Europe after WW2 was in shambles. The war had taken its toll on the infrastructure and economies of both mainland Europe and Britain. Any venture capitalist worth his weight in capital gains will tell you that when the economy is down that can be the best time to start a company or bring new products to market. Borrowing costs are low, equipment and facilities are cheap, and labor is plentiful. This is probably what Miles Aircraft was thinking when they introduced the Aerovan in 1946.
Designed as an inexpensive short-haul passenger or cargo plane, the Aerovan 4 (the predominant production version) was powered by two 150-hp Blackburn Cirrus Major IIA inline piston engines. The fuselage was predominantly plastic-bonded plywood with spruce and metal used for various bits. It could carry 10 people or 2,800 pounds of fuel and cargo. Or, in the case of the photo above, the Jaguar SS100 of Tommy “Bill” Wisdome for a trip from Bagington to Jersey in 1947.
Due to its low cost, it was very popular with startup air transport companies. Most were used for cargo and passenger service, while a few were used for mapping and in the Israeli and New Zealand militaries.
Only 52 were built by the end of 1947 when Miles Aircraft went bankrupt and production ceased. The last known flight of an Aerovan was in Italy in 1968.
[Image Credit: Motorsport Retro's Facebook]
This looks like the inspiration for the IAI Arava http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAI_Arava
<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dc/Honduras_Air_Force_Arava_OJEV.jpg/300px-Honduras_Air_Force_Arava_OJEV.jpg">
and an ancestor of the Shorts Skyvan <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shorts_SC.7_Skyvan” target=”_blank”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shorts_SC.7_Skyvan
Miles was a really interesting and daring company. It's too bad they sank. They were testing an all-metal, four-engined follow-up to the Aerovan (called the Merchantman) when they went all Saab on us.
"All Saab on us" may not be the most apt description for a defunct aircraft company:
http://www.saabgroup.com/en/Air/
http://www.saabgroup.com/en/Commercial-aeronautic…
(I hope.)
BAH! Details, details. I'd do a better job of commenting if it weren't for this damn job interfering.
That's the second most amazing thing that I've read today.
Miles were an interesting company. The Aerovan was born of necessity and practicality, and could reasonably be called influential, but it wasn't very exotic.
<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/Miles_M.39b.jpg" width="400/">
This was, though. The tandem wing M39 hailed from that era where innovation was all and Aeronautical engineers were reaching out and grasping new ideas from all directions. Burt Rutan probably loved this era as much as I do.
Grrr…I was hiding that gem with intent of…thinking about writing a piece on it…
Funny, so was I
And now I can't edit it away. Sorry; give me my demerit points.
Admittedly, when I hear the word Miles in aircraft, my default interpretation is Chichester Miles, builders of the Leopard (in my top five favourite aircraft ). But any Miles is good.
Thats not a reason to avoid showing off such an unusual aircraft. No need to edit it. Number_Six can still write an article up on it.
He's not a number, he's a free man!
Phew! Glad we didn't have to call in Leo McKern.
Whats that car?
Jaguar SS100 as per the article.
The 100 was made by SS Cars (a name that became significantly less popular in Britain over the course of the late 1930s and '40s) and was given the initially informal, then formal, model name of Jaguar, so it's actually an SS Jaguar 100. The company didn't become Jaguar until later, after which the marque and model designations frequently were incorrectly reversed when referring to these earlier cars.