16. The government as paymaster and customer to the aircraft companies has great power over them. For an account of the relations between British aircraft firms and the state see Higham, Robin, “Government, Companies, and the National Defense: British Aeronautical Experience as the Basis for a Broad Hypothesis,” Business History Review, XXXIX (Autumn, 1965).Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Reinforced in Committee on Education and Research in Aeronautics, Cmd. 554 (1920).

⁶⁵ Higham claims that peace offers little challenge to many aircraft designers. Higham, Robin. “Quantity vs. Quality: The Impact of Changing Demand on the British Aircraft Industry, 1900–1960,” Business History Review, XLII (Winter, 1968), 448.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ London Times, August 5, 1920, reported that E.P.D. made it difficult for a new firm to compete with an old one.

⁶⁷ Flight, September 16, 1920, 990, 1008; Aeroplane, September 23, 1925, 382.

⁶⁸ For details see Barnes, C. H., Bristol Aircraft Since 1910 (London, 1964), 31.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Shute, Neville, Slide Rule (London, 1953) 196–197Google Scholar; Aeroplane, October 2, 1921, 841–842.

⁷⁰ Committee on National Expenditure (May Committee), Cmd. 3920 (1931), 88.

⁷¹ Letter to Aeroplane, February 8, 1928, 158.

⁷² W. E. Nixon, “The Growth and Structure of the de Havilland Enterprise,” L.S.E. Seminar paper No. 89, February 1951.

⁷³ It is important to bear in mind that expenditure on active service squadrons was in 1922 only 21 per cent of total expenditure. The estimates of 1922–23 provided for 92 new machines, 65 machines to be converted, 361 machines to be reconditioned by contractors, and 184 machines to be reconditioned in repair depots. Even these meager orders were felt to be excessive by the Geddes “Axe” Committee. First Interim Report of the Committee on National Expenditure, Cmd. 1581 (1922), 87, 92, 99.

⁷⁴ London Times, March 22, 1922. Other articles appeared on March 21, 23, 24, 25 and 27.

⁷⁵ Napiers were to regret the lack of competition in the aero engine industry in the 1920's, which left the company with no compulsion to pursue an intensive development policy. C. H. Wilson and W. J. Reader, Men and Machines, 119–120.

⁷⁶ M. M. Postan, British War Production, 5.