It first flew as an Auster design in January 1960, but that company was taken over by Beagle Aircraft in September that year.

141 sets of components for D5/160s were built by Auster and shipped to Portugal from Rearsby for assembly by the Oficinas Gerais de Material Aeronautico OGMA under licence, and 5 modification kits to bring a D5/160 to D5/180 standard were also sent.

[5] Since each aircraft was made to order to each customer's specification and there was no standard design of a Beagle Husky, production was accordingly uneconomic.

[8] The last[9] Husky, OE-DEW (c/n 3691), was the last of approximately 3868 aeroplanes[10] in the Auster line to be produced by Auster/Beagle; this aircraft is now back in the UK, registered G-AXBF and is still airworthy (2018).

Later a few more airframes of a variety of Auster models were completed from spare fuselages or converted privately.