Cunliffe-Owen Aircraft

The company also undertook contract work for the Air Ministry, Lord Rootes, Shorts and Armstrong Siddeley worth £1.5 million.

In November of that year it became necessary to suspend production of the Concordia aircraft – upon which all the company's future hopes rested – and its financial collapse became inevitable.

[2] Sir Hugo was also associated with British & Foreign Aviation Ltd., a company with a nominal quarter-million pound capital.

The sole aircraft was pressed into service by the RAF and was eventually turned over to the Free French Air Force in Africa,[6] where at one point it served as the personal transport of General Charles de Gaulle.

Recognised as an important part of the British war effort, it was bombed on a number of occasions by the German Luftwaffe, the first in September 1940.

[10] The company also undertook repair and overhaul work for Supermarine, whose test facilities were located on the same airfield.

One frontline unit, 801 Squadron Royal Naval Air Service operated this version on board HMS Furious from October 1942 through to September 1944.

It was powered by a Rolls-Royce Merlin 24 engine driving three main rotors mounted on large outriggers, one at the front and two either side of the fuselage just aft of its midpoint.

Due to huge losses in the Post-War civil aviation market, it was agreed in 1947 to dissolve Cunliffe-Owen.

[4] Producing van, bus, Kombi and chassis cab variants, it previously employed 500 people.